It's okay to hurt, I get that… it just… It just hurts so much.

"How's it going, mom?" Titus asked on his scroll. "It's been a crazy year so far, that's for sure. I know I should call more often, but I've been so busy since the year started and thought that I'd check in and tell you what's going on. I know… I know all we talked about last time was Ilia. No mom, we're still just friends. No mom, I'm not interested in her like that. I'm trying to tell you what's happened so far but you keep asking about Ilia. Mom, I didn't bring her up first."

It's been a great year so far, don't get me wrong. And I'm really enjoying myself. I like the school. The weather. I got used to the people after a while. The scenery is amazing. Vale is so much safer than Vacuo. It's amazing and I should be happy, right?

"I know I told you all of this already, but it was so cool!" Eliana said to her mother on her scroll. "So they flung us into a forest and we were killing Grimm left and right! I only survived at first because of Ilia! Then I met up back with Neela and it was easy sailing from there! That Geist never stood a chance! I told you what it was before mom, it's like this ghost Grimm that can possess large rocks and trees and stuff… and small buildings… Still, it was amazing! Oh, and remember when I told you that we played capture the flag and Ilia almost died... Oh, or when Neela and I went to that street fair!"

I want to tell you, I want to tell you about the dance. Meeting Vin. The fun that I had with the Xiao Longs, the cheesecake incident, Winter Festival, any of it! But I can't…

"What's happened since Winter Festival?" Titus repeated. "Well, we caught the leader of a crime syndicate, so there's that. Not to mention Neela discovered a Stardust warehouse. Yeah, that's the same group of criminals. We were pretty proud of her. What? No, I'm not being sarcastic. Of course, I'm a little on the jealous side mom, it's kind of hard not to be when I was hoping to be the leader of the team. Bitter seems a bit extreme… No mom, I'm fine, really…"

"I wish you could have come and seen her in the tournament mom! She was amazing, Neela's the best ever for sure, just like her mothers and aunts! She kicked this girl's ass who had these plant powers, we couldn't see most of the fight because it was inside of like this big plant ball thing, but when they came out she tried to use Grimm's Bane on Neela and it was lights out for Soya! What do you mean how do I feel about Neela? She means the world to me… but not like you, you'll always take first place! Nah, neither of us have met anyone yet, but I'm still working on it for both of us!" Eliana ranted on.

Ilia slid off of her bed and left the room, walking down the hall while staring at the floor before making her way down the stairs. She brushed past Neela, more or less walking into her and apologizing as she was determined not to let anything stop her on the way out. Neela glanced back at Ilia and called after her.

"Ilia, where are you going?" Neela asked following her teammate down the stairs. "Are you doing okay?"

"I'm fine Neela," she replied defensively. "I just need a little bit of time alone."

"Did Vincent break up with you?" Neela asked. Ilia gave Neela a half-assed smile and shook her head.

"No, we're still together," Ilia told her. "I just have a lot on my mind." Ilia shrugged her off and left, pulling up the hood on her sweatshirt and heading out for the cliff's edge, other students were already littering it, taking selfies to remember the moment or just taking in the winter sunset. She sat and rubbed her shoulders, staring hard at the sun. It was the same as that day and even though everything had changed, everything felt the same.

"What is it?" Titus asked sitting next to her.

"You guys really don't get this whole alone thing, do you?" She asked looking at him with wet eyes.

"You're going to lecture me about why I should leave you alone?" Titus asked. "Maybe you should rethink that."

"My mother died when I was young," she said. "I'm pretty sure you all know that already… I just… Hearing you talk to your mothers…" She couldn't finish her words.

"You don't have to go through the pain alone," he said wrapping an arm around her. "Come here."

"Aren't you worried Vin will get jealous?" She asked.

"He's a tool," Titus said. She laughed before sighing. "I just wish I had some family left."

"What are you talking about?" Eliana asked as she sat on the other side of Ilia. "What about us?"

"No, come on guys, this is too cliche and I'm being serious," Ilia groaned. She felt Neela's hand on her shoulder.

"So are we," Neela said. "You can't tell me that we're not like a family." Titus chuckled.

"Or at the very least, the closest thing you've got," Titus said.

"Think of all the shenanigans!" Eliana exclaimed.

"We've all been there for each other through some tough moments," Neela said.

"Titus is like the dad who loves his children just because they're his and for no other reason," Eliana said. Titus nudged Ilia off of him and looked across at Eliana.

"That's not true," Titus said. Ilia snickered.

"Plus I don't think that we'd draw on dad's nipples," Ilia said. Titus' eyes grew and he pushed Ilia away, looking down his shirt.

"What the hell?!" Titus shouted as he stood. "Elli!"

"Why do you look at me?" She asked backing away from him as he chased. "Did you not shower first thing this morning?"

"Get back here!" He called after her.

"Catch me, daddy!" Eliana yelled sprinting for the dorms. Neela shook her head as her face flushed. She helped Ilia up who looked at her.

"How does Eliana not know?" Ilia asked Neela. Neela pointed.

"She just shouted at Titus as daddy, does this all really surprise you?" Neela asked. She hugged Ilia and Ilia pulled away smiling at her. "I get it Ilia, I really do."

"You seem like you have it all together though," Ilia told her. Neela laughed.

"I didn't at first. I was kind of terrified of Yang and I didn't really trust Blake that much either. Just like it's hardwired into you to be slow to trust, it was drilled into me that the only good human was a dead one. I missed my mom and dad. At the very least I wanted to go back to the Fang," Neela told her watching Eliana and Titus disappear in the distance. "It wasn't until I finally opened up to Yang and Blake that I started feeling comfortable around them. The deaths of my father and mother will stay with me, but I can't begin to explain the weight that was taken off of my shoulders when Blake and Yang adopted me." Ilia nodded as she wiped the returning tears from her eyes.

"Thanks," Ilia told her.

"No problem," Neela replied as they walked back together.

The ice cold air of winter frosted over the dorm room window as Ilia moved to the thermostat and turned it up slightly, rubbing her arms as she shuddered and sat back down at her desk. Titus let out a subtle chuckle as he noted her chills.

"Too cold for the girl from Vacuo?" Titus asked Ilia. She waved him off.

"Sorry that I didn't come from the tundra like you," Ilia said with a sneer. He smirked as he set his scroll down and went to work. Eliana crashed through the door and threw her hands up, kicking the door shut behind her and flopping down onto her bed. She let out a heavy exhale, rolling onto her back and holding her homework out in front of her, looking it over before moving to her chair and settling in.

"Quarter 3 baby, we're over halfway there and we are going to race to the finish as the top team at Beacon!" Eliana shouted as she tossed open her textbook and thumbed through the pages to find where she had left off. Neela glanced back at Eliana and sighed happily as she opened her own book, chuckling as she looked the material over and shook her head. Dust studies. She'd worked with Weiss for the last several summers so that she could get a better understanding of the substance that more or less controlled everything from power to weapons, the Dust studies course that was offered to the first years seemed like a slow refresher course. It came in handy that she could keep an eye on Eliana, ensuring that her best friend would have smooth sailing and completely ace the course with her help.

Titus ran his hands through his hair, groaning as he glanced over at his scroll and looked over his report, mumbling under his breath as he jotted something down.

"What are you working on that has you all out of sorts?" Ilia asked him. He chuckled nervously as he finished what he was writing and glanced across the room at her.

"My record of what went down at the charity ball," Titus told her. "Winter cut me some slack since I'm in the middle of schooling and an entire kingdom away, but she sent me a message last week saying that it can't wait any longer."

"The Atlas Military sounds like a great time," Ilia scoffed laughing. Titus made a mouth with his hand and then opened and closed it.

"Hahaha," he offered in a mocking tone. "You wouldn't be cut out for that kind of work anyway." Ilia leaned back in her chair and sighed.

"No, I'll have it so much easier here taking high profile missions from Glynda," she replied sarcastically. Eliana glanced over at Neela.

"Is it Monday? They're acting like it's a Monday," Eliana said. Neela smirked and shook her head as she breezed through her homework.

"It's Tuesday," Neela reminded her. Eliana raised an eyebrow to her.

"Are you sure, because it really feels like a Monday," Eliana told them. A moment later there was a knock on their door and they all shared glanced at each other, wondering who it was. Anyone from Team CBLT would have just barged in, and the same pretty much went for the Xiao Longs. Eliana leapt up, moving to the door and peeking through the keyhole and smiling as she took a step back, opening the door for Coco who showed herself in. She cocked her hip and smiled at the four of them as Eliana sat back down.

"How is it going?" Coco asked, the grin still plastered on her face. Neela's eyes met Eliana's, confused as to what Coco was so excited about. "How is my lovely team of first years doing today? I don't think we've all really done anything major together since I had you guys train at the Vytal Festival arena."

"Are you trying to say that you got us a mission?" Neela asked. Eliana's eyes lit up as she looked at Coco with anticipation.

"Things have been a little on the crazier side around here recently, but I was able to pull a couple of strings and I finally got us a field mission," Coco informed them. Eliana leapt back up, pumping her fists in the air.

"Yes! Finally!" Eliana exclaimed. "Come on guys, I can't be the only one who is excited here, right?"

"What are we doing?" Ilia asked.

"We'll be going on a camping trip of sorts-" Coco began to tell them but was cut off.

"Isn't it a little cold for that?" Titus asked. "There's still several inches of snow on the ground?" Coco laughed as she raised her sunglasses.

"Afraid of a little frostbite, Atlas?" She asked. She lowered her shades before moving to the doorway and glancing back at them. "We're making a trip to Mistral and we'll be there for about a week." Her scroll went off and she removed it from her pocket, noting the caller and stepping out into the hall. "Be back in a moment." She closed the door behind her and Eliana dragged Neela to her feet and shook her vigorously by the shoulders.

"Did you hear her?" Eliana asked. "Mistral!" Neela nodded as she laughed and freed herself.

"Yeah, I heard," Neela assured her.

"I've only been back two times since dad died!" Eliana said with a smile. "Not to mention it'll be the first time I've been camping since the summer that we went with my mom." Neela blushed and turned away from Eliana, she could feel the heat flaring on her face.

"Don't tell that story," Neela pleaded.

"It's not a big deal," Eliana said with a laugh. "The two of us went swimming in one of the rivers, deep in the woods on Patch and an Ursa came along and stole our clothes."

"Why were the two of you skinny dipping?" Ilia asked a bit lost.

"We weren't!" Neela defended. "I was bathing in the river and I guess that Eliana didn't realize it at first and set her clothes down somewhere else. Neither of us realized what was going on at first… can we talk about something else?" Neela was dark red at this point, she wasn't about to tell any of them, but the incident hadn't happened that long ago, and it was at that moment that Neela came to the complete discovery of her physical attraction for Eliana.

"She thinks that I was unaware of her nakedness," Eliana said to Ilia covering her mouth so that Neela couldn't read her lips.

Meanwhile, Coco spoke with Velvet on her scroll in the hallway.

"What's going on?" Velvet asked. "You left me that cryptic message this morning saying that you'd be gone for several days, is this another mission for Ruby?"

"Not quite," Coco explained to her wife. "It was more of a convenience thing for everyone involved, I'm planning on finding Emerald to bring her back to Vale and have her work at Beacon as a night guard. At the same time, we were contacted by an anonymous source on the west side of Mistral, saying that they needed help addressing an issue that the government is more or less being ignorant towards. I figured that I'd take the students with and get them at least one field mission in this quarter. Nothing they can't handle."

"Are you sure?" Velvet asked. "Everything so far this school year has been a little on the high profile end."

"Velvet, I'm going to hear enough of it later tonight when I have to tell Blake what we're going to be doing, you can spare me for now," Coco informed her. "How's Lamar doing today?"

"He's doing good," Velvet told Coco with a laugh. "Though he keeps changing his clothes which reminds me of someone else I know when I started dating her." Coco snickered and turned away from Lykos as he nodded at her in acknowledgment and opened the door to NITE's room, letting himself in.

"He does get his fashion sense from me," Coco admitted.

"How's it going?" Lykos asked as he watched Eliana who was already flying about the room, throwing clothing and everything else around at random and filling her suitcase as her teammates watched her for a long moment. Lykos sat on one of the beds, offering a single wave to Neela and joining them in observing Eliana who seemed ready to explode with joy. "Do I want to know what's gotten into her?"

"Apparently we're going camping with Coco in Mistral," Titus told him.

"It's going to be great!" Eliana gleefully noted. "It's gonna be awesome for team building and it'll just be a nice change of pace anyways. Like a second winter break!"

"It'll probably be chaotic," Ilia said.

"That's to be expected," Neela said. Lykos nodded.

"What brought you by?" Eliana asked.

"Titus owed me a few lien for some Dust that I sold him last week," Lykos told them. Titus reached into his bag and dug around, handing the payment to Lykos and nodding.

"Thanks for helping me out," Titus told him.

"Thank you," Lykos replied. "I hope you all have a pretty good trip, we have a field mission coming up in a few days that Bái seems pretty excited about as well."

"Glad to hear that you two finally got together," Neela said. Lykos nodded with a smirk.

"It's nice," he told her as he left. They all looked at each other and Ilia shrugged.

"He's different," Ilia said. Neela grabbed Eliana's arm as she attempted to run by and pulled her onto the bed as Coco reentered the room.

"He's just soft-spoken," Neela said. Coco looked at the four of them again and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

"Was there anything that I forgot to mention before that you might need to know?" Coco asked them.

"When are we leaving?" Titus asked.

"Oh!" Coco exclaimed rubbing the back of her neck laughing nervously. "Yeah, about that. My ability to get the mission was on extremely short notice and so… it's uh… we're leaving tomorrow morning." None of them reacted for a moment before Titus finally stood and nodded a couple of times.

"Okay then," Titus said. "That's rough."

"Your teachers have already been talked to, you all have homework extensions so there's nothing worry about," Coco told them. She socked him hard in the shoulder. "Stop being such a gargoyle, eh?" He glanced around the room.

"Does anyone here not know?" He asked. Ilia shook her head.

"It was on the news," Eliana said. She looked up at Coco. "Mrs. Adel, is there any chance that we can stop by my father's grave while we're there?" Coco thought it over.

"Is it close to Shion?" Coco asked. Eliana nodded repeatedly.

"It would only be a few hours to walk to from there," Eliana informed her. Coco smiled.

"We can probably swing it," Coco said. "We'll be there for a whole week and our mission shouldn't take more than a couple of days." Coco turned back to the door. "I'll brief you all on the flight tomorrow, meet you all down by the cliff at dawn." She left them for the last time and Titus sighed as he began packing.

"What's wrong?" Eliana asked. "You don't seem very ecstatic." Titus looked back at her.

"All the way to Mistral for a field mission for first years?" Titus asked. "Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that we're finally going to have a hands-on experience that's better supervised than fighting Stardust, but it's really going to cut into time for studying." Ilia stood up, stretching and moving for the door, her stomach rumbling.

"Sometimes you just need a break Titus, you're going to end up working yourself to death," Ilia said. "I don't care much for camping since I spent my early teenage years sleeping under the stars every night, but I'm sure it'll be refreshing and I'm always up for kicking some Grimm ass!" She smirked. "Maybe we'll get lucky and take down a new one, I'm in need of another tattoo."

"Where are you heading off to?" Titus asked.

"The cafeteria," she said. "Hoping they've got something to snack on sitting out." Titus stood and followed after her.

"I'll come with, I need to make a call to Winter from the tower," Titus informed her and the two of them left, Eliana squealed excitedly, jumping up and down before moving to the closet.

"I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about camping!" Eliana shouted out from the storage space. "Think it'll be warm enough to need my bathing suit, or should we just go au natural again?" Neela shoved her as she entered the closet. "Come on, you act like that was the worst moment of your life."

"Someone could have seen us," Neela replied.

"But no one did," Eliana reminded her. Eliana was quiet for a long moment as she continued throwing a consistent stream of clothing at Neela who caught them and held them in her arms waiting for Eliana to finish.

"We're only going to be there for a week," Neela told her.

"This is only packing for a week!" Eliana reassured her as she dragged her suitcase out past Neela and popped it open in the middle of the room. "Do you think I should run that experimental ammo that your Aunt Weiss gave to me?" Neela thought it over and nodded.

"Yeah. We can try it out if we run into some Grimm," Neela told her. Eliana hummed happily, taking items of clothes from Neela and placing them in her luggage, forcing them to fit and folding them carefully.

"What about you Neela?" Eliana asked her. "Are you excited to go camping?"

"Of course!" Neela replied. She was hoping that this week would give her plenty of time alone with Eliana, with every week that drew closer to the end of the year, the more nervous Neela became that someone would take Eliana away from her. Camping was the perfect storm, she didn't need to worry about school or work. She could focus on Eliana.

"Little Hawk?" Eliana said waving her hand in front of Neela's face. Neela snapped out of it and smiled at her. "What's on your mind?" Eliana smiled back at her. "You were thinking about getting to skinny dip again, weren't you?"

"What? No!" Neela protested and blushed hard, wrenching away from Eliana as the girl tried to grab her.

"You were, weren't you?" Eliana pried.

"Don't be ridiculous Elli!" Neela denied again. Eliana laughed and moved back to her clothes.

"Just teasing," Eliana assured her. "You always get so embarrassed over those sort of things, makes me wonder…"

"Wonder what? Neela asked.

"Do you find me attractive Neela?" Eliana asked as she leapt to her feet and moved to Neela who moved away slowly until she was backed up against the door. Neela swallowed hard, Eliana was inches from her. "Do you think I'm cute?"

"What kind of question is that?" Neela stuttered. "Of course you are. You've always been cute, but you're a cute person." Why did Neela resist telling her so much, why didn't she just spit it out? Eliana placed her hands around Neela's neck and moved even closer.

"But do you find me attractive?" Eliana asked. "Is that it Neela? Is that why you're never interested in any of the guys that I try to set you up with or at least point out? You like me, don't you?"

"Why can't it be this easy?" Neela asked. "Why can't I tell you and be done with it?" Eliana shrugged.

"So you figured out this is a fantasy, huh?" Eliana asked. Neela's mind snapped back to the moment at hand as she recalled the last thing that was said to her. "Just teasing." Neela chuckled nervously.

"Obviously," Neela stated in a matter of fact sort of manner. She looked over at the window and let her thoughts drift, she wondered how Blake was going to react to the news that they'd be out of the kingdom for a few days, the sudden realization made Neela nervous, she hadn't gone without seeing Blake and Yang for more than 3 days since being adopted.

"You going to be okay?" Eliana asked. Somehow she knew what Neela was thinking about. Neela nodded and looked at her scroll.

"I'll be able to call them if things start to get overwhelming, I should be okay," Neela told her. "Come on, let's take a break and go get something to eat." Eliana jumped up and nodded.

"Okay!"

"Yang, would you please tell your wife to calm down?" Coco asked as Yang joined them, sitting beside Blake and across from Coco in her office. Coco looked through several of the pages on her table and handed a stack to Blake to look over, Yang glancing at them as Blake thumbed through them and looked back at Coco.

"That's easier said than done," Yang said with a laugh as she leaned back and sighed. "It seems like a pretty run of the mill kind of mission to me. Nothing to worry about hun, and we already know that Coco's capable of keeping them safe, she's done more than her fair share of field missions."

"That's not the issue here," Blake said.

"What is it then?" Coco asked. "We established last time that you trust Neela in her abilities, so what is it?"

"First of all, she gets a bit of anxiety if she isn't able to visit with either of us for a few days, when she works the summers in Atlas we take turns visiting her once a week," Blake explained. Coco chuckled.

"She'll be fine, at some point she has to go out on her own, right?" Coco asked.

"The second problem is how none of this makes any sense," Yang stated taking over the conversation. "Why did we end up with the mission? How come it wasn't assigned to Haven?" Coco clicked on something on her computer.

"It was something that was off of the radar that Ruby and I dug up on accident. A distress signal from a scroll that had been reported missing. When we tried to track the scroll it had either been deposited or broken, the signal was lost but the person had ample time to warn us about a group of bandits in the Shion area," Coco told them.

"Why hasn't Stratford taken care of this?" Yang asked.

"Other issues on his plate that need his attention first," Coco explained. "Though his story doesn't match Siobhan's."

"How's that?" Blake asked.

"When she first answered the call she said they knew nothing about the bandits," Coco said.

"Why wouldn't they know?" Yang asked.

"If Shion's leader didn't contact Stratford, how would he know? It's the largest region, it's hard to keep track of, and the bandits may have paid Shion to stay quiet," Blake offered.

"Or threatened them," Yang said looking her prosthetic over.

"Are we sure we want Neela going out there?" Blake asked. Coco laughed and stood, taking her papers back and setting them on her keyboard.

"Relax. I know the two of you haven't worked in Mistral's smaller settlements, but there's a lack of huntsmen out there. This'll be a piece of cake for the kids, especially NITE. I couldn't ask for a better first mission for them," Coco reassured her. She ushered them out. "Yang, take her out for a drink, would you?" Yang laughed and threw her arm around Blake.

"I'll see what I can do," Yang said.

"How about we just have dinner with Violet?" Blake asked. Coco had a thought and interjected.

"Can you invite Velvet and Lamar as well?" Coco asked. "I'd appreciate it, I know they miss me and get lonely when I'm gone, it'll be good for everyone."

"Sure!" Yang exclaimed cheering a smile.

"And that's all that was said?" Neela asked as she ate another bite of her spaghetti, she glanced over at Shadow who had sauce all over her face, mostly her nose.

"That's it," Blake told her. "Were you hoping for more?"

"Hey, anything that might be helpful is great," Neela stated.

"I'm just glad I get to go home!" Eliana blurted out scarfing down her food. "I can't wait to show you everything Neela, you've never been to Mistral before, right? Just Atlas?"

"Yep. It'll be exciting for sure," Neela admitted.

"And don't worry Neela, you don't have to swim naked with me again if you don't want to," Eliana said with a wink. Neela buried her head in her arms as Yang glanced up with a smile, Blake choking on a meatball and trying to catch her breath.

"What?" Blake gasped. Yang stood up and patted her on the back.

"Got a hairball hun?" Yang asked.

"Yeah, cat got your tongue, Ms. Xiao Long?" Eliana asked.

"Are you guys making jokes right meow?" Neela asked. Blake stood up and walked over to the sink, finishing coughing and returning to the table. Blake shook her head and sat back down, clearing her throat.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Blake said. Yang glanced over at Shadow, grabbing a napkin and wiping her face off.

"Sissy is going away for a couple of days?" Shadow asked. Yang nodded.

"Neela's going on a camping trip over in Mistral," Yang told her. "She'll be back before you know it, not to mention Lamar is going to come over to play later this week." Shadow leapt down from her seat and ran to her room, Yang calling after her. "Shadow?" Shadow returned something and held something out in front of her, hanging it in front of Neela and smiling.

"Grandpa Tai helped me make something for you!" Shadow said excitedly. Neela took it, she looked over the wooden carving of her emblem which looked like Shadow had painted. She took the necklace and put it on, looking down at it before looking up at Shadow who was overly excited. "Do you like it?"

"I love it!" Neela exclaimed as she threw her arms around Shadow and pulled her in for a bear hug. Shadow giggled and squirmed.

"Too tight!" Shadow exclaimed. Neela set her down and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thank you Shadow," Neela told her. Shadow leapt back up into her seat, eating her food happily again.

"Nothing for me?" Eliana asked dejectedly. She winked at Neela.

"You can have a hug, Elli!" Shadow exclaimed leaping to her feet again and running over, nearly tackling her.

"Yep!" Eliana grunted. "This is exactly what I needed." Eliana set her back down on her feet and Shadow bounced away again back to her food.

"We need to get going," Neela said checking her scroll and realizing how late it is. "I'll see you guys in a week." Blake stood up. She gave Neela a hug, embracing her for a long moment.

"Be safe, I love you," Blake told her.

"I love you too. We will be, we'll have Coco with us," Neela reassured her. Yang dragged Blake off of Neela and pulled her in, lifting her off of her feet.

"I'll miss you little bird!" Yang exclaimed. "Have fun! Don't do anything Blake wouldn't do…" Yang leaned into Neela after putting her back down. "But do everything that I would." Yang looked her over and gave her a smile. "Love you."

"Love you too."

It looks like NITE is heading to Mistral for a field mission, but what's waiting for them once they arrive? Chapter 73 - Second Mission!

A big thank you to Carlomontie, Nliast, Y8ay8a, Sa-Dui, Diyaru4500, Demize00Zero, TheCipherNine, SketchHungry, Ookaminoki, Lightning-in-my-Hand, and Dishwasher1910. All of their artwork can be found at Deviantart, you can search Silent-Celica and under my favorites tab, I have a collection for NITE.

Until next week, stay classy!