"We can't keep that thing, Ruby."

"Nooo!" Holding the tiny Goliath under her arm, Ruby clasped her hands together as she began to beg Yang to let the mini pachyderm stick around. Weiss and Blake were on the couch nearby, Sun having ran upstairs to check on the claw marks Belladonna had left on his back last night. "I know he's a monster, but just look at him! How can you say no to these big yellow eyes! I even named him Mr. Tibbs! I gave him a little name tag too! See?"

She thrust the little beast into Yang's face, trying to prove her point. The elephant poked Yang on the nose with his trunk as Yang inspected the sticky note name tag tied around his neck with yarn.

"Okay, it's cute," Yang admitted, pushing the Grimm out of her face, "But this thing could be dangerous, Ruby! You know how big these things get when they're full sized!"

"Yeah, I know… But we don't know if he'll even get that big! He's so pudgy and little now!"

"Ruby has a point," Weiss spoke up, "For that thing to get extremely large would require it to consume a massive amount of negative energy, if it even survives that long."

"Grimm don't survive in captivity," Blake added, "And if it isn't able to feed itself through fear or sadness, then I can't see it lasting even a few more days."

Ruby bit her lip, looking at the elephant. "Great. The first time I actually like a Grimm and it won't even live that long… But should we just throw it back into the wild? It must have wandered this way for a reason."

"It must have sensed something to feed off of," Blake said as Ruby put Mr. Tibbs down. The pachyderm walked over to a sleeping Zwei, poking him in the ear and scurrying away the moment he awoke. "Somebody in this house must be feeling pretty bad, or there would be no other reason for it to have come this way."

"Couldn't be you then!" Ruby whispered to Weiss, both snickering at the Faunus.

"Stop that!" Blake blushed, Yang patting her on the back.

"Oh, don't be so prude, Blake! It was just a bit of monkeying around!"

"YANG!"

With the girls laughing at Blake's expense, they all seemed to forget the reason they had gathered together in the first place. Mr. Tibbs turned back to look at them before climbing two feet at a time up the steps in search of the sadness it had smelled since the moment it was born.

Ren pushed himself out from the hole in the wall, pushing his soaked bangs off his forehead. It was one thing being stuck in a hot house with no air conditioning; it was another thing being the guy delving into humid crevices to fix the machine itself. He sat up, leaning against the wall as Nora invaded his personal space.

"Did ya fix it?"

"Nora, I'm going to give you the same answer I gave you five minutes ago. And that answer is no."

"Do you-

"And no, Nora. I do not require your help."

Giving him a huff, Nora folded her arms and pouted. "But I'm good at fixing things... You don't have to be a poopy head about it!"

Ren sighed, feeling that same sense of guilt again. Of course he hated to tell Nora no when it came to things like this, but he knew something destructive would happen if he sent her into the crevice. Then again, it wouldn't be fair if he didn't at least give her a shot. Things were already not so great, anyways. "If I let you help, then you have to promise to be gentle."

"Gentle? Of course! I am the definition of gentle!"

"…Right. Your hands are smaller than mine, so I need you to reach in there between two metal plates and pull on-

"You got it!"

"I wasn't finished explaining!" Climbing over his legs, Nora burrowed into the tiny hole. Ren quickly held her skirt down so any passerby wouldn't take a peek. That in itself was hard to do with how roughly the girl was thrashing around, humming as she went on with her task. "You have to be careful, Nora! If you move around too much, the whole thing will collapse!"

"Fixed~!"

"…Wait. What?"

Popping out from the crevice, Nora smile widely as a blast of cold air shot out from behind her and from every vent in the house. Ren stared at her incredulously, unsure if this was really the Nora he thought he knew.

"It was sooo simple, you silly!" Nora giggled, "All those parts you took out didn't even do anything. Just that little switch in the front needed flipped!"

"Huh. I would never have guessed…" Ren felt like collapsing from exhaustion. All that unscrewing, tinkering, and sweating was for nothing. Maybe a nap wouldn't hurt right now…

"So!" Nora beamed, "Do I get a reward? Pancakes? Or maybe something even better…? Like, oh, I don't even know! What would a guy who's been best friends with a girl for like EVER give her as a special treat for doing something super awesome like this!?"

"Be my pillow, please."

With that, Ren's eyes slammed shut and he collapsed onto Nora's lap. The spritely girl screamed silently, waving her hands excitedly as he began snoring softly into her leg. She didn't even care that they were in the middle of the hall:

This. Was. Happening!

In her glee, Nora didn't notice the tiny pachyderm wander by her into a nearby room. Mr. Tibbs was aching from the happy vibes she was emitting, and needed to find some misery to feed on quickly. He wasn't sure how much longer his weakening tiny legs could carry him!

"Why, hello there little one!"

Mr. Tibbs wasn't going to have to worry about walking anymore as he felt someone hoist him up off his feet. Velvet turned the little Grimm around to look at it face to face, smiling at it.

"Now, how did you get in here? Shouldn't you be out with your kind someplace else?"

Mr. Tibbs trumpeted in response as Velvet looked at his name tag.

"So your name is Mr. Tibbs, huh? I've never held a Grimm before. This is kind of exciting! Oh! This give me an idea!"

The little elephant waved its stubby legs as Velvet ran down the hall with him. She hopped over Ren and Nora, nearly tripping over the former's toolbox as she bolted into the room of a 5-Star Man. Black was sprawled out over his bed, sheets thrown all over the place in complete disarray. Never had he looked so apathetic towards the world.

"Ahem!" Velvet cleared her throat to catch Merc's attention. When he finally looked up at her, she help out Mr. Tibbs like a present. "Ta-da!"

"…Where did you get that thing?" Merc yawned. Smelling his overwhelming negativity, Mr. Tibbs began reaching out at him with his trunk, inhaling the pessimism.

"Someone named him Mr. Tibbs. He was out in the hall for some reason. I know it's a Grimm, but look how adorable he is! I think he likes you too!"

Merc just shook his head. "I don't get you."

"Pardon?" Velvet asked, setting Mr. Tibbs down.

"Why're you coming on to me?"

Blushing, Velvet tried to deny the truth. "W-What do you mean?"

"I don't want your pity! The last thing I need is a chick to want to bang me just because I'm not happy! That's pathetic!"

"You don't have to be so harsh about it…"

"And now you bring me this?!" Merc gestured to Mr. Tibbs, sitting motionless by his bed, "Look, get over yourself! Stop acting like a white knight and leave me alone! I don't need anybody, you hear! I already lost enough!"

With that last statement, Mercury stepped out from under his covers, having completely forgotten he wasn't wearing pants. His eyes widened when he noticed Velvet gasp at his metal prosthetics, and it only angered him more.

"Mercury…"

"Get out! NOW!"

"F-Fine!" Velvet stomped her foot, turning so he couldn't see her face anymore, "Just be pathetic and mope around then!"

She ran away just as fast as she had entered, leaving Mr. Tibbs behind to absorb the negative emotions floating in the air. Grunting, Merc plopped back onto his bed and buried himself under the covers once more.

A few moments later, he threw them right off.

He had no idea what it was, but something was not letting him return to his previous state of mind. Mercury slapped his cheeks, trying to come to his senses. The last thing he needed was to think like this. He was trained not to feel regret. He lived every day not giving a damn about other's feelings aside from his own, just like he had been taught to by his…

Merc looked at his legs, and understood why this was digging under his skin so much.

Looking down at Mr. Tibbs, Merc pointed a finger at the pachyderm. "Don't eat my shit. I'll deal with you when I get back."

The Grimm watched him trudge out of the room after Velvet and prepared to follow after him. However, he soon picked up an aura even viler and negative than Black's current disposition coming from below his feet in the deepest part of this building. Maybe this individual could help him grow big and strong…