Significant Changes: two new scenes, and one old scene reworked a little. One scene was moved here instead of where it was before.

Original chapter length: 1,696
Revisited chapter length: 4,450

"Regular dialogue" [Faunus speech only]

Chapter 25

The walls around Vale weren't just for protection of those within the Kingdom. It was also protection for the furthest villages dotted around the continent. Each wall had accolated scroll towers that fanned out along the kingdom's territories. This allowed even the most remote villages to get into contact with the kingdom at a moment's notice. Each section of wall was responsible for taking calls and making a record of Grimm sightings. These reports would then be drafted into missions and sent to Beacon to be doled out by regulated mission boards or Ozpin himself.

It seemed like a fairly easy position, but, it was also rather boring. The small room and white walls offered little in the way of mental stimulation. The paperwork itself way dry, and screening calls always took longer than anyone might like. Written reports and issuing mission descriptions took time, and the slog of fact checking involved made even Weiss balk at the idea.

She much preferred working outside or keeping an eye on the surveillance cameras, but there was little to be done about it. Still, there were far worse places to be, and she knew better than to complain. This would always be better than the basement. That area was filled with Grimm drinking in sorrow and eyeing their captors like their next meal.

Fully prepared for a long day of pushing papers, Weiss could only stand and gawk at the sight of the office room. "What am I looking at right now?" She asked, ram-rod straight at the complete mess the room was in.

"The aftermath of Yang and Coco by the looks of it." Velvet replied, picking up a piece of paperwork that had a ring of coffee sitting around it. Beside her, the trashcan was overflowing with wadded up paper. "It seems like they were playing trash can basketball."

"I am going to kill them." Weiss replied as Pyrrha and Velvet began to clean up the floor. Meanwhile she examined the haphazard scribbling that could have only come from Yang. "What even is this? These coordinates aren't even in our jurisdiction!"

"What?" Pyrrha asked.

"These reports come from the east side of Vale, not the west." Weiss said, practicing immense restraint as she let loose a long sigh. "Furthermore, the penmanship has to be Yang's, its atrocious. These are almost as bad as the notes she used to take in school. How does she expect anyone to read any of this?"

"And this is why we should never let Coco near this room." Velvet told them as she pulled up a chair to begin looking over the piles of paperwork that had been left on the dust. "I think from here on out we can agree never to leave those two here alone unsupervised again."

"Agreed." Weiss muttered. "Pyrrha, can you pass me the call logs from your desk please?"

"Certainly." Pyrrha replied, using her semblance to ease the metal binder across the room. "On that note, where are the mission briefings for next week?"

"I thought you had them?" Weiss said, looking up from her musings, watching as Pyrrha shook her head helplessly. "Velvet, do you have them?"

"Not to my knowledge." The rabbit Faunus replied, sifting through everything on her desk just to be sure. "Coco never has been good at keeping things organized."

"She was a team leader for years. How can she be so bad at paperwork?" Weiss asked, grunting as she lifted a stack of thick tomes out of her way in search of the all-too-important mission lists.

"Truthfully, I had to help her to do it." Velvet said softly in admittance. "Coco is probably one of the best huntresses that I know, but sadly, that only applies to field work. When it comes to putting things down on paper, she's quick to distraction. Ah, I think I found them." There was a small sense of victory as Velvet found a think envelope with the missions sealed away inside. "I should probably send these off to the mailing department before we lose track of them again. I'll be right back."

"Right, can you take this over to the clerical department while you're at it?" Weiss asked, holding the Grimm sighting and village call longs. "Tell them that these need to be sent to the eastern wall as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, sure thing." Velvet took the offered folders before heading out of the office and down the long, narrow hallway.

Weiss could only collapse in the nearest chair, sighing at everything that had piled up over the last few days. "I never thought I'd say this, but the week moves by more slowly here than I ever thought to expect. Despite that, there seems to be an endless supply of work."

"Yes, it does seem that way, doesn't it?" Pyrrha agreed, already pulling up a holographic map and typing in necessary data for Grimm migration. "I wonder, what will you do for your first week off?"

"Keel over in bed and refuse to move. Ace will probably be a handful, assuming she isn't angry that we've left for so long." Weiss stated dryly. "Yourself?"

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure. I haven't taken the time to think about it." Her fingers paused over the number pad thoughtfully. "I assume the chores have built up. Nora isn't particularly keen on keeping things tidy. Ren does his best, but it isn't an easy task. I'll probably spruce up around the house and do some training."

"The trademark of an exciting life." Weiss said, a little annoyed at the thought. "We'll have seven full days off, and not a single plan to have any fun. That must say something about our social lives, and I'm sure it isn't anything flattering."

"Perhaps not. Would it sound incredibly rude of me to say that I don't mind the occasional solitude?" Pyrrha asked.

"No more rude that when I say it." Weiss told her. "I've lived in the spotlight enough in my life. I don't need or want to be the center of attention."

"Me either." Pyrrha said. "Although, it is quite lonely at times. There are moment that I would like more, but, thankfully having teammates around keep thoughts like that infrequent."

Weiss nodded, but felt that she couldn't relate. It wasn't about wanting more, it was about deserving it. Frankly, she just didn't, and given her family's grotesque history, she probably never would.

A thought came to mind with the jumble of work related stress. She looked up from her place at the desk, pen perched in her hand as she tapped it against the paper softly. "I think it might be nice to do a game night during the week. Something casual to ward away the boredom."

Pyrrha just smiled as she typed in another location on the holographic map. "I think that would be grand…"

A day in the small office was exhausting. It was made no better by a call later during her break. Blake's image appearing on the small screen as she recounted the events that had been going on at the house.

"She did what?!" Weiss found herself shouting into her scroll as she sat at the table in the middle of the room. Her sandwich left completely forgotten as Blake spun the tale of Ruby's apparent injury.

"You heard me." Blake complained. Weiss watched the video feed as Blake stirred some ground beef in a hot sauce pan. She turned her head at the side to look at her mounted scroll before rolling her eyes. "The dust went off and sent her flying. Then she had to focus her aura on some sort of head injury. Her arm was still seeping when she got home. She played it off, but if you had seen it you would have thrown a fit."

"That idiot..." Weiss mumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose. "She had better not have inhaled any of it."

"Oh, she did." Blake said, adding some salt and proper to the mix. "Check her aura readings."

Weiss did, only to curse under her breath at the incredibly low percentage showing on the bar. Less than that of a regulation sparring match. "Oh my god…"

"Yep." Blake groused. "She's benched for recuperation, but trying to get her to rest is completely pointless."

"I used to glyph her to the bed for a reason." Weiss muttered, the door opened and closed behind her as Yang came into the room. "Just a moment, Yang's finally returned." She turned to the blonde who was already shrugging out of her workboats. "Ruby took a dust explosion to the face the other day, and she failed to inform us."

"Is she okay?" Yang asked, mid-step to an empty chair.

"She's benched for low aura, but otherwise fine." Blake called out over the scroll. "Or so she claims."

Yang moved to lean over the chair Weiss sat at, both faces moving into view on Blake's end of the scroll. "It didn't happen at the house did it?"

"No, down by the docks. Today she's slouching over the desk in her room to complete an incident report. She claims she's okay, but I still think she should be resting, not that she listens."

"If she says she's fine, then she probably is." Yang said with a shrug.

"She always pushes herself too hard, Yang." Blake retorted, biting her lower lip and looking off someplace unseen before her ears wilted unhappily.

"It's cute that you worry so much, but don't you think that comes from a deeper place than just worrying about a teammate?" Yang chuckled a little under her breath.

"Yang…" Blake sighed. "Take this seriously."

"I am, Blake." Yang told her, reaching to pull the scroll from Weiss, fixing Blake with a knowing stare. "She's my sis, I don't want her getting hurt, but come on. She's a huntress, and shit like this happens. If she was actually hurt, I'd be home in a heartbeat. If she says she's okay, I trust that. Why can't you?"

"Because…"

"Because why, Blake?"

"Just…" Blake shook her head. "I don't know…"

"Yeah, ya do." Yang sighed. "Doesn't do a damn bit of good if you don't say something to her, though." Without warning she hung up the scroll, tossing it back to Weiss, the shorter woman catching it expertly, fixing Yang with a mild glare of her own.

"Just what was that about?" She retorted hotly. "I was in the middle of a conversation."

"Yeah, and if she calls back, don't answer it." Yang scoffed, mild amusement mixing with exasperation. "Blake needs to sort her own shit out, and she's not good at doing that when she can avoid it like the plague."

"Right…" Weiss trailed off, skeptical.

"Just trust me." Yang said while climbing into her bunk.

Yang knew.

She could feel it bone deep. She couldn't place why, not exactly. She liked to think she understood Blake pretty deeply at this point, and she was sure that she knew Ruby even better than that. Just looking at them, she saw the chemistry, she had seen it for a long time. It wasn't obvious at first, or maybe ever. She wouldn't doubt that most people would think she was crazy, but Yang could feel the slow shift that only came when friends turned to lovers.

It was like storm twisting in the air. She knew the feeling, she had felt it many times in her life, following those emotions however they carried her.

Blake and Ruby would never be the same way, and she knew that too. Pitying the fact that Blake couldn't just open her mouth, learning to say all of the little things that came to mind. The day would come though, that Yang knew. It would come along sooner than anyone really wanted to admit, because that's just how matters of the heart worked.

Denial would only serve Blake so well. Then it would crumble, worn away by time, like all walls do. Physical, emotional, all walls were the same.

"You just mark my words, Pyrrha. They're going to be together-together in no time flat."

"I'm not so sure about that, Yang."

"You just don't want to admit it because that means you'll have to hold up your end of the bargain." Yang said with a grin.

"I can't believe you even remember that."

"Well, I do." Yang said. "Pretty hard to forget something like that."

"It was a bet we made under juvenile inebriation, surely you cannot hold me to it now after all of these years." Pyrrha said as she sunk deeper into the water. Sighing away the soreness in her muscles. "We were still in Beacon back then."

A grueling session of deadlifts in the gym had tuckered them both out. One warm shower later, and they were both soaking in induvial bathtubs. The white privacy screens pulled together. Their inner screen between them only pulled up half-way, so they could look over and talk amongst themselves without giving anyone else a show.

"Still going to hold you to it, and you're not backing out." Yang said as she wetted her washcloth once more and draped it over her ample bosom. She wasn't shy by any means, but Pyrrha had always approached the modesty. "The deal was one date with your crush, that's not all that hard."

"What if I don't have one?" Pyrrha posed, wondering if Yang might actually by such a boldfaced like if she provided it.

"What if I know that's total bullshit?" Yang parroted back playfully. Looking over to Pyrrha with a somewhat cheeky grin on her face.

"Do you realize how completely irresponsible such a bet is, correct? We're not teenagers anymore, and for all you know, the crush could be you." Pyrrha pressed, not liking the way that Yang continued to smirk. The blonde was entirely too pleased with herself. "We both know how disinterested you would be to actually go on a date with me."

"But it isn't me, Pyrrha." Yang said knowingly. "I don't know who you're interested in nowadays. I know I'm nowhere near what you're looking for, though. I mean, I'm a chick for one."

"So?" Pyrrha asked. "What does you being a woman have to do with anything?"

"Uh, you're not into girls?" Yang said with less confidence than she would have liked. Her smirk falling as she considered that Pyrrha might be in the closet. That was a wholly unsatisfying thought. "I mean, unless you are…" She couldn't help but wonder now. "Then again, even if you were, it's not like you actually look at me when you could. Like right now for example, I'm sure if I hit on you right now, you'd be indifferent. Or, at least you'd be really bothered by it."

"That's undeniably true..." Pyrrha murmured, even the mere thought making her spine crawl. Yang was her friend, but that's all she was. There were some lines that should never be crossed. "Just as I would hope that you would never even think to turn your romantic affections towards me."

"Yeah, because we're friends. We're just not that friendly with each other, if you catch my drift…" Yang told her, stretching out in the water. "So anyway, you're like what, bisexual then?"

Pyrrha shook her head. "To be frankly honest, it's not quite as simple as male or female. I'm demisexual, so dating is slightly more complicated for me."

"You're what?" Yang had honestly never heard the term in her life.

"Demisexual." Pyrrha sighed, an old and discomforting feeling in the pit of her gut. It was a hard thing to admit. "It means I don't experience attraction the way you do. I do notice why a person might be attractive, but for me, personally, that's not enough. I need to feel emotionally connected to a person before I develop a desire to even consider dating them. I've never simply had a crush based on gender or appearances. They're slow burning realizations that come to me over time."

"Okay, so like, friends then." Yang said slowly, trying to understand.

"Well, yes, I suppose you could look at it that way. The people I'm attracted to, they tend to be people I'm particularly close with." Pyrrha told her, her gaze drifting upward thoughtfully. "Which, I suppose is what makes things rather difficult in the long run."

"Uh...how?"

"Well, for example, with Jaune, it was easy to fall in love." Pyrrha began slowly, fidgeting with some bubbles in the water. "He was so atypical of anyone I had ever known. He kept surprising me in all the right ways. It was easy to want a romantic relationship with him. The problem was keeping the romance alive. Truthfully, that was the hardest thing in the world for me."

"Why?" Yang asked. It was easy going, unobtrusive, as if she really didn't mind if Pyrrha dodged the question.

"The stress, mostly." Pyrrha began. "We were partners first and foremost. That weighed on him to measure up to an impossibly high standard. His lacking of official training didn't bother me. I was ready to give him everything I had, but his faith in himself was so lacking at the time. He seemed to think so little of himself, and nothing I could say or do made it better…"

"Sounds like a shitty time...poor guy." Yang sighed. "Never realized it was that hard for him. I knew he had it rough, but not that rough."

"It was a predicament. A troubling one, which in turn made me feel entirely empty. My love for him was poisoning to the both of us, and eventually, it hurt our relationship enough that I lost attraction to him."

"I never knew…"

"That's because it was a very personal thing to do, choosing to end it as we did." Pyrrha said, maintaining her honesty. If little else, her words were strictly factual, and there was a small breath of comfort in that. "We stayed friends, so there was never any need to explain it to anyone else. Ren and Nora know all the details, of course. However, Jaune and I were always discreet in the first place. Ending it quietly was the natural choice too."

"But you do have feelings for someone else now." Yang said, knowing Pyrrha hadn't denied it.

"Yes, I do. She is not the sort of woman to take being hit-on lightly, even if it is by a trusted friend." The redhead replied. "I don't even think she's interested in women…"

The blonde quirked an eyebrow. "Assuming she was?"

"I have no evidence to support that she is."

"Okay, but say hypothetically she is, then what?" Yang insisted with a roll of her eyes. "Pretend that the girl is a flaming lesbian. She could not be gayer, farts sparkles and shits rainbows, would you ask this person out on a date? Yes or no?"

"I honestly don't know…"

"How in the hell do you not know?" Yang groaned, rolling her eyes.

"I wish it was as simple as a yes or no answer, but it isn't." The imagery was quite a bit more disturbing than Pyrrha's mind wished to conjure, even though it promptly did so anyway. "I'm not sure if she feels connected to me in the same way, and I need that connection. It's the only way to make romance for me last at all, and she's the sort of person that's very prideful."

"Sounds like you're afraid of rejection..."

"I am, a little bit." Pyrrha said softly. "So, until I know for sure that everything feels right between this person and myself, I simply cannot ask her to be anything more than my friend."

"Right…" Yang said softly.

Ruby grumbled as she stood mindlessly in the bathroom mirror. With her toothbrush in her mouth, and the mental fog of sleepiness clouding her thoughts, she fumbled through her routine on auto-piolet. Ace sat beside her, kicking her feet idly. Her little nose twitching between each curious sniff if the air. At first Ruby didn't think much of it as the thick smell of ham and eggs wafted from the kitchen. Instead she rinsed her mouth and dried her face.

Setting Ace down on the floor, Ruby made her way to the kitchen, Ace trailing after her recklessly. The young Faunus skidding to a halt and just narrowly avoiding crashing into the kitchen door frame.

"Morning, Blake." Ruby greeted tiredly, side stepping Ace entirely as hungry mews began incessantly. She went to the fridge, grabbing the milk container before finding a clean glass.

"Morning." Blake replied, pan in hand as she kept the eggs from burning. "Breakfast is almost done."

"Thank god for that." Ruby said, managing to block Ace before she crashed into the open door of the fridge. The child weaved her way between two sets of legs, hand upraised to try and get to the food. Blake shoved the pan away from reach as Ruby, grabbed the troubles little girl. "No. You need to wait." Ruby said sternly, holding the girl well away from the piping hot stove top and plates surrounding it.

[Mine.] Ace growled petulantly, trying to launch herself away from Ruby's firm hold. Thrashing towards the sunny yellow egg frying in the pan. [Mine. Now.]

[Not yours.] Blake's growl was deep and stern as her arm fell over the countertop, blocking the plates and stovetop protectively. [Mine.] Her stance seemed to demand, amber eyes slitting aggressively.

Ace slinked away at the display, backing into Ruby's hold as she suck her hand into her mouth. A sad little sound followed. The sound of apology. Blake rolled her eyes, stance relaxing once more as she turned back to the food. Ruby put Ace in the highchair that had seen better days. It was full of claw marks, the edges ripped enough to protrude stuffing. Wheeling it to the table she poured a sippy-cup of orange juice, watering it down a bit before screwing the lid on and passing it to Ace. Blake slid some of the eggs that she had scrambled onto a plastic plate along with a piece of lightly buttered toast and a few bits of cut up ham.

"Any missions today?" Ruby asked the woman, taking the plate and passing it off to Ace. The little girl dove for the food, her small hands cramming egg into her mouth at the first opportunity. She would probably end up wearing most of it, rather than eating it.

"No, I'm off." Blake said, reaching for her scroll to check her schedule. "I've got a few days before I'm scheduled for anything."

"What about volunteer work?"

"There's a few things I want to get done around the house, so I don't think I'll be going out today." Blake told her, both of their plates in hand as she came around to sit at the table. "That, and I'd like to be able to spend some time with you before we both get slammed hard with the upcoming mission schedules."

"I need to submit the written incident report over at Beacon today." Ruby said, taking the offered plate so that she could enjoy her own breakfast. "I'll be out most of the afternoon."

"Oh, I forgot about that…" Blake trailed off, fork in hand, mentally cursing her lapse of good judgement

"It's fine. I should be back around evening time, so we could do something then if you wanted." Though, in truth, Ruby had no idea what that something might be. She struggled to think of a good idea, hoping Blake already had a plan in mind.

"Think Nora could babysit?" Blake asked, her mind instantly drifting to the small eatery along the pier that had decently priced meals and adequate nightlife.

Ruby shook her head. "Probably not, Nora and Ren have a mission to prep for."

Blake chewed a little more forcefully on her ham than she needed to. Glancing to Ace, she eyed the child, trying to come up with a better solution. Nothing came to mind. Well, it was to be expected, and she decided she wouldn't dwell too deeply on the matter. "I don't mind staying in, we haven't had a whole lot of time to just lay around the house. A few cheesy movies and some take-out from the pub would work for me."

"Sounds like a plan then." Ruby said with a soft smile.

Blake cared.

Ruby didn't really know what to do with that information, but she knew enough to know that. As she got up from the table to go about her day, she couldn't help but feel a weight settle over her. In truth, Ruby had no idea what to do with the newfound realization that the offer for dinner might have a double meaning.

It was like a seemingly unspoken declaration that Blake had handed to her.

On the surface, it seemed innocent enough. Ruby couldn't deny it probably was. Blake wasn't the sort to carry ulterior motives or to be intentionally deceitful. It wasn't the sort of person she was. There was something else though, something that Blake wasn't saying. Either by choice, or by obligation.

The scar on her arm didn't hurt anymore, but Ruby couldn't help but look at it in the shower, fingers running over that mark that was slowly fading away thanks to aura. Soon it would be gone forever, but the memory would last. The pain, and the moment Blake insisted on bandaging the wound herself at the kitchen table. It would be harder to forget, and like so many things between them, it would rest as another personal moment.

Those were racking up fast recently. What had once been an occasional occurrence, seemed to morph. It gained momentum over time.

There were a lot of things Ruby set aside as kindness and close friendship. Lingering touches, overt concern, and hot chocolate, which Blake couldn't drink even if she wanted to. All of it seemed to increase in frequency. Combined with the desire to spend even more time together, Ruby wondered how else their friendship might change.

Or, if she even wanted it to…

That was a messy thought. It had no clear resolution, because thinking of that only made her feel lonely. It made her rub at the scar, palm falling flat over its surface. Gently squeezing the muscle in her arm, as though it would force the scar to remain. A point of proof that she wasn't just imagining things.

She put it aside, believing that dwelling too much on the subject wouldn't do her any good. They were friends first and foremost, and that friendship, no matter what form it took, was there to stay.