[X] She may as well just talk with it now, get it over with. Maybe it'll lead to a talk with Nightingale or something. And it'll make the Undine leave everyone else alone.
"...Gah." Yang complained. "Fine. Two, watch the kids, I'll be back soon. Jeez, and I wanted to have fun. Looks like I'm settling for fundine."
"Fun dine?" Two asked. "Is the Undine secretly asking you out to dinner? I didn't think it was interested in humans romantically-"
"Pun." Yang and the Undine said at once.
"Oh." Two noted. "Okay. Sorry. Follow me, kids, leave Yang and the Undine alone..."
"But I wanted to talk to her." One of the children whined.
"Now now, Yang will be here for a while, she'll be able to talk to you at some point." Two assured them, as they left the area.
Turning over towards the Undine, Yang sighed. "So, what did you want to talk about, then?"
The Undine didn't respond immediately, instead turning around and walking away.
"Excuse me?" Yang asked. "I didn't hear you over you not saying anything. Try again?"
The Undine paused at a door, and waited, clearly wanting Yang to follow it.
Yang sighed. "Alright, fishface, I'll play your game. But you're making it really tempting to punch you in the face right now, you know..."
The door slid upwards as Yang approached, and the yellow haired teenager frowned.
Wait, why did this place have automatic doors, while the Schnee guest manor had normal doors with doorknobs?
...Eh, it didn't matter, the place she was staying in was probably just an older building that hadn't been renovated on a large enough scale to facilitate the automatic doors yet.
The Undine stood in the middle of the room as Yang walked in, and the girl gave the water spirit a look.
"Well, what did you want then?"
"Talk." The Undine replied.
"Well, clearly." Yang complained. "But talk about what? The weather?"
"Few things." The Undine replied, looking at Yang in the process. "Soul's broadcasting."
...Soul's what no-
Oh. That's right. Uncle Qrow had helped her figure out how to do a thing so she could do the weird soul resonance spirit thing anywhere, rather than just in the forest around her house. Was the Undine picking up on that?
"What's it matter to you?" Yang asked, crossing her arms defensively. "I don't see why this is enough that you need to come up and bother me in the middle of-"
"It is familiar." The Undine continued. "Feels of deep ocean. Hidden..."
The Undine trailed off, and Yang, despite her annoyance at the situation, was suddenly curious.
"What are you talking about here?" She asked. "Hidden? Deep ocean? All I know about it is that it has something to do with the nature around me or something, given it involves something about connecting to trees and animals or something."
The connection to deep ocean, Yang could understand. It was said that there was a lot of weird sea life down, and Grimm rarely went where there was no human presence so that had no reason to go so deep into the sea. And the comment about something being hidden also made sense if she thought about it, given that humanity didn't really know much about the ocean that far down, and if Undine's lived in the sea, they were probably hiding away somewhere.
But the Undine had sounded specifically like it was going to refer to something in particular which was hidden, not just in general. Some place or object, which gave out a similar feeling to Yang's soul magic stuff. And Qrow had always been a bit tight lipped about the specifics of this magic, so maybe there was some sort of connection going on with whatever the Undine was talking to her about and what Qrow had taught to her?
"Can not say." The Undine continued. "Not my secret."
"Then who's secret is it?" Yang asked, starting to feel irritated again.
"Schnee."
The Undine left the name hanging in the air for a moment, then started walking towards the door.
"Hey, wait a minute." Yang objected, catching the spirits arm. "You can't just tell me all that and-"
Undine took it's water-snake form, and slipped out of Yang's grasp.
"Done." The Undine decided, taking a humanoid form again. "If you want talking to continue, change subject."
"Tch." Yang complained, taking a breath to cool herself down a bit. "Fine, then. At least tell me why you're doing this."
"Telling you?" The Undine asked for clarification. "Curious."
"Just curiosity?" Yang asked. "Do you want to know why I feel familiar like this, or are you just curious to see what I'll do next?"
"Both."
The Undine didn't clarify beyond that, and the yellow haired girl sighed.
"Alright then, we'll move on." Yang decided. "How's that girl of yours? Nightingale?"
"Well." The Undine replied. "Safe."
"Happy?" Yang asked.
"You know the answer already." The Undine dismissed the question.
So she was still a wreck, then.
"Does she have someone she talks to?" Yang asked. "Apart from you, I mean? Considering how the last time I saw the two of your together, she was shouting about how you were only looking after her because of the Pact."
"Intoner." The Undine replied. "Not often, but speaks."
"That's not enough." Yang replied. "Any friends, at least? Kids her own age?"
"Why do you care?" Undine asked.
"Why wouldn't I?" Yang replied. "I got involved already. It'd be irresponsible of me to leave halfway, when I can be concerned about it."
"Where was this months ago?" The Undine asked.
Yang didn't respond to that right away.
"Do you care?" The Undine continued. "Something distracted you until now. If you only ask when not distracted, do you really care?"
"...I don't need to explain myself to you." Yang bit out, after a moment. "If I'm acting like an idiot for a while, that doesn't mean I can't try to be better about it now."
The Undine took a moment to consider Yang's words.
"No friends." It decided eventually. "Too isolated. Does not care for them."
"Then you're going to have to do more for her." Yang replied. "If you actually care. And if you're still following her around, then you have to, on some level."
"Do I?" The Undine asked.
"Out there, there wasn't a problem with you following her. It's dangerous outside the Kingdoms. But it's safer here, and even if it wasn't, she has Two watching over her. She's safe here. You don't need to be here. So you still being here means you care to some degree."
"She wished me here." The Undine replied. "I stayed. Not your business."
And with that, the Undine took on a water-like form again, and flowed out the door. Yang followed it out, and turned away from the door just in time to watch the glowing blue magic snake thing go through a hole in the wall, before the pipes in it started rattling slightly.
...Well, that was that then.
Heading down the path Two had led all the small children, Yang paused after a few steps to yawn.
Jeez, she was getting tired. It was probably starting to get late back in Vale, and she did wake up early so she could catch the airship to Atlas. She should probably think about heading back to the guest manor to sleep herself.
...It was never going to stop being weird, thinking about going to a guest manor. Organised by a friend of Yang's. Who was rich. Or at least had connections to richness, but given how much Two was enjoying the resources, it seemed fairly likely that One had used those connections to get rich herself.
Rubbing her eyes to try and wake herself up a bit, Yang wandered off towards Two and the kids.
LINEBREAK
The alarm blared, and Yang slowly opened her eyes to the unfamiliar ceiling above her.
Man, she'd fallen asleep easy. If only it was that easy to go to bed every night.
Slapping herself a bit to try and wake up, Yang rolled out of bed. It should be soon, when the airship with the people from Vacuo and Mistral would be here. And the two Atlas students, for that matter, since Yang hadn't seen either of them yet.
There was something in the schedule about how all the winners of the raffle would be given a tour of the Schnee manor proper after this, as well as a chance to see whatever it was the Schnee Dust Corporation was working on, and Two had informed Yang that she was invited, so that was exciting.
Quickly pulling on some clothes and freshening up so she didn't look like she just rolled out of bed, which she had, Yang ran out the room, and headed towards the front entrance. The guests would need to drop by the guest manor before anything else, to drop off their luggage, before anything else could happen.
Reaching the entrance hall, Yang immediately noticed two other people in the hall. They were sitting on a pair of fancy chairs, next to each other, one of them reading a book about weapon crafting, and the other looking at a watch.
"Hey." Yang called, gaining their attention. The girl with orange hair looked up from her book, but the girl with the blue beret kept watching her watch even as she turned towards Yang.
"Salutations!" The girl with orange hair greeted. The girl with the beret waved, but kept watching the time. "Are you one of the guests from Vale?"
"Yeah." Yang confirmed. "Not one of the contest winners, just a friend of... Do you know Two?"
"I have seen her." The orange hair girl confirmed. "She is very strong."
"I'm a friend of hers." Yang explained. "She paid for a vacation and I took it. I'm with the group from the contest, but I'm independent."
"That is very fortunate for you." The girl with orange hair nodded.
"Oh yeah." Yang realised. "My name's Yang. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Penny." The other girl nodded. "It is a pleasure and an honour."
She gave a stiff nod, as she stood up and walked towards Yang, hand stretched. Looking to the hand, Yang took it, and shook it. Penny's hand was like a vice, and Yang winced a bit. Penny's grip immediately loosened, and Yang's hand ended up flying out of Penny's as a result.
"My apologies." Penny immediately bowed her head. "I didn't mean to cause any discomfort."
"It's fine." Yang waved off.
"Ten seconds." The girl in the beret said suddenly. Penny looked towards her.
"Wait, really? Ah, need to look my best for the guests..."
Quickly patting down her hair, Penny returned to her seat, folded the corner of her page in the book she was reading, and put the book on a side table, while Yang watched. A moment later, the door opened up, and a bunch of different figures started walking in.
The first was a boy with blonde hair that looked like someone had tried to tame it into something manageable, and had called it a success upon keeping it into a consistent shape. He seemed uncomfortable, as he walked in wearing a rather tight suit that technically covered his stomach but did nothing to hide the shape of his...
Wow those were some nice abs. Yang noticed the boy take a moment to look down and admire what little of her abs were visible through her clothes, before looking up and getting back to looking uncomfortable.
"Do I really have to wear this?" He asked, looking back. A hand suddenly swiped down, hitting the top of his head.
"Of course you do." Replied another boy's voice wearily. "You can hardly go around wearing what you normally do, now can you?"
"My normal clothes are fine." The boy turned around as he spoke, revealing the tail poking out of the back of his suit. "And you're wearing what you normally wear."
The other boy, wearing a set of heavy armour with an honestly impressive cloak around his shoulders, sighed.. "My normal clothes don't leave me half naked."
"I'm not seeing the issue with that." Yang suddenly spoke up, remembering the beautiful sight which had blessed her eyes a moment ago.
"See?" The boy in the suit asked.
"The opinion of one person isn't relevant here." The other boy replied. "We're here as special guests, and the reputation of Mistral is on our shoulders. I will not allow you to be you and ruin it."
"You're no fun." The tailed boy sighed.
"And you're unbelievable, Sun." The other boy replied with a sigh. "I had to get your teammate to drag you away from the crates so you couldn't stow away on a trip you had a ticket to, I will have him tie you down if you won't dress yourself."
The door opened again, and two more people walked in. One, a tall kid with green hair, wearing a similar suit to the one Sun was wearing. The other, a girl with a spear on her back, was wearing some light metal armour over her torso that flowed into a white dress that stopped just above her boots, which themselves didn't go that far up past her ankles.
"That is everyone." The girl in the beret said suddenly. "Five seconds late. The Vale guests are here already. Penny, say your greetings."
The girl with the orange hair stepped forward, and cleared her throat.
"Salutations!" She greeted. "It is a wonder to meet all of you. My name is Penny, and I am here to welcome you to Atlas. Can I ask all of you for your names?"
"I'm Sun." Replied the first boy in a suit, who pulled at his collar a bit. "This is Sage, my teammate. And grumpy there is-"
"My name is Gawain." The boy with the impressive cloak noted.
Suddenly, Yang remembered where she heard that name. "Hey! Weren't you in the Mistral tournament a bit back?"
The boy pulled at his cloak a bit.
"...I was." He admitted. "I'd prefer not to talk about it. My sister was one of the two contestants to go missing."
He looked away, and suddenly, Yang felt terrible for bringing it up.
"Well, now that the interruption is dealt with." The other girl noted. "My name is Eris. The others didn't mention it, but they are from Mistral, whereas I hail from Vacuo."
"Ah, Vacuo." Penny nodded. "There's a lot of things happening there right now, isn't there?"
"Just a few upstarts acting out of line." The spear carrying girl replied. "The incident will be resolved before long. The General has been doing this for far too long to fail at his current plan, after all."
Penny clapped. "Excellent! Now, I am sure you will all be busy unpacking, and there will be a few hours before we all go to the Schnee Manor to have the tour. If anyone here wishes to see me about anything, I will be waiting here, and I am willing to answer questions or give assistance. And so is Ciel. Right, Ciel?"
The girl in the beret nodded once, as she put her watch down and picked up a book about watch making.
"Right." Penny continued. "Thank you for your time, dear guests. I will leave you to your luggage unpacking now."
And with that, she sat down, and got to reading her book.
With that done, the four people gathered turned to the front door, and Yang noticed the four piles of cases and bags that were laying just outside.
"I should probably be prompt." Eris noted, as she went towards the luggage. The other four followed her a moment later.
It will be a while, before the many, many people gathered here today are given a tour of the Schnee Manor. Until then, Yang decides to spend some time with someone.
[X] Ruby. They hadn't had enough quality time together in a while, they should have some of that.
[X] Sun and Sage. They seemed fun. And had abs. They could bond over mutual appreciation of looking amazing.
[X] Gawain. She kinda stuck her foot in her mouth, she should try making a better second impression.
[X] Eris. She was the only one from Vacuo, maybe she'd have some fun stories to tell about the place.