Again, this may be short, but I honestly don't care too much. For quite a while in the actual series, they had short episodes before they slowly moved to longer ones, so I'm not too worried.

Hope you enjoy!

Diego sat in the shadows of an alley, observing the streets before him. He gave a small smile as he watched the few citizens that were still up at this hour going about their lives. It was good to be back in business, but he sometimes felt that he wasn't actually helping these people.

"If it wasn't for me, this war we fight would never have happened," Diego muttered to himself with a sigh.

Just then, he heard very soft footsteps from above him on the roof. He tensed himself and quietly adjusted his position in the alley just enough so that it seemed as if he hadn't heard anything, but also so he could get a better view of whoever was on the roof. Looking up, Diego just managed to catch a glimpse of a certain feature that he knew belonged to a certain Faunus he had comforted not too many days ago: a black bow which he knew hid a pair of cat ears. Diego smiled in a friendly way and he leaned against the alley wall.

"I can hear you moving," he said aloud. At first there was no response, then a figure dropped to the ground before him. Diego smiled a tad bit more, for his guess had been correct. Blake gave him a small smile of her own.

"You're Diego Kapila, aren't you?" she asked, trying to confirm that she was talking to the right man.

"In the flesh," Diego replied with a bow. "What are you doing out here this late?"

"I wanted to talk to you, and Yang told me that I could probably find you somewhere around here."

"Did she now?" Diego shook his head with an amused expression on his face. "Looks like Goldilocks memorized the path to the Three Bears' house. I guess that's one of the consequences I'll have to face for giving her that much information."

Blake smiled in response to the joke he made about Yang.

"Do you call her that often?" she inquired.

"More than you'd think," Diego said, "She calls me Pretty Boy or Dancy Pants in return. It makes me happy inside whenever I hear her speak with such a cheerful demeanor. I can understand why anyone would find her to be a good companion."

"As long as they don't touch the hair," Blake said with a chuckle.

"In most cases," Diego said a bit quieter than before. Blake turned to look at him, and she then seemed to realize what he implied.

"Wait, you two aren't-"

"Yes, or at the least we're giving it a shot," Diego said, not waiting for her to finish.

Blake was silent for a moment, then said, "Well, I'm not gonna question it much. It's not my place. Besides, you seem like a nice guy and you gave me some comfort on the night when they figured out what I was. I guess that your reputation is clean among us for now."

"Let's hope it stays that way," Diego said. He looked back to the streets of Vale, noticing a small group of shady individuals. Peering more closely, Diego spotted a few concealed weapons on their persons and none of them seemed like they were just passing by. The group turned to Diego and Blake, and one of them motioned towards them. The group headed for the alley and Diego had a sickening feeling of why they were here.

"What is it?" Blake asked, noticing his troubled look.

"We've got company," he said bluntly, as he secretly got his gauntlets and greaves ready for activation. The thugs came to the alley, blocking any escape, and one of them looked to Diego.

"Sir," the thug said, "I need you to step away from the girl."

"Why?" Diego asked, "She's my friend. Is there a problem?"

"Sir," the thug stated, "do you realize that your friend is a Faunus? A sympathizer of the White Fang?"

Blake's hands went to her weapon and she prepared herself for a fight. Diego simply stared at the thug.

"She is a Faunus; I am well aware of that detail. However, she is not a sympathizer of the White Fang. Now that they have resorted to violent means, I doubt she'd prefer to stay out of their affairs. Just because she's a Faunus doesn't mean that she's with the White Fang."

The thug gave Diego a shove. "She's dangerous, and must be dealt with before she can cause any damage."

The thug started walking towards Blake, who had drawn her sword and was ready to fight. However, before the thug could go much farther, Diego grabbed him and shoved him back towards his friends., then positioned himself between them and Blake. His expression held a dangerous glare.

"There's only two ways this can end fellas," Diego warned. "The first option involves you walking away and pretending this never happened. The second option sees all of you in the hospital, or even in body bags if it gets that bad. Take your pick."

The thugs didn't take Diego seriously...until he smacked the first one in the face, sending him flying several feet. The other thugs pulled out swords or pistols and attacked as well, but Diego dodged or parried all of their attacks, usually in a dance-like manner. This seemed to confuse the thugs enough to the point that they didn't notice Blake rushing in to attack as well. She ended up easily taking down the ones with guns while Diego was busy toying with the remaining thugs in melee combat. It was clear that he was the superior fighter, but he was messing around with the thugs as well. Eventually, the thugs gave up and ran off in fear.

"And don't come back!" Diego shouted after them. He then turned to Blake. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," Blake responded, sheathing her weapon. "Thanks for standing up for me."

"But of course," Diego said, "Who wouldn't stand up for a friend?"

"Friend?" Blake looked to him as if wondering if she had heard him right.

"The way I see it, since you are one of Yang's teammates, that makes you a friend of mine. Even the one that can be a handful, due to her heritage and wealth," Diego replied. Just then, he heard police sirens in the distance. Apparently, the scuffle hadn't gone unnoticed.

"Whoo! You'd better get going," Diego said to Blake. "The last thing you're gonna want is for the cops to start questioning you about this."

"I understand," Blake said, "Thanks again Diego. I wish more humans were as accepting to the Faunus as you are."

Diego sighed as she took off back in the direction of Beacon.

"So do I, my cousin. So do I..."

Diego watched as the police scanned the area for any signs of activity. But other than the injured thugs and a bunch of empty bullet shells, they didn't find anything else and soon left the place. Diego leaned back against a ventilation pipe on the rooftop and smiled.

"Another day in the office," he said aloud. "I wonder if this rabble can offer any real challenge. But who knows? Maybe someday that could become a reality. Wouldn't it surprised with my luck."

Diego looked towards Beacon Academy in the distance and his smile faded.

"No matter which side I look at, neither seems right to me," Diego muttered. "On the one hand, Salem wishes to destroy everything in Remnant, down to the smallest innocent creature. On the other hand, if doesn't seem right for Ozpin to recruit them this way. I don't know which side to help out..."

Diego sighed again, but then an idea came to him.

"For now, Ozpin is the lesser of two evils. I'll help him out for now, but if he gives me reason to question his intentions, he'll have one less ally to rely on."

"I thought that you didn't care about the fight," a female voice said behind him. Diego heard it, but didn't turn around yet.

"Didn't I tell you to leave me alone, Salem?" Diego seethed.

"I've told you before, I'm not one to follow orders given by another," Salem's voice said. "Besides, I wanted to talk to you at least one more time before it all goes downhill."

"And why should I listen to you?" Diego demanded. "You pretended to be my friend, but then you turned it all around that night. I would've stayed your loyal friend, follower even, but you had to ruin it. And now you taunt me with your messages, reminding me of what we threw away! You don't even bother to appear in person to deliver any of your messages, and that makes it worst off! Are you that selfish, that cruel, that you have to have your messages delivered to me by a Grimm? The very things that I despise more than you? You don't even care about what happens to-"

Diego suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked to it and saw that the hand belonged to one whom he hadn't seen in the flesh for who-knew-how-long.

She can't be...

Diego turned around and to his surprise, he found himself face to face with Salem herself. She stood with a neutral expression on her face, staring at him intently. But was it real? Daring to hope, his hand reached forward and the back of if brushed against her cheek. While his skin crawled slightly in remembrance of who it was, at the same time it was a pleasant feeling.

"I figured that I should make an exception for tonight," Salem said, a smile crossing her face. Yet, it wasn't like the evil smiles she usually gave off; this time, it held genuine kindness in it, something that Diego hadn't seen since their last night together. Even her eyes held the same look, which was a stark contrast in all with her usual nature. But Diego knew that it was genuine.

"Salem," he said in a whisper, his hand brushing against her cheek again, "You actually came..."

The dark lady's smile became a little warmer.

"I couldn't stay away any longer," she said. Her own hand came up and held his to her cheek, and a smile finally crossed the boy's face. His hand turned around and the palm of it caressed her cheek now.

"Even after what I said yesterday," he remarked, "I won't lie when I say it's good to see you again in person, my dear."

Salem was silent, but her smile still remained. She soon found herself in the boy's embrace, which she returned without hesitation. Her eyes closed and a peaceful sigh escaped her. She then pulled away to look him in the eyes.

"Diego," she said with sadness, "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I- I shouldn't have put you through such pain. What I did that night-"

"I know," he whispered, "but we can't change it now. I just wish we could've managed to move past the unnecessary conflict. But we can't change the past. All we can do is improve for the future."

Salem gave him another smile, and a few tears fell from her eyes. Diego wiped away a few of them, but one managed to hit the ground, creating another of the beautiful Grimm-like creatures that Salem had locked away in her fortress. Diego noticed this and smiled in amusement as Salem picked it up. Instead of destroying it like she would or should, she instead made it disappear from view as it returned to the fortress.

"I see that you still hold some form of affection for me," Diego said kindly. Salem nodded, then turned to look towards Beacon. She didn't say anything, but Diego could tell that she was musing over the future fight ahead.

"I know that this was short, but I must leave soon," she said bluntly, yet with a hint of wistfulness.

"Before you do, tell me this," Diego asked, "You offered to keep me alive, free from the destruction you plan to cause. Did you mean it when you said that? Or was it another means to get me to come back?"

Salem was silent for a moment, then replied with genuine sadness, "My dear Diego, I would sacrifice all of the Grimm in Remnant and beyond if it spared your life. We may have broken apart long ago, but you are still precious enough in my sight to be given a blind eye in most cases."

Diego nodded, knowing that Salem spoke the truth. Then she asked him something.

"If I hadn't caused our rift, would you have still fought by me if you knew what I had planned to do?"

Diego walked over to her and held her hand in his.

"I would've stayed with you till the end of time if permitted. You may deny it, but even now as was the case back then, I know that there's some good in you that doesn't want to do this. Why else would you not destroy the creatures created by your tears, the ones that defy your nature? Because there's still a part of you that sticks to what I gave to you then."

Salem was silent once more, then started to walk away signaling the end of the conversation. Just before she disappeared for good, she asked him one more question.

"Do you suppose, that maybe, if we hadn't broken apart, we could've-?"

"Perhaps, in another life," Diego said sadly, not turning around towards her, "but not in this life. We threw away that chance too early in the game. But if I could have changed that, then I would've changed it. For both of us."

Diego heard a portal open up behind him, then silence as the dark lady disappeared for the night.

"I'm sorry," he said, "but it's time we moved on. I've already got someone else in my life to look after."

Diego jumped down from the roof into the streets below, then disappeared into the shadows.

"This time, I won't make the same mistakes. And this time, I cannot let you take her from me. As you did with her..."

Wow! They have quite the history, don't they?

Just for fun, I think I'm gonna be making a new story, which is a series of one-shots involving my main OC from other stories, TD. In these one-shots, he will be doing one-on-one battles (with exceptions of those who always work in teams) against heroes and villains across different franchises, both OC's and non-OC's. If you're interested, let me know through a PM and I might have a place on the list for the character in mind. Keep in mind though, there is a high probability that your OC will lose in the fight, for the idea is to see how they would fare against TD and not necessarily if they could beat him, and vice versa.

Hope you enjoyed this, and I'll see you guys later!