Ruby, Blake, and Yang met just outside of the training room where Weiss was supposed to be getting a training session with her sister. Ruby felt like she was vibrating with excitement for their very first day out together not only as a team, but as friends.

Or rather, it was the first time where the matter would be official. Either way, Ruby was excited for what was to come. It hadn't taken much to arrange the day out together, but it was still important nonetheless.

Weiss stepped out of the room and Ruby nearly jumped on her in excitement. "Weiss!" She greeted her friend, almost too energetically.

Weiss took a breath, her hand still hovering at the hilt of her sword at her side. Not relaxed yet since she'd just finished a training session. "Yes, Ruby?" She asked, looking from Ruby to Blake and Yang who were hovering by just the same way.

"We are going out!" Ruby announced, already latching on to Weiss, locking the two of them arm in arm. "We can go and let you drop your things off, and then-"

"And then we're going for a walk around Vale." Yang said, smiling in a way that Ruby couldn't help but think looked almost wrong. "And getting things to eat."

"There was a ramen shop we all wanted to go to." Blake said with a slight shrug and a shy smile.

Weiss nodded, already beginning to lead the way at least to the lockers so she can store her things. Ruby allowed her to just tug her along, since there wasn't any real reason to put up any sort of fight. If they were just going to be going to the city, there wasn't much to worry about. At the very least Ruby doubted that they would find themselves in a fight. Vale was safe.

The four of them stopped for a minute before Ruby decided to hop up onto a bench and announce their plans for the day. The bench lurched slightly for a second until Ruby threw her arms out at her sides and caught balance again. Once she was safe, she stood up tall.

"We're going on our first adventure as a team!" Ruby said excitedly. "One that won't have us fighting monsters or anything like that. And we're going to start by flying down to Vale!"

"Thank you, Ruby." Yang said shrugging and waving off the comment with her right hand. Weiss and Blake both smiled at her before falling in behind Yang, if only slightly. The two of them locked in step, and Ruby decided to rush up and get in close to Yang. "I just really want a day off, I think." Yang said, looking away from Ruby. "Things have been kind of crazy lately."

Yang had been the one to announce that they were taking a day off in the first place. While Ruby had been the one to get the most excited about the four of them finally getting to go out, she knew it was Yang's idea. Yang had wanted a chance to both unwind, and to get Blake and Weiss a chance to see Vale properly.

"A day off does sound nice." Blake added with a sigh as she let herself stretch her arms back behind her with a satisfied expression on her face. She closed her eyes and relaxed a moment later. "Especially after the week that we've all had."

"Right." Weiss said, holding her head up high herself and clearly relaxing more and more with every moment that ticked by. "I have heard that Vale is nice this time of year. And I don't think that I've-"

Ruby saw the tug of a frown at the corner of Weiss' lips. Almost immediately she felt an immediate spike of some emotion over it. She knew that the only times Weiss has gotten to see Vale for real had been when they were on their way to the gates. That wasn't a problem for any of the rest of them, Ruby knew, but she still felt bad.

On the other hand, Ruby didn't even know how well Blake knew Vale herself. Blake's confidence, however, did speak to some sort of experience there. She did have a habit of sneaking off without the rest of them, after all.

"The city is nice." Blake said with a shrug, and Ruby saw the way that Weiss relaxed, even slightly. "And I personally look forward to seeing it without having to worry about giant monsters or curfew."

"It's probably just like any other city." Yang said offhandedly. "I mean, I guess Atlas is colder."

"And Kuo Kuana is hotter." Blake retorted. "And Mistral is— " She stopped. Frowned. "About the same, actually. Maybe a little warmer."

"Have you been to those places?" Ruby asked, raising an eyebrow and giving Blake a look. She still didn't really know all that much about Blake. Somehow she'd never thought that Blake would talk about herself that much at all. "Or-"

"I've traveled some." Blake said, but her eyes darted away from the rest of them. Like she was trying to hide something from the rest of them and was afraid to let some sort of dirty laundry out for the rest of them to see properly. "I think that I might like Vale best though. Mistral's full of criminals and Kuo Kuana is crowded."

"I like Vale better than Atlas." Weiss added in a way that managed to come off as meek. "It's nice here. I think that I like the people better. And the weather is far nicer."

Yang shrugged. "I wouldn't know." She said plainly. "Me and Ruby have never really left Vale."

"We lived on Patch for a while." Ruby spoke up to amend her sister's comment. "I liked it there."

"But Patch is still in Vale." Yang responded quickly. "So we haven't really left."

"Right." Ruby huffed.

Blake spoke up though. "You two never mentioned living anywhere other than Vale."

"We lived on Patch until our mom died." Ruby said, frowning a bit because she knew enough to know that this was a difficult conversation for them to have. Even thinking about her mother was difficult most days. "We moved into the city not long after that. Dad thought it was safer."

Yang blinked. "I mean, there's more to it than that, but yeah, that's it. I liked Patch better, but we get to be closer to Qrow while we're here."

"And it's not in the middle of nowhere." Ruby added, smiling. She looked over at Blake now, more directly. "Where are you from anyways?"

Blake took a breath and shrugged. "My family moved around a lot. I don't really consider anywhere to be home."

Weiss gave Blake a suspicious look, and Ruby couldn't blame Weiss for it. "You've never mentioned any family." Weiss said plainly.

"I've never had much of a reason to, to be fair." Blake sighed. "And we're not on the... best terms."

"Right." Weiss frowned, nudging against Blake gently in the corner of Ruby's vision. A slight brush of their elbows. "If you say so."

Blake smiled, but she still came off as meek when she did so. "I promise it's nothing bad."

Ruby took a breath. "Well, I guess that means that me and Yang will have to be family to you two while you're here." She smiled, beaming at her teammates. "We're a team. We should keep that up as long as we can."

"Right." Yang said, putting a hand on Weiss' shoulder. "Team."

Weiss smiled softly, and Ruby could have almost sworn that she'd seen her partner's face begin to flush slightly. She wasn't sure, but she could have sworn—

Blake seemed to relax though, even if her eyes darted away from the rest of them. She smiled though, and that was how Ruby knew that they were doing things right. They were all alright.

Ruby looked back over her shoulder to check that everything was right, and with one motion she waved the others after her. There wasn't much, if any protest, and with that the four of them were on their ways to the docks. It would be a short flight down to the city, and then they had the day to themselves.

When they reached the airship docks, Ruby had to take a moment and stop dead in her tracks. She looked out at the city, at the docks, and the forest out in the distance. Seeing it without there being a monster in the distance was strange. She'd gotten used to seeing it there, and—

The four of them had a place in making it go away.

"Ruby?" Yang stopped beside her, and Ruby saw Weiss and Blake go on ahead, apparently interested in just boarding and getting out of there. Ruby blinked and looked up at her sister.

"Hey, Yang." Ruby said, quiet and unsure of herself for the moment. "I was just— " She took a breath. "It's nice not seeing it out there."

Yang looked out at the forest in the distance herself, and instead of seeming relaxed, she just frowned. "Yeah, it is." She said. "We should try and catch the ship. We'd be pretty bad guides if Blake and Weiss went on without us."

"Right." Ruby nodded and tugged her hood a little tighter. She and Yang walked to the ship together, and soon were taking their seats by Weiss and Blake. Ruby slipped into the area across from Weiss, while Yang took the seat across from Blake.

Blake shrugged, seeming relaxed and calm. At her side, Weiss looked out the window at the world below them.

Once the ship took off, the four of them didn't talk much. It left Ruby feeling mostly uneasy, because she knew that she and her teammates could probably have done better on that front. They were supposed to be closer, or at least that was what Ruby thought.

But the trip was short, and when the four of them landed in Vale, it was a quick departure. Together they walked outside of depot building and once they were ready Ruby decided to take the lead.

"So, I was thinking that we should see the city maybe?" She looked at Weiss and Blake, feeling a little bit worried. They were the ones that this trip was being held for in the first place.

"That sounds good." Yang said, waving the other forward after her. Ruby shrugged and fell into step, letting her sister lead. Yang took a breath and stretched, bringing her arms up behind her head in a way that made her look wholly relaxed. "Have you two even come down to Vale before?"

"Not really." Weiss sighed, shaking her head. "I haven't really been able to find the time since we got here. Things have been busy at Beacon and I've needed to do a lot of… catching up."

Blake shrugged, and Ruby got the distinct feeling that she had probably been down to Vale more times than she let on. "I've explored a little bit."

"Well, then I guess that we should just take you around." Yang said, turning to look back at the rest of them over her shoulder. "You've been to our dad's house, but that's kind of out of the way. And also not really a trip highlight for any reason other than dinner." She shrugged. "Ruby?"

"Yeah?" Ruby asked, making sure to edge herself in with the others. "What is it?"

"I think we should bring them downtown first." Yang suggested easily, and Ruby nodded quickly. "It's where all of the good food and shopping and stuff is."

"It's where the council building is." Ruby said with a shrug. "Oh, and the CCT!"

"All of the kingdoms have CCT buildings." Weiss spoke up, rolling her eyes a little bit. "I doubt that it's seriously that impressive."

"Not all of the kingdoms." Blake mumbled, but it was quiet. Almost like she was hoping that someone wouldn't be able to pick up on it. Ruby gave Blake a look, but got absolutely nothing in return. Ruby felt no offense for it, which was good.

Yang shrugged. "Ruby just likes the CCT." She explained calmly. "When we were kids we used to go there to call our Uncle all the time." She took a breath and looked back at Weiss. "He was always on missions in far away places. If he got a chance to call from a CCT, he always would. And they always sold funnel cakes outside."

Blake took a breath. "I don't think that I've ever actually been to one of the towers." She said, putting on a smile of sorts. "So I guess that I wouldn't mind seeing it."

Weiss looked at Blake, locking their eyes. "You've really never been to one? I thought you traveleled a lot."

"I did." Blake answered, "But I wasn't exactly going to the major cities."

Weiss eyed Blake, almost suspiciously. "Why weren't you— "

Yang spoke up. "I guess we can start at the tower, then." Ruby nodded and hopped to the front of their group, choosing to take the lead and get them where they wanted to go. "All of the cool stuff in the city is built around it anyways."

"Right." Ruby replied as she hopped towards the front of the group so that she could take the lead. It wasn't as though she and Yang were in any sort of competition for the leadership of the team. Ruby just felt better at the front. She took a breath. "Vale's tower is probably kind of small." She blinked, even though she wasn't sure about it herself.

Ruby only knew Vale. She knew the height of Beacon Tower, and she knew the height of the tower at Signal. The CCT Tower outdid both of those, but she could only imagine that other places did it bigger. Ruby figured that Atlas' tower was the biggest of all of them. It was the first one, after all.

"I'm sure they're the same." Weiss sighed, brushing her hair back away from her face. She hesitated though, her eyes flicking down like there was something that she wanted to say to the rest of their team. She seemed nervous, almost.

Ruby wished that she actually knew why.

"They are." Blake said with a shrug. "At least, that's what the books I've read have said."

"It's a tower." Yang stretched her arms over her head, smiling. "The real fun is everything around it. A Simple Wok is the best noodles in all of Vale and everyone knows it. There's also an arcade and stores and stuff. The Tower is there and when stuff happens in Vale, it's usually announced there, but it's not the only reason to visit."

Ruby nodded, walking them out of the building and tilting her head up so that she could get a good look at the sky. Peeking up over the rest of the city was the tower itself, and Beacon was off in the distance. Once again, Ruby was awestruck by the knowledge that something which had become a too-common part of Vale's skyline was gone partially because of her.

Even if she did have some questions left about it all. Questions that she didn't know she really expected an answer to.

Weiss stopped beside her, having noticed that Ruby was focused on the sky. "What are you looking for?" Weiss asked, squinting up at the sky above them like she was looking for a bullhead.

"We got rid of it." Ruby explained herself. "It's just weird that it was there so suddenly, and then it stayed, and then we— "

"We did our jobs." Yang spoke up, having turned to face the rest of them. They stopped in the streets, and the fact that they had company around them didn't seem to matter. Most people were just too content to go on with their lives with no idea to what was happening in the world of the Hunters. "And we should be happy with it."

Ruby nods. "It's just that we were so small compared to it. It could have killed all of us." She looks down at her feet, and sees an ant crawling over the stone below. It's so small. "And now it's just gone."

Blake sighed. "Yang is right." She said quietly. "We went out there, and we did our jobs. We can take time trying to be proud— " Blake locked her eyes with Ruby's. "But we can't. Not when we don't know what might happen next."

Weiss' eyes flicked away from the rest of them. "I think that all that we can really do is wait." She said quietly. "We don't know what is coming after, and while we may be sent out on our missions and recon, we aren't necessarily ready for everything. We have to keep on practicing."

Yang blinked. "You're saying that we can't get cocky."

"Exactly." Weiss took the steps that were enough to get the rest of them moving alongside her. "I'm afraid of what might happen. Vale isn't the only place where people choose to live. There are villages, and the three other kingdoms, and— "

"And not all of the places are as well-defended as others." Blake decided to add. "Vale needs to be thought of as an exception. The villages between the kingdoms were never really safe. Neither were the Desert Kingdoms."

Weiss gave Blake a weird look again. "What do you mean kingdoms? Vacuo is the only desert kingdom."

"Menagerie." Blake responded, keeping her voice hard and Ruby got the distinct feeling that something about this had actually made Blake angry. She didn't know what it could have been, though. "It's a populated island that's forced to share its living space with a desert that you can't live in."

Weiss took a deep breath. "Vacuo is the same way."

"Not by a bit." Blake bit back. "Vacuo somehow manages to have it better. No thanks to your family."

"That's easy for you to say." Weiss snapped back, and just like that Ruby saw the way that she speeded up and took her place at the front, but it seemed more like she was trying to storm off.

Ruby looked over at Yang, and then Blake. She wanted to go and do something to intervene. Instead, she looked up at her sister. "I uh.." She shuffled nervously. "Can you go talk to her? I don't know what I'd say."

Yang let out a breath. "Sure, Ruby." With that, she slipped off after Weiss, and Ruby was left alone with Blake. She looked up at her teammate, meeting her eyes.

"Is... something going on?"

Blake opened her mouth like she had something that she wanted to say, only to clamp it shut just as soon. Her eyes flicked down and Ruby wished that she knew.

Because the thing was that she knew that things had been kind of tense between Blake and Weiss in the past. There hadn't been much said to elaborate on it at all, but Ruby at least knew that Weiss had a facial scar that she'd gotten on Blake's account. And that the two of them didn't want to be around each other at all most of the time.

While it seemed like things were getting better between the two of them, now Ruby wasn't so sure.

She watched Blake's expression, only to get a frustrated sigh out of Blake as a response. "Everything is okay." She explained calmly. "That's all."

Ruby nodded, glancing back over towards where Weiss had stormed off, and Yang had followed. "You probably shouldn't have attacked her family like that." She shuffled awkwardly in the spot where she was standing. "I mean— "

"It's complicated." Blake mumbled. "She's going to be okay."

"If you say so."

"It's going to be okay." Blake repeats, watching for something that Ruby couldn't see.

Ruby sighed and looked around them before picking out a bench which she and Blake could share while they waited. She didn't want to go after the others and risk making things worse. That was for sure.

Blake sat beside her. The silence lingered between the two of them for too long before Blake spoke up. "I'm sorry."

"I know." Ruby frowned. "I don't think I'm the one you should apologize to though. Weiss seemed really upset."

"It's hard talking to her about certain things knowing what— " Ruby leaned in, seeing something between hot rage and cold regret passing over Blake's face. Blake didn't pay her any attention and instead chose to keep going. "Knowing about what the Schnee Dust Company has done, and the things that her family has enabled."

Ruby shrugs. "I mean, that's not her fault though."

"No." Blake frowned and shook her head. "It isn't. But it's still hard."

Ruby blinked and nudged Blake. "You know that you're allowed to talk to... well, I don't know about the others, but you're allowed to talk to me about stuff, right?" She swallowed, locking her eyes with Blake's soft gold ones. "I mean, we're teammates and I like you a lot."

"Ruby— "

"I don't want for you to feel like you have to go it alone. And Yang wouldn't want that for you either, I don't think." Ruby leaned forward, in her seat, choosing to rest her hands at her side while she did so. "If we're going to be a good team then we need to work together and be honest with each other."

Blake sighed. "I want to, there are just things that I can't talk about easily. You have to understand."

"I do!" Ruby responded. "At least I think I do."

Before Blake was able to make any sort of response, Ruby felt her scroll vibrate against her leg. She sat up tall and reached for it, pulling it out.

The name on it was her sister's followed by a short message saying that she and Weiss wanted to meet.

Maybe all that had been necessary had been a little bit of space.

Ruby looked over at Blake. "They want to meet at the tower." She explained before pushing herself upright. "You should come with me." She took the short moment to stretch, swinging her arms down by her sides once she was done.

In one fluid motion Blake got herself up to her own feet before giving Ruby a slight signal that it was time for her to start leading the way. Ruby understood and began on the way out.

Blake walked alongside her. "So I guess that Weiss isn't that angry."

"I guess not." Ruby shrugged. "I mean, I think that it'd be easier if you just shared things with us."

"Probably." Blake responded, but she also made a point not to make too much eye contact with Ruby. When Ruby noticed she couldn't help but be a little bit put off by it. "Are we far from the tower?"

"Nope." Ruby smiled. "Yang said that we should meet them outside, so I'm going to guess that they might be getting food."

"Somehow I doubt that."

Ruby smiled again. "Well, you've never had the funnel cake that they sell near it. Yang likes it a lot, our uncle used to take us to get it when we were kids."

Blake took a breath.

Ruby decided to barrel on in her own story. "I'm glad that he's the one that we've been put to work with the most."

"He's a surprisingly good mentor."

"Right?" Ruby bounced forward a bit more. "I mean, he hated teaching at Signal, but he's pretty good. I wouldn't be able to do anything without him."

"He's good." Blake cut her off.

Ruby frowned, still very unsure of what to make of the conversation, but shook her head. It wasn't what she and Blake needed to be concentrating on or thinking about and both of them knew it perfectly well. She just tries to keep her head up high and made a point to take the lead.

As the two of them walked through the city of Vale, the CCT Tower began to peek up over the skyline and into view. Ruby stopped in her tracks and looked up at it, while Blake did the same, pensive as ever. "That's it." Ruby told her teammate.

"It's definitely... big." Blake said with a slight shake of her head as she continued towards it. "I guess that it's about what I was expecting to see."

"Yeah, it's like that." Ruby replied, making sure to keep pace. As the two of them got closer and closer to the tower itself, she made sure to scan the area in search of her and Blake's teammates. Wherever Weiss and Yang were, they were sure to be keeping busy. There was no way that Yang would be sticking around doing nothing. "We should find Yang and Weiss."

"We could start by checking inside." Blake suggested with a slight shrug. "Or at one of the stands."

"Yeah, probably. Yang's probably forcing Weiss to eat funnel cake." Ruby bounced up to a bench and hopped up onto it, making sure to balance on the tips of her toes as she got a look at what was going on around them. There were people, milling about and laughing and just enjoying their time near the tower. Some of them seemed to be groups of tourists, gathering for photos. By a food stand, a little line of people had formed, but no sign of Weiss or Yang there.

"Sis!" A voice called from across the clearing, and Ruby smiled wide when she saw the distinct wave of Yang's right hand over her head. "C'mon!"

"Found them!" Ruby jumped down and grabbed onto Blake's hand before tugging her forward. The two of them ran across the courtyard to find Yang and Weiss were standing by a public drinking fountain. The way that the two of them were holding themselves made it seem almost like there was nothing wrong. Weiss was looking off to the side a little bit awkwardly, but Ruby didn't want to judge her for it.

Awkward was kind of the name of the game.

"Weiss." Blake took a few steps forward. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry too." The heiress replied, but her eyes still flicked away. "Can we try to forget that this happened? Today was supposed to be… nice."

"Yeah." Blake confirmed. The two of them exchanged a look that Ruby couldn't quite read. From behind them, Ruby met Yang's eyes and shrugged.

Yang walked to her side and gave her just the slightest nudge. "It's fine." Yang said reassuringly. "Day's still on. We shouldn't worry."

"Right." Ruby looked around. They had gotten to the tower but if they were going to hang around there, then they needed to have an idea of what they were going to do. It was a starting point for making plans, but not really much of anything beyond that.

A group of students gathered by the tower and posed together in a photo.

"Yang." Ruby said quietly, gesturing towards the group. "We've never taken a team photo, have we?"

"What?" Yang cocked her head, her eyes narrowing for the moment but whatever feeling she had passed quickly. "I mean, I guess we haven't. Why?"

"Dad has one." Ruby answered, blinking. She knew the photo well. It was kept on the mirror in their father's bedroom, always in view of just him because he was afraid to let them see. Afraid that it would bring up bad memories, but Ruby knew he kept it because it brought him the happier ones. "Maybe we should take a team photo. Everyone probably does it."

Yang nodded slowly, looking back over at their teammates. Weiss and Blake had fallen in together, looking up at the tower while Blake reached for her scroll and checked something on it. Ruby didn't know what she could have been interested in, but it was probably not her business. "It probably isn't a bad idea."

"It'd make it feel more real." Ruby whispered back to her sister. "I mean, we've fought monsters together. We should probably have something to hold onto after all of that."

"You're right." Yang shrugged. Before Ruby could even begin to get another word in, Yang tilted her head back just slightly and called to Blake and Weiss. The two girls jumped slightly, looked back over their shoulders at her, and Weiss was first to speak.

"What is it?" She asked, managing to sound just a little bit irritated. Classic Weiss.

"We wanted to take a team photo." Ruby took a few steps forward. "I mean, we're a team, right?"

Blake and Weiss exchanged an almost uneasy look, but neither of them said anything. "It'd be a way to remember this all by." Ruby charged on, since she had a feeling that she had some convicing to do anyways. "And it would be nice!"

Weiss took a slight breath. "You really want to take a team photo?"

"Of course we do." Yang said, leaning against the building and shrugging. "We're a team. We may try and act like it, but— "

"But there's still more we can do." Ruby finished for her older sister. "There's a really good view of the city from the top floor of the tower. I think we could go up there, and if we asked we could get someone to take a photo of us."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "You're really sure that would work?" There was just the slightest hint of suspicion in her voice.

"Yeah, of course." Ruby grinned. "We're friends. Besides, it's not like people wouldn't help us."

"I guess it wouldn't hurt." Blake said, but sounded annoyed with it. Like she was afraid of momentos. "We should do it."

"Blake?"

"C'mon, Ice Queen." Yang said easily. "It's just a photo op. You've probably done a ton of them."

Weiss looked among the rest of them and took a breath. "Okay." She whispered finally. "We'll take a photo together if that's what you all really insist on doing."

Ruby beamed and quickly snatched up Weiss' arm, tugging her towards the CCT. Blake and Yang followed soon after. Within minutes the four of them had been checked in and were piled into an elevator that was going to bring them to the CCT's observation deck.

There was a certain sort of nervous energy in the elevator, but Ruby did her best to ignore it. It was supposed to be a happy day. A day that the four of them were supposed to truly enjoy together. She didn't want to really avoid those bad feelings, but still Ruby wanted for them to be happy.

The elevator stopped at the top floor of the tower, and Ruby led the way off. The observation deck was a wide room. The only things that filled it was a collection of benches, and a pair of vending machines that had been tucked into a corner.

"This is the observation deck?" Blake asked, leading the way in and giving it a good look around. She wrapped her arms around herself, clearly trying to give herself some sort of vague comfort that Ruby couldn't quite identify.

"It is." Yang said. She walked to the far side of the room and looked out the wide window that overlooked the forest in the distance. She leaned against a supporting pillar and looked horribly sad.

Ruby stood back and watched, unsure. She wanted to make her sister happy, but she just didn't know how. There was only so much that she could do without any information.

Weiss stepped in and just rolled her eyes. "I've seen better."

"Have you?" Blake asked, skeptically.

"I have." Weiss said with a shrug. She locked her eyes with Ruby's. "You said that you wanted to take a photo together?"

"Yeah!" Ruby reached into the pockets on her skirt, and fished out her scroll. She pulled it open and flicked the messages that she'd gotten from some of her friends at Beacon off to the side. "We just have to find someone to-"

She frowned and looked around the room.

Before anything could be said, the elevator opened from behind the rest of them. Ruby looked back over her shoulder and saw a group of students that she recognized from Beacon come in.

At the head of the group, Ruby saw Velvet Scarlatina, followed closely after by Yatsuhashi Daichi. Members of Team CFVY. Ruby knew them as upperclassmen. On her first day at Beacon Velvet had offered to help show her to classes when she got lost.

It gave her an idea.

"Hey, Velvet." Ruby greeted the girl, taking the moment to bounce away from her teammates. "Do you think that you could help us out with something?"

Velvet blinked and cocked her head to the side. Her large ears swayed slightly with the motion. "Uh, I guess. What is it?"

Ruby offered her scroll to the girl. "We wanted to try and get a photo together." She glanced back over her shoulder at her teammates. "Do you think that you could..."

Velvet smiled and looked back at Yatsuhashi. "Make the call. I'll be there in a moment." Yatsuhashi nodded silently and went off on his way to a terminal. With him gone for the moment, Velvet looked back at Ruby. "Of course I can take a picture for all of you."

"Oh, thank you!" Ruby squealed, pushing her scroll towards Velvet earnestly.

Velvet raised a hand, and shook her head. "I have my own camera. What I do with it will look better than anything off of a scroll."

"And you can get us copies?"

"Of course." Velvet smiled wide at her and reached for the case at her side. "And I'm happy to help. It'll be a little extra work over what I usually do to develop them, but I think it's worth it." Velvet removed a camera from the case at her back, one which Ruby had seen a few times before in the past but had never thought much of. "Is this your first team photo?"

"Sure is." Yang interjected. Ruby jumped a little bit, since she hadn't even noticed that her sister had crept up over her shoulder like that. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, we wanted to make some calls home." Velvet explained calmly. "I can't usually get in contact with my family in Menagerie." She looked back over her shoulder towards where Yatsuhashi was. "And me and Yatsu don't like making calls from the library."

"Huh." Ruby blinked. "Cool."

"Yeah." Velvet shrugged and looked between the four of them. "Could you guys get together for a photo?"

Yang smiled and nodded before giving Ruby a little nudge. Ruby followed after and the two of them walked over towards the spot where Blake and Weiss were talking quietly, both looking out at the view of the forest outside.

"Guys." Yang said, and that was all that was needed to get the attention of Weiss and Blake both. The two of them turned towards Velvet in front of the wide glass window.

Ruby edged in beside Weiss, while Yang did the same on Blake's side, choosing to drape an arm around her shoulders. Velvet moved back, getting into position and holding her camera up in front of her face. Moments later, they were all being told to say "cheese" and the only things to tell them that the photo had been taken were a quiet click and a flash of Dust-powered light.

This happened three times. Velvet finally put on a smile before waving the four of them over. "Come look."

Ruby smiled and bounced back across the room before lodging herself in next to Velvet. The others came a little bit slower. Once the four of them were all gathered around, Velvet held the camera far out in front of her so that the rest of them could see the screen.

Sure enough, there were the four of them huddled together and smiling wide, with the clear skies laid out behind them.

There wasn't a single grimm in sight.

Last chapter.

I mean, kind of.

The truth is this is technically book 1. I've been working on putting together what part 2 of this story is going to look like, and I've been slowly but surely working on a shorter prequel fic that'll come between the two parts of the story.

It gets here when it gets here.

Aside from that, thank you to everyone that's been reading and following along with this fic. It means a lot and I hope that you'll join me for what comes next because this story is far from over.