A/N: Hey all! Hopefully this chapter makes up for some of the emotional turmoil that has been caused with some much needed fluff. I dunno what to say about this one as it kinda felt like the plot progression both was and wasn't there by the time I finished. Either way, I managed to lay some of the groundwork for what's ahead, so I guess that's a win!

As always, thanks to everyone who followed/favourited so far, and an extra special thanks to those of you who take the time to tell me what you think. It might not look like it, but I read everything you guys say, and in general it helps a lot with being motivated to make a story that I can be proud of.

Lastly, you can still follow me on tumblr at .com for... reasons. I guess...

Anyway, let's get to the chapter and I hope y'all enjoy it!

Ruby woke up just before sunrise and, after a workout and a quick shower, she grabbed a bagel before heading out the door. She walked through the streets, smiling at those she passed who were out preparing for the day, and fiddling idly with the ring in her pocket as she unlocked and hotwired a nearby car. She hadn't had much luck deciphering the significance of the ring as other, more pressing matters had recently taken precedence; she did manage to find out that each precious metal and stone composing the ring originated from very different parts of the world, but that didn't reveal much.

She sighed and slipped the signet on her finger as she came to a stop outside the veteran's centre. She gave a quick nod to Ren, who was sitting tiredly at the reception desk, and made her way down the hall to the long-term care ward. It wasn't easy running a treatment centre for soldiers in a country that, until recently, had lived under a military dictatorship, but she eventually managed to recruit several doctors who, like her, believed that if someone was willing to put their life on the line following the orders of their country, they deserved to at least be receive treatment for the injuries they sustained.

Ruby cleared her mind of remunerations and focused on the present as she stepped in front of one of the private rooms. She took a deep breath and pulled open the heavy wooden door. The sight that greeted her brought a smile to the young malefactor's face as she watched tanned, wrinkled fingers skim gently over one of many ancient-looking pieces of parchment that covered the large bed along with an assortment of books and texts before stopping when her presence was finally noticed.

"Ruby," the old man smiled, "it's good to see you."

"Buenos dias, Grandpa."

*(OoO)*

Father Antonio Vargas's eyes crinkled as he smiled warmly and opened his arms to hug his surrogate granddaughter tightly when she approached him.

"How have you been, mi gato callejero?"

Ruby shrugged noncommittally and pulled a nearby chair up next to the front of the bed where the old man sat propped up against several pillows. "Oh, you know. Same old, same old."

Antonio laughed boisterously at her nonchalant attitude. "That bad, huh?"

Ruby smirked mischievously. "I guess you could say that. How goes the search?" She asked, indicating the chaos littering his bed.

"Progress is slow," the elderly man replied, "but thanks to these late nineteenth century texts you 'acquired' for me, it is progress nonetheless."

"Well, as long as I'm the first person you call once you find it, that's fine by me."

Antonio's rumbling laugh filled her with warmth as he took her hand in his own and brought it to his lips. "Don't worry, mi Pequena Rosa, if I ever do locate El Dorado, I'll be sure to save you a special place in the footnotes of my biography."

Ruby laughed and gave the weathered hand cradled in hers a kiss of her own. She never could get over how two hands that were so fundamentally opposites- hers being small, fair, and soft, and his being large, dark, and worn –could fit together so well. "You know, Abuello, you keep speaking Spanish might start suspecting you aren't native to Brazil.

"I don't think my inability to speak Portuguese will give me away here, my little alley cat, considering the majority of the doctors you have employed here are Canadian." Antonio replied easily. "Besides, it was never specified what country you had to be a veteran of, or even what war you fought in, when I was admitted here."

"Speaking of which, do you think you would be able to get in contact with some of your old friends for me?" Ruby inquired.

"Whatever for?" Antonio asked in return. "I was under the impression that your contacts within the American military were quite extensive."

"They are." The brunette answered. "And you know that under normal circumstances I would never ask this kind of thing from you, but I'm trying to stay far off the radar right now, and…"

Antonio raised his other hand and she trailed off while he smiled fondly at her. "Say no more. It is the least I can do for you."

Ruby grinned and leaned down to pull the man into a tight hug. "Thanks, Grandpa."

Antonio chuckled and rubbed comforting circles in her back as he held the girl to him. "I pray to him every day to watch over you." He said, indicating the gold statue of a man tied to a cross. "I ask him to keep you safe when you're out there on your own."

Ruby sighed contentedly as she felt the hum of her grandfather's voice through his thick, barrel-chest. "I think he's been listening." She murmured.

"Why's that?"

"Because I'm not traveling alone this time around."

Antonio raised in eyebrow and looked down at his granddaughter curiously. "Oh? Has mi pequena gato callejero made a friend?"

"Something like that." Ruby mumbled, her cheeks burning as thoughts of snow-white hair and glacial-blue eyes filled her mind.

Antonio beamed and scooted over in his bed while clearing a space next to him. "Well, come child, I want to hear all about this person that has managed to get past your defenses."

"Alright, but it's kind of a long story."

*(OoO)*

The next week passed relatively slowly as they all reeled back from the explosive confrontation with Adam at the pool. Blake seemed to be steadily returning to normal, though Weiss worried how the cat burglar was planning on handling future interactions with the man if she ended up being that shaken every time she saw him. Meanwhile, Red just kept on working as if she hardly noticed the burn the size of a quarter on her shoulder; the only indication that it bothered her was when Weiss saw her wince and roll her arm while working out, as if she had simply pulled a muscle as opposed to being shot and having cauterized the wound herself with a hot knife.

She woke up just before dawn and shuffled tiredly into the kitchen. She felt herself smile lazily when she was greeted by the sight of Red reclining in her seat, feet propped up on the kitchen table, and gnawing on a pen as she studied pages full of various equations. All the while, a small portable radio crooned nearby, filling the air with soft reggae music. Weiss was struck by just how pleasantly domestic she felt as she poured a cup of coffee for herself and Red. She placed the steaming mugs on the table in front of her partner and wrapped her arms around the brunette's neck, observing the sheet over her shoulder as she hummed cheerfully to the music.

"What are you working on?"

Red smiled tenderly and planted a light kiss in the crook of the older woman's elbow as she accepted her coffee before turning back to the task at hand.

"I'm just doing some calculations on the eccentricities of elliptical pulleys and their effect on the load."

"And here I thought you were just balancing your chequebook."

Red voice was huskier than usual, sending pleasant shivers from the top of Weiss's scalp to the soles of her feet, as the brunette chuckled and reached around to pull the transporter down for a languidly passionate kiss. Weiss smiled as the feeling of her partner's lips sent a thrill down her spine that she knew would never get old. When they finally pulled apart, she couldn't help but bask in the warmth filling her chest as she sat herself down at the table while Red packed up her calculations. She took the chance to glance over some of the other random pages strewn about the table and felt her curiosity pique.

"Why do you have pages filled with random people's names and personal information?" She asked as she took a sip of her coffee.

Red smirked and snatched the sheet out of her hands. "Get ready and I'll explain on the way."

Weiss rolled her eyes teasingly, and two hours, a BLT, and a subpar shower later she was dressed in a pair of comfortable capris with a loose, teal button-up over a white tank top and sitting next to Red in the back of a taxi while what sounded like a soccer game blared over the radio. She had a hard time keeping her eyes to herself, though, and often found them wandering back to her partner's exposed knees, of all things. The brunette was dressed up in a black pencil skirt that stopped just below mid-thigh (though she noticed it bunched up a little when the other woman was seated), with a blazer over a cherry red blouse. She felt her heart beat just a little faster and her face get just a little warmer as she noticed Red had left the top few buttons undone, revealing her collarbone and teasingly hinting at her cleavage.

Weiss shook her head to clear any undue thoughts from her mind (she may have accepted her feelings and attraction for Red, but that didn't mean she was going to let herself ogle the woman in the back of a taxi), and focused instead on the many, many sheets that Red was pulling from the open briefcase sitting between them and stuffing into assorted folders and envelopes.

"So, what are we doing today? And why does it involve us returning to the airport we arrived here from?"

Red smiled at her, then went about placing everything back in the briefcase and snapping it shut. "Ever been to Sao Paulo?"

"I don't think so," Weiss replied after a moment of remuneration, completely missing the shadow of emotion that flashed across her partner's face as she attempted to rifle through her memory. "Why?"

"Because, we're gonna be meeting a few of my contacts there."

"Is that what all that paperwork is for?" Weiss inquired. "And why aren't the other's coming?"

"Pyrrha, Yang, and Blake are following some different leads on the Adam situation down here. Yang's got a lot of unsavory, old friends in some of the other gangs operating out of South America who might have some beef or another with the White Fang, so she and Blake went down to Salvador to meet with them, and Pyrrha went to go contact Jaune back in New York and together with Ren and Nora they're looking into these potential buyers Adam mentioned."

"Are you sure you want to be so blasé when speaking about plans?" Weiss asked eyeing the cabby suspiciously as they stepped out of the taxi. "Especially in… public, like this?"

"Oh, don't worry about him. He doesn't speak a lick of English." Red assured her as she circled the cab and tossed the driver a wad of bills. "Obrigado, Matheus. Diga oi para sua familia para mim."

Matheus grinned and quickly counted the money before saying something in rapid-fire Portuguese and driving off.

Weiss allowed herself a small smile at her partner's easygoing attitude, before schooling her features and speaking in practiced Spanish with the crew that she had insisted be hired to repair and maintain their battered Cessna. She was so focused on her job that it wasn't until they had already landed in Sao Paulo and she was sitting behind the wheel of the silver Fiat that had been waiting for them at the airport while Red sat to her left in the passenger seat, still organizing her copious amount of documents, that she even noticed Red had neglected to answer her question.

"You still haven't told me what all those pages full of names are for." She remarked as they pulled out of the remote airport and onto the road.

"They're bargaining chips." Red stated.

"How so?"

"We're off to meet some contacts of mine who work for Interpol, that have contacts of their own within a few different governments. These documents have info on really bad people who would make them look really good if they made the arrests."

"Aren't you worried that, considering the amount of surveillance we're apparently under, word of you being an informant will get out resulting in someone taking retaliatory action as I understand many dangerous criminals are wont to do upon discovery of a cohort who has reported them to the authorities."

"Weiss," Red said seriously as she placed her hand over the driver's on top of the gearshift, "no one's here except us. You can say snitches get stitches. I promise I will only judge you a little bit, and try my best to keep the teasing to a minimum."

Weiss scowled but kept her eyes on the road. She noticed they were coming up to a red light and slammed on the brakes as they approached the intersection, smirking when she heard her passenger's groan of pain as her seatbelt dug into her right along her wounded shoulder, pressing right down on the burn itself. "Alright," Red grunted as she clenched her shoulder and leaned back in her seat, "I deserved that."

"Yes," Weiss replied curtly, "now are you going to answer my question, or do I have to drive through a few crowded city blocks?"

"I'll take the city blocks if you promise to kiss it all better." Red waggled her eyebrows suggestively and Weiss found herself smiling and shaking her head. It seemed she was just unable to stay upset with this adorably irritating girl sitting next to her.

"I just want to know you're not putting yourself or anyone else in unnecessary." She said softly, rubbing her thumb over the other girl's knuckles.

Red lifted their hands to her face and gently pressed her smiling lips against Weiss's pale knuckles. "You don't need to worry, I'd never do anything to put any of us in more danger than I have to. That's why I've been organizing the names from safest to riskiest. It also helps that I've already established my credibility with these people way back in 2011, so they know for the most part that I'm worth listening to."

"What did you do in 2011?"

"What do you remember of something called Operation Darknet?" Red asked.

Weiss scoured her memory, but, as usual, came up with next to nothing conclusive. "I can't say I've ever heard of it. Why?"

"Well if you don't know, I think I'd like to wait and let you really enjoy the performance." Red smirked and packed up the last of the folders. "Turn here."

"You know, not everyone finds your cocky façade as charming as I do." Weiss said dryly. They pulled off the busy highway just as it was starting to become congested by the morning rush hour and stopped underneath a large suspension bridge right near the city.

"Maybe," Red shrugged before kissing her on the cheek, "but I really only care that you do."

Weiss had to take a moment to fight down the dopey smile that threatened to burst forth while Red unbuckled her seat belt and opened the passenger side door. "Oh, by the way," she added as she stood out of the car, "these people are more than likely going to be armed."

Weiss did a double-take as her good feeling was suddenly gone and watched as the source of her emotional whiplash sauntered over to the nearby support column, leaned against it, and pulled out her phone.

"You couldn't have told me that before I decided to leave my gun at the safe house?!"

*(OoO)*

Ruby chuckled to herself as she listened to Weiss slam the car door before stomping over to join her in the shade of the massive bridge.

"And I had just gotten used to that godawful holster too." The former heiress kvetched, prompting the young con woman to laugh and wrap her arms around her partner's waist.

"I promise I'll make it up to you later." She whispered with a suggestive wink. She took a moment to appreciate that shudder she felt run through Weiss as her face became flushed and her glacial-blue eyes darkened to a deep sapphire before turning her attention to the black SUV that had just turned off the road. "Time to get to work."

The SUV pulled up and screeched to a halt a good thirty feet from them. They both watched as the doors opened and two men and a woman stepped out of the vehicle, all dressed in official-looking suits, and approached them. She could practically feel Weiss's shock at seeing who they were meeting; almost as well as she could see it written plainly on Coco's face.

"Mademoiselle Adalise?" Ruby smiled brightly at the brunette while the two men accompanying her showed differing levels of interest at recognition in their fellow agent's voice.

"You know her?" The large Asian man standing behind Coco asked suspiciously. He was easily six and a half feet and over two hundred and eighty pounds of pure muscle by the looks of how his freshly pressed suit sat on his shoulders. He looked down his nose at both her and Weiss with a glare that Ruby was sure came off as intimidating to the regular criminal.

Coco opened her mouth to reply but was cut off by the other man. "Good. That makes things easier." He was substantially smaller than the other man, his slightly disheveled appearance and hastily slicked back hair made him seem downright affable, but the way the other two agents acted around him made it clear who was the authority figure between the three of them.

"Agent Tukson, it's good to see you again." Ruby greeted him politely as she slipped seamlessly into a flawless Italian accent before turning to Coco. "It's fantastic to see you too, Coco."

"Please, the pleasure is all ours." Tukson replied. "I see we'll be using a different pseudonym from the last time we met."

"I think that would be best. For simplicity's sake." Ruby answered suavely. She then turned to look up at the larger of the two men with smile that was just knowing enough to relay that she was aware of the fact that the man was perturbed by her smug nonchalance towards his normally threatening presence. "I don't believe we have had the pleasure of meeting before."

Coco finally seemed to get a hold of herself and rushed to dole out introductions. "R-Right. Dorotea Adalise, this is Yatsuhashi-"

"Agent Daishi." The well-groomed giant rumbled.

"Charmed." Ruby deadpanned.

"So… you wanna tell us why we were called out from our nice air-conditioned offices to come meet you right at the start of rush hour?" Coco asked wryly.

"Right to the point." Ruby observed. "This new promotion of yours seems to have taken a toll on your diplomatic skills, Agent Adel."

"Yeah, well I tend to be a little irritable when I have to go straight from my nice comfortable bed to the office just to be told that I have to go to some big meeting with my boss and my new partner. All without one stop at the coffee machine, mind you."

"Please forgive my subordinate's crass behaviour, signora." Agent Tukson intervened. "She has yet to learn that a travel mug is a field agent's best friend."

Ruby waved off the apology and laughed at the woman's griping. "Well, I can't say I'm about to make your days much better."

"I get the feeling today's going to result in some in some interesting paperwork for my superiors down the road." Tukson added.

"That is a safe assumption. This is Carol, by the way." She said indicating Weiss and throwing Coco a significant look before continuing. "She is my new protégée, and is currently shadowing me for educational purposes."

"How d'ya do?" Weiss greeted with a stereotypical cockney accent.

"Can we hurry up get to the point of this little get-together?" Yatsuhashi demanded, clearly aggravated by all the small talk going on.

"He is not the most personable fellow, is he?" Ruby asked, completely ignoring the indignant look the man was giving her.

Coco laughed good-naturedly and smiled at her partner. "He's not so bad once you get to know him."

"He's also not very patient," The titanic man growled, "so why don't we hurry this along?"

"Fine," Ruby replied as she dropped all pretense of friendliness. "Tukson, what can you tell me about any American research taking place in Brazil?"

Tukson ran a hand through his dark hair and hummed as he considered her question. "There may have been some chatter circulating some of the more… unofficial channels. Though I would need quite the incentive to look into it."

"Of course," Ruby said as she pulled out the first folder from her briefcase, "I think you'll find the Santa Blanca cartel won't be very happy if the authorities stumbled upon this."

"Sir," Yatsuhashi implored, "you can't seriously be considering-"

Ruby cut him off, noting how he tensed up out of the corner of her eye as she handed another envelope to Coco. "And one for you as well."

"Thanks," Coco said as she pulled out a few pages, scanning their contents, "how long will the arrests take?"

"Not long." Ruby replied. "It would take even less time if you keep me informed about what kind of things are passing by your desk."

"You can't both be considering striking a deal with this woman!" Yatsuhashi snapped. "How do we even know anything she gives us can be trusted?"

Ruby frowned at the insinuation. "I get the feeling he is not my biggest fan." She stage-whispered to Weiss who chuckled quietly.

"I'm not a fan of blindly trusting a list of names provided by a girl whose own list of aliases is just as long in exchange for being manipulated into breaking international laws for her." He countered angrily. "I've read your file –or, at least the parts of it that weren't buried under more red tape and bureaucratic bullshit than I've ever seen –and the one thing that is clear is that you work by bribing and manipulating good, morally upstanding people into committing deeds they would never do otherwise. You are poison. You corrupt everyone you come in contact with, all as part of some grand agenda that only you are aware of, and you enjoy it. Odds are these names are either fake, or a trap, and I would rather report both my partner and my superior before I let myself get sucked into this little game of yours."

"That's enough, Daishi." Tukson ordered.

"No sir, I don't think it is." Yatsuhasi replied furiously. "What makes you think you are at all in the right by betraying the agency you work for, that you swore an oath to, in order to do this woman's bidding? What makes her worth it?"

"Because she is single-handedly responsible for helping us arrest many of the worst people to ever exist." Coco riposted defensively.

"I'm sorry, but I find it hard to believe that she would just up and betray her own kind on that scale without getting anything out of it."

That's ironic, Ruby thought to herself.

"It might surprise you to hear this, Mr. Big Bad Interpol Agent, but the world isn't as black and white as you think." Weiss said lowly. Ruby saw her struggling to control her anger, and wished she could just touch her. Help calm the former heiress down.

"I don't need to hear a lecture on the nuances of right and wrong." The man bit out. "Least of all from you."

Looks like Princess struck a nerve. Ruby observed.

"Then you should know that there are some right horrible creeps out there that even us scum of the earth don't fancy gettin' near with a ten foot stick." Weiss replied smugly. "Does Operation Darknet ring any bells?"

At this point, Ruby couldn't stop a small smile from forming at how well her partner was playing her part and improvising.

"No, it doesn't. Should it?"

Tukson groaned and turned back towards the SUV. "Coco, please educate your partner before signora Adalise has him sorting mail for the rest of his career. I have some calls to start making."

Coco sighed and nodded to her supervisor before turning to her partner. "Operation Darknet was the name of a movement of people who anonymously provided information on over fifteen hundred members of child pornography sites. It resulted in us finally being to make a dent in the child porn industry, and taught those of us in cyber-crimes new and improved methods of identifying people through the deep web. What only a few people were aware of was, it wasn't a group of people over the internet. It was actually one person."

Yatsuhashi looked skeptical as he took a step closer to Ruby and loomed over her. "I'm supposed to believe that was you?"

Ruby smirked. Time for that cocky attitude Weiss loves so much. "You really think a bunch of losers in cheap masks sitting in their parents' basements would be able to take down Lolita City? Please." She scoffed. "If it makes you feel better, I did drain each of them for every coin I could while I was at it." Ruby paused and leveled him with a look that showed exactly who was looking down on who in this situation and continued. "You may be right about me having an agenda, but if you did read my files, you know I'm also incredibly resourceful. If I don't get what I want from you, I'll just get it somewhere else, but if I do, despite how much I loathe the monsters who are trafficking drugs, weapons, humans, and who knows what else; the ones who get paid for exploiting and torturing children; the ones who pay for red rooms and child pornography; I am more than willing to destroy all of this information and let them run free." She paused for a moment and let what she just said sink in. "Now, you have a choice: you can adhere to your flawed 'ethics' and report your partner and superior officer to an ultimately corrupt system, ensuring that these monsters in human clothing are made aware that you are looking for them and go into hiding so that you will never have a chance of finding them again. Alternatively, you can look the other way and see a couple thousand people go down for raping and torturing people, innocent children, for their own sick pleasure."

There was a moment of tense silence and all three women watched as Yatsuhashi nodded stiffly before stomping back to the SUV followed by Coco and wrenching open the door.

"That went well." Weiss observed sarcastically as they watched the black vehicle peel away.

"Actually," Ruby replied with a smile as she checked her phone, "it really did."