Golden Time

Yin stretched out his hands and gave a tired yawn. "Man, glad that's over. I don't think I anything from that 'lesson' at all" He said with a bored look. In all honesty, he was surprised that was even called a 'lesson'. Prof. Portia Port just loooveed to talk about her days as a huntsman. The only thing good in the whole lesson was the part where she made Eiss fight a wild Boarbatatusk.

'Speaking of which'

He looked over to his little brother and Eiss talking, Ruben congratulated Eiss on his victory which Eiss responded by giving a smirk and saying 'of course I was' all too naturally. Then Ruben proceeded to show him a funny doodle of the professor in which Eiss laughed at, Ruben blinked a couple of times before laughing together with Eiss.

He was glad the animosity between the two was gone now. Eiss respected Ruben as their leader, at first it was painfully obvious that he did not like the idea of teaming up with Ruben one bit. But after the events of the Initiation Test, he managed to turn around. Yin was glad he did, or else Eiss would probably complain about it the whole time. But the person who was the happiest was Ruben, after Eiss and him had a nice talk, Eiss expressing how he felt about everything and clearing everything up. Ruben couldn't stop himself from tackling the Schnee Heir right into the ground in glee.

"You seem awfully happy" Blaise pointed out while arranging his notes.

"Yeah" Yin replied nodding his head.

Blaise turned to look at Eiss and Ruben "Its because of those two isn't it?" He asked.

Yin nodded once more.

Blaise hummed in agreement. "Yes, having those two on good terms is quite, refreshing. Better then when they were constantly squabbling over the littlest of things" He stated.

"Yup" Yin said.

They stayed quiet for a few more moments before Yin suddenly remembered.

"Hey Blaise, aren't classes over now?" He asked his partner who nodded.

"Yes, its already 4 o'clock. Classes are finished for today and our curfew is at 5:45, we can use this time for leisure or for our assignments. And as of now we currently do not have any assignments to do"

"Sweet!" Yin said suddenly getting to his feet, making the table shake and surprising Blaise making him accidentally loose hold of all his notes leaving them scattered right in front of him. Blaise looked at his papers and then to Yin with an expressionless face.

"Sorry" Yin smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck.

"Here" Jeanne said with a concerned voice handing Val a Tub of Pistachio Almond Fudge Ice cream. "Ice cream always makes me feel better after a rotten day" She smiled taking a seat next to her faunus friend who still had tears in his delicate eyes.

"Thank you" Val said giving Jeanne a small smile. But before opening it he sighed "I really messed up didn't I?"

"What?!" Jeanne exclaimed. "Okay, hold up!" She said raising her arms in the air for emphasis.

"Whatever is going on here, you seriously can't think its your fault, right? I mean if anything it was Cailin's fault too. I mean, I think so? Look I know its been awhile since ANY of us has seen each other, I mean don't you think she's over reacting a bit? Cailin will ALWAYS be Cailin, bad temper and all. Don't let her get to you so much, and DONT even think any of this is your fault" She stated with a burning fire lit in her eyes.

"You don't understand Jeanne. . . . . . "

"What don't I understand? Tell me Val, we're bestfriends till the end. You know I'll understand" She reassured taking hold of Val's hands and bringing them up.

"Well. . . . ." Val started unsure, but he decided it was for the best. It was fair to keep things from Jeanne, it was time to take the skeletons out of the closet. "It all started when we were both kids, near the border of the Menangerie."

A 7 year old Val happily played in the snow with the rest of his Faunus friends. It was near sunset that time, the freezing north was not a place to take risky chances in. Their parents told them that they were only allowed to play before sunset, because once the sun had set there was no guarantee there would not be a blizzard. You see, in the place Val lived in one mountains in the Northern part of Remnant.

It was one of the places that were comprised of mainly Faunus that were born to survive harsh conditions such as the harsh icy cold mountains. They're people were in the middle of the Faunus Rights Revolution, or so they had called it.

But in all honesty the Faunus here could not do much given they were being held back by a great structure no ordinary Human or Faunus could enter under normal circumstances. The great and legendary structure that held them back was no other than Fort Acte de Defi. It was famously know as the command center of the famous human general Hughes Winchester.

Naturally, they stayed away from said fort and the area near it.

However, one of Val's friends decided to put his courage to the test. He dared Val to go into the area and get one of the toys which were unintentionally left their the last time they played near. Val was hesitant at first, who wouldn't be. If one of them made a mistake, then the humans would go to their village and they would all pay, the last time was no exception. To them, his people were only animals.

But then Val gathered his courage and accepted, he didn't know why he did that. But there was a feeling deep inside him that it would be worth it.

15 minutes passed and still he hadn't found the toy. The sky's were getting dark and the temperature dropped significantly.

But nonetheless, the decided to continue his search.

Soon minutes turned into almost an hour, and before he knew it a storm had already rolled in.

He tried to find a cave so he could take shelter, currently, he was standing in the middle of a forest clearing, the snow was blocking his vision even with his heightened senses.

"I- I . . . . ha-ve. . .to-" He shivered, he could feel his feet shivering, slowly loosing their energy, frost started to cover his body. He fought bravely just to continue walking in hopes of finding shelter.

Unfortunately, life wasn't so kind.

Eventually, his energy was gone, his feet finally accepting defeat, he fell into the snow covered ground with a harsh thud. As he waited for the inevitable, he started to hear faint sounds approaching him.

"Is this the end?" He thought to himself. "I'm such an idiot" He smiled before letting the darkness consume him.

"At that time, I thought I was done for. . . . But when I opened my eyes I was surprised to see her. Before I knew it I was lying next to a cozy fire covered in a warm blanket, I sure thought I was dreaming when I looked up and saw that I was lying on some pretty girls lap" He chuckled to himself.

Jeanne smiled, she could already guess who it was.

"It was almost unbelievable, here I thought I was going to die right there. And the next I open my eyes to find out I was rescued with what I thought was an angel. I can still remember the peaceful look on her face while she slept, right after saving me she fell asleep right away. And all I could think was, 'wow! i'm so blessed'. She eventually woke up and smiled at me, I could tell she was really happy I was alive, even though she didn't even know me. Before I could tell her thank you she gave me the one thing that I had been looking for so desperately it almost cost me my life" He ended with a smile.

Finishing of the ice cream he seemed to be in high spirits. But that was only for a brief moment, then his expression turned sad again.

"That day, I made a promise, to always be by herself and protect her. Pretty silly promise for a person whose name you didn't even know huh?"

Jeanne shook her head. "No, in fact I think its sweet."

"Sweet. . . " Val trailed off.

Jeanne couldn't stand to see her friend in this state anymore and decided it was high time something good happened.

She grabbed his hand and helped him to his feet, then she started pulling him towards the direction she wanted.

"Jeanne, what are you doing? More importantly, where are we going?" He asked trying to keep up with her.

"To see Cailin!"