Fear not, my doves, for Yukiko hast not abandoned thee!

After a particularly large RWBY moodswing, I was in high enough spirits and had enough of a muse to get this chapter done much more quickly than I had expected.

It may seem to be going a bit fast, and... yeah, it might be. I sort of wanted to rush the whole "partnership" thing, but it didn't end up turning out so well. And yes, the partnerships here are chosen very differently than those at Beacon, but, come on... what's the probability that they would catapult six-year-olds into a forest infested with Grimm and inform them that they'll be stuck with the next person they see for four years straight?

With all that out of the way, let's get this show on the road!

Chapter One / Safe Haven

The first thing Ren noticed about his new home was that they were, indeed, early.

He should have realized it when he saw how deserted the parking lot outside was, but hindsight was 20/20, he supposed. In any case, they were the only people in the lobby they had entered, save the lone secretary typing away on her Scroll near the back of the room. He couldn't help but look around and take in his surroundings as the two silently made their way to the secretary, seeing no one else in the room to talk with. The interior was simple and much like a library's interior, lacking only the massive bookshelves. He was relieved to see no motivational posters, as they were usually a clear mark of a school that wouldn't take him or itself seriously. What would even be the point of going to a school for fighting that would treat him like he couldn't handle homework?

Upon reaching the desk, his mother waited for the woman behind it to finish her sentence and glance up in inquiry. "Hello," the black-haired Huntress offered in a remarkably even voice. "I'm here to drop off my son. We apologize for being early." She finished her explanation with a small smile, placing a hand on her son's shoulder with some difficulty, as she was a tall woman herself.

The secretary's eyes darted from mother to child and back again before she nodded simply and flicked her Scroll to a different page. She searched carefully for a few seconds before laying it on the desk and preparing to type. "Parent or guardian's name?"

"Lotus. Lie Lotus," Mrs. Lie introduced. "My son is Lie Ren. He's a new student."

The two adults continued on for a few minutes while Ren silently played with the hem of his blue and white shirt. Who knew why the school needed to know such information now and why they hadn't just asked earlier? Not Ren, that was for sure. Although he supposed he wasn't really sure about many things, especially when it came to the school system.

"Ren?"

He blinked as the prompt reached him. Swiveling his head up, he met his mother's gaze and, on her cue, switched over to the secretary, who had an almost insultingly sweet smile on her face. The woman looked exceedingly shocked, likely by how much he resembled his mother, with the same pink eyes and black hair, even sharing the natural pink streak, but she quickly composed herself. "Hello, Ren," she cooed, making the boy almost wince from the saccharine tone she was using. "Come this way, please. You too, Mrs. Lie."

She led them to another room on their right, Ren trailing behind his mother and resisting the urge to grab her coat. He was used to sticking close to her; she had always been a sort of safe point in his home-hisem old/em home. Perhaps having to leave her behind would be tougher than he thought. Oh, well. In the end, it was just another adjustment he'd have to deal with; he couldn't exactly back out now.

When he drifted back into reality, they had entered a cozy room that looked like some sort of play area. There were kids books lined up on a few shelves (he was willing to bet that one was "Germs Make You Sick") and a few easy mind games, like maze puzzles. He silently praised his mother for thinking to pack a few actual books in his suitcase; it appeared he'd need them. Although he couldn't really call it a fault on the school's part; most kids his age would probably be unable to read the books he did.

"This is what we call the Rec Room," the secretary explained, gesturing to the table and chairs scattered about the room. "New students will all be meeting up here this morning. You're a bit early, though, so you're the only one here." She smiled sickeningly again and Ren averted his eyes, trying to convince himself not to get angry on his first day just because she was treating him like a baby. Instead, he thanked her quietly, ignored her coo of "What a polite little boy!" and shuffled into the corner, where he sat against the wall.

His mother crouched down to place his bag next to him, and the two met eyes. She was smiling; he was not. "Your mother loves you," she assured under her breath so that the eavesdropping woman couldn't overhear, "And, as much as he'd have you believe otherwise, so does your father." Reaching out, she took both of his hands in both of her own and planted a kiss on his forehead.

Ponytail swaying, she stood, Ren's hands slipping from between her's and falling back to his side. The secretary woman was beckoning her out the door, as if she was eager for Ren to be alone in the "Rec Room." He watched her walk away silently, willing himself not to stop her. It wasn't as if she could just stay with him for the next eight years.

She seemed to notice his dilemma and smiled as she headed for the door. "Goodbye, Ren," she called as she left, the secretary guiding her out. "I love you."

The door swung shut just as she quickly added, "Be sure to wri-" Clang. Stupid door, cutting off her sentence like that. How impudent. Ren brought his knees up to his chest and lay his chin on them, closing his eyes. emDon't worry, Ren. Stay calm. You'll see her again. The first visitation day can't be far off./em

For a few minutes, he just sat there, eyes closed, keeping his breathing even and slow. If any other kids had been in the room, they would probably have thought he was asleep since he was perfectly still. Moving around didn't make sense; it wouldn't yield any results, and it would only expend energy.

Eventually, he slowly blinked his eyes open and reached for his bag, dragging it up to his side. After brawling with the stuck zipper, he was able to reach in and rummage around. Come on, come on, where is it-aha! Triumphantly, he pulled a book out from the bottom of the suitcase, careful to avoid messing up the perfectly-folded clothes on top of it. Old and leather-bound, it was a classic: The Penderwicks. He hadn't yet gotten around to reading it, and he supposed now was as good a time as ever. Savoring the musty smell of yellowed paper, he flipped it open and began to read.

More and more kids were filing into the room, but he had eyes only for his book. He barely seemed to blink, so focused he was, and even the growing ruckus as rowdier kids met each other was proving to be unsuccessful in shaking him out of it. He did wish that they would quiet down a bit, but he supposed he couldn't do anything about it, so there was no point in dwelling on it. Kids would be kids, and he wouldn't.

Sadly, though, all good things must come to an end, and this was no exception. Before long, the room was entirely too loud for him to keep reading, and the periodic vibration of the walls as kids bounced around was not helping. With an exasperated groan, he shut his book and set it down next to him, settling for closing his eyes again. Even if it was too loud to read, he could at least take some time to plan ahead. He was going to have to make a decision on how he would set up his schedule at some point, so he might as well do it now. There was enough time.

"He-e-ee-lo there!"

Or maybe not.

Wrinkling his nose slightly at the interruption, he cracked one eye open to look into the room. Standing over his hunched form with a grin large enough to devour him whole was a girl his age with long and messy apricot orange hair that looked like it hadn't been cut in several years. "Yes?" he muttered in reply, trying hard not to snap at her just because she said hello. There was no way for her to know that he had been thinking. ...Okay, it probably should have been obvious, but she was only six years old. He couldn't hold it against her.

Her face lit up even further when he didn't shoo her away, if that was even possible, and she practically jumped for joy. "Well, I saw that you were just sitting in the corner with no one to talk to, and I thought you might be sad, and that made me sad because no one should be sad, ya know?, so I decided to come over here and try to be friends with you because, you know, my sis always said that you should help people, and so since you were sad I thought I could help you by being your friend maybe and so I asked you to be my friend, only, wait, I didn't ask you to be my friend yet, did I? Gah! Sorry! I got so far ahead of myself, teehee, so, wait, you didn't answer me! Will you be my friend, please oh please oh ple-e-ease?!"

...okay. He honestly had no idea how he should respond to that. Obviously, the easy answer would be em"No, you're annoying, go away,"/em and he probably would have said something similar if it weren't for the fact that she was just so... happy about it. Turning her down now would be like kicking a blind puppy off a cliff. Then again, if he did accept her offer, he'd probably end up kicking emher /emoff a cliff. Beginning his response with a lugubrious sigh, he rubbed his temples. "Sorry, but I'm not really..." He trailed off, not sure whether he should finish. Apricot Orange over here probably got the idea.

For a split second, her smile disappeared, but it was back so fast that Ren might have just been seeing things. "Oh, okay!" she chirped, and, with that, turned and skipped away.

For a few moments more, Ren just watched "Apricot" leave, weaving through the crowds of children, all of whom ignored her. He had expected her to join a group of friends and start laughing with them, probably about him, but his expectations proved false. Instead, he was shocked to see her slump into her own corner, and just sit there, alone. Ah, dust. As if he hadn't already felt kind of bad about turning her down. Still, he couldn't deny that he wouldn't be able to stand spending time with her, so it was for the best in the end. Besides, as he watched, she was noticing some other unsuspecting victim and closing in for the kill. With any luck, that girl would be able to keep her out of his hair.

Before he could continue with his planning, as he had just started to do before he was so rudely interrupted, the door opened and two adults strolled in. Immediately, the noise in the room quelled, all eyes falling upon the man and woman who had disturbed their fun. With a towering build and short, neat brown hair, the man was very imposing, to say the least. The woman trailing behind him was gold-haired and much nicer, offering a smile instead of the man's blank stare.

Once he seemed to assure that everyone was paying attention, the man cleared his throat. As if that were a signal of some sort, the woman stepped in front of him, surveying the crowds of kids toting their various bags and boxes. "Hello, children. I am Professor Arylide, and I will be your teacher and overseer for your first four years at Haven." As she spoke, she began to sweep her bright gold eyes over the room, starting with Ren and landing on each child in turn. "As you know, Haven is meant to teach you how to be Hunters and Huntresses in the future. Once you reach 14, you will move on to another combat school. If you do well, you will eventually attend the true combat schools of Vytal and become real warriors." Finally, her eyes landed on Apricot, who was in the opposite corner of Ren, and she smiled lightly.

It was obvious that most of the speech had gone over their heads, but the conclusion of her rant was met with grins throughout the room as they comprehended her meaning.

Professor Arylide returned her gaze to the center of the crowd and motioned to the man behind her. "This is Professor Brunswick, the Headmaster of Haven." That seemed to be all she was willing to say, oddly enough. Whispers broke out when she did not elaborate, but were quickly silenced when she began again.

"During your time here at Haven, you will have a partner with whom you will train and study. This partner will also be sharing a dorm with you. At the beginning of each new year, you will receive another partner." She paused for a moment, then added as an afterthought, "The partnerships are not co-ed, so boys with be paired with boys and girls with girls."

The classroom breathed a collective sigh of relief. They were six-year-olds, after all; they still thought the opposite gender had cooties. While most of the students began chatting with their friends and asking each other to partner up, Ren was surveying the classroom. As far as he could see, there were 20 students, so at least that would work out, but there was a big problem. Of the students, 13 were boys and 7 were girls. There would have to be a single co-ed partnership. Knowing his luck, that co-ed partnership would be him. He'd get some girl whose parents forced her into combat school and who worried about her hair and clothes all the time, he was sure. He wasn't sure about Mistral, Atlas or Vacuo, but in Vale the first-born of the family was pretty much required to be a Hunter or Huntress, regardless of talent. He knew this better than anyone.

Ren sighed for the umpteenth time that morning. Talk about an exhausting day.

The chatter once again came to a still when Professor Anylide cleared her throat loudly. "Partnerships will be formed this afternoon, after you receive your books and map. You will then move into your dorm, and will have the rest of the day to get settled in. For now, please follow me to the mess hall; your lunch period is from 12:00 to 12:30. Leave your bags here; we will return to retrieve them before you move into your dorms." Gesturing for the crowd to follow her, Professor Anylide turned and began to leave through the door she'd come in, taking small steps so that everyone could keep up.

There was a clamber for the door in the initial chaos, and Ren decided to wait for the ruckus to cease before quietly following in the back of the line. As the cloud of chattering children poured into the hallway, they passed Professor Brunswick, who silently and motionlessly watched them go. As Ren filed past, the two's eyes met for a half second.

Dark forest green and amaranth pink clashed. Both quickly looked away.

Ren had always been oddly precognitive; almost as if he had seen the future in a dream that he could barely remember. So the feeling of dread that washed over him did more than just make him shiver. Brunswick seemed very different from the other Hunters he'd seen in his years, and it put him on edge a little more than it probably should have.

Something bad was going to happen-if not soon, then still within his time as a Hunter-in-training.

And, when it did, he got the feeling that no one would be ready for it except Brunswick.

For once, the large auditorium was silent-so silent that it rang in everyone's ears, blaringly loud.

The twenty new students were lined up in front of Professor Anylide, who was also silent. She couldn't seem to stop looking the group over, as if she was hoping that one of the boys would become a girl if she stared long enough. Counting and re-counting, she kept coming up with the same figures Ren had already found: 13 boys, 7 girls. How she hadn't known that before was honestly beyond Ren, but he supposed it wasn't too hard to get some faulty data. Still, gender was obviously pretty important. Just what was going on here?

Finally, she seemed to accept that, no matter what she did, the numbers weren't going to adjust themselves to fit her liking. Groaning quietly, she shifted her weight as she tried to come up with a way to break this to the kids. Some boy and some girl were not going to be happy...

Finally, she decided that putting it off wouldn't help her case and cleared her throat, grabbing the kids' attention. "It appears that, unlike what we had expected, there are 13 boys and 7 girls in this class." She swallowed thickly. "Therefore, one of the partnerships will have to be a boy-girl pair."

Immediately, every single student began crying out loudly, as if it were such an outrage and totally her fault. Ren and another student or two stayed silent, but they could have screamed swear words at the sky without being noticed since it was so loud in there. He winced, holding his head and contemplating whether to plug his ears or just wait for the Professor to calm everyone down. Honestly, he wasn't sure why everyone was so angry; it was a miscalculation, but only two of them would have to go co-ed. It wasn't as if they would all be in a boy-girl team now, but that was how they were acting.

"Would everyone stop whining like a bunch of baby Beowolves?!"

Silence.

It was Professor Anylide who had spoken, her eyes suddenly blazing. "I know that you're all angry," she stated firmly, her voice fierce, "but there's nothing we can do about it now. The only option is to go with it and do our best to make sure it turns out okay. Understood?" The class nodded fearfully as one, all in varying stages of shock. She had outright transformed from a kind woman to a downright terrifying one, and no one had been expecting it. Seeing that they had all settled down, or at least mostly, Professor Anylide allowed her expression to become blank again. They were scared enough as it was. "Now," she started, barely daring to hope, "are there any volunteers to be in this boy-girl partnership?"

A few seconds passed of silence before one girl's hand rose into the air, stirring the crowd. Those around her turned to her in incredulity, and whispers broke out. Everyone was curious to know what sub-insane kid would willingly be partners of someone with emcooties/em. Soon, they were all on their tiptoes, trying to get a glance in.

The Professor seemed quite relieved, albeit surprised; it was clear that even she doubted anyone would actually volunteer. "Good, good. Anyone else?" She scanned the line, only to see that no one was even considering it, and they all were looking at her like she was crazy.

Ren waited at least a full minute, hoping that the first girl had inspired some of the boys around, but no such luck. All other hands remained hanging, and the Professor was quickly losing hope, as was he. He did not want to do this. He really, really did not want to do this. But... he supposed... it couldn't hurt to volunteer. He would probably be the one chosen anyways if she chose randomly, knowing his luck, and it was better for him to play by his own rules. Slowly, hesitantly, he raised his hand.

Instantly, whispers broke out again, and all eyes were on him. He tried not to shrink back, but he lost that battle and ended up recoiling just slightly from their gazes, his expression going from blank to nervous. From his expirience with his father, stares and whispers were never good things, and, although he doubted any of them would get angry at him for saving their behind, his natural fight or flight response was kicking in. When the Professor let out a thankful "Good!" and redirected their attention, he couldn't help but close his eyes with a quiet "Phew."

Professor Anylide, for her part, was ecstatic. "Good," she repeated, "good, very good!" She smiled at him reassuringly. "Our first pair has been formed. Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, please come stand behind me."

Sniggers broke out almost immediately, followed by several sympathetic "Oh"s. Some kid a few feet from Ren muttered to his friend, "He got stuck with the Valkyrie," and they both clicked their tongues in disapproval. "Poor guy. He didn't know what he was getting into."

The Valkyrie? What he was getting into? Ren was confused; more confused than he had been since his father vehemently objected to him going to Haven despite how often he said that his son got in the way. Who were they talking about, and why were they speaking her name like she was some sort of parasitic insect that would drain his blood or something? Surely his new partner couldn't be that bad, even if she was one of those people who only cared about her looks.

He got his answer when "Nora Valkyrie" practically bounced out of the line and up to the Professor, her bright orange locks trailing out behind her. It was Apricot.

Well. That's just perfect.

And there you have it.

Oh, chibi-Ren, how little you know. If you told chibi-Ren that, twelve years from now, he'd be Nora's best friend and they'd be pretty much inseparable, he'd... well, he'd probably just give you a weird look, to be honest. He's pretty laid-back.

I tried to incorporate his seeming slight OCD, as he keeps everything straight and tidy, as well as his apparent bookworm status, judging by the library scene in Welcome to Beacon. I also had sort of originally intended for him to feel a bit worse about turning Nora down, but then I decided that Nora would not let it bother her and would quickly find some other kid to try being friends with. In case you couldn't tell, the reason she didn't just hop around talking to everyone else was because, as is suggested by the sniggers, most of the other kids know her and already ostracize her. Don't worry... she'll get a chance to kick their collective butts in training at some point or another.

So... I, again, want your opinion. Is it good? Bad? Too fast? Too slow?

With non-creepy author/reader love,

-Ayakaze Yukiko