For a first mission, it'd had gone about as well as could be expected. Despite the rough start, by the final day they'd been able to come together to tackle the creep problem and ursa nest with no further issues - and they'd been able to use techniques they had developed in training to devastating effect.

But, while they had managed to figure out how to work together on the battlefield, there was still a lot that was left unsaid and unresolved in their personal lives. It was understandable, considering what they'd been through, however it was frustrating that they still didn't feel like a team - they were more like a group of strangers who happened to fight well together.

With the end of the school year approaching, they didn't have any more away missions to distract them, letting them focus on building trust and working out team dynamics.

Yatsuhashi, in particular, was looking forward to seeing how the four of them got along without the stress of missions. With the rocky start to the year, he hadn't been entirely sure he'd wanted to continue his studies. Farris had been a near-constant drain on him - for reasons he had difficulty articulating.

It hadn't helped that he'd been on the fence about coming in the first place - his family had wanted him to become a huntsman, and when he hit puberty and grown to be seven feet tall (with a bench-press limit to match) it had simply become expected of him. He hated admitting to it - because people always felt sorry for him. It wasn't their fault.

Of course, he had admitted to his own reluctance to come to Beacon by accident while out in the field. Thankfully only Velvet had heard, but she was clearly worried about him. The four of them may have figured out how to work together as a team on the battlefield, but they were still trying to figure out how they worked together as friends.

Velvet was determined to see them come together as a team - she could be as tenacious as Coco when she put her heart into it.

He usually admired that about her.

"Yatsu." Velvet had managed to find a spare moment in the midst of studying for their finals not long after they got back from their mission. "What you said back when we were on the mission - about becoming a huntsman."

He bit back a sigh. She'd had the foresight to ask when they were alone, at least. "I do want to be here, Velvs."

She waved off his statement. "I believe you. But if you ever wanted to talk about it, I'm here."

Velvet's words warmed him; he also wanted to be there for her if she ever needed it. "Thank you," he said, reaching out to hug her and smiling when she stepped right into his embrace. "If you ever needed to talk to someone - about anything, I'm here for you too."

That was the difficult part: after the rocky start, none of them were in the habit of talking to one another about more personal issues, and none of them knew where to start, even as it became apparent there were things that needed to be voiced - both good and bad.

Regardless, they did their best to work together outside of combat, too. Coco had invited them all out for dinner - her treat - to celebrate their successful first mission. She hadn't specified where they were going - just to dress nice and that they'd hit up a club after dinner.

The promise of a fun evening out had the three of them distracted during Oobleck's class - their last class of the day, to the point where they were hardly paying any attention to his mile-a-minute lecture.

When the bell finally rang, they jumped up, haphazardly throwing their notebooks into their bags and rushing out the door - managing to beat even their professor.

"Did you two take any notes?" Fox asked.

"Not really." Coco didn't even try to sound apologetic. "Yatsuhashi didn't either."

He couldn't deny it - he'd given up on concentrating about halfway through the lecture. "Perhaps we could borrow the recording from you? I couldn't focus."

"And what if I'd said no?" Fox gave him a playful shove. There was no question that he'd loan them the recording - his recorded lectures had become a boon for many late-night study sessions. "I wasn't paying that much attention, either." He bounced on the balls of his feet. "Let's find Velvet and head out?"

After the first week of classes, she had taken to waiting outside Oobleck's door for them, wanting to walk together to their next class or to the cafeteria for dinner. She was usually there before them, but not today.

They had rushed out, getting there far earlier than usual, and so they lingered, waiting to see if she just hadn't arrived yet. The hallway filled with the classes that were just getting out, making it harder to see anyone approaching.

But as the crowd of their classmates thinned, it became apparent that Velvet wasn't there.

"I'll message her," Coco said, pulling out her scroll. "Did she say anything this morning about meeting us somewhere else?"

"Not to me," Yatsuhashi said, checking his own scroll for any messages.

Fox hadn't bothered to try and check his scroll - she would have messaged the group chat and it was simply easier for Coco or Yatsu to check that. Instead, he focused on his surroundings, trying to sense if she was coming towards them. He didn't feel anything with his aura, but something had caught his attention regardless. "Do you hear that?" As the crowds disappeared and they focused, Coco and Yatsuhashi could hear the same thing Fox did - the faint sound of a fight.

None of them hesitated when Coco took off down the hall, falling right into step behind her. Yatsuhashi tried not to think too hard about how this was the path back to their dorm room - it was the path back towards most of the dorms, but it was something that was hard to ignore when his partner was missing.

He heard Velvet before she came into view - a pair of words that threatened to break his heart in two.

"Please stop."

He saw red when they rounded the corner: a team of third-years had cornered Velvet in an alcove. The other students who walked past were pointedly ignoring them - one of the bullies had grabbed Velvet's ear and was pulling.

The rest of team CFVY had never dared to touch her ears, and she had never offered. It had always seemed like an intimate act - even if Coco and Fox had occasionally gotten a faceful of fur when she'd given them an enthusiastic hug - which made the situation even more infuriating.

Velvet may have been unwilling to fight back, but her teammates had no such reservations.

The third-years weren't paying attention to their surroundings and so hadn't noticed Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi's approach.

Coco grabbed the ringleader's wrist in a vice-like grip, fingers digging into his tendons as she twisted his arm. The move got him to release his grip on Velvet, who seemed to be unharmed by it, and he yelped when Coco stepped in closer, driving his elbow into his ribs, knocking the air from his lungs. A subtle shift of her feet gave her the leverage to push him off balance, and he found himself sprawled on the floor.

The rest of his teammates, who had frozen in surprise when Coco had interfered, shook themselves from their stupor to take off down the hallway, leaving him to scramble to his feet on his own before following - despite having two years of experience on team CFVY, the older students seemed unwilling to actually fight.

Yatsuhashi started to follow, taking a step towards their retreating figures - he could take them on his own easily since no one had their weapons - to teach them the error of their ways, but Velvet's hand on his wrist turned his attention towards her instead.

"Don't - please."

If her earlier words hadn't broken his heart, these certainly did. It was such a quiet plea for mercy - he couldn't go against her wishes, no matter how much he wanted to protect her from future harm. Rather than giving chase, he opened his arms to offer her a reassuring hug.

She stepped into his open arms, her whole body trembling. "Velvs, are you hurt?" He tried feeling her aura with his - he could sometimes pick up on aura levels if he focused, but he couldn't right then.

She sniffled. "Just my pride."

Coco held up her scroll where Yatsuhashi could see - barely a blip in her aura levels.

"Chasing them doesn't help," she said into his shirt. "It's okay."

"It's not," Coco protested. "I'll report them to Goodwitch - "

"No!" Velvet pulled away slightly to meet Coco's gaze. "It doesn't help. Nothing helps. It's best to just ignore them."

Coco looked like she wanted to protest again, but Fox grabbed her arm and dragged her a little farther down the hallway to talk her down.

Yatsuhashi started to stroke Velvet's hair as her trembling slowed. "We're not going to stand by and let that happen," he said, trying to rein in his own temper that was still threatening to boil over. He could resist going after them - tracking them down and hurting them the way they'd hurt her - but he would never be able to stand idle if he came across it. He wanted to protect her - to show her not every human was like that - but he wouldn't be able to do that if he didn't respect her wishes. "We won't do more than that if it's what you want, but we won't let bullies hurt you if we see it."

"That's fine," she managed, her voice thick. "I - " Her grip on his waist tightened. "They used to join in when other teams would bully me." It was barely audible, half-mumbled against his chest.

There was no doubt in his mind who "they" were. He hoped that Velvet wouldn't ask him to hold back if he ever got his hands on her old teammates. He would happily kill them in a heartbeat for what they'd done to her.

Even though the admission was terrible, it helped calm Yatsuhashi's boiling temper. Velvet trusted him with this bit of information. "We never will. We'll chase them away - and I'll talk Coco down if Fox hasn't already." He looked up at their teammates - Coco looked like she was about to punch a wall, which was certainly an improvement over punching the third-years, and as Fox continued to talk in hushed tones, she relaxed more. "We like you, Velvs."

He meant it innocently enough - they all liked her quite a bit - but her response of "I like you, too" made him want to kiss the patch of hair between her ears.

Maybe it wasn't as platonic as he'd intended.

The more he thought about it, the more the want to kiss Velvet confused him - mainly because he felt no different about his partner than he did about his other teammates.

But - maybe it wasn't that confusing. There was nothing that said he couldn't be attracted to all three of his teammates.

Of course, that wasn't the reason Yatsu found himself staring up at the ceiling in the middle of the night. It wasn't that he couldn't get back to sleep - if he closed his eyes, he would drift off again almost instantly - but whenever he did, he ended up waking up again less than ten minutes later, unsure of what had roused him. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, he stood up and wandered into the bathroom to splash cold water on his face, letting the dim light from outside guide his steps.

On the way back he heard the source of his restless sleep - a tiny noise too pained to be a moan and just barely loud enough to be heard. He knelt next to Velvet's bed where he was able to make out where she was curled up in a tight ball in the center of the mattress, white-knuckling the comforter that was pulled around her.

"Velvet?" he whispered, but she just curled up tighter, body trembling. He sat back on his heels, trying to decide what to do - but another pained whimper made the decision for him. Hoping she'd be okay, he reached out and gently shook her shoulder. "Velvs, sweetheart, you're safe."

She woke with a start, throwing herself backwards against the wall, muffling her surprised yelp with her hand.

"Velvet," he whispered again, pulling his hand back and showing his empty palms. "You're safe. You were having a nightmare."

She looked at him, eyes wide, finally making eye contact. "Yatsu," she said, then all but launched herself out of the bed and into his arms, all the while trembling like a leaf. He caught her, wrapping his arms around her tightly.

"I've got you," he promised as he adjusted the way he sat so his back was against her bed. He could just barely make out the shadowy outline of where Fox was sitting up. "It's okay, we're okay, you're okay." This time he spoke up just a little in hopes that Fox would hear the reassurances. After a moment his teammate laid back down, and he focused, instead, on the trembling faunus in his arms. She had a vice-like grip around his chest and her whole body would occasionally jerk with a hiccuped sob. He sat there with her, one arm around her waist and the other hand stroking her hair until her trembling slowed and her breathing became less labored, completely unaware of how much time was passing, but he didn't care either. He would have sat there until the sun came up if it helped.

When her breathing finally slipped back into sleep rhythms, he carefully got to his feet and tried to lay her back down in her own bed. But Velvet simply would not let go of him, somehow managing to hold him even tighter when he tried to coax her into releasing her grip. He could wake her, but she was finally sleeping peacefully and he didn't want to disturb her at this point. So, instead, he settled back into his own bed and pulled a sheet over them as he tried to find a comfortable position to sleep in without crushing one of Velvet's arms.

"Are Velvet and Yatsu curled up in bed together?"

Velvet woke slowly, half-hearing Fox's first question and Coco's quiet confirmation.

"And you just took their picture?"

There was something in that question she should pay attention to, but at the moment she didn't care. She was safe here, and warm, and so she just shifted slightly, closer to the warmth. Coco's reply was equally quiet - something about not having her sound on - before the door clicked shut as they left. Sighing, she rolled over and wrapped herself around the warm body in her bed. There was a part of her brain that wanted to be alarmed, but they smelled like home, so she didn't worry too much, even when their arms settled around her.

"Are you awake?" The deep rumble in Yatsuhashi's chest had one of her rabbit ears twitching lazily as she nodded. "I couldn't get you to let go last night," he said in a rush to explain why they were entangled on a bed together.

"Want me to move?" she asked, voice slurring slightly from sleep. His arms tightened around her in response, and she just curled up closer, perfectly content to lay with him for the time being. "Mmkay."

She wanted to lay here for the rest of the day, pretending like they didn't have any responsibilities, but it simply wasn't practical.

"Should we start packing?" he murmured after a moment. They only had a couple more days and one final exam before they would have to go back home for the summer.

"I don't want to go home," she protested, turning to hide her face in his shoulder. Pressed up against him as she was, she could hear his heart rate pick up and how feel he tightened his grip on her ever so slightly at her words.

"You know you have a home with us - I mean, Coco's probably not a great choice, given her family, but any of us would happily put you up for the summer if you wanted."

She sat up slightly at his concerned tone. "It'd be nice - but my family is so worried - I haven't seen them since I left for Haven and then when I told them about how my team was treating me and that my new team leader was Coco…" her voice trailed off for a moment before she shook her head. She hadn't told them everything, but she'd said enough for them to be worried. "I have to go home and let them know I'm okay."

"If you don't want to…" he replied, clearly worried. "You don't have to."

She stared at him. "I mean, I definitely prefer Beacon and my friends - this is what I want to do with my life, but my family is important to me, too." Velvet poked his chest as it came together - he was worried about her safety if she went home. "I love my family! They're wonderful!" she said, starting to giggle. "They're just going to fuss and make a scene about me coming back next year. They don't understand what's driving me to become a huntress." She laid back down on his chest. "It's sweet of you to worry, though."

"I just wanted to make sure you had a safe place to go home to," he murmured, reaching up to stroke her hair.

She let out a contented sigh. "It's sweet. Maybe we can do the 'meet-the-families' thing next summer." Even as she spoke, she realized how intimate it sounded - especially curled up as she was on his chest.

"I've never been to Menagerie," he mused out loud, even as he thought how it would be nice to introduce Velvet to his parents as his romantic partner and not just battle partner. "It'd be nice to see where my grandmother grew up."

The implications of his heritage didn't escape her - she hadn't known Yatsuhashi was part faunus, but it made sense to her. Maybe that's part of why she felt so comfortable around him.

But even as she agreed it would be wonderful to show him around the island and the communities, and listened to him talk about his grandmother, there was something missing from the equation.

She examined her emotions more closely - the easiest part was her attraction to Yatsuhashi. What wasn't so easy was the fact that it was indistinguishable from her feelings for Fox - and - more surprisingly - Coco.

It was something to take a closer look at later. For now, she was going to curl up next to Yatsuhashi and pretend like no one was leaving for home anytime soon.

Reality set in a few days later as the four of them made their way to the airship docks. All of their flights were leaving more or less at the same time and so they'd walked out together.

"Keep in touch you two - and try not to get into too much trouble," Coco advised with a grin.

"I can't promise I'll stay out of trouble, but I'll keep in touch," Yatsu said as he gave his two teammates a hug. "You do the same."

Fox laughed. "When have you ever known us to stay out of trouble?"

They all laughed and said their final goodbyes with another round of hugs before the two pairs went their separate ways. Even though his ship was nearby, Yatsuhashi still walked with Velvet to her waiting ship.

He shouldn't have found it so cute that Velvet had to scramble onto a low wall to press a shy kiss to his cheek, but it was one of the more adorable things he'd seen her do. She quickly pulled away, cheeks just starting to turn red and he leaned in to return the gesture - missing slightly when she turned away and getting her lips instead.

She didn't pull away, just shifted to get a better angle.

It wasn't what he'd intended but he certainly wasn't complaining either. He cupped her cheek in his hand, relishing the moment together. It was too short of a time before she broke the kiss, mumbling about the airship leaving soon.

He gave her a parting kiss on the cheek. "Message me when you get home safely?"

"Of course," she said, then dashed off to the waiting airship.

He couldn't stop smiling at her retreating figure, startling slightly when his scroll went off, signaling a new picture message.

Coco Adel: you two are adorable

He looked across the docks to Coco who was smirking as she and Fox waited for the ship that would take them to Atlas.

A blush creeped down his neck when he opened the attached picture - he hadn't realized Coco had taken a photo of him and Velvet curled up together on his bed, but he had to admit it was adorable.

He made his way across the shipyard to where Coco was smirking.

"You saw - Velvet and I - " he gestured back towards the ship heading to Menagerie.

Fox laughed. "Yatsu, even I saw the two of you kiss."

His blush deepened. "Is that all right? I don't want to screw things up." He knew that dating within a team like that could affect the dynamics - and they had just started to find their footing.

Fox quickly gave his blessing, still grinning. Coco's poker face was nearly impossible to read, but she stayed quiet for some time - long enough that Fox elbowed her to get her response.

"Of course. I'm happy for you," she said, but it sounded flat - and even though they were hidden behind her sunglasses, Yatsu could tell the smile didn't reach her eyes.

Fox punched her shoulder before Yatsuhashi could react to the luke-warm response. "Coco! Tell the truth or get better at lying," he hissed.

She shook herself out of whatever had her distracted. "Sorry, just caught up in my own thoughts." Her smile was real this time and she lowered her sunglasses to wink at him. "I really am happy for you two. Just don't let it interfere - and wait until we're out of the room to get handsy, please?"

That brought his blush back in full force, and he stammered out a goodbye before beating a hasty retreat to the ship that would take him home.

Author's Note:
Sexuality headcanon time! I included how they respond to the question of 'what's your sexuality?' [and how it breaks down narratively speaking]

Coco: Demi-panromantic pansexual [This is a recent development - used to say aromantic pansexual]

Fox: Queer [bi/pan/polyromantic demi-bi/pan/polysexual]

Velvet: Bi [she likes the simplicity even if it doesn't quite fit perfectly, pan is closer but she doesn't like the long explanations that accompany it]

Yatsuhashi: Not straight (If pressed, he'll clarify he's "Not gay either.") [mostly just works out to being bi/pan romantic and demi bi/pan sexual]

Fun fact: This means that Coco and Fox went to prom together in combat school with the understanding that it was not a date and they weren't going to sleep together at the end of the night.