AN: This chapter contains spoilers for Volume 4 Episode 5: Menagerie

"Colette."

Coco jumped at the sound of her mother's voice. She'd successfully avoided her mother for the last three days - not wanting to deal with the fallout of the disastrous first dinner, however there was only so much she could do when they lived in the same house.

"Yes, mother?" she said, looking up briefly from where she was assembling ammunition for her gatling gun.

"I'm not going to convince you to transfer to Atlas, am I?" Coco startled slightly. She'd been expecting a further interrogation about Fox, not this old argument. "Even though it's clearly the better choice for when you take over as owner and CEO of Adel Enterprises." She was using the same business-like tone she always did when talking about the company.

Coco sighed and shook her head. "I like Beacon." Yes, Atlas had better connections - especially for a company based in the country - but Beacon suited her better since it was more focused on the type of hunting she wanted to do.

After an extended moment of silence, Coco looked up, half expecting her mother to be glaring at her.

Instead, she was fidgeting.

Lorraine Adel did many things - but she did not fidget. Coco put down the components in her hand as her mother shifted her weight from foot to foot, unable to meet Coco's eyes. "I've asked your cousin, Marcelle, to come out to visit next month."

Marcelle was just a year younger than Coco, making her the second oldest of their generation. She had shown a keen interest in the family business, and had already begun to make a name for herself as a model and fashion designer. Coco raised an eyebrow.

"It's become increasingly apparent to me that you've made your decision as to what you want to do with your life." Her voice had gone soft, taking a tone Coco rarely heard from her mother. "I'm not going to cut you off - far from it - but I'm thinking if Marcelle and you both agree, I'll name her successor to Adel Enterprises."

Coco was grateful she had already put her cartridges down, otherwise she may have dropped them, and that's not something you want to do with dust. "I - I'm sorry?"

Lorraine Adel stood a little taller and smoothed non-existent wrinkles from her dress. "While you're my daughter, you've made it clear that you'd prefer to become a full-time huntress over running Adel Enterprises, and I wanted to make it easier for you." She wasn't making an accusation; she was simply stating the facts without judgement.

Coco froze, like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Tell me I'm wrong," her mother said gently. "Tell me I'm wrong and it'll just be a familial visit with Marcelle where we catch up and I promise to make her a vice president in a few years."

Coco licked her lips and turned back to the project she'd been working on when her mother walked in. "Marcelle would do much better as your successor than I would." She closed her eyes, not pretending to be able to focus on her bullets. "I'm a leader, just like you. It might be of a small team of hunters and not a multinational corporation, but it's what I have." It wasn't a full admission of wanting to not be involved in the company, but it was a start.

Her mother nodded. "I know you are, Co - " she paused on the first syllable of Coco's name, changing her mind halfway through and stumbling over the less familiar nickname. "Coco. I'm proud of you."

She'd refused to use Coco's nickname after Coco had adopted it at age 13 to fit in with her peers better. Adels don't use color-based names, Colette. We won't ever lose sight of who we were before the Great War. We aren't like the Schnees. We don't need to lower ourselves to their level.

Coco nodded, making an excuse about going to find Fox - he'd stepped out to call Yatsuhashi about something - and left, abandoning the project on the table.

Three days into the break, Coco's mother asked Fox to give them some privacy to discuss a family matter. He decided to step out and call Yatsuhashi, knowing his teammate was probably still worried about everything that had happened.

However, Fox wasn't really sure what to say to Yatsu. He wasn't ready to tell his teammate everything, but "Coco and I are dating now" seemed like a reasonable starting point.

He was afraid of fucking any of this up - the three of them were the only people he was close to; they were the only people in his life he had begun to refer to as family.

The sound of Yatsu's voice had quickly become a source of comfort for him, and hearing him over the phone made him smile and relax. However, when Fox told Yatsu that he and Coco were dating, the line went quiet, almost as if the call had been disconnected.

"Yatsu? Is everything all right?"

"Fine," he said, though he sounded a lot like Coco had just before they left Beacon, distracted and hiding something - but Fox wasn't sure why Yatsuhashi would be lying about this.

Fox hesitated. He didn't have the same history with Yatsuhashi as he did with Coco, but he felt the need to push anyway. He now fully understood Yatsu's earlier worries when Coco had been acting strangely. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course." He sounded almost normal - he was much better than Coco at concealing his emotions when he put some effort into it, and so it was hard to tell. "How's Atlas treating you? Coco's family driven you up the wall yet?"

Fox laughed and allowed the change of subject. Coco hadn't been ready to tell them yet anyway, wanting to sort out her own feelings on the matter before involving the other two. Now Fox was doubting whether it'd be a good idea to tell them at all.

Yatsuhashi closed his scroll with a sigh. He'd been so worried about telling Velvet he had feelings for their two teammates that he hadn't stopped to consider that Fox and Coco might have their own plans. Ideally they'd all be dating one another, but it seemed much harder to approach them as a couple rather than them as two single people.

"Boy troubles?" his mother asked when he came into the kitchen and saw the look on Yatsu's face.

"Mom! He's got a girlfriend," his brother said, jumping up to give Yatsuhashi a hug. "Are we going to bake cookies now?"

"Girl troubles, then?" she amended with a smile.

"Velvet and I are fine," he reassured them, ruffling his brother's hair. "Cookies sound delightful." He started pulling out the various ingredients they'd need. "Just talking with Fox."

"Now what has that young man done to put that look on your face?" He'd spent the last several days talking about his teammates almost non-stop and they all knew how fond he was of all three of them.

"Nothing, mama." He had no doubt that his family would accept all of them, he just wasn't ready to talk about it when it looked like it wasn't going to amount to anything. "Are you going to help with the baking or just watch?"

Once back on Menagerie, Velvet's parents had been kind and given her a week to relax before sitting her down in the living room to talk. "So - tell us about Beacon."

She wanted to point out that location didn't matter to her as much as the pursuit of becoming a huntress, but her parents didn't really understand the drive to want to protect the kingdoms they'd been essentially exiled from. "Beacon is good - my team is fantastic. My partner - " she smiled when she thought of the selfie Yatsu had sent a couple of days prior where he was covered in flour " - is really kind and supportive." She wasn't quite ready to say they'd started… dating, or whatever they were doing. It was too new, and her parents would be too suspicious of him because he's human. They'd come around eventually, but it was better to just leave it alone for now.

"It just seems like a punishment, sending you off to Beacon the way they did." Her mother frowned, one rabbit ear falling back. "Shouldn't they have tried to keep you at Haven?"

Velvet shook her head. "It wasn't a punishment - I knew that requesting a transfer to a different team would probably end like this, and there was no way I could stay with my old team. Plus, now I'm closer to home." She gripped the arm of the chair, keeping her hand from going to the scar her former team had left on her stomach. "And despite my worries about Coco, she's actually very sweet and looks after all three of us."

Her mom opened her mouth to say something else, but stopped herself, changing the subject. "We saw Kali and Ghira last week, they asked how you were doing. Apparently their daughter enrolled in Beacon and will be starting this fall."

Velvet startled back slightly. "Really? I thought Blake was staying with the White Fang, even after Ghira stepped down as leader to be chieftan here."

"They thought so to, but she sent word of the change in plans. You'll look out for her, right? We don't know of anyone else from Menagerie and the Belladonnas are worried."

"Of course, mom. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye out for Blake."

The four of them did their best to stay in touch over the long break, but by the end they were all antsy to be back at Beacon together. The school year ahead was looking promising, and they were all looking forward to the Vytal Festival as a break from boring classes.

Velvet arrived first and lingered at the docks, waiting for Yatsuhashi's airship from Vacuo. While they had been talking every day since the start of break, she missed his presence, and hoped that it wasn't going to be awkward while they worked out what it meant to be physically close again.

But she needn't have worried - as soon as he spotted her, Yatsuhashi dropped everything to wrap her in a big hug, lifting her several inches off the ground in the process.

She couldn't bring herself to care, eagerly throwing her arms around him as well.

"Velvet! Maidens, I missed you."

"Missed you too, Yatsu," she murmured, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "When do Coco and Fox get in?"

"I think they were due to arrive just a few minutes after we were." He eased his grip on her, letting her settle back on her feet and took her hand in his instead.

Sure enough it didn't take long to find them in the throng of students. They were walking hand-in-hand as well, Coco blushing slightly when she spotted the other two, but she didn't drop Fox's hand until they were close enough to exchange hugs.

Velvet found it hard to remember why it was a bad idea to say anything when she was holding the others, but remembered when she saw the small smile Coco had whenever she looked at Fox.

After unpacking, they made their way to the big auditorium for the naming of the new first-year teams, as per tradition. Velvet was particularly invested, since she would be attending Oobleck's class with them, but otherwise they went simply because the entire school was expected to go.

When the final team was announced - team RWBY - Velvet let out a hiss of alarm. It'd been nearly silent, but both Yatsu and Coco grabbed her hands from where they sat on either side of her. It was a sweet gesture, even if they thought she was concerned about herself. (And Coco's hand in hers was making Velvet's heart pound way too hard, and question yet again whether or not to tell the other two about her and Yatsu's feelings.)

Coco had told her to expect Weiss Schnee, so that wasn't a surprise. Velvet also wasn't concerned for her own safety - but Weiss was on the same team as Blake Belladonna.

It was probably for the best Blake had taken to wearing a bow over her cat ears. There was no telling what Weiss would do if she found out Blake was a faunus; Maidens forbid she find out Blake was the daughter of the previous leader of the White Fang.

Of course, Coco had been of little help when it came to figuring out what kind of views Weiss held.

"I didn't know her well - our families aren't exactly on good terms." Coco peered over her sunglasses at Velvet. "Why, is she bothering you?"

Velvet reassured her that Weiss was fine - that there weren't any issues with her. Coco frowned, but she dropped the subject.

Blake was easy enough to find - their shared class with Doctor Oobleck gave Velvet an excuse to talk to her.

There was no avoiding Weiss Schnee, though, whose eyes narrowed with suspicion as soon as Velvet approached. "Hey Blake, do you have your notes from last class?"

"I do - they're back in my room though - do you want to borrow them?"

"If I could? I think I missed something last class, based on today's lecture." She probably wasn't fooling anyone with the half-hearted lie.

Blake just nodded, though, and waved the rest of her team off to grab lunch without her. The walk back to RWBY's dorm was made in silence and Blake locked the door behind them once they were inside.

Velvet's nose twitched at the… unique arrangement of the beds.

"Is everything all right?" Blake asked, having made no move to get her notes out.

Velvet bit her bottom lip. She wasn't great at this. "That's what I wanted to ask you. Weiss Schnee?"

Blake pinched the bridge of her nose. "She's not bothering you, is she?"

Velvet shook her head. "I was concerned about you. My parents asked me to check in on you - they're friends with Kali and Ghira."

Blake sighed and glanced up as she deliberately made her bow twitch. "I'm safe. None of them know - they don't even know who Ghira and Kali Belladonna are. Though, I could ask the same of you - Coco Adel." Her smile was crooked. "At least Weiss isn't our leader; no matter how much she may have whined about it."

Velvet blushed - she hadn't even thought about how she might seem to be in an even worse position than Blake, unable to hide her ears and in a team with Coco as her leader. "Coco is…" she stumbled over her words "better than I thought."

Blake nodded. "Weiss is… worse."

Velvet reached out and put a comforting hand on Blake's shoulder. "If you ever need someone to talk to - somewhere to go, team CFVY's dorm is always open."

Blake didn't look like she'd take Velvet up on the offer, but the older girl felt better for having extended it.

With the new year came new assholes and bigots. Despite her initial worry about Weiss Schnee, her flavor of prejudices, at least, wasn't targeted directly at Velvet and was restrained to the occasional snide remark.

Cardin and his team were more of an issue, though, deciding that Velvet was an easy target of their bigotry and racism.

She would always rush out of the cafeteria on the days she couldn't dine with her team - she wasn't going to make them rush their lunch just because she had to. (Coco had agreed with her after they got detention for being late to Peach's class twice in a row because they got so caught up talking they didn't notice it was time for class.)

For the most part, their jeers were only verbal and they kept their distance - she was a year ahead of them.

Until her status as a second-year was no longer enough and they surrounded her in the cafeteria, turning it physical.

No one helped. No one came to assist, despite everyone watching her be humiliated by the other team.

So she fled - not to class the way she should have, but back to their dorm. It was a bad idea to try and go to Professor Peach's class when she was so distraught.

She sent a quick text to Yatsu, letting him know she wasn't feeling well and was going to lay down for a bit (and that they should go to dinner after class without her). It was true - she crashed face down onto his bed as soon as she let herself in.

Beacon was better, ultimately, but it still hurt - still hurt to be reminded she was different.

Her scroll went off an hour or so later.

Yatsuhashi Daichi: Want me to bring you some food or come join you?

Velvet Scarlatina: wouldn't say no to you joining me

It took him all of five minutes to get there. "I told Fox and Coco to go on to dinner without us," he said by way of greeting. "They'll bring something for both of us." He settled onto the bed next to her, stroking her hair. "How are you feeling?"

She rolled over to look at him. "I'm not sick," she said, curling up on herself. "Just… bad day."

He tentatively pressed a kiss to the top of her head and then wrapped an arm around her. "Want to talk about it?"

She shook her head. "Can you touch my ears?" Though they had spoken a lot over the summer break and grown closer, they were still hesitant about the more physical aspects of their relationship.

Given permission, he eagerly did so, hand going straight to stroke the soft fur. He still took care to be gentle, applying only the lightest pressure to her rabbit ears.

Though she wasn't injured she still winced when his fingers brushed over bruises that were concealed beneath the fur.

His hand immediately withdrew. "I'm sorry - how should I…"

"No! You're fine," she hastened to reassure him. "They're just…" she sighed as she realized there would be no getting around this. "Tender."

He leaned in and pressed a very gentle kiss to the base of each ear. "Tender? Does that happen often?"

Her ears drooped. She looked up, meeting his concerned gaze for a split second before having to look away. "Only when someone's been rough with them," she whispered, taking a deep, shuddering breath.

The arm that was wrapped around her shoulders tightened. "Who?"

"Does it matter who it was this week?" She knew her question wasn't fair - team CRDL was certainly worse than most - but she hated it. She hated that it didn't really matter who - it was only a matter of how often. "If it's not a senior team," she said, referring to the first group who had cornered her last year, "then it's a freshman one - or strangers on the street!" Her hands went up to cover her face. "I'm just grateful it's not you and the rest of my team."

"It matters if they're hurting you," he murmured. His free hand went back to very gently stroking her ears.

She shook her head. "Not really, just a bruised pride, more than anything."

His gentle stroking stopped, both of his arms wrapping around her to pull her into his lap. "And tender ears," he added quietly, holding her close. "Maybe I want to be able to touch you without hurting you. And maybe we want you to know we have your back."

"I do know that. I don't need your help." It sounded sulky even to her ears.

"If you're sure."

She nodded, curling up in Yatsuhashi's lap a little closer.

Coco and Fox let themselves into the dorm room quietly, keeping in mind Velvet wasn't feeling the greatest.

She smiled when she saw Yatsu and Velvet curled up on his bed together.

"How are you feeling?" Fox asked, setting the food he was carrying down on the desk.

Coco did the same, then took off her gloves so she could feel Velvet's forehead. Yatsuhashi had no doubt done just fine taking care of Velvet, but she was still concerned. "You don't feel like you have a fever."

Velvet's ears twitched and she hid her face in the crook of Yatsuhashi's neck.

Coco exchanged a concerned look with Yatsu, sitting down on the bed with them. "Velvs?" she asked, carefully reaching out to stroke her back. "Does this have something to do with team CRDL?"

She flinched, confirming Coco's suspicions. "You promised you wouldn't interfere." She didn't sound upset - more like a reminder that they had promised not to step in on her behalf.

"We won't," Coco promised, as much as it pained her to do so. She wrapped her arm around Velvet, grateful for the excuse to touch her teammate. Fox climbed onto the bed too, joining in the cuddle pile that had formed. He smiled as he got settled, managing to arrange himself between Yatsu and Coco alongside Velvet.

When Yatsuhashi shifted to hold all three of them, not just Velvet, Coco couldn't help but wonder if they were enjoying it as well.