The following days passed without incident until that weekend when teams RWBY and SHDE made their traditional trip into Beacon. They were settling down to enjoy their coffee, when 'they' walked in, catching Shayne's eye. 'Wonderful, these guys again' Shayne ignored them as best he could; they walked past and sat down behind him.
"Shayne, what's up, you look like you've seen a ghost" Dundra asked quizzically
"Nothing Dundra I'm just tired, that's all" Shayne took out his Scroll and deftly typed a message to him;
'The guys behind me, they know me from somewhere and attacked me, before you guys came back' Dundra looked up concerned and angry, Shayne shook his head as Dundra almost got up.
Dundra knew what Shayne wanted, he sat back down and they waited patiently, eventually the male turned around and asked for Brown sugar, Shayne ignored him;
"Hey, buddy I asked for the sugar" he said to the others "Is he deaf or something" he got close to Shayne's ear and said loudly "Helloooo, can you hear me I said, can I have some brown sugar please" he went to put a hand on Shayne's shoulder, just before connecting, Shayne grabbed his wrist, his claw digging into his skin. He took one look at the claw and he paled.
"S-sorry, there buddy, I'll just use white sugar" he tried to pull his hand away, Lina had to zap him to get Shayne to let go.
Shayne stood up and walked out Lina chased after him;
"Shayne, what the fuck was that! All he asked for was some brown sugar" she yelled
"Lina they attacked me and Velvet, I outmatched them and told them to leave, they didn't take my advice"
"Shayne what do you mean?"
"Velvet and I were in town getting stuff for Christmas sorted, when they came out of the crowd and tried to rob me"
"Shayne, why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't think it would ever come to light"
"So what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm going to go back to Beacon and go to the Gym"
"Shayne what aren't you telling me?" she asked, clearly concerned
"Nothing, I've told you everything" with that he strode off in the direction of the Bullheads
Once he arrived at beacon he collected his kit bag and went to the Gym. Yang was already there working the bag as usual. He went and steadied it as she pummelled it.
"Yang, can I talk to you?"
"Yeah Shayne, what's up, what's with the hood?"
"While everyone was away I was attacked by a guy and a girl calling themselves the 'Genesis Twins', ever heard of them? And it's my winter jacket, my ears get cold easily"
"No, I can't say I have, why?"
"Well they had heard of me, they said they knew someone who wanted to see me"
"Do you know who?" Yang said stopping
"No but I have my theories"
"Lay it on me" she said walking to the locker room door
"I think it's the White Fang"
Yang's face dropped, she couldn't believe that so soon after learning that Blake had been part of them, now Shayne was somehow involved with them.
"Why do you think that?"
"They've been hounding me for years, trying to find a way to force me to join them" he said with a serious look in his eye, Yang went to change, Shayne waited for her to come out.
"Well, that's a thing, so what are you going to do?"
"I honestly don't know" he said as they walked to her dorm, "I mean I could go find those twins, but I wouldn't know where to start" he said as they went inside.
"I'll ask Blake, and see if she knows anything"
Shayne thanked her and headed to his dorm, on the way there he could hear Ozpin talking to someone, Shayne turned the corner before the stairs to his team's dorm, and there they were, talking to Ozpin;
"Aah, here comes one of our best students, Shayne Oceanstrider" Ozpin nodded to Shayne who nodded back.
"Hi Shayne, nice to meet you, I'm Vossler and this is my sister, Ashe" Shayne nodded to both of them and folded his arms.
Ashe gave him a look of anger, and her hand went to her bruised ribs and the small cut on her neck. Vossler simply rested his hands on the hilts of his cutlasses;
"They are starting here this year; we have no spare rooms for them…" Ozpin said knowing full well that SHDE's old dorm was empty, "I decided that as you have a large dorm, that they could stay with you and your team" Shayne motioned to Ozpin and he excused himself;
"Would you kindly wait here a moment" Shayne walked a few steps away, "Yes Shayne, what do you want to say?"
"Professor, these two attacked me over the Christmas break, I think they are connected to the White Fang"
"Now, Shayne that's preposterous, they aren't Faunus so how would they even come into contact with the White Fang" Shayne was gobsmacked that Ozpin didn't believe him, "now could you please go inform your team of this development" Ozpin walked back to the twins as Shayne stormed up the stairs.
He burst into the room;
Dundra fell off his stool wood fell on top of him, Eddi helped him up. Lina was concerned Shayne had begun pacing and talking to himself;
"Shayne are you okay?"
"No Lina, I'm not okay, not okay at all"
"Shayne, would you just stop and talk to us" Shayne sat down on the sofa his knees still bouncing.
"We have a problem"
"What problem?" Dundra said pulling a chair opposite Shayne
"We are getting roommates, the two from the café, the ones who attacked me, Ozpin is putting them in here with us" Shayne said getting increasingly agitated, "I think that they're connected to the White Fang" Lina paled and took hold of Shayne's arm .
"We have to tell Ozpin they can't stay here" Hanna said standing up
"Don't you think I tried, he didn't listen" Shayne said walking towards the window
A knock at the door echoed around the suddenly silent room, Eddi went and opened the door, Ozpin stepped in followed by Vossler and Ashe. Everyone of team SHDE watched them enter and put their bags down by the door, Lina eyed them suspiciously from the bed where she and Shayne were sat.
Ozpin introduced the twins and SHDE introduced themselves politely; Ozpin had to go deal with another matter that needed his attention, and the twins stood there awkwardly;
"So…" Vossler said looking at each person in turn; they clearly didn't trust them, "where do we sleep?"
Dundra, realising what was happening, stood up and took them to the two end beds;
"These are yours"
"Hang on, I just did a quick headcount, there's only five beds and seven of us how does that work?" Ashe said, sounding a lot like Weiss as she said it
"Well, Eddi and I are dating and so are Shayne and Lina, so we share our beds" Ashe nodded slowly
Hanna felt compelled to ask a question;
"So, do you guys have a team?" Shayne shot her a look of venom; she clearly meant it honestly but shrugged and shook her head anyway
"No, we don't, we are here as partners, there wasn't enough pairs for another team" Vossler said as he opened a case and took out a large knife, it was curved and serrated.
He noticed that Shayne was watching the blade closely, 'Let's test your reflexes, Grimm boy' he thought throwing the blade at Shayne.
Shayne ducked the blade, it left a small gash in his jacket, Eddi leapt to her feet pulling out two automatic pistols, Dundra unfurled his shield and Hanna readied a Burn Kunai. Lina had a fireball in hand and Shayne had his split pistol aimed at them, the twins had their weapons ready as well.
A knock at the door, broke the silence;
"Who's there?" Eddi called
"It's me Velvet, is Shayne there?"
"Yeah, I'm here Velvet, come on in" he said never breaking eye contact with Vossler
She opened the door but stopped when she saw the various weapons;
"Am I interrupting something?"
Shayne pulled up his pistol giving the twins the benefit of the doubt;
"No Velvet, you're not, just come in and close the door" Velvet crossed the room quickly going and standing next to Lina, who extinguished her flames.
Dundra, Eddi and Hanna didn't lower their weapons, neither did the twins. Shayne stood in the middle;
"This is my fault, now I want to fix it, but first we all need to lower our weapons" he said holding up both hands. His team obliged without question, the twins hesitated but sheathed them as well.
"Good, that wasn't so hard, you two, pull up a chair and start talking, I want answers" they walked over to the living area and sat down Dundra, Eddi and Hanna sat on the sofa, Shayne stood behind it while Lina went and helped Velvet with whatever she needed.
"Now, when you two tried to rob me, you said you knew someone who wanted to see me, who?"
"We were talking about Ozpin, obviously"
"You couldn't have, how did you know I went to Beacon, for all you know I could have been attending Signal, now tell me the truth or I'm going to stop asking nicely"
"You really want him to keep asking nicely" Dundra and Eddi nodded
"Ok, ok, we weren't talking about Ozpin, were talking about Roman Torchwick, he knew you could be of use to him, we were bounty hunters until you shut us down. Thanks for that, we weren't going to hurt you, we just wanted a chat"
"Clearly" Shayne said sarcastically, "is he connected to the White Fang?"
"How the fuck would we know, all we got told was, to pick you up and take you to him. That's all, we swear" Hanna stood up and took Ashe by the throat;
"Where did he say to take him?" Hanna asked through her teeth, "Answer me dammit" Dundra removed her hand from Ashe's throat;
"The docks at midnight, the day we were supposed to pick him up"
'He really thinks I'm going to go easily doesn't he' Shayne thought
"Hey, we want that rat bastard as much as you guys, he skipped out on our fee, we said we had you in custody but you escaped." Vossler said standing up.
"He wouldn't have had to pay you for that" Eddi said calmly
"And how would you know that?"
"I used to be a bounty hunter myself"
"So you don't know where he is?" Hanna said having calmed down
"No we don't, sorry"
Shayne sighed in relief;
"At least you guys aren't here to make me join the White Fang as I feared" the twins looked at each other confused;
"Don't worry, he's had a rough week" Dundra said
Lina came back to see Shayne more relaxed and went and stood by him;
"So what's going on now?"
"We found out that Roman Torchwick sent these two bounty hunters…"
"Ex-bounty hunters" Ashe corrected
'If she keeps that up I'm going to lose my shit' Hanna thought gritting her teeth
"Ex-bounty hunters, after me, they are not connected to the White Fang in any way, shape or form"
He turned to face them;
"I'm sorry I treated you the way I did, but you did sort of try to kill me just a minute ago"
"I was only testing your reflexes" he smiled innocently
"Well I'm glad you handled this the way you did" she said kissing him, Shayne had his hood up.
A few hours later after they had gotten to know each other Dundra and Eddi went and helped Ashe get to know the grounds, Shayne sat with Vossler and they talked about their pasts, Shayne still had his hood up, his head was cold.
"So Shayne, I see that you are a Faunus fancier, it's not my place to judge, but how does it feel dating a different species?" Vossler said taking a sip of the hot coffee.
"What…in the flying fuck, are you talking about?" Shayne said looking up from his drink
"You and Lina, I mean she's a Faunus and you're…"
"A Faunus too"
"No, you're clearly human, you haven't got any…" Shayne threw back his hood revealing his ears;
"Ears? The hood hides them well huh" He nodded;
"Shayne I'm sorry I should have thought…"
"About what? Why can't a human date a Faunus and not feel weird or be insulted about it? We are people too, I mean, yeah, I get why some Faunus try to hide that fact, but I've always been proud of my heritage, so has Lina"
Vossler looked down ashamed of his ignorance;
"Don't do that, I have it bad enough if a Faunus gets upset, you want to know why?
He nodded slowly as Dundra made his way over;
"I get calls and messages from Faunus day and night"
"He's right, he spends almost no time on himself, always trying to help them, I mean there are some problems that he just can't fix, but he still tries to at least make sure that they are ok"
"It's because from day one I've taken no shit from bullies, Lina and I have been through so much crap that we know what they're going through"
"Shayne I've had my fair amount of bullying at school, because I'm part Faunus too, we both are, me and Ashe. Our dad was a tourist and he fell in love with a barmaid and married her, as I said before, she was a Tiger Faunus, she had Ashe and I, and we showed almost no signs of being half Faunus, except our eyes." Shayne looked into his yellow eyes; they were of a cat alright.
Shayne and Vossler talked long into the night, long after the others had gone to bed, Shayne only went to bed when Lina came and made him go. He bid Vossler goodnight. The next morning Shayne caught sight of him trying to see Lina in the shower; he used his Grimm power to close the door.
Shayne smirked at Vossler and they went to breakfast once Lina had finished. Shayne took Yang aside;
"Yang, they weren't part of the White Fang, but they were after me for Roman Torchwick, can you do me a favour and see if you can find out why?"
"Of course, but you know you still owe me that first one, right"
"Yes of course, just tell me when you need a hand and I'll be there"
"I have something in mind but we need somewhere private and Lina can't know about it, otherwise she'd kill us both"
Shayne looked at her, trying to work out what she meant, he couldn't so he sat back down and ate his waffles.
The day passed slowly, it was around 5 o'clock when he got her message;
'Hey Shayne, time for you to repay that first favour, meet me at my dorm room'
He stepped out and headed there, still unsure what she could want from him.