"That was a rather… unconventional way to gain my attention."

Sterling sat across a metal table from Ozpin, his cane resting against the table next to him. Sterling suspected that it was some sort of recording device on the top, but he didn't care, crossing his arms over his chest. "My training has been unconventional."

"True, but few people come up to Beacon and issue challenges in the courtyard." Ozpin leaned forward, looking at the boy over his glasses. "Even fewer manage to win against some students."

"They should take greater care in their education."

Ozpin let out a small laugh, but Sterling missed the humor in it. "Perhaps you're right. Point being, you are lucky to be sitting where you are. Your test scores were above average, and your physical training is truly above reproach. However, I still don't understand why you want to enter my school so much."

"I want to be a hunter."

"Many people want to be hunters."

Sterling's nose flared, his eyes narrowing as he thought about the question. "I… Well, I'm tired of seeing the injustices of the world. There are so many things… wrong with how it works. I want to try to fix that. I can't do that alone, I know that, but someone needs to take the first step."

"That's an admirable goal. I know a few others who would agree with you… myself included. However, there is more to it than becoming a hunter."

"I know that." Sterling snapped out, his eyes narrowing, before turning his head away, looking at the floor. "But I can be a guardian to those that need help, at least. It's better than nothing."

"I see…" Ozpin stood, and Sterling turned his gaze back to follow the Professor. He walked around the table, and instantly Sterling knew something was wrong. Ozpin's eyes seemed to shade over, before turning red. "You don't belong here." The cane moved fast, the end striking towards Sterling's chest.

Sterling shot up, breathing heavy, heart pounding as he looked around the room. The bedroom was somewhat cramped, but there was more than enough room for the four member team. The lights were out, and only a few stars offered light from the window. He didn't wake anyone up, at least, so his mind went inward to the dream. He remembered it – it was only a few weeks ago, after all – but it turned dark. He could still feel metal against his chest, but he knew there was nothing there. It was just his mind playing tricks on him again. His head went back down, although his eyes refused to stay closed for long. Those burning red eyes haunted his mind, so unnatural and piercing. Eventually his feet found the ground, bending over to pull out one of the drawers under his bed, changing to gym clothes and pulling out a piece of paper.

'Couldn't sleep, going to the gym. Will be back for breakfast and class. –Sterling'

Grabbing a towel, Sterling put the note on the desk before quietly leaving the room. It was only then that he pulled out his scroll, checking the time. Four thirty. He shrugged that off as he threw the towel over his shoulder, grey sweat pants and blue beater shirt letting his body cool down from the sweat of the dream. His feet moved him automatically from the dorm to the gym, his eyes going over his scroll, checking the news of the kingdom. More Dust shop hits, some White Fang assaults on businesses; it seemed things were business as usual. He put the scroll away as his foot pushed open the Gym door, glad that it was empty.

The towel was tossed up onto the rack as he moved through the gym, looking through the equipment before settling on punching bags. He took a moment to wrap his hands and feet before letting himself go, mind focusing down into training his body. He easily shifted from pure boxing to kickboxing to mixed martial arts, his body working up a sweat as he made his work at a level he was comfortable with.

"Rather early to be getting yourself worked up."

Sterling paused, feeling his heavy breathing from the exercise, turning to see Yang standing a few feet back, arms crossed and an amused smirk on her face. She was wearing black sweatpants and an orange pajama shirt with a burning heart emblem. Sterling managed a smile. "It's never too early for some training." He pulled back his fist, and punched the bag once more.

"You get up every morning at five to train?" Yang quirked a brow as she moved behind the bag, holding it in place.

"No, couldn't get to sleep after I woke up." He gave the bag three more good punches before stepping back, stretching, feeling some satisfying pops in his back. "I could ask the same for you, though."

"I couldn't sleep either. Too much restless energy." She pushed the bag away, which Sterling grabbed, holding it steady while she went at it with a flurry of fast punches. He had to brace himself so he wasn't pushed back from the fury.

"Well, we can easily get rid of our restless energy." He saw her head peak out from behind the bag, a smirk and shine to her eyes, and his cheeks went red. "Ah… eheh… I mean, we could spar."

"Just as good!" She gave the bag an extra hard punch before stepping past him, towards the small ring put up for small sparring sessions. Sterling couldn't help but chuckle to himself, watching her before following.

"Simple rules, go until someone calls it, no semblances, no weapons, no tricks." He put his fists out, and she tapped back before he jumped back, his fists coming up. Yang held herself a little looser than he did, and the slowly walked around each other.

"That's fine with me." He watched her eyes going over him, but whether or not she was checking for openings or something else he couldn't tell. He felt his own body relaxing down, his stance going more natural as he hit his comfort zone of the battlefield. His heart pumped hard but not for the reason he would have expected by now. He shifted his cycle around her to move him closer, and he struck first, a test jab before his weight shifted going low and to the right into his hook. She blocked the jab easily before rolling against the hook, shirt ruffling from it and sending a jab straight into his ribs, knocking him to the ground for a moment.

"Point." He stood up, dusting his side off before going back to the slow circling. "I have to say that I'm glad you showed up."

"Oh? Why's that?" She dashed forward, moving her weight low before swinging her own hook, but Sterling moved with it, shifting to her side and using that to drive his fist into her stomach. She stumbled back a bit before standing straight, huffing. "Point."

"Because, I haven't seen anyone as beautiful as you." He shifted close, watching as her hand came up but use that to his advantage, dodging to the side and rolling his hand onto her stomach, leg behind her knees and sweeping her down. It didn't trip her up, her left hand going back, flipping her whole body over, legs locking onto his and flipping him onto his back, sitting on his leg. He frowned at that twist. "Point."

"Rather forward of you." Yang said, keeping the lock on his leg as she raised her fist. "You're cute yourself, you know." Her fist came down for the coup blow, but he pushed his weight downward, throwing her off-balance. Her fist came down next to his arm, and she fell over completely from the awkward stance, her eyes inches from his. Both of them were blushing hard from their stance. "Point."

He managed a soft chuckle. "It seems like we're tied, then."

"How are we going to settle this?"

"Who cares?" His arms came up from the ground, wrapping around her waist. "It was fun, that's all we need, yes?" He saw her smile at that, and saw his chance in that moment. His eyes closed as he lifted himself slowly off the mat…

"What are you two doing?"

Sterling froze at that, eyes opening and looking at just how close Yang was to him. He almost got lost in those eyes before he heard the clearing of a throat. At least it was Raz who found him; if Terra had walked in on this, he wouldn't have heard the end of it. A soft chuckle left his throat, although he didn't look over, too busy with the lilac in front of him. "Tripped in a sparring match, Raz. I'll be down for breakfast in a minute."

He heard the snort even in the blonde hair-cocoon that he was enveloped in. "Take your time. Just know people are waking up."

"Gotcha. See ya in a few." He heard the door closed, and he managed a chuckle, although the two of them hadn't shifted an inch. "Sorry. It seems we went at it longer than I thought."

"Seems you're getting better with people." Yang jabbed. "I must be rubbing off on you."

A good second passed before Sterling chuckled, and now it was Yang's turn to blush. He didn't give her time to object, however, pulling her down the last few inches to seal her lips with his own. The embrace sent a shock down his spine, and his boldness seemed to have shocked Yang as well from the gasp that came from her. His fingers seemed to tingle from sudden nerves as he broke the kiss, looking up at her. The moments ticked by as they watched each other, before Sterling let out a sigh. "We should get ready for class."

"I suppose you're right." Yang stood slowly, and Sterling followed suit, stretching his worn body out. He didn't want to go… but there was a time for everything. He walked to the rack, grabbing his towel and throwing it over his shoulder. "Sterling?"

He stopped, slowly taking a breath that released the tension in his shoulders before turning to her with a smile. They looked between them in silence, as though words didn't matter. "It was fun, we should do it again sometime, Yang."

That made her smile. "That's just what I was thinking."

Sterling turned, walking to the door. But he stopped, turning his head to speak over his shoulder. "I like your hair." And before he could hear any response he was gone.

Morning duels with Glynda came and went without much issue, and Sterling watched mostly bored with the demonstrations. He wasn't wanting to volunteer that day, his mind as occupied as it was with… other thoughts. A smile came to his face, and he noticed the worried looks on his teammate's faces from his glazed expression… except for Raz, who seemed to be enjoying himself too much, and Sterling was in too much of a good mood to give him a jab with his real name: Raspberry. That was an eventful evening when he gave that tidbit away.

The class filed out for lunch, and Team STAR sat near the edge of the cafeteria. Of course, the moment that they sat down, Raz spoke up. "So, captain, you seemed a sweaty mess coming in. That… vigorous of training?" Amy and Terra seemed lost, and Sterling was straight-faced as he took a bite of his salad.

"If you don't sweat when you work out and train, you're doing it wrong, Raz. You should remember that the next time you go to the gym."

"Give me inspiration like you had, and I'll start benching 500."

Sterling snorted at that, his hand coming up and covering his mouth with the back of his fingers. He took a moment to swallow his food before retorting. "You have to be able to bench 500 pounds first, Rasp." Raz's nose flared at that, but Terra spoke up.

"When the two of you are done with your macho crap, do you want to tell us what's going on?"

Raz was all too happy to oblige that question. "Our fearless leader was busy scrappin' with a lady in the gym."

It was then that Sterling got very interested in his salad as he felt two pairs of eyes immediately turn to him like floodlights, although he thankfully wasn't blushing like a fool. "We tripped."

"Pretty conveniently, as well." Raz was on the verge of laughing, but before he could shoot him down there was some yelling and laughing in the cafeteria. The group turned their heads to see Cardin pulling at a rabbit faunus' ears. That quickly redirected Sterling's anger, and he crushed the cup that was in his hand.

"What an asshole." Terra spoke up, pulling the team's attention back on itself.

"No shit. Someone needs to put them in their place." Sterling was still seething from that, remembering how people would pick on his sister like that. Amy reached over, though, patting him on the shoulder and pulling his attention to the present.

"That's not your fight, Sterling."

"…" It took a moment to calm down, but Sterling lowered his head to his plate, eating in silence. At least until he heard a shout a little closer by that dragged him out of his reverie.

"Hey, look at this one's tail!" Terra's shriek and Cardin's laughter brought the anger back to the surface, standing up.

"Let her go, Cardin."

"Or what?" He was big, sure, but Sterling wasn't intimidated, especially as Amy stood up as well, looking like a pissed-off giantess, which quickly got Cardin's attention.

"Ask me that again." Sterling's voice was steel cold, and Amy's antennae were twitching angrily. Cardin took the hint, releasing Terra's tail and backing away, hands in the air.

"I was just messing around, jeez." He turned away, laughing with his team as he walked out of the room. Sterling's nose flared before turning to Amy, and she already seemed to get where he was thinking, nodding to him. All four of them stood, cleaning up before heading to class.

It was during history with Professor Oobleck that Sterling saw the opening that he wanted, listening intently to the Professor's lesson but noting to himself that Cardin would be staying after. He passed a note to Amy silently, hardly a movement to slide it over without Oobleck noticing it. He saw the nod from the corner of his eye, and he nodded back. They just had to wait until class was over.

The class went long with the plan in mind, and Sterling found himself thankful when the bell rang. They left the classroom, but he waved along Terra and Raz. "Go ahead; we have something we need to talk to Oobleck about." Raz and Terra looked between them, but shrugged, heading back towards the dorms. Sterling and Amy slid into an alcove, waiting, watching Pyrrha, then watching Jaune and Cardin come out, pushing Jaune to the floor. That was the last bit for Sterling, and as Cardin passed by he called out. "Hey, Cardin! I think I found something that may be interesting to you."

"Huh? What are you on about?" It stopped Cardin long enough that Amy grabbed him by the chest plate, pulling him in an empty room. Sterling closed the door, turning as Amy put Cardin in a full nelson.

"What the hell is-oof!" The words were stolen from Cardin's mouth as Sterling threw a punch at his unguarded stomach, then another.

"Listen here, you little shit." Sterling's voice was low and dangerous as he threw another punch. "Do what you want, but I'll be damned before I let you get away with some of the shit you do." He threw a hard hook, which shot the air out of Cardin. "Now, I'm going to say this only once, got it?" He threw another punch, but stopped because it looked like he was making Cardin sick. He grabbed him by the hair, pulling his head up to look him directly in the eye. "If I see you messing with another faunus, or anyone of my team, I am going to hunt you down. Got it?"

"Y-yes, yes! I got it!" The fear in his eyes made Sterling smirk, grabbing him by the shoulder and throwing him to the ground as Amy let him go. And with that the two of them left him alone, going back to their dorm. Maybe this would be a good time to get something special in town, he was feeling better all of a sudden.