Relief. After I finished with my thoughts, I realized it was an immense relief off my mind after I told and showed everyone my ability. The fact that they were accepting, and even fascinated by it was awesome.

As usual with Ruby and Yang, they were pretty cool with the whole thing and have taken to Shadow quite well. They even mentioned they have their own pet dog they grew up with and still lives with their dad back at their home. That's one reason probably that they enjoyed Shadow so much. Blake meanwhile seems to stay far away from and instead focus her attention on the eagle Grimm.

Speaking of both Grimm, they're taking the attention from everyone quite well. Before I used to always summon them only when I was fighting Grimm and in trouble, or when I was alone and needed some company. Now that they and I are socializing, they were a bit confused at the attention but are warming up to our team. Definitely something that needs to happen if I am to be everyone's partner. Speaking of being a partner…

"Now you want to be careful in handling any form of Dust compound. Every type of Dust has different triggers in order to make them activate so it's a good idea to know what goes to what." After Weiss apologized, it was a good idea that in order to further smoothen things out between us she's decided to school me properly in the application of Dust. Since then, she's given me pointers when she can on Dust and it's been a great help. Being alone all the time and strapped for lien, I only needed to buy the bare essentials and parts needed for m weapon but that's about it. No improving and furthering my options for combat with the application of Dust. Now that I'm getting a lot of info on the substance and the possibilities it can be used for, I can see why the heiress takes to having it used as a component for her weapon.

"Understood." I say to her. Good thing about learning about all this information about Dust is that it should help me out in any assignments pertaining to it, especially Professor Peach's class. That one is kind of centered on Dust so should help. "Thanks again for your help Weiss." I thank her as I finish sorting my vials of Dust that she gave me and jotting down notes on what she's told me. "I really appreciate the help."

"My pleasure Ethan. If we are to be partners, it wouldn't be wise for you to not have any idea on how to properly use Dust. This should benefit us both."

"Me more so, but yeah, I get what you're saying." I nod at her explanation and finish writing my notes down. My studies over the different classes have been a bit of a challenge, what with the extra work I have to put down on top of the regular work given to everyone, but by no means am I expectant to fail. After I showed the others my ability, I went ahead and showed Professor Port since he was the one to first ask about them and he was quite fascinated by them. Definitely not every day you could examine a full fledged Grimm creature up close and was he didn't waste the opportunity. Although I did have to make them go when he got a little too pokey and proddy on them. Either way it was nice.

I finish up the notes and start putting my stuff. Just in the event that some of the Dust may combust for whatever reason, Weiss opted to talk and explain things in the large workshop area the school where students could go to work on all their equipment, test new gear, try some new abilities and so on. A set of tables near the door we're at were what we used to study and so she could show just how each Dust element performs. "And I think that should just about wrap up what I can tell you today." She tells me we're done.

"Alright." I agree and start packing away both my notes and the Dust samples. Really after the rocky start we had at the beginning, it's nice to see we are friends now. If she could get over the start she had with Ruby, then it was easier to befriend me and I'm grateful. "Okay, that's everything." I say once the packing's done. "So, what's next?" I ask.

She goes to say something, but then stops as a stumped look graces her face. "You know, I'm not sure. Today's a free day for me. You?"

"Same. The others?"

"Classes right now, or doing something else." She explains. With that bit of information, we both realize that we now have nothing else to do. The idea of her teaching me more on Dust was the only thing we thought to do but now that we've got that out of the way, we haven't really thought of doing anything else. "What now?" She asks as she holds her head up with her arm.

I take a second to think. 'Well, we don't really have any assignments to do right now, or we already finished them. My extra work is done too so I got nothing to do on that matter. Hmm… Maybe we can just talk?' "Maybe we can just chill here and talk?" I propose.

"Here? In the workshop?"

"…" We look around to see no one's around and it's pretty dead quiet. I swear I even hear a cricket. "No one here."

"… True. Alright then." She puts her arm down and sits straight as do I.

"…"

"…"

'Wow this is awkward.' It takes us a second to realize that we have no idea what to talk about. "Soooo, what do friends talk about?" She asks.

"Just, stuff I guess." I say. As it stands, neither of us are really good at the social or friendly small talk. Me being away from people my current age at the time and her being the heiress to the Schnee family. 'Oh, that might work.' "Well, how about you tell me how it is being an heiress?"

"Wait, really?" She asks surprised. I bring my hands up in a disarming manner.

"I-if that's alright with you! I don't want to make you uncomfortable or anything." I quickly say.

"No nooo. It's fine I just… besides my family and the people that worked for us I've never really had anyone want to talk about this kind of stuff."

"Well, I'm here now. If you wanna talk, I'm all ears." I give her a comforting smile. From the surprise and somewhat down demeanor she has, she probably didn't have a lot of friends to talk to. 'Especially being the daughter of a very prestigious and wealthy family.'

"Okay," She begins. "Being the heiress to the Schnee family has been… lucrative you could say. All my life I've been able to get and be given just about anything I ever wanted my entire life. I had the best of everything I wanted, had the best tutors when I was homeschooled and the best trainers when I began taking after my sister in fighting."

"Sister?"

"My older sister Winter joined the Atlesian military when she was younger, shifting her right to inherit the title of heiress to me. If she hadn't joined the military, then it would be her that carries the title of heiress rather than… me." She explains. I nod along with her as she talks.

"And instead of staying home, given everything you pretty much ever wanted, you chose instead to train and come to a combat school to become a Huntress?" I ask confused.

"Is that a problem?" She asks with a suspicious look. I bring my hands up in defense.

"Not really. It's just not many people would choose the career you chose… Why did you?" I ask leaning forward. This highly important person in front of me that was practically waited on hand and foot her whole life decided to take up arms and become a deadly fighting warrior.

She looks off to the side like she's remembering or reminiscing about something. "I'm a Schnee." She stands up and holds her rapier in hand, Myrtenaster if I recall the weapons name correctly. "My family has a sense of honor and duty that comes from the name alone. After hearing about my sister joining up with the military, but most of all finding out I had the ability to fight… I felt like it was something I had to do in order to preserve my family's legacy." She holds her sword firm in hand before going into a combat ready stance. "I didn't want to sit around my whole life. Not when I could do something." She says with conviction and without much effort she stabs forward before pulling back in a relaxed stance and sheathing her weapon. She turns to me with a smile. "It's true, while others would be happy to be where I am and live a comfortable life with a cushy job back in Atlas, I'm not like most others." She states. As she stands there, having given me an explanation and I recall how she moved so fluidly with her sword, I give a small smile at what I saw. I retain a neutral look as an idea pops into my head and I stand up.

"Weiss?" I ask standing in front of her. She tilts her head slightly as an indication for me to continue, "Can I see your weapon for a bit?" I ask with hope.

She looks confused for a second at the request but concedes. "Oh, uh, okay sure." She pulls it off her side and holds the weapon flat along the blade in her palms towards me. "Just be careful."

"I will. Thank you." I nod my head to her in thanks before taking it in my hands and gripping the handle. I didn't want to say 'I know.' No doubt that would come off as crass and maybe a hint of smugness. Of course I know how to be careful with weapons, but this isn't my weapon. This isn't the weapon I've selected as my own when I was growing up, but maybe I can learn to. Holding the weapon by the handle with one hand, I properly gauge the weight of it now that it's in my hands. "It's lighter than I thought." I comment.

"In order for me to get the speed and maneuverability I'm fluent with, I needed a weapon that was light enough so I wouldn't be held down by the weight, but also strong enough so I wouldn't compromise on power."

"Nice." I reply. Next what I do is recall the moves that she would use when handling this weapon. The way she held it, how she attacked, her stance, I try to mimic her. I take a step back and thrust to the side, making sure my grip is firm so I don't let it slip. I pull back and slash a few times, making sure my feet are placed in the right way from what I've seen. I twist around and slash through the open air a few times before finishing with my left arm stretched out in front of me and my right hand carrying the sword held up close to the side of my head. I stand there for a few seconds before I thrust forward. I remain in the thrust position for a bit before I pull back, straighten up along the sword aimed upwards in front of me, held close.

"Not bad, but could use some work." I smile at the comment I hear to my side from the owner. I look to her to see her staring at me with a hand cupping her chin and giving me an examining look. "You picked up my form nicely but you would need a long way to go before you could even master a weapon like that." She explains with a grin and hands pressed to her hips.

I go back to looking at the weapon, the thought from earlier coming back as to why I asked for the weapon in the first place. "Maybe… you can teach me?" I ask her finally.

A look of surprise and shock shifts from the grin from before. "Wait, really? But why? You already have your own weapons." She states but is still confused as to why I asked.

"One of my conditions for being the fifth member of your team is I have to be the partner for everyone in said team. I can think of no better opportunity than learning how to fight like you. Just as a precaution should something happen to either of our weapons or… hopefully not, to us." I add the last part with a pang of sadness. I don't like the idea of something happening to either of us or the rest of our team, but if me learning about my teammates weapons and how they fight can help out in the future, even a little bit, that's something I'm willing to do. "If you'll let me."

She stares at me for a few seconds and gets a thoughtful look on her face. She looks to the side and for a moment I think she's going to decline. "First off, you have to straighten your arms a bit more." She takes up a teachers pose and comes up to me. I resume my stance and do what she says. "Keep yourself aware of your stance and your surroundings. Knowing where you can move will allow you to have a better idea of how to move about the battlefield." She instructs me.

"Got it." I say and adapt a more combat ready stance with my left hand to my side, legs spread and my armed right hand ready to fight in front of me.

"No no nooo. Here." She comes up to me and kicks my feet lightly. "Move your feet a little more," I do that. "Straighten yourself up." She pushes against a spot on my back so I'm not slouching a little. "Move your arm out a little more." She comes around to my left and places her left hand on my right, moving my hand to the proper position. "There." I smile at the advice she's giving to me and turn to her.

The fact we both look at each other the same time and are inches from each other makes us freeze. In order to push my hand to the right spot, she's pressed up pretty close to me. Because we are so close I find out the height difference between us. I am just under half a head taller than her so I have to look slightly down. "Hey." I say after the intense silence we had.

"H-Hi." She hesitantly says as well. Things are clearly awkward at the close contact we suddenly find ourselves in. To be honest, I never really took note of it before but I see the scar that adorns her face, along her left eye, just like mine although not as… severe. It doesn't in the least detract from her—

"HEYOOO!"

"AH!"

*SHINK*

My arm rushes forward and I stab something.

"Ah! Good! Very good form! With work you should be able to handle Myrtenaster no problem!" Weiss suddenly moves away from me and takes a refined stance as she talks loudly and quickly. I pull the weapon out and hold it out in both my hands.

"Yes! Thank you very much for allowing me to try my hand at your swordsmanship!" I too loudly and quickly say as I hand her weapon back to her. "I look forward to continuing to learn under your tutelage!" I straighten up with my hands behind my back.

"And I look forward to teaching you about my style of fighting!" She replies with a smile and I return it as she sheathes her weapon to her side. As one, we turn on our feet to those who interrupted us. "Hello!"

"Hey! How are you doing?" I ask those standing in the doorway with the smiles stuck on our faces.

"…"

"…"

"…" Blake, Ruby and Yang stare, blinking with blanks stares at us before all three of them turn their heads to the side, now staring at the wooden frame of the doorway that has a nasty hole embedded into it. Particularly, just about a few inches away from Yang's face. "Are we interrupting something?" She asks as she stares back at us.

Weiss and I share a glance back at each other before relaxing finally. "Not really. We were just… training?"

"Yes. Training." She confirms what I said with a nod. "Ethan mentioned that one of his conditions to being here was he had to become a partner to all of us. He proposed that in order to better learn about team cohesion, we should learn how to fight with each others weapons. I was just showing him the proper way to wield and attack using my weapon… and sometime in the future he'll teach me how to use his weapons."

"Yeah- wait, really?" I do a double take after think more on what I heard from her. 'I was cool with her teaching me about her fighting, but I wasn't expecting her wanting to learn from me.' The others seem confused at that idea too.

"Really Weiss?" Blake asks.

"You want to learn how to fight like him?" Ruby asks too.

"You've seen how he fights right?" Yang asks with a smirk and a thumb to me.

"Hey." I don't take to kindly to what she means.

"Why not? It sounds like a good opportunity for us to better know how we fight and should something happen, it can't hurt to know just in case." She explains a bit more before turning back to me. "How about it Ethan?" She asks.

My response isn't immediate as I am touched by the idea that she would be willing to learn from me. As I said before, I knew I wanted to learn about her more but I still wasn't expecting the other way around. After a moment's hesitation, I smile and nod my head. "I'd be honored Weiss." She nods back. I turn to the others with a hopeful look. "Well girls, how about it? I'd love to learn how to use your weapons, but what would you say to learning how to use about Razor and Revolt?" I accentuate the question by unfolding the weapons into my hands. The smirk doesn't leave my face as I stare at them.

They look at me before glancing to Weiss and back at me then to each other. Without another word uttered, they look back and smile.


Probably wasn't expecting this so soon weren't you all? After recently looking back at my previous chapter, I found out I apologized more than I would prefer on the lateness of my uploads. So expect another chapter soon before I get to work on my other stories.

Decided as a bit of a take away from the shows story, I wanted to make my own chapter and give the idea of just what Ethan will be doing in the future with his team. Don't know exactly how many chapter I'll do where it's not part of the show itself. This was a sort of on the spot thing I did. I started working on the next episode but for some reason I started getting the feeling that something wasn't right. I felt the transition between the last chapter and the next episode wasn't perfect and so this one kind of came up. I hope this was cool with you all. Not an expert in making solely my own type of chapters so while I'm satisfied with how this turned out, I still have some reservations about this, but I hope that's just me.

In any case, thank you all for your patience for my absences in the past between chapter uploads and I'm going to try to make an effort to upload more. Unfortunately though my classes are starting to pick back up and I've got some exams and assignments on the horizon so while I say I want to work on my stories, we'll see if my school work will allow me to.

Although another problem came up just before I was going to upload this. I took some new medication for acne and well, it would seem I had an allergic reaction to the stuff and I blew up in Hives. God it sucked itching all over the place, even my fingers swelled a little so it stung for me to properly type for extended periods of time. Went to the hospital and was given something to counteract the reactions but it should be a few days before I'm back to 100%. This would technically be the first time in my life I've had an allergic reaction to something and I'm glad I didn't have my throat and tongue swell up.

In any case, despite that I'm alright and not gonna stop anytime soon. The time for work will be lessened but not stopped. Thank you all for your support. Fave, follow, review, have a great day, and as always, have fun reading.