AYangThang: Since this is not a monochrome chapter in the slightest, and even Weiss makes a very minor appearance, I felt it best to post this chapter now, so that anyone looking specifically for monochrome won't be too disappointed that Yang/Yastu ate the chapter more or less...that being said, see you all Friday.

Yang woke to the blaring of her scroll, and only barely had the presence of mind to turn it off instead of chucking it across the room. With a groan of sleepy annoyance, she curled back into the large man at her side. She would never dare admit it out loud, but she thrived from such a simple and pleasant act. Cocooning herself in his blanket and cuddling into his chest were both just added bonuses to the gentle rising and falling of his chest.

That she was the little spoon in this arrangement was merely icing on the cake.

She felt his sleepy fingers begin to wander to the tips of her long hair, toying with the strands. She couldn't tell if he was trying to wake up, or lull himself back to sleep. Either way, she was happy to let him absently fidget as he cleared his throat and settled himself. Tucking herself further into his embrace, she closed her eyes and merely enjoyed the lazy day for what she knew it was going to be.

It wasn't until a few hours later that she woke, getting an eyeful of the man dressing himself. His pants were already securely fastened, but his back was blissfully exposed. As an equally enthusiastic muscle head, she could appreciate all the time and effort his put into his sculpture. "Morning, sexy."

He chuckled at this, shaking his head as he pulled his shirt over his shoulders. "And a very good morning to you. I trust you slept well?"

"As well as I could, considering Weiss kept blowing up my scroll." She dragged herself upright, pushing her wild blonde hair out of her eyes. "Wonder what she wanted, anyway?"

"That I do not know." He said, pushing a try of the morning's breakfast over to her side of the room. "Coco came by, telling me that the Schnee household doesn't expect you until noon. Perhaps it had something to do with that?"

"Heh, half day of work sounds like…" Yang said, flipping through her calendar, finger paused over the date. "Oh, fuck me…I completely forgot. Today's the day I get a bunch of newbies."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, today is going to be a pain in the ass." Yang said with a little frown. "I hate picking favorites. I get to make the whole 'life isn't fair' speech. It hate it. It sucks to tell a bunch of people they didn't make the cut. Not to mention, there's a lot of training that goes into the security sector."

Yatsuhashi offered a small nod as he digested the real meaning behind Yang's words. Everything she said could be taken at face value. Under the surface though, there was any number of profound discoveries to make about the way she felt. He offered a sympathetic glance. "It sounds rather difficult."

"Well, it isn't always easy." Yang sighed, stretching lazily.

He poured her a cup of coffee, and handed it to her. "Careful, the staff here tend to prepare the coffee hot."

"I'll bet it's not hot enough to burn me." She took her time, having a careful sip regardless. "Hmm, not a bad gig you got going on here." She laughed.

"I quite enjoy it." he agreed, settling the tray of warmed baked goods and fruit onto the end table. "I was not aware that being a personal security detail for Weiss, would include offering your services to such a large company."

"Oh, well, it's Blake's old job. She was the chief of security on the books. Weiss knocked her up though, sooo ya know. Can't fight when you've got a bun in the oven...or three in her case." Yang shrugged, trailing off. "I'm not in a position to complain too much. It keeps me busy, and I don't like not having work to do. At least with Weiss as a boss, there's never a dull moment."

"Ah, yes, I suppose that makes sense. Well then, how is Blake handling all of the added security?" Yatsuhashi asked, pouring himself his own cup and adding cream to his liking. He took a taste, then added even more cream. "I cannot imagine she's fond of it."

"Thankfully, Weiss made sure to keep the in-house security staff close to home. Only people that Blake has personally trained. They know about her temperaments, and give her more space." No it wasn't the security force driving Blake crazy, it was all the maids. Well, the human maids, anyway. "Can I ask you something?"

"You just did."

"Smartass." Yang smirked. "No, really, can I ask you something about Velvet?"

"You may ask." He said. "Though, I cannot promise I will know the answer. Or, that I will be at liberty to speak about it."

"It's nothing like that…at least, I don't think so…" Yang trailed off. Was it impolite for a human to ask about Faunus practices? She didn't really know. She would always just blurt out a question, and Blake would always answer. "Err, well, tell me to pull my head out of my ass if this comes out weird or something. I was just wondering, how does Velvet deal with her nesting urges?"

"Badly." Yatsuhashi laughed deeply. "She does not like unwelcome guests. The hired help do not go into the rooms she's marked. We have an entirely Faunus cleaning staff purely for Velvet's piece of mind." The man replied, a knowing smile on his lips. "Faunus cannot control the urge to protect their nesting sites. Thankfully, Coco renovated an entire suite off of their bedroom for the nesting area."

"Even here as well?" Yang asked, watching him nod.

"In all of our homes." He said slowly, looking down into his coffee cup thoughtfully. "Velvet has not felt the urge to move her nesting area since then. You should ask Velvet. She will allow you to see it."

"Blake won't let me step foot in hers." Yang recalled more than once that she was on the receiving end of her best friend's growl. Blake had apologized after she realized what she was doing, but that didn't make it any less intimidating. With a shake of her head, Yang decided she wouldn't tempt Velvet's ire. "I wouldn't want to intrude, it's clearly a family space."

"Hmm." He smiled then. "Get dressed, and come with me…"

It turned out, much to Yang's surprise, that Velvet was happy to show her the family nest.

"Are you sure about it?" Yang asked once more as Velvet put her sewing away. "You seem pretty cool with it, but like I was telling Yatsu, I really don't want to be going where I don't belong...Blake get's really, really pissy...so I know not everyone's okay with it."

"It's because she's a new mother." Velvet explained. "She'll fuss over every little detail like that…if she has a second litter, she'll know better than to try." The three of them made their way to the master bedroom. "I remember my first litter. I didn't want anyone near the nesting room. I moved it about seven times before I settled on a spot."

"Twelve..." Yatsuhashi corrected with a fond, yet distant sigh. "Fifteen, if you count how many times you demanded I help re-arrange the bedroom."

"It was a very stressful time for me." Velvet replied in her own defense. "Anyway, it's a lost cause. The older they get, they go dragging all manner of scents through the nesting spot. So long as the maids stay out of it, I've given up on the idea of scent purity."

"Scent purity?" Yang asked, flicking an eyebrow.

"Too many smells in one space will upset Faunus children. That's a known fact. Scent purity is what Blake's doing. Keeping all scents that aren't hers and her mate's out of the area she's claimed. The idea holds well, until they start to walk. Then you're doomed." Velvet replied with a smile. "Blake can mark that room up all she wants. As soon as they start claiming territory themselves, she'll find all kinds of things that don't belong." As if to add insult to injury she grinned. "Last week Bruno dragged in a pair of Yatsu's boxers."

"He did what?" Yang said, holding in her snickering, and failing terribly at it. "Why would he want that?"

"Strange lad." Yatsuhashi offered good-naturedly.

"Could be any number of reasons, honestly. We don't have too many adult men around here. If he smelled something inherently male that didn't belong to his father, he might try to prove his own dominance. It might also just be that they were silky, and he liked the feel of them. Or even just the color." Velvet said with a tiny shrug. "In a boy his age, there's no real rhyme or reason to scent marking yet. If he wants it, he marks it."

"Will her three cubs be that way?"

Velvet honestly didn't know, and shrugged. "Depends entirely on the child."

"Hmm?" Yang cocked her head. "How so?"

"Children who are submissive by nature won't stray from the hip, much less leave a calling card. Dominant children on the other hand, they'll start taking command. These two may be young, but I give it another year or so before they start terrorizing their siblings…especially Sienna. The only sibling she'll listen to is Jade, and that's because as a human Jade has no instinct to fall into a social ranking. When Sienna gets snippy, Jade fights back...it can get ugly."

Yang grinned, it reminded her of her uncle. He used to encourage Yang's school rumbles as a girl. "And you let them fight?"

"It isn't as if I have much of a choice." Velvet gave Yang a sideways glance. She tested the air before continuing. "Faunus communities have a lot of fighting. It doesn't help that Jade and Coco are cut from the same cloth…the two of them have the foulest tempers I've ever seen humans have." Velvet said, pushing her bedroom door open. Fox and Coco were already elbow deep in their work for the day. So the room was empty. She gestured to an open doorframe that lacked a door entirely. "The twins are in there."

It looked more or less like a typical nursery, though Yang noticed that there was a distinct lack of cribs. Just like with Blake's room, there was a large wad of blankets and padding. Nestled in the blue fabric Sienna and Bruno were cuddled together, happily sleeping. "Geeze…" Yang said quietly, largely impressed. "Nice space…huge." And though she didn't say it, she knew it had to have been expensive.

"And what do we have here?" Velvet stepped into the room, picking up a set of glasses that clearly belonged to Coco. "See what I mean about scent marking? If they like it, for whatever reason, they'll take it...it's a never ending cycle. Blake will tire of it soon enough."

Yang arrived to the SDC offices with more work than she thought she would receive. An inch thick stack of incident reports awaited her. Another smaller stack of ballistic test results needed filing away, and then there was the recruits. There were fifty successful applicants, and Yang could only select ten. She had her work cut out for her. This was the last step, but in her humble opinion, all of these newbies deserved a shot.

All of them passed an extensive background check, and physical. They graduated from top combat schools, hunter academies, or had passed both an armed, and an unarmed field test conducted by Yang earlier in the year. From there, they had to endure three corporate level interviews. The third one administered by Weiss. Then, if they managed to survive that far, they endured Blake's written espionage and infiltration essay test with an eighty percent or higher.

The only saving grace was that there were plenty of openings in the company for highly qualified applicants. Even if they didn't meet the security sector's requirements, they would easily be offered jobs in different parts of the company. Making it this far assured them at least a desk job in one of the many offices scattered around Remnant. The ones qualified to be hunters could be offered a job in the missions department...and with Ruby out of commission, and several SDC hunters still injured, missing, or worse, there were plenty of openings located there.

That, however, was still Ruby's department, and she would have the final say on anyone willing to test into the hunter division. Yang gathered a stack of papers, people who she knew she would have to decline, but that Ruby might approve of. Then she made a beeline for Ruby's admittedly small, stuff, mostly unused office.

She wasn't there.

Yang then went to go check in with Weiss, and found herself watching a debate that made her recall her school days.

Weiss was busy wagging a finger, scolding the youngest among them. Ruby petulantly rolled her eyes at the entire display, not that it deterred Weiss by any means. "Ruby, be reasonable! These aren't even the most expensive models."

"Yeah, but they're the easiest to learn on." Ruby said, was she ate an apple, leaning on the desk Weiss kept in her office.

"This one in the corner is even out of date!" Weiss continued.

"The socketed technology hasn't changed in the past ten years." Ruby said with her mouth full of food. "It's all roughly the same. The hardware in the arm itself is where the changes come into play. I figure, get one of the older ones to get a feel for it, and then start looking into augments from there."

Weiss sucked in a breath. "Won't that be harder on you? Arms might be interchangeable, but you still have to un-socket them. That can't exactly be pain free."

"Can't imagine it would be pleasant, no." Ruby shrugged, taking another bite.

"Give me that." Weiss said pulling the apple out of Ruby's hand. "You'll spoil your lunch, which has dietary restrictions you must follow to the letter for the next six months if you intend to go through with the implants."

"Are you two done pretending we're at Beacon again? Or should I leave and come back another time?" Yang asked with an amused, upraised eyebrow. It was nice to see someone else fighting with Ruby for a change.

"A bug crawled up her butt and died." Ruby said then, thumb gesturing over to Weiss. "Hunters need both a civilian and a combat arms anyway. I figured I'd learn on a basic civilian model. It doesn't have to be pretty, it's just got to work...now she's throwing a conniption about the price."

"I am not." Weiss shot back. "Ruby's being completely unreasonable. I don't want her clinging onto an out of date model just because it's cheaper. I can afford top of the line, so she shall receive top of the line."

"I appreciate that, really, but there's more to it than just that." Ruby said slowly. Her choices in civilian brands were cheaper. Thousands of lien cheaper too. "As much as I'm a junkie for gear, and I love this kind of thing…I just want to be normal…it's all I've ever really wanted to be. These modules, well the civilian ones, anyway, they'll be what other amputees have…and I want that…"

"Just a normal girl, with normal knees." Yang said bitterly from her place in the corner. It was something Ruby always wanted. Fitting in, the desire for normalcy, it was not something Ruby would ever let go of. "Ruby, I just can't believe you're going through with this. You're putting yourself through hell for no good reason."

"I have my reasons, Yang." Ruby protested. What was once playful bickering turned personal. "You just don't agree with them, and it's not your choice."

Weiss sighed at length. This was going to be bad. She could already feel the tension in her shoulders. "Yang, may we have some tea, please...and some hot chocolate for Ruby. Also, order your lunch and have it brought up to the office. I have a feeling it will be a long afternoon."

Since she was on the clock Yang really couldn't argue. "You got it, boss. Be back in a sec."

"Damn that infernal nickname to the bowels of a Grimm." Weiss whispered under her breath. Pushing her ire aside, Weiss leveled her gaze at Ruby. "Yang's right, you know. There is more to life than being a huntress…you don't have to do this."

"I've made up my mind." Ruby said.

"Ruby…what I'm about to say is very personal to me." Weiss began slowly. "In fact, I would very much appreciate if we never brought this up again, after this. All of that said, I do understand what it is that you're going through. The need to hold onto something, because if you don't, you'll lose the only identity you've ever had…we reach that impasse in different ways, but I know that in this moment, you've reached yours."

"I don't think I want to talk about this…"

"Funny how it is that we've reached full circle. You and Yang are so similar, and yet, so different." Weiss told her. "We were partners for years, placed our lives in each other's hands. We battled, and struggled, and tried our best to make lives we would be willing to live…and some days, Ruby, some days, I know, we all barely made it by. There were times, so utterly dark, that I honestly wouldn't have wished such a thing on the worst criminals alive."

"I just want my life back." Ruby murmured. "That's it."

"I know…Ruby, trust me." Weiss said. "And that's the problem. I understand. Almost too well. You think you've lost something huge…but your life, Ruby, that's right here. It hasn't gone anywhere."

"I can't fight like this."

"And neither can I, Ruby Rose!" Weiss shouted, standing from her desk, slamming her hands top it. Her voice grew quiet then. "It's beyond frustrating. If anyone can understand you, Ruby, I do. I have an army of hunters I can toss out into hordes of Grimm like garbage. I have the money to make politicians drool over my support of their campaign…I can blackball almost any company into a corner with enough tact…but I can't fight anymore."

She sat back down at her desk and sighed. "I'm a huntress too. I know how worthless you feel."

Ruby was quiet for a long time before she found her voice. Timid, shaken. "Then why can't you just let me do this the way I want?"

"Because I want you to do this for the right reasons." Weiss said. "We all do..."

"But they're my reasons, Weiss." Ruby said. "Isn't that enough?"

"I need to know you're doing this to make your quality of life better. Not because you want to become some one woman army." Weiss could already feel a migraine stabbing her between the eyes. "I can't promise your operations will be successful…that there won't be complications. I can't even promise that you'll be fit to be a huntress afterwards…I'm not a doctor. This isn't my expertise. The only thing I'm good for is dumping money everywhere."

Yang returned, a tray in hand, and noticed Weiss was slouched over. The petite woman was doing her best to hold her composure together. Sometimes, that was no small effort. She gave Weiss a cup of the blend, watching as Weiss gratefully took a sip. "Now, as I was saying, if you're going to use cybernetic implants, Ruby, we might as well go top of the line, personalized prosthetics too. These pre-made builds are all junk, and I know that because I've been taking tea with the leading expert in the matter. If you're going to do this, we will consult the proper authorities...that is not up for debate."