Chapter Three

After what felt like forever, Lune exhaled in resignation and finally looked up from the desk inside her room, eyes sliding to the starry ceiling above as if to pray for guidance.

It was pointless. Pointless! No amount of intense staring was going to dry up her damp notebook within seconds. And if she managed to do so anyway, there was no salvaging the pages that contained nothing more than an inky mess. There went all her written exercises and silly doodles whenever she lost her attention on the teacher. Stupid Aqua.

It was currently the weekend, Saturday being displayed on the digital calendar on the wall. She could get her parents to replace the thing before she went back to attending her classes, but…

Here I thought I finally have something to show Mom and Dad to brighten up their day, she thought with a frown as she plucked the squelchy thing from her small desk and chucked it into the nearby trash bin. While the notebook was mostly witness to her developing ability to hold her pencil steadily and write more legibly, she'd drawn a future version of herself in one random page that ended up looking cool enough to show to River and Vert.

A work of art for a five-year-old—and it also entertained her thoughts of possibly becoming a Huntress someday.

Pffft, me. A Huntress. Lune shook her head and stepped back, turning and climbing up into her bed. She laid back down with her arms stretched out. Another sigh escaped her lips.

She didn't have any solid plans just yet. As of now, she'd rather focus on surviving four more years in that stupid civilian school without completely snapping and traumatizing her five-year-old peers. All she needed was the right mindset to survive; she was too stubborn to quit and let Mom do all the teaching at home. She thought herself a nice person, but with the likes of Aqua making sure that each day was as bad as the last, she was growing more and more tempted to find the nearest cliff, push the boy off it, and call it a day.

Kids like Aqua were making her wonder how the hell she used to like children in her old life—or at least, she remembered liking children then. Kids like Aqua were the reason why she was pranked during every other day starting Monday, and she would be discovered by her mom to be sopping wet, with a piece of gum stuck on her hair, or to appear to have survived a food fight of epic proportions. Using her snacks as ammunition.

And, kids like Aqua were the reason why she counter-pranked during the days not mentioned. She'd had it with her not-giving-a-crap attitude. Whoever said ignoring bullies would make them grow bored of you should reevaluate that statement. Though, who'd have thought she had a flair for being a clever little ankle-biter? Or, for that matter, who'd have thought the one thing she'd outgrown had come back in full force?

She grinned at a particularly cheery memory from last week. Of course, she made sure that her moments of mischief didn't have any lasting effects on her target. The worst she'd ever done was proving the name Aqua suited the kid after accidentally bumping against him… and sending him splashing into the school's fountain.

A kid's mind was still a fragile thing, after all, and while she hated Aqua with the intensity of a thousand suns, possibly more, she didn't want the brat to grow up and hold this against her.

For all she knew, he might become someone particularly angsty because his life went south. Nobody had time for that. Besides, while Lune had the tendency to slack off at times and frustrate her peers, sleep more often than not (when was the last time her bed looked clean and pristine?) and exact revenge on the people who really, really crossed the line, she was, in whole, a nice person.

She hoped. Her current way of living was really making her consider being a cliched villain just to spite all those meanies.

Lune paused her thoughts, blinked, and resumed them again with widened eyes.

…Meanies. She did not just think of those people as meanies. What was she, fiv—wait, darn, she was. Her birthday wasn't about to come until the next month. And her thirteenth birthday wasn't swinging by to say hello until eight more years.

I think I'm starting to forget how to be an adult, she thought in despair, her mental voice just as tiny and squeaky as her real one. She twisted her body to reach for her pillow, picked the thing up, and smacked it into her face. Repeatedly. This happened because I'm always exposed to children, ensuring I pick up some bad habits… the same way a person catches an accent the longer he stays in one foreign country. Dammit. Who knows what I'll be like by the time I reach ten, graduate, and move on with my life—

"Am I… interrupting something important, Lune?"

The pillow went flying.

"Dad!"

She might have been too hasty in getting off her bed, because instead of getting to run towards her dad to tackle him into a bear hug, her foot got entangled in her blanket and she ended up gracefully falling face-first into the carpeted floor. The world apparently decided that today was a good day to remind her to make her bed.

Lune felt her upper body being gently gripped. She was lifted up into a standing position, and her line of sight switched from the royal blue carpet and into the half-amused, half-worried green eyes of her dad. If the dark red scarf wrapped around his shoulders didn't hide his mouth from direct view, Lune would have been sure his lips were twitching from suppressed laughter.

"Let's hope there isn't an encore of that," her dad said. "You alright there?"

Mortified, possibly contemplating hiding under the bed forever. And a half. Obviously, she wasn't about to say that aloud. She grinned anyway, and proudly placed her hands on her waist. "My nose hurts a bit, but I'm fine!"

Regardless, he gave the girl a once-over, just to be sure that she was, indeed, fine and dandy. He nodded in confirmation and stepped back to give Lune some space. He smiled in relief.

"Whew, that's good. The last thing we both want is, well, you know…" He awkwardly scratched at the back of his neck as his fox ears flattened. "For your mother to raise a fuss again. Or for you to get injured. Remember that Sunday?"

"Um."

Oh, god. She found herself nodding slowly.

How could she forget? It would take a miracle just to stop thinking about it; a divine intervention wouldn't even do anything. The darned memory was very much like a weed in the garden she couldn't get rid of.

It was the Sunday of last month, to be more specific. Once upon a time, she and Dad had a merry game of tag outside the house. It had been a bright and sunny autumn day then, so she'd thought, What better way to spend it by jumping on several piles of leaves and go fooling around because I technically am a kid and I should do some kid stuff while I can? So she got her dad to spend time with her, and the ensuing game had been really fun—

Until Lune ended up spraining her ankle because she didn't spot the stupid rock on the grass.

After that, there was some crying, some panic, and eventually it boiled down to River raining hell down upon them—upon Vert—for being so careless. Playtime Fun Times with Dad had become less often in result.

"I don't wanna remember." Lune bluntly admitted with a similar expression. With the kind of subtlety that a five-year-old like her could accomplish (which was, in other words, little to none), she moved on to sit on her bed and changed the topic. "Did you just come back from work, Dad?"

Vert patted the pair of chakrams strapped to the belt on his waist, indicating that yes, indeed, he'd just gotten home from a day of teaching at Signal.

The weapons looked simple on the outside, almost boring even, but a past moment of showing off by her dad had informed Lune that the weapons were also two halves of an assault rifle. She remembered being in awe as she watched the pair of weapons transform before her eyes. And because the chakrams themselves also had two chambers where vials of Dust was stored, placed on each side of the handle, Lune never grew tired of seeing flames dance or ice form from each graceful swing.

Had she mentioned Dust was amazing? Because it was. It was the energy source for almost everything. Utility, combat… you name it.

"Pretty much." He said. He paused for a moment, appearing to contemplate his next words. Lune patiently waited for him to speak. When he finally knew how to say it, "So. I've heard from your mother that you've been asking about the whole Huntsman business. I mean, I can see the appeal. Zero to hero. And in your case, that probably means less people to bully you around."

Lune nodded at that one.

"Yep, that's what everyone in my class says about them. The zero to hero part, I mean. They were all, 'The Huntsmen and Huntresses are so wicked cool with their shiny weapons! I wanna be one someday!'" Lune said, accompanying her words with the enthusiastic gestures she'd seen her classmates make during break time. "…But I told Mom I'll really think on it 'cause it's not safe." She tilted her head to the side. "Are you mad?"

Her dad shook his head no. In fact, he smiled.

"Far from it, kiddo. You know I rarely get mad. That's Mom's job." He said, his wry tone of voice an accurate imitation of his wife's. "And as much as I like knowing that my little bunny wants to take the path I've taken, your mom's right. It is that dangerous. Buuut, I can see you're not entirely set on the idea yet, anyway, and I'm not surprised." That resulted to an affectionate ruffling of her hair. There goes my brushing efforts. "You're interested, aren't you? I know you've seen me train once or twice outside the house. You're probably wondering what a Huntsman-in-training did before they became someone like me, right?"

Lune already knew, but of course, saying yes risked her cover. It was one of the few tidbits she made sure would cling to her as she spent more and more time in Remnant.

As of now, she still remembered a good fraction of the RWBY-verse. But then she knew that in a decade or so, she'll have forgotten most of it. The fog in her mind only got thicker and thicker until it completely covered her old memories—until all she knew was that she had a past life and was living a new one.

And honestly? She wasn't all that bothered. To forget some past memories was a natural thing; everyone experienced that, growing up. Some key information might still be retained, sure, but the finer details would be forever lost until something triggered the memory. Besides, if she'd landed in the right timeline (considering how Beacon was still standing…), the knowledge of what will be happening was one kind of baggage she didn't want to carry around. She sure as hell didn't want to end up looking at a familiar face and proceed to feel sorry for him or her because this or that was going to happen.

"I thought everyone who wanted to be a Huntsman enrolled in a combat school before going to places like, um… Beacon Academy?" Lune said. And realizing that she might have sounded too knowledgeable on that one, she quickly added, "That's what I heard from everyone around me."

"They're right, actually. But some exceptions include people being already trained outside a combat school. Those cases are few and far-between, and usually, it's the entrance test that proves if you deserve to be enrolled in Beacon anyway. Or Atlas, Shade, or Haven. Obviously, those special people would be evaluated much more differently than the ones from a primary combat school."

Lune could only look at him curiously, not knowing which next words wouldn't ruin her facade. Thankfully, Vert mistook it for the kind of confusion that most children usually have when it came to topics like these.

"But I'm thinking that kind of discussion's better continued in a future time, when you're much older. It's all probably just words to you at the moment. So…" He looked mischievous for a moment before he broke out into his usual, cheery expression. "What if I told you that, next month, you can come with me to Signal Academy and watch the students in action? Maybe I could help you decide on what you want in the future."

"Whoa, really?" She sat even straighter on her bed, attention now piqued.

"You've been well-behaved for these past few months—for the most part, anyway. Don't think I don't know about the incidents in your school with this Aqua kid. I'm glad you're putting up a good front against the bullying, but those pranks you're retaliating with…" Her face was of angelic innocence at his brief, pointed stare. The mischief glinting in her eyes, however, betrayed what she really thought. "Right. You got that from me. Never mind. A-ny-way, what was I saying? Oh. Yeah. Do you want to see Signal up close, sweetie?"

"'Course I do! But what about Mom? Did you tell her about it already?" Lune knew full well that most things these days needed her permission. She and Dad when left alone were a magnet for trouble.

"I did." He said. He almost sounded victorious that moment, and Lune wondered what he did to convince River that he was going to be extra-careful with his little girl this time. To her mild embarrassment, some of her thoughts slipped into something rather inappropriate. She hastily shoved the very idea from her head and tuned back in to what her dad was saying. "…In fact, it's all settled. That's actually why I came to you in the first place."

"Then message received." Lune grinned. Her dad grinned back. He hadn't noticed her spacing out.

"If that's the case, mission accomplished! So now…" Vert straightened up and pulled off his scarf, appearing to relish the open, cooler air. "I'm going to go change into something more comfy now. Dinner's going to be ready soon. Right, I almost forgot that one." His face turned sheepish at that last line. "Your mom would slay me if you ended up late for dinner again because nobody called you."

Mostly because I'm either deep in my daydreaming or fast asleep.

"She's scarier than the Grimm when mad," Lune said in agreement. Not that she'd actually seen a rampaging Grimm before, but she was sure he knew what she meant. "And thanks for taking me to Signal next month."

"No problem, kid. Look forward to it; it'll be an interesting day for you." He said and ruffled her poor hair again. At this point in time, maybe it wasn't too much to wish for her rabbit ears to stand up straight; they'd definitely make for a good obstacle against affectionate head-patting or hair-ruffling. She got those more often than hugs.

Anyway, there went Dad, whistling a catchy tune as he stepped out of the room. He gently closed the door and she heard the knob click shut.

For a moment, Lune simply sat there and stared at the closed door, her mind suddenly racing with all sorts of thoughts about what could be happening next month. They mostly revolved around the word badassery. It wasn't until ten minutes later that she realized something. Something that she'd meant to tell either Dad or Mom because the sooner this was dealt with, the better.

She hadn't asked for a replacement notebook. A replacement for the one Aqua ruined when he'd chucked her bag into the school fountain as revenge.

Lune palmed her face.

One month later, Lune found herself walking down the stony path towards Signal Academy. As she paused before the large, open gates that could be her gateway to her own future, the little girl couldn't help but let out a soft, impressed wow as she regarded the rather majestic structure beyond her.

The school reminded her of castles in fantasy films or novels, except it looked more futuristic in design with the smooth walls and the polished look. It wouldn't hold a candle to the architectural marvel that was Beacon Academy, but it was pretty close.

Fairy tale setting, indeed.

"Like what you're seeing, Lune?" Her dad beside her asked with his usual, toothy grin. Or at least, she thought he had a grin on. His scarf was obscuring the bottom part of his face again; at some point in the past, he ditched his bandana and went for a scarf. It probably had something to do with his little girl being more at ease with her Faunus-ness and decided that he ought not to hide what he was, either.

Though, Lune swore her dad resembled a ninja with that getup. The fox ears were, admittedly, a nice touch.

"It's amazing. Like something out of a fairytale." Lune blurted out, unable to peel her eyes away from the school.

She felt her shoulder being patted just then. One, two, three. "Then it's great Signal's giving you a good first impression. That's the same thing I thought when I started working here—things were very different back in Vacuo. Sandier, rougher, and obviously, hotter. I'll tell you all about it sometime."

She looked at her surroundings, taking in the sight of the foliage and the different students walking past her.

Ten and older, just as she'd thought, and they were in their own little worlds, chatting with each other about topics ranging from viable weapons out in the field to what outfit scheme best suited them as full-fledged Huntsmen or Huntresses. The color scheme and overall theme was apparently a particularly important factor in the entire getup. And after seeing one student walk briskly past her and her dad with his weapon in hand, tinkering with the thing and miraculously not bumping into anyone, Lune suddenly thought it might not be such a bad idea to aim for a future career as a Huntress.

Might as well have a direction in life this early on than none at all, right? She wouldn't want to be one of those teenagers who picked a career choice just for the sake of having one because they were indecisive.

She wasn't going to make that mistake again.

"This your kid, Vert? I guess you wouldn't miss out on the fun of taking her to work today. It is that time of the year." A man said with a hint of a slur, catching Lune's attention. As she looked up, it took all her willpower not to make her jaw drop after she took note of the dark, spiky hair, the stubble, red eyes, maroon cape, and the dark clothing. Holy flippin' pancakes. It's—

"Oh hey, Qrow. Thirsty as usual, I see," Vert greeted cheerily, referring to the hip flask in the other man's hand. Lune supposed that, since her dad did teach at Signal in this reality, the two becoming acquaintances was inevitable. There was no mistaking the air of familiarity between them. "I thought it was about time Lune gets to see what it's like to be an aspiring Huntress. It helps that River finally decided she's old enough to risk the trip here with me."

Keep calm. Be seen and not heard. Keep. Calm. No fangirling. Just no.

"Right. River. Your personal set of ball and chains." Qrow said, leading to Vert rolling his eyes in bemusement. "To be fair, the woman has a legit, good reason to be that cautious with her little girl. I doubt she'd be over that incident of hers anytime soon. Reminds me a bit of Taiyang these days, actually."

A knowing, uncharacteristically serious look crossed Vert's features, one that Lune almost missed if she wasn't busy keeping herself together. "How's he doing, anyway? When he's not burying himself with work, I mean."

Qrow shrugged. The action would have been concluded helpless if it weren't for the (fake) dismissive expression on his face. "Still the same since he heard the news about Summer. You wouldn't be able to tell him apart from a zombie. And he's stubborn. Still insists on teaching, even if everyone in Signal's telling him to take some time off. Well, except you."

"What can I say? The man's obviously coping in his own way. Might as well let him recover at his own pace." Vert said. "And the kids? Yang… and Ruby, right?"

"Yeah, it's Ruby. Cute little kid, that one. Obviously, she wouldn't even be aware of much at her age. I guess she's lucky in that regard. So yeah, she's fine." Qrow answered. "Yang, on the other hand… she's still the same ray of sunshine. She's probably what's holding the family together. She's kinda acting peculiar recently, though, so I've taken to keeping an eye on her." Qrow said, making Vert nod in understanding.

"I see. Well, I better not take too much of your time. God knows you need all of it for whatever it is you end up doing whenever you're not teaching. Or drinking." Vert grinned, obviously deciding that the time for the heavy atmosphere was well and truly over. He placed a hand at the top of Lune's head. "I still have to show Lune the classrooms. And the sparring rooms. I might even let her look at a weapon up close if she promises not to touch it."

"Hey, I pinky swore on the weapons things a dozen times already." She shot back at him before turning to Qrow with a calm, lazy smile, finally gaining control of her emotions. "Dad says he's gonna help me decide if I wanna be a Huntress someday. So he brought me here. He's awesome, isn't he?"

The look he gave Vert wasn't exactly in agreement. "…You can say that."

Ouch.

"You wound me, you know that?" Vert said in mock hurt. His fox ears flattened slightly at the reaction.

"It's okay, Dad." Lune reassured him, patting his thigh because that was the tallest she could reach. For that one moment, her innocent facade was suddenly difficult to maintain because of the snickers that wanted to escape her lips. "Mom still loves you."

Qrow, unsurprisingly, knew exactly what Lune was holding back. The way he was looking at her was as obvious as a black dot in a white sheet of paper.

"Well, Vert, this beats getting a completely negative response. Might as well take it or leave it. Or, you know, win the next fight we have to demonstrate for the students." Qrow said, chuckling. He gave Lune a mischievous smile of his own before turning away from Vert and heading towards the gates. But then, five steps later, he paused and turned his head slightly to her. "It was nice meeting you, kid. Would've been great if Yang was here so you'd at least make a new friend today. But eh, maybe next time. See you around, Lune."

And he was gone.

"He's quite the character, don't you think?" Vert asked his daughter, moments later.

"He's almost cooler than you."

"…I think I'll just leave it at that before your opinion changes," her dad decided to say, proceeding to take her hand and gently tug her towards the academy's main hallway. "Gotta wonder where he's going at this time of the day, though… last I checked, he's got a class to teach in half an hour. Oh boy, I'm going to have to cover for him. Again."

Lune could only give her silence as her answer, suddenly wondering the same thing. A faint memory slowly slid into her mind, but it faded away when she was suddenly distracted by the sights Signal brought her.

Lune didn't really know how to wrap her head around the gigantic wave of information washing through her as the time steadily flew by.

First, there was that thing about Dust: it was important to note that it was volatile, meaning things could go boom at the slightest mishandling. So whether it was to be used through combat or utility, extra-carefulness was recommended.

Second, there was also the weapons training class Dad covered for Qrow, wherein she'd seated herself at the back of the sparring room and watched him instruct the students on how to make good use of their newly-created weapons. Without accidentally shooting themselves if they had a gun built in.

And after that, he would proceed to kick butt whenever it was his turn to spar with a student.

Lastly, there was that class where a student would actually learn how to conceptualize their weapons. Because it was sometime in the middle of a semester, Lune wasn't able to understand most of what was being discussed, all of the words being nothing but words in her mind as concepts upon concepts went through one ear and exited another.

She thought herself smart in her past life, but this was another playing field entirely.

Hell, she thought she was going to end up with a coma just trying to understand half the lesson. Especially the part how to make a weapon fold the way you wanted it to so it became your secondary one. Dad was all too amused by the time the class he taught ended.

All in all, a day at Signal was actually pretty interesting.

And the actual fights between two students slated for graduation in the near future? Badass.

"So what do you think, kiddo?" Dad later asked, sitting beside Lune as she watched a student with two fighting knives dash forward to deliver swift, brutal blows against another who quickly brought his bow up to block the hits.

The combatant then pushed the other student away, proceeding to flip backwards with the kind of grace a gymnast in her old life would be jealous of. Mid-flip, he quickly fired Dust shots that his swift opponent had to dodge-roll from. Knife Boy turned his knives into pistols and countered with several shots of his own.

Lune shifted in her seat and faced her dad, the sounds of clanging weapons and cheering students loud in the background. "I think I want to give it a try, Dad. It looks hard… but at the same time, it is wicked cool."

Both father and daughter were currently in another one of the larger sparring rooms, wherein the seats were arranged like that of a stadium and the battlefield was several feet down below. If it weren't for the bright lights high above her, which was also stadium-like, the whole area would be pitch black.

She supposed this was the best part Vert was saving up for her: the action, the semblances, and the elemental maelstrom that was Dust in usage. They were the last thing she was seeing before the two went home.

He smiled and squeezed her shoulder warmly. "Well, I guess that means you take after me more than your Mom. If that's the case, someday soon we ought to start conditioning your body for Signal's standards."

She blinked.

"You mean… training? Exercising?" The thought somehow made her grow pale and ten times unwilling to detach herself from her bed. That means no more sleeping whenever I want.

"Yep. That's right. You can't expect to get enrolled here without being deemed fit enough to survive seven years of combat school. It's just going to be basic exercises for now; we'll work on the harder stuff as time passes." He said. "So what do you say? Will you sign up for the Beryl Training Regime?"

"T-too fast. Can I stop to think about that for a moment? I still have school, Dad," Lune blurted out the first thing that came to mind. Anything to delay the future dent in her sleeping activities.

"Obviously, your education comes first. But I find that if you want to do something, you make time for it," he said, blissfully unaware of his daughter's new conflict.

Before Lune could object even further, the cheering all around them intensified as the student with the Dust-infused bow raised his weapon in victory, a toothy grin on his face. Taking that as his cue, Vert stood up and motioned for Lune to follow him out the door. "I guess we can continue this conversation another time. Come on, let's go make our way home."

"…Okay."

His hand grasping her smaller one, Vert Beryl led Lune out of the stadium-slash-sparring room and returned to the massive hallway that led to the entrance of Signal. Lune couldn't help but observe that, from the wall to the pillars they passed through, the color seemed to be predominantly white. There was also the occasional electronic bulletin board displaced on the walls, showing important announcements like the annual physical examinations, and reminders of deadlines like the expected completion of a Signal student's weapon.

It was also in that hallway that Taiyang Xiao Long sped past them in a yellow blur, running towards the outside area of the academy.

"Weird. Taiyang doesn't rush like that unless there's an…" Dad paused his speech and fell to a stop. She felt his grip on her hand tighten. "Uh-oh."

"Dad? What—"

He whirled towards her, letting her hand drop to her side. "You stay here and wait for me to come back, alright, sweetie?"

"But what—" She was interrupted again.

"I'm sure it's not as bad as we both think, but I'm going to go see what's up anyway." He said, laying it on her pretty thick. He gave her one of his infamous head pats, turned away, and followed Taiyang without letting Lune give one decent reply.

The white-haired girl stood there as she watched her retreating father's figure, crossing her arms as a pout wove its way into her face. Well, that left her with two branching paths, if she were to imagine this situation as something out of a visual novel.

Option A: She stayed here, acted like the good little girl that she was (mostly), and waited for Daddy Dearest to return and reassure her that whatever incident happened, it was fixed and she needn't find out about it. They would go home with her none the wiser, and Vert would probably never speak of it again because it could be a topic much more negative than she thought. Not that she couldn't handle it.

Then she would forever wonder what had happened and it would be branded a noodle incident in her mind for the years to come.

Lune frowned at the idea.

Option B: She disobeyed his orders, went to find out what happened, and either ended up completely safe or completely endangered because she just had go off and sate her curiosity. Lune, you silly girl. She'd receive a severe tongue-lashing from Mom, should the latter happen and she was rescued from that particular bind, and Dad would be disappointed with her. Which would be really, really bad. Right after, she'll end up staying in her room because she was grounded—for the first time in their parenting history.

But at least she knew what had transpired.

"Damn it, what a toughie," Lune muttered under her breath and shook her head. The hallway was currently clean of people, fortunately, or else she'll have to explain why a five-year-old just cursed like that. Well, it wasn't really a curse at the level of words like shit or fuck, but the nature of the statement would definitely raise some eyebrows.

She might as well find out and go with the flow, whatever happened later. Any questions about life preservation could come later. Lune steeled herself at the numerous outcomes of her choices, inwardly apologized to Dad for disobeying him, and broke into a run towards the direction both Taiyang and Vert had taken.

Actually, her dad discovered her before she could even make her two tiny feet take several steps past the sliding doors.

For lack of a better way to describe him, he was definitely not happy to see her.

"Lune, I told you—"

"You wouldn't tell me why I had to stay there." She bluntly said, crossing her arms. "So I came here to find out for myself."

For a moment, her dad looked like he wanted to argue with her. But then the sight of Taiyang hugging his blonde little girl, Yang, and his red-haired tyke, Ruby, made him sigh instead and decided against telling Lune off at this moment. Something something this incident could happen to his little girl too, Lune guessed.

Upon closer observation, Ruby didn't seem to have any idea of what had just happened, just smiling and hugging her dad back like everything was just a game. But then Yang, on the other hand… she returned the hug, too, but it was plain as day on her face that whatever had happened, it definitely scared her. Shook her to the bone.

Despite that, bruised and tired as she was, Yang was doing her best to put on a brave front.

Though her eyes shone at the onset of tears.

The moment he spotted the dark-haired man looking on the spectacle, Dad went on to speak with Qrow, whose face showed signs of fatigue and whose clothes were smeared with dirt. Discreetly, Lune moved to listen in on their conversation.

"What happened?" Vert asked quietly, his cheerful demeanor gone.

Qrow shook his head. His response was hushed, no doubt about it, but definitely no less slurred from before, either. "It was Yang. Went to an uninhabited part of the island with Ruby in tow. They got themselves in danger, and I managed to save their asses just in time before those Beowolves killed them. Taiyang didn't know."

"God." Her dad looked at the family of three in shock. "I've heard of the kid being brash and stubborn, but this seems like a whole different level. What's gotten into little Yang's head to do that?"

"You might as well not find out, Vert. It's really complicated stuff." Qrow said. It didn't take a genius to figure out that he meant it was too personal to share with someone who was just an acquaintance.

"Oh. I gotcha. Lips are zipped shut, I guess."

Qrow looked as if to speak some more, but then his eyes caught on to the sight of Lune close by, who in turn resembled a deer caught in headlights after being discovered.

Eep. Lune practically flinched, expecting a harsh rebuke.

She got the opposite.

"Might as well go talk to Yang, kid. She looks like she could use someone your age right now for company. Me, your dad, and Taiyang are just going to be talking a bit." As if on cue, Taiyang had straightened up and headed towards Qrow, acknowledging Vert with a solemn nod the moment their eyes met. Lune never got a good look at him before, so she was actually quite surprised to see the resemblance between father and daughter.

Blond hair, lilac eyes. Yes indeed.

Anyway. Lune looked up questioningly at her dad, green eyes meeting equally green ones. The man nodded at her with an encouraging smile and gestured to the other girl, who was currently at a loss of what to do. "Go on, sweetie. I'll get back to you in a moment. This'll be over before you know it—and you could use a new friend."

Leave it to Dad to start on that one again. Okay, so maybe he had a point; she didn't have any friends yet. She'd gotten the role of a kid down pat by now, but being friends with one when she had the mentality of a nineteen-year-old? Right. Sure. That wasn't awkward. Or Luna Lovegood levels of weird.

But then there was a first for everything.

"I… don't think this is a good time to make friends, Dad, but okay," Lune said, shrugging and heading towards the blonde girl.

Yang Xiao Long was definitely in worse wear than her younger sister, alright. Her clothes had tears in some places and her pigtails had come undone. Ruby looked pristine in comparison.

(And, Lune admitted to herself, Little Red actually looks cute in that sleeveless hoodie and skirt combo.)

It hadn't been that visible before, but Lune could easily spot the scratches on her arms and legs now; watched the way those angry, red cuts stared back at her. The blonde girl's lilac eyes focused on her after realizing she was being watched, and those two orbs were curious. A little guarded. It was understandable, considering whatever circumstances befell her.

"The grownups said I should go talk to you two," Lune said simply, unaffected by the slight hostility. And with the sudden impulse to make the girl at least smile a bit, she added, "I bet they only said that 'cause they think I don't understand adult speak. Little do they know, I can. I can even speak alien if I have to."

Maybe her clever and silly expression on her face got the job done better than the words that she said. Because, in retrospect, she hadn't really sounded particularly interesting. Just stupid.

Yang seemed to have brightened up, though. And the heavy atmosphere surrounding her thinned. "I guess I can go to you for any alien translations, huh?"

"Yup." Lune said. They fell silent for a moment. Then, having thought of a particularly impressionable thing to say, she finally said, "I'm Lune. I'm also part rabbit. So if you have any carrots to donate, I'd appreciate that, thanks."

She lifted one of her rabbit ears for emphasis and let it back down to rest on her hair. "Any leafy veggies work too, I guess. Just make them nice and crispy."

That got Yang's smile growing wider, at least. "I'm Yang. And this"—she gestured to the younger, red-haired girl innocently staring up at Lune with wide eyes—"is my sister, Ruby. I don't have any carrots at the moment, though, so maybe I'll just ask dad for some later." Her eyes slid up to Lune's ears. "So you're a… Faunus, yeah?"

"Uh-huh."

"So if you're a rabbit, how come your ears aren't standing up?"

"'Cause I'm special like that," Lune responded with ease, at the same time kicking herself for now receiving the award for Most BS Statement of the Year. She shook her head. "Naaah. That's a lie. They've been like that since I knew I have them."

"They're really cute that way. Can I touch them?" Yang proceeded to ask, each word sounding bolder than the last. That was good; the girl was better off being her sunny, confident self. "I've never really seen a Faunus up close before."

Rabbit ear-touching gave her flashbacks of a certain blue-haired bully tugging at them like he wanted the appendages to pop right off her head. Her ears suddenly ached at the phantom pain, but she shoved those memories deep down, forced a lid on it, and nodded at Yang with an easy, lazy smile. Shove off, Aqua. "Sure."

She braced herself at the touch that could be painful to the sensitive pair... but nothing particularly traumatic happened.

Surprisingly, the fingers that brushed over the ear she offered—weird as that sounded—were gentle. Ticklish, even, and the animalistic urge to make them twitch back was starting to become harder and harder to resist. She lost that battle, her ears doing just that. Yang drew her hand back in surprise.

"Sorry. That kinda tickled." Lune offered as an apology, sheepish describing her features the best. Mentally, she berated the damn things for reacting like that.

"That's okay. I liked how fuzzy they are." Yang said, recovering and grinning. "So where do you live, Lune?"

"Just on the southern part of Patch. Me and Mom and Dad stay in this nice house there. Dad's a Huntsman, so he takes care of the Grimm that ends up straying nearby."

"Then maybe I could come visit sometime? There aren't many kids here." Yang immediately said. Confidence, thy name is Yang. "I could get Uncle Qrow or Dad to bring us there. Or… or! You can go to our house. It's not far from here. I bet you'll like it there. We've got cookies."

Lune eyed the three adults still in hushed conversation. Figuring that Dad—or Mom—wouldn't mind a semi-frequent visitor, or mind her becoming someone's visitor, she smiled. "Dad said I should make friends, so eh, why not?"

"Friends, huh? I like that. So okay, we're friends now." Yang decided. "No take backs. You're stuck with me, like it or not."

And that's the Yang I feel more familiar with somehow.

She honest-to-goodness didn't have any genuine friends in the history of forever, here in Remnant. Most usually avoided a Faunus like her as if she were the damn plague. And if the civilian school she was enrolled with was of any indication, she had more bullies than people willing to talk to her.

But with Yang here so easily offering her friendship… without judgment or the usual scornful looks, Lune found herself liking the idea.

A friend. Probably not an instant best friend, or an actual best friend, but a friend nonetheless. She'd been so used to being bullied that she forget what having someone decent for company was like.

Like her mom would say sometimes, "Never look a gift horse in the mouth."

"I don't mind." Lune finally said, extending a fist. Her smile turned wry, a near-imitation of the one her mom wore more than half the time. "As long as you don't use glue on me."

Before Lune could feel awkward standing there like a moron with her hand like that, Yang's fist bumped against hers.

"Obviously. We wouldn't want you getting in a sticky situation."

The grin on Yang Xiao Long's face was that of someone who thought her pun was the best pun in the world.

A/N: This might just be my longest chapter yet... and we're only, like, on the third one. To be honest, I thought of splitting this into two. But I decided against it for the sake of it feeling more complete. XD

I tried to finish this as soon as I could; my workload recently had increased, so in anticipation of the my busyness, I put this up so I could focus on them better. Stealth edits will be done in a future date, as per usual. Also, I'd respond to anonymous reviews if I could, but there's no option for that so all I can say is that, thanks, you guys.

Thanks to you reviewers, followers, and fave(-ers?), too, because I swear I never had high expectations of my story to begin with.

But I must address this one thing about the soul duality, thanks to Lune's reincarnation: honestly, that idea's been mulled over in my mind. I already had a semblance for her to begin with, but I've yet to finalize everything. So eh, it's possible.

That's all, folks. Thank you for reading!