Welcome back. I'm settling into college nicely, and I've finally had some time to write, so without further ado, here goes.

A girl with one pink and one brown eye strolled carefree down a street in the heart of Vale.

Her target was a small but heavily stocked storehouse that supplied Dust for huntsmen under contract with the Vale Police Department. Heavily guarded? Probably. But Neo didn't have a frontal assault in mind- her talents laid elsewhere. Even she could admit the plan was somewhat brazen, but that was Roman for you, and it wasn't like it hadn't worked out for them in the past. Besides, if this went as planned, she'd get off scot free with all the Dust in the warehouse, and the guards wouldn't even realize they'd been had until they got some very angry scroll calls from their boss.

Using her pretty little tricks, she'd taken up the appearance of a tanned huntress from Vacuo. She wasn't impersonating any real huntress, rather using a disguise she thought up herself, but her illusions were next to foolproof if the target wasn't aware of her specific semblance. The staff would swear up and down that she'd looked like a real huntress, and the security footage would back them up. Disguises weren't the only thing her illusions were useful for, but they were simple and effective.

She strolled casually up to the target building, a small, two story affair with a garage door to admit trucks. As expected, one had been left inside by a contact, allegedly waiting for a scheduled shipment arriving from Atlas tomorrow. Neo entered through the front door and walked up to the desk. She slid her forged authorization for a shipment to the man behind it, and he glanced it over. "Huh. Guess an order got moved up. Ah, well. Just make sure to get the truck back here in one piece- we need it."

Neo nodded, and put on a winning smile. The man handed over a temporary ID badge and waved her through. As soon as she was through, the grin turned from polite to shit-eating. It was amazing how much you could accomplish with a fancy piece of paper and body language alone. I really am just that awesome. She stretched, arching her back, and began to heft boxes onto the truck.

The room wasn't that large. There were two guards standing on either side of the garage doors, two chatting idly on the balcony that made up the second floor, and a few more wandering around the bottom level. She got a few odd looks, but once they spotted the ID badge, none of them questioned her. That was good.

Looking at all the Dust stored here, she could already tell the truck wouldn't be large enough to carry it all, but that was fine by her. She could accept losing out on the chance to pick up even more heavy boxes, and one truckful of huntsman-grade Dust would still net them a pretty profit.

The few guards were clearly bored, lounging around doing basically nothing. It was the middle of the day, and they seemed to be the only people in the warehouse proper other than her. One even offered to help her load the truck, which she graciously accepted. It'd help her get this over with faster.

When all was said and done, she was in and out in forty-five minutes, driving away with a good chunk of the warehouse stock that would soon be converted into a quarter million lien, maybe three hundred thousand if Adam was feeling generous. Neo grinned as she drove off into the busy streets. She could respect the fun of a straight up fight, but this was so much easier, and they'd be sitting pretty tonight for all the price of a little planning, one hour's grunt work, and a few thousand lien to forge a glorified permission slip.

Life was good.

Neo smiled.

It would be even better without Cinder's interference.

Neo scowled.

/-/

Team RWBY's first week at Beacon had ended on a high note. Since Ruby and Weiss' spar, it'd been mostly smooth sailing. Weiss found herself not only getting along with her teammates, but actually enjoying their company. It was shocking to her, but not in a bad way.

Blake was still quiet, but Blake was like that with everybody, and though Weiss couldn't say they were quite friends, Blake had helped give her a wake up call about just how poorly she was treating- everyone, really. Ruby was always intensely energetic, but there was something endearing about just how passionate she was. Yang was ever the jokester, but amazingly, Weiss had begun to find herself laughing at some of the jokes, even simple puns. Father would've been disappointed at her company, but then father's opinion didn't matter any more did it?

Weiss refocused as Yang called to her. Weiss stood from the bench in the Beacon courtyard and walked over to the waving blonde. The skyship from Beacon to Vale proper had arrived, and the team was going out to spend the day in the city. It was their first Saturday at Beacon, so they had the day to themselves, and they'd decided to head into town and walk around, maybe get food, go shopping, anything really. Weiss felt- relaxed. There wasn't any strict schedule for her to follow, no places she had to be, no people she had to meet and play nice with, and she had someone to share her free time with.

It was nice.

She couldn't keep a small grin from slipping onto her face as she joined the rest of team RWBY on the airship. It wasn't nearly as packed as before the Emerald Forest trial. There were maybe three other teams on board, but the room could have easily fit four or five times that number. They'd asked team JNPR about joining them, but Ren had given a curt no for him and Nora, and Jaune and Pyrrha wanted to train, so it was just their team today.

Ruby and Yang moved off into the center of the giant open space, while Weiss leaned on a windowsill next to Blake. Blake stared out at the rhythmic rise and fall of the ocean waves past the glass. They stood in a calm silence for a while. Eventually the airship lifted off, and they began to move out over the seas.

Weiss broke the serenity first. "I've really not had much of a chance to talk with you, Blake." The girl in black tilted her head towards Weiss subtly, and Weiss took it as an invitation to continue. "I'll admit we didn't get off on the best foot. My only significant conversations with you thus far have involved you… shall we say, passionately voicing your concerns with me, or my family." Weiss sighed deeply. "I suppose I wanted to tell you that I'm not the greatest fan of the SDC either. At least not in its current form."

"Really? I wouldn't know it from looking at you." Weiss' eyes dilated a fraction. She hadn't actually expected Blake to respond so quickly.

"It doesn't mean I don't like the benefits. I'll admit to liking my fashion, but at the end of the day it is superficial. There are more important things than appearances." Weiss looked down at the windowsill. "I still forget that sometimes."

"The company has done some terrible things. From my understanding, it was better when my grandfather was alive, but he died before I was even born. Father took over after him, and he's been cutting wages, cutting costs across the board to maintain the company's meteoric growth. As a kid, that didn't bother me. Early on, I didn't know. Then, it didn't affect me directly so I didn't care. Now? I'm not so sure. I do like luxury, don't get me wrong, but… does any one person really need so much? Short of buying the kingdoms themselves, there's pretty much no conceivable way we could run out of money. On top of that, it's not sustainable. You can't keep a company growing at a higher and higher rate forever. Eventually you have to slow down, to stop. Eventually there's only so much Dust that people actually need, can actually afford."

Weiss sighed as she caught her train of thought. "I'm sorry, I should get to the point. I'm not my father. I don't agree with him. I want to be better than him. In addition, I'd like to get to know you. I know you probably don't like me because I'm a Schnee. I won't pry about why- it's probably personal. But… I don't want to hide from what my family has done- what, to some degree, I am complicit in still. I want to move forward. I think you can help."

Blake stared into Weiss' eyes, trying to control her face as her mind churned. Weiss didn't agree with her father. Was that true? Or perhaps a ploy? Who's to say that Weiss wasn't just after her father's power? She sounded genuine. Blake didn't catch any red flags in Weiss' reasoning that might give away an ulterior motive. Weiss knew Blake didn't like her, but apparently she still wanted to be friends. Why? Was she keeping her enemies close, or did she legitimately want to learn about what the company had done? Damnit. Too many questions, not enough answers, not enough time. She hadn't been prepared for this.

She forced a smile as she responded. "That's good to hear. I guess you figured out that I'm not a fan of the SDC." I mean I didn't exactly make it hard to notice. Blake cursed herself again.

"Yes, you may have dropped a couple hints." Weiss teased.

She was joking. Joking. If Weiss knew about Blake's past, they might be dueling right here on the airship, yet Weiss was cracking jokes with her. Blake thought the entire situation too fucking surreal.

Blake kept up appearances. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to take it out on you- none of it's your fault, really. It's a grudge that goes back a while."

Weiss waved away the apology. "You're fine. None of what you said was wrong."

"It still wasn't very polite." Blake replied, surprising herself.

Weiss side-eyed her with a grin and eyes narrowed in amused confusion. "I suppose not. Apology accepted then." Weiss chuckled.

Blake found herself joining in. Weiss stared at her, incredulous.

"Did you- did you just actually laugh?"

Blake raised her hands defensively, trying to wipe the grin from her face. "No!"

"You did! You actually laughed!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Blake blushed and turned away.

"Yang! Ruby! I got her to laugh!"

/-/

Metal shrieked in protest as Magnhild scraped along the shield of Jaune Arc. Nora grinned as she rechambered and swept up under Jaune's guard, grazing his gut and bashing his shield out of position. She watched Jaune's eyes go wide as he stepped back to recover, but she gave him no quarter, pushing forward again with a sweeping blow, cracking into the side of his armor. He choked and stumbled as he backpedaled, scratching Nora's side with a desperate thrust that barely connected.

The reprieve from her onslaught was short- as in, nonexistent. Nora didn't slow down a bit, and in fact rammed her palm into his teeth immediately afterwards, causing him to finally lose his footing and fall to the floor. A flailing strike from Jaune's sword bounced off Nora's leg before she took Magnhild in both hands and pounded it into his head. Like that, he was out of the fight

Now it was Ren and Nora versus Pyrrha. Jaune stumbled over to the sidelines and plopped down on a bench along the edge of the small gym where the spar was being held. Dr. Oobleck sipped from his thermos in the announcer's box above them.

Pyrrha, for all it was worth, appeared not the slightest bit concerned that her partner was out. She was currently pushing Ren hard, almost backing him into the wall as he desperately tried to parry spear thrusts with his smaller blades. He was unprepared for the shield bash to the gut and stumbled back. Pyrrha looked ready to execute a coup de grace, but then spun to send Nora sprawling with a smack from the butt of her javelin as the girl rushed in for a flanking maneuver. Pyrrha jabbed her spear into Nora's chest, landing a good hit, but Nora was still pretty high on aura given that he had barely scratched her in their (very short) fight. Added to the fact that Ren still had about a quarter of his aura left before he was out, it wasn't looking good.

Pyrrha raised her shield to readiness and flicked her weapon to a sword as she stepped back from Ren and Nora. Jaune didn't understand why- she has a perfect chance to finish one of them off! Ren and Nora rose to their feet together, and glanced into one another's eyes for just an instant. In that moment, even he could tell they were planning something.

Planning might have been a strong word. Nora rushed forward with a war cry as Ren sprayed bullets towards Pyrrha's form. Many were blocked by her shield, sparking off harmlessly as she fought to keep her arm steady against the onslaught. Then, Nora reached her. Jaune had just enough time to worry about Pyrrha before she slammed her sword hand down on Nora's elbow and then hooked it around the girl's neck, pinning her with one arm and putting her between Pyrrha and Ren. Ren froze and stopped firing. That was enough. Nora slammed her head backwards into Pyrrha's, but Pyrrha tanked the hit and shoved the girl onto the ground in front of her as her weapon shifted into rifle form. She stomped atop Nora's back as she unloaded six quick shots at Ren. One miss, one graze, and four hits center mass put Ren in the red. "Oh, Mr. Lie Ren is down for the count!" Oobleck called.

With that, Pyrrha lowered her barrel and unloaded the rest of the magazine into Nora's head. To her credit, Nora tried to throw the girl off, but the combination of an aura-enhanced leg and several bullet impacts forced her back down. When Pyrrha's gun clicked empty, she slammed her shield down on Nora's head with her free hand, and that was that.

"WOOOOOO!" Jaune had no idea how Nora could be so excited about getting roundly trounced. "That was awesome! Oh, you've been holding back on us Pyrrha. We're gonna have to try that again some time. Maybe blondie on our side instead of yours."

"That hardly sounds like a fair fight." Pyrrha replied.

"Oh yeah. With all three of us at full aura, there's no way you could win."

Jaune wasn't so sure. He was beginning to realize just how scary Pyrrha truly was. Sure, she'd trounced him in every training spar, but that was to be expected. He was a fraud with next to no experience, and she was an actual student. It made sense she'd demolish him.

But seeing that display gave him pause. True, Ren had been low on aura, but Pyrrha had handily won a 2v1 in under a minute, and Jaune had barely touched Nora's aura. Pyrrha was highly skilled- her aura still sat handily in the green, having only taken a couple bullets and one slash in the entire fight. There were stronger students than Ren and Nora out there, but they weren't slouches- Nora would probably be even better if she could control her bloodlust. That she crushed them so quickly…

Just who did I get as a freaking mentor?!

He wondered idly as Nora looked to Ren with a smile. The boy shot her a small grin, and she started positively beaming. Their weird, almost telepathic understanding reached, they headed to the exit. Jaune waved Pyrrha over, and they followed. They'd need at least a good meal and a short rest before their aura could recover, so for now it would be games and studying in their dorm. Was it simple? Maybe. But it was calm, it was fun, and their team dynamic was settling in well.

Jaune breathed an (internal) sigh of relief at that. He had next to no idea what he was doing at Beacon, and if he'd had to handle a team at each other's throats, he wasn't sure he could have managed. But they were ok. Ren and Nora were fun- Nora was aggressively friendly, but so charming that she could pull it off. Ren was mostly quiet, but conversations with him felt deep and meaningful. And Pyrrha had found out his secret, and not only kept it but decided to help train him. She was noble and kind. All of them were good at heart and willing to work together.

As they arrived back at their dorm and Nora pulled out a deck of Cards against Hunters, he let himself relax. For sneaking into Beacon, he wasn't doing too bad.

/-/

Team RWBY's outing into the city had been fun. They'd gone clothes shopping, been to the bookstore, gotten ice cream- ok, admittedly Ruby didn't care too much for the first two, but they were finally getting along!

Until Blake read the story about that stupid Dust heist. It had started out as a curiosity, but devolved from there. Now they were halted in the middle of a quiet street paved with bricks, little local shops with their rustic wood ornamentation lining the road. The first hint of orange heralded the setting sun as Weiss' chill words cut the silence.

"I'm merely stating the obvious."

"I don't think this could've been a White Fang attack." Blake replied.

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "What makes you so sure? They've certainly shown an interest in Dust in the past."

Blake tugged at her hairbow. "That's more about the SDC than Dust itself, though I have to imagine having more Dust would be useful for them."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "You give them too much credit. These people aren't idealists. They'll steal from anyone who has something they want."

Blake winced. "Even if that were true, this rubs me the wrong way. It seems too- calm."

"Stealing half a warehouse's worth of Dust isn't extreme enough for you?"

Blake either ignored or didn't notice the comment as she stared off into space. "It-it seems too peaceful. No deaths. None of the guards were hurt, or even attacked at all. The Fang is many things, but the groups that would steal Dust tend to be more violent and direct. From the looks of it, this was a well thought-out hoax, not a show of force. Shows of force are the Khanites' bread and butter."

Ruby, standing absolutely still and upright, had enough presence of mind to say "What."

"Huh? Oh, sorry, got lost in my own head. Khanites. It's a term for the parts of the White Fang that answer to Sienna Khan. Sienna is the most popular leader pushing for violent resistance to faunus oppression. Most of the Fang haven't gone Khanite. They follow G- some of the original leaders."

"Oh yeah!" Yang chipped in. "I think I heard about that. What's their names? Ghira and Kali? What's the last name? Ber- no, Ben- no. Wait! I got it! Belladonna!"

Blake's cheeks went red, and Yang's beaming smiled morphed to a little surprised 'o'. "Wait… Belladonna. Belladonna! That's your last name!"

Blake shrunk away from the boisterous blonde, familiar shadows intruding on her mind.

Yang stepped closer to her "No fucking way. I see it now, they look almost exactly like you. Don't tell me your parents are actually White Fang leaders?!"

"No!" the lie sounded forced and weak, even to Blake. The shadows encroached further.

"Oh my gods, they totally are. You shoulda told us girl!"

Yang clamped a hand onto Blake's shoulder and shot a wide smile her way. Ruby was still trying to parse everything that had been said when Weiss struck.

"I'm not sure if awesome is the word I would choose to describe it. Try disconcerting. Unnerving. Terrifying?"

Yang snapped her head to look at Weiss. "Whoa whoa whoa Weiss-cream, what's all that for?"

"Nothing much. Only the war between the Fang and the SDC. Only a couple dead family members on their orders. Only the reason I stayed up at night as a child fearing I was going to be assassinated."

There was a deathly silence.

Blake was wringing her hands as she slowly looked up into Weiss' eyes. The girl in black looked dangerously tense, and her eyes flicked around the quiet street. "Weiss… I'm sorry that that happened to you. I'm sorry that you lost your family, that you had to live in fear, but I can promise you that my parents weren't a part of it. I would know."

Weiss bit her lip with a look of concern before continuing. "I'd… I'd like to believe that Blake. But I'd like to believe that my father is a good man. That he hasn't destroyed people in his quest for power. The truth is that he doesn't care about anything but money and the family name. Can you look me in the eyes and tell me that you're certain your parents weren't behind this?"

Blake's gaze became steely, holding a confidence that was rare for the quiet girl. "Yes."

Weiss looked deep into Blake's eyes. Apparently, she liked what she saw. "Hmm. Then I believe you. Rarely have I seen you hold such conviction."

Ruby's brain had finally caught up with the conversation, and she showed it by blurting out before thinking. "Wait. If your parents are Fang leaders, wouldn't that make you a Faunus?"

The shadows reached a fever pitch, but Blake forced them back, with deep breaths and fragile trust. She let out an exasperated, jagged sigh. Hand trembling, she reached one hand up to her hairbow and untied it, revealing two black, feline ears hiding beneath it. Her voice was shaky and light at once. "Honestly, I'm surprised the disguise lasted this long. It wasn't very good."

"So THAT'S why your hairbow was always shaking!" gasped Yang.

Blake rolled her eyes.

Yang put a hand under her chin, contemplative. "You know, that does explain a lot. That time I caught you reading without the light on, the reflexes… the tuna."

"I'll pretend I have no idea what you're insinuating," Blake retorted dryly, the darkness receding from her mind as she felt a wave of relief wash over her.

"So! Blake's a cat person. That's cool. We cool?" Ruby asked, desperately hoping that they were, in fact, cool.

Yang shot a thumbs up, and Blake and Weiss simply nodded.

Could it be?

They'd successfully navigated an argument without a catastrophe! The team was finally calming down! Not too long and they'd all be engineering new superweapons together in-

"Hello? Remnant to Ruby?" Yang waved a hand in front of Ruby's face.

Ruby spluttered. "Whu- huh?"

"I said, isn't it time to head back to Beacon? It's getting late, and the last shuttle leaves in twenty minutes. Unless you wanna find a hotel out in the city, we should probably get going."

"Oh! Yeah! As team leader, I agree with Yang's idea. Back to Beacon!" Ruby launched into her semblance as she zoomed towards the docks. Man, her team was cool. And now that they were getting along?

They were gonna be awesome.

/-/

After all her overanalyzing, had it really been that simple? Sure, Weiss had hesitated a little, but she'd honestly seemed to care more that Blake's parents were Fang leaders than her being a Faunus. Hell, except for a couple bad puns from Yang, they'd barely mentioned it since she let the secret out. The only time it'd really come up was when she put the hairbow back on. None of them had been happy with her, but ultimately they'd let her make the choice. Team RWBY might have figured her out, but that didn't mean she was ready to broadcast her racial or familial heritage to everyone quite yet. Her disguise might have been terrible, but she was going to use it until it stopped working. Putting her full identity out there in public would lead to too many risks. Her parents hadn't heard from her in a while, and if they heard she was at Beacon they might try to come find her. She wasn't ready for that conversation.

On the even more pragmatic side- as in keeping herself alive- she had no idea where Adam was, but could guess he wasn't very happy about her running away. He'd have an axe to grind, and he was dangerous- more than a match for her fledgling team. If he reported back to the other Fang cells, they might want to make an example out of her. Not for the first time, she wished she could've secured a fake identity before joining Beacon. It would've been a longshot- no doubt all but the best of forgeries would be caught by Beacon's screenings- but she hadn't had the money or contacts, so now she was here under her actual name. If she was being honest, it was only a matter of time before word got back to Adam or her family.

But that didn't mean she was going to make the process any easier than she already had.

Still, her team's reaction had touched her. It felt… odd. Even Weiss hadn't seemed to treat her any differently, and Ruby and Yang were actually curious, and definitely not upset. They had hardly cared that she was a Faunus. Why should they Blake? To them, it doesn't change anything. She was still the same person. They still got along. Had Blake honestly expected Ruby or Yang to be hiding a racist streak?

No. Blake realized, with a sudden clarity. They don't care at all. Because they actually consider me a friend. They're not upset. In fact, they're happy I was willing to open up to them. That thought made her shiver. Then how would they react to knowing what I've done?

One of her secrets was out. It was inevitable she couldn't keep up the lies forever, and it was amazing the disguise had lasted this long as it was. But now, the other, much more dangerous secret was eating at her, dark tendrils of insecurity stabbing into her thoughts. They can forgive hiding my heritage. It's functionally similar to hair dye or colored contacts. Accepting that I'm a criminal? A killer?

Blake was, as always, torn.

This was a step in the right direction, undeniably so. But it was not a resolution to the root problem. Sooner or later, the veil would fall, and they'd discover her past with the Fang. What would they say then? Blake wanted to believe they'd accept her, but she couldn't be sure. Would they keep her secret? Would they forgive her?

Did she deserve forgiveness?

Could all the harm she did really be swept under the rug because she felt bad about it?

For now, she still had time, but that time was running out. She couldn't keep up the facade much longer, and if she were honest with herself, that was at least as mental as physical. Her sins festered in her mind with nowhere to vent them, and sooner or later that darkness would fall across all of them.

And despite all her agonizing, she was no closer to figuring out what she'd do when that day came.

/-/

Nora found herself at a loss for words in a very familiar situation. She wanted to talk to Ren, but he was clearly busy in his own head. Probably still thinking about that disaster against Pyrrha earlier today. He was missing the forest for the trees again, so caught up in his planning that he was nearly dead to the world. She didn't want to interrupt him, so while Jaune and Pyrrha went off to train, she stood facing the bathroom mirror with streaks of mascara marring her cheeks that definitely weren't caused by tears. Gods dammit! Why can't he ever just ask me what's wrong?! Why don't I ever tell him?! She thumped her fist on the countertop.

At the end of the day, she supposed it was ironic. She was the most brazen fighter in their year, even worse than Yang or Cardin, to the point of actively handicapping herself, and she still couldn't work up the confidence to confront a friend about a problem.

I can face down a Nevermore with a smile, but when it comes to uncomfortable conversations, I'm the biggest coward around. Queen of avoiding the issue.

She was tired. She was so tired of it, and yet she had no idea what to do about it. A confrontation felt impossible- she'd tried so many times before only to lose her nerve at the last second, and Ren trusted her so much that he never pried deeper even when she was obviously upset. It was a catch 22.

She just wanted him to talk to her.

To realize that she wasn't as emotionally unflappable as she appeared.

To trust that she wanted to hear what he had to say.

But she was too scared to push the issue.

And so she tried to make up for the hollow feeling. First it was being outgoing. She'd already liked people anyway, and so much time alone had made her even more enthusiastic to make friends, but she'd kicked it up to eleven to see what happened. It worked, for a while. But it didn't fill the hole. So she'd moved on to cooking, a hobby to occupy her time. That hadn't worked either.

Nora wasn't sure when she stopped reining in her anger in battle. It was probably a gradual thing, enough that she doubted Ren had made special note of it until recently. Now, she lived for the heat of battle, but the signs were already there. The high of each battle was fading. Soon it would vanish too.

She only felt alive in flashes- the joy of a landed joke or a close moment, the adrenaline of pain and the striking of metal on flesh. None of it lasted much longer than a bolt of lightning. In the space between those moments, she felt hollow. Dulled. Wrong. So she pushed on. Tried crazier and crazier stunts. She hadn't known if the electricity dust trick would work the first time she'd tried it, she'd just shattered a piece and hoped that the explosion didn't fry her. It had worked out, like it always did.

But Goodwitch's words ate at her.

For how long would it work? How long could she keep getting lucky? Sure, maybe she felt empty, but there was still a large gap between feeling dead and being dead.

In that moment, Nora finally decided.

She was nothing if not a survivor.

She wiped the smeared makeup from her face, took a deep breath, and stepped into the bedroom.

Ren looked up at her with a smile- as did Jaune and Pyrrha. She'd spent so long in the bathroom that they were both back. Ren shot her a concerned glance, but she waved it off and headed over to him. She whispered into his ear. "Ren- we need to talk. Not right now, but- we need to talk."

Ren raised an eyebrow as he nodded, but when Nora turned and started talking to Jaune and Pyrrha, he dropped the issue as well. The team had a short discussion about plans for tomorrow, and Nora couldn't help but challenge Pyrrha to a rematch- three on one.

Ren had noticed Nora's odd behavior of late, and her question confirmed his suspicions that something was not right. She'd been even more brute-force than normal, even more volatile. It worried him. He had no idea why she was so out of sorts. He simply shook his head and tuned back into the conversation. If something was bothering Nora, she'd come to him, and they'd work it out.

Nora had been like this for a while. To everyone else, she was a peppy, loud, and aggressively friendly character. To be fair, she really was a people person. Only rarely did she show uncertainty or sadness, almost always when they were alone. It spoke of someone willing to let their guard down around him. She trusted him. And really, that made sense- they'd been each other's only regular human contact for years. Anyone could grow close under those circumstances.

But lately, it felt like it'd been happening more and more. Not only had she been more upset, but she'd been showing it openly. Her spars were escalating in force, and most of her fights at Beacon had been already been over the top. The near-death experience with the Nevermore, the beatdown with Cardin, even her blind rage against Pyrrha and Jaune earlier today. He was starting to worry. Still, he didn't want to pry on Nora's mind. In time, she'd open up. All he had to do was wait patiently. That was the safest course of action.

/-/

Blake realized she was approaching the door to the dorm. She'd gotten lost in her head again. She stepped closer to the door, but her ears perked up under the bow. She took a deep breath in through the nose, and then tensed. She reached one hand for Gambol Shroud as she opened the door with another.

There was nothing amiss in the room, other than the cardboard box in the middle of the floor with a piece of paper taped to the side. I'm almost certain that wasn't there before. Still cautious, she prowled into the room. Ruby blew past her and swept up the package. "Ooooo, a box."

"Ruby! We didn't put that there! You don't know what's inside it- It could be a bomb!"

"Why would it be a bomb? Besides, I recognize this note. This is from Uncle Qrow." Ruby tore open the top of the box.

Something dark and furry leapt for Blake's face.

Ruby squealed. "Oh my gosh, it's Zwei!"

Blake screamed and stumbled backwards, falling on her rear in her desperate bid to escape.

They'd brought a dog.

/-/

Yang was making the most of the situation.

"Aw, come on Blake. You can tell us what's wrong. Cat got your tongue?"

It was a little mean, but she was only teasing the girl. Blake was normally so reserved and quiet, and to see her react so violently to Zwei was priceless.

Blake continued to ignore Yang's comments from atop Yang's bunk. The girl had commandeered it immediately and refused to come down.

That was, until Yang dropped Zwei in her lap.

Blake jolted and hissed, throwing herself to the corner of the bed, shaking the delicate "support beams" made out of her spare novels. She curled into a ball and swatted at Zwei as he approached, tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"Aww!" cooed Yang. "He likes you!"

Blake shot Yang a murderous glare as Yang leaned against the bed, crossing her arms on the edge of the bunk.

"Did you put him up here?!" Blake exclaimed.

Yang failed to hide her grin. "I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about kitty cat. Maybe Zwei just wanted to read with you? Or snuggle?" Yang reached out a hand for Zwei, picked the creature up, and thrust it towards her.

Blake shrieked and flung herself over the bed's railing, dropping to the floor in a combat stance. "No! Stop! No snuggles! No kisses, no walkies, none of that!"

Yang took up a pout, sitting Zwei down on the bed. "Aw, you're making Zwei sad." Yang grabbed the dog's face and tried to get it to emulate a frown. Blake's unamused scowl suggested she had not succeeded.

"Yang." Blake warned.

"Alright, fine Blake. Jeez. You're no fun." Yang shot Blake a smirk to let her know she was joking, and let Zwei run over to Ruby and Weiss, who were both hiding their giggles in their hands.

Something slammed into the back of Yang's head.

She spun around to see an open book on the floor, and Blake back in her bunk, reading another novel.

"Did you just throw that at me?!"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about."

/-/

Yang had let the book attack slide. It was close enough to fair that she couldn't really get angry, and it hadn't even really hurt. The incident hadn't left her head though. Blake was usually very even tempered. Throwing things was out of character for her.

Maybe she was reading too much into it. Blake had clearly been a bundle of nerves when she opened up to them earlier. She was probably miffed that they laughed off her fear of Zwei, and- shit. I probably shouldn't have leaned into the cat jokes so hard. She hadn't come off racist had she? Gods, she hoped not.

At any rate, it wasn't much to go off of. A love tap with a book meant nothing to aura. She was overanalyzing it, right?

Somehow, she wasn't so sure.

Still, as the night wore on, they were able to coax Blake back into talking with them. She still hated the idea of living with a dog, that much was clear, but in her own words, she had no choice but to give it a shot. Yang leaned off the teasing, and the girls decided to watch a couple episodes of a Webflicks show before bed. It was fun, despite Blake and Weiss' constant comments, and the interruption (read- narrowly avoided combat) when Zwei tried to sit in Blake's lap. It turned out that even the Schnee heiress couldn't keep quiet when some good drama was on the line. Who knew?

It felt good. Felt right. The little itty-bitty discomfort faded into the back of Yang's mind as they watched, and she slumped into her bean bag chair with a relaxed sigh as the next episode began to play.

The cat's out of the bag, but the other cat's... still in the bag? Why are there so many cats in this bag, and why are only some of them metaphorical?

Jokes aside, what's working here, and what's not?