A pair of solid knocks hailed the two remaining occupants of the RWBY dorm. Their leader had returned, not that any of them really noticed. The door creaked open, and Ruby saw her teammates in the same place she'd left them; Weiss was still poring over her notes, and Blake was still buried in a book. Ruby stepped past the threshold, and noticed that neither of her teammates seemed to be particularly focused. Blake would half-turn a page, lower the book briefly to reveal her furrowed eyebrows, then settle the page once again, likely to re-read the same words again and again. Weiss was staring blankly at the pages before her, only moving her head between the textbook and the notes on occasion. As Ruby got closer, the ponderous frown on her face became more obvious.

"Blake."

Blake half-turned the page again.

"Blake!"

Blake nearly jumped out of her skin at the voice of her leader. The hardback book tumbled from her hands, and closed with an audible thunk as it hit the floor. Bewildered, she looked up at Ruby, who was standing at the side of her bed. Weiss, too, had looked over.

"You should go talk to Yang." Ruby said with an offered hand. Blake bewilderedly took it and got out of her spot on the bunk bed, then headed out the door without a word.

Ruby took a moment to breathe before turning around and facing her partner. Weiss was looking back with dubious concern. Ruby noticed that she'd ditched the school uniform in favor of a black band shirt she'd gifted Weiss last year. On its front were twisting, gnarled words that formed the name of the metal band whose concert she'd attended, and Ruby knew that the back of the shirt had the signatures of each band member in bright red marker. The shirt was just a tad too large since Ruby hadn't known her size at the time; it hung past her hips, covering the waistband of her sky-blue pajama bottoms. Ruby also realized that, with her partner's hair down, it was noticeably shorter. Rather than hanging below her waist, it now only fell between her shoulder blades, and the ends seem messily frayed and chopped, as if they'd been cut with a knife.

"Weiss," She started, slowly and gingerly walking to her partner, "Do you want to talk about it?"

Weiss frowned and her eyebrows furrowed. She turned back to her notes and didn't respond. Ruby sighed.

"That's okay. We… You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." Ruby turned around, disheartened that her partner wouldn't share with her. As she walked to the bunk, however, she felt a tug on her sleeve. She turned around, and Weiss slowly approached until she was firmly within Ruby's personal space. She didn't mind, of course. In fact, it brought a wan smile to her face. Weiss was looking up at her, her eyes set like steel.

"I am a Schnee. I was born a Schnee. Do you know what that means, Ruby?"

Weiss' voice was sharp and cold, and it froze Ruby to the core, regardless of the warmth of their proximity. She shook her head, knowing that Weiss didn't really want a verbal answer.

"It means they hate me, Ruby. Despise, resent," she hissed, "they want me to die. They want my family to die, they want you to die because you're my friend. I have seen it, Ruby."

Ruby could see the tears growing in her eyes, and she gently took her partner's hand in her own.

"When I was six, they killed my uncle. They mailed us his head. I really liked uncle Nick. He was a good man, the only Schnee willing to stand up to my father. Sometimes I could hear them in father's office, screaming about the conditions in the mines. I always listened in, I kept my ear to that door. I could tell he was getting close, Ruby. He almost got my father on his side. Then, they killed him. My father showed me his head to make sure I know what they think of us. I'll never forget it, Ruby. Never."

Ruby brought her other hand to the back of her partner's shoulder, drawing her slightly closer. A few tears escaped and ran lazily down Weiss' cheeks, but they did nothing to hide the intensity of her gaze.

The fire in her eyes belied the sadness in her voice as she clutched Ruby's jacket, "I hate them, Ruby. I hate them for what they did to my family. I used to dream of finding the bastards who killed my uncle, and paying them back tenfold. I imagined myself in a place of power where I could be the one sending their heads to their wives, to their daughters. I dreamed of becoming exactly what they are." She hissed.

Ruby's silver eyes flashed with determination, "Weiss you'll never—"

Weiss' grasp on Ruby's jacket tightened, keeping her from finishing, "I am not finished, Ruby. I still think about almost dying on that train. That Faunus towering above me, ready to kill another Schnee in the name of the White Fang. I could see past his mask, I could see the hate in his eyes, but I could also hear the joy in his voice, the satisfaction. It was the same voice I had in my dreams. The elation of a monster," the tears now readily burst forth, and Weiss gave in to sobbing, "I don't want to be a monster, Ruby! I don't want to be like them!"

Ruby released Weiss' hand and brought both arms fully around her partner, who still clutched to the lapels of her jacket.

Weiss, with tears and fear in her eyes, looked frantically up at her partner, then pushed her face into Ruby's chest, her words muffled by the material of the blouse. "How, Ruby? How am I any different!"

Weiss continued to sob into Ruby's shirt, and Ruby continued to hold her partner. She waited at least ten minutes for the sobs to die down a little before responding softly, "There are lots of ways you're different, Weiss,"

A sniffle.

"I know you think these things, but I also know you'd never do these things. Do you think you could really do that, Weiss? Cut off someone's head and send it to their family?" Ruby provided as she brought a hand up to gently stroke her partner's hair, just like Yang used to do for her.

A sniffle, Weiss' head shook ever-so-slightly.

"I didn't think so. There's a difference between thought and action, and action is all that really matters. Thinking those things doesn't make you a monster, Weiss, it makes you human. We all have those thoughts, what's important is that we have the will to not follow through with them."

Another sniffle, Weiss' grip on her jacket loosened a little.

"You could never be a monster, Weiss. Do you know why?"

The faintest response, "Why?"

"Because you're you. You're not them, you're not some White Fang cronie. You're Weiss. You can be stubborn and arrogant, but you can also be kind and compassionate. Do you remember when you stayed up all night with me in the library, just so I could learn Creep anatomy?"

Weiss slowly nodded.

"A monster wouldn't do that. A monster wouldn't change, Weiss, and believe me, you've changed. You used to be a real bi— meanie. And you're still a little bit of a meanie, but you're so many other things, Weiss."

Ruby's arm tightened around her, and Weiss looked back up at her partner, her glacial eyes now red and puffy.

"And, most importantly, you're my partner."

Weiss let go of her partner's lapels, and encircled Ruby's waist in her arms. She let her head rest against her partner, rather than burying her face in her shirt. For a few long moments, they held each other, revelling in the comfort of one another.

Something changed.

Ruby realized how close they were, how close she was to Weiss. She could feel the beat of her heart against her chest, the warmth of her skin permeating through her shirt. One of her hands was buried in Weiss' silken hair, the other was around her. Weiss' eyes were firmly set on hers, the painfully bright blue boring into her. She felt Weiss' hands tighten around the back of her jacket. Ruby could feel the heat of a blush rising from her neck, and she could see the red blotches arising on Weiss' face. Her heart hammered against her chest.

At the same time, their eyes flickered to each other's lips, and the air changed immediately. They separated, scrambling away from each other and sputtering.

Weiss turned and tried to hide her ferocious blush, "Uh, t-thanks, Ruby,"

Ruby turned, too, and began to quickly climb to her bunk, "Yeah, it's no—"

"No, thank you, really it's—"

"Yeah, I know, we're, uh, we're—"

"Good partners—"

"Yeah! Yeah, best partners ever—"

"I'll just go back to—"

"Yeah, I'mma just uh—"

"Studying."

"Go to bed."

Ruby snapped her mouth shut before anything more embarrassing could come out, and she tried to hide her blush under a blanket. Weiss sat back at her desk, and buried her face in her hands.

The awkward silence in the room was palpable, until Weiss slightly alleviated it, "Thank you, Ruby. Really. I'd rather have no other partner."

Ruby briefly poked her head out from the covers, "Yeah, Weiss, you're great too. Best ever. Really like you."

The awkward silence became twice as oppressive.

"As a partner! Best partner! No one better!" she thrust her head back under the covers, "Good night!"

Across the school, Blake was following her orders. Even from her side of the door, she could hear Yang exercising within.

Thump, thump, thump-thump, A yell, thump! A chain rattled, and a sixth thump hinted that Yang had probably broken the chain holding the heavy bag. Probably the best time to make herself known.

Blake pushed open the glass door and crossed the gym. Yang noticed her when she entered the sandpit that dominated the majority of the gym's floorspace, and Blake managed to catch a glimpse of crimson retreating from her lilac eyes. "Hey, Blake."

Blake glanced between the fallen bag and her partner. "You're really going at it, huh?"

Yang popped her knuckles and rolled her shoulders back. "Ah, yeah. Just got a lot of feelings to get out. You know how it is, especially with my semblance. Kinda sucks, having to constantly push down the anger, the urge to fucking hit something!" Her sentence was punctuated with a powerful punch, which cracked the wall she'd impacted. Blake cringed.

"So do you, uh, wanna talk about it? Partner-to-partner?"

Yang turned to the wall she'd cracked. "Nah."

Blake blinked and shook her head. She held a finger aloft and spoke with her most pretentious tone, "Then I must formally request that you relinquish your troubles unto me."

Yang turned and pressed her forehead against the wall. "Please don't go all fancy-talkin' princess on me, Blake."

"So… you gonna tell me?"

Yang released a thunderous sigh. "Of course I will, I just don't want to."

Blake gave her partner a soft smile, even though she could only see her back.

"When you were in your… organization, " She said with remarkable tact, "Did you ever… y'know." She made a chopping motion with her hand, along with a ghakk noise from her throat.

Blake was immediately flushed with shame. "I… I don't know."

Yang whirled around on her partner, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Blake sheepishly rubbed her arm. "Can we take this somewhere more private?"

Yang chuckled, the vulnerability in her eyes easily masked by mirth. "Hoho? You want some alone time with me? Scandalous!"

Blake folded her arms and frowned. "Yang."

Yang waved dismissively in response and began to leave the gym. "Yeah, yeah, keep your shirt on," she threw a smirk over her shoulder, "Or not, up to you."

Blake let out a single laugh and followed her partner. They walked through Beacon in silence, a silence which grew tenser as they reached the courtyard. The area was actually quite populous, but large and open enough that the sounds of conversation either died or drowned out before reaching anyone. Yang took a seat on the grass next to one of the courtyard's many trees. It's once-green leaves were darkening and turning red with the onset of Autumn. Blake looked around to make sure no one was within earshot of their conversation, then dropped to the ground, cross-legged across from Yang.

Yang stared at her expectantly, and Blake sighed and pushed her hair back. "When I was in the," she looked around again, "The White Fang," she whispered, "I didn't kill anyone. I've cut people, I've made them bleed, but I've never killed anyone."

Yang opened her mouth to say something, but Blake just continued, determined to get out the line of conversation.

"Never sunk my blade deep into their guts and watched the light in their eyes die. He did, though."

Yang knew where this was headed, and she clenched her fists. That asshole hounded her partner. He kept finding her Scroll's address, no matter how many she had to put it through a wall. She'd just decided to stop trying altogether, and never stopped receiving his texts. He'd berate her, call her a traitor, call her weak, and at the same time he'd praise her. Tell Blake how good she was, how good she could be, how much he needed her. Every time Blake couldn't sleep, every time Blake cried, every time she screamed in anger, it was his fault, and there was nothing Yang could do about it.

The thought made her blood boil.

A hand rested on her thigh. Blake had leaned forward when she saw Yang's eyes turn red, and she knew what was making her angry. The contact, though, was enough to break her out of her stupor.

"Adam was a monster, Yang," Blake continued, "He loved it. He kept telling me I should try it, like it was some kind of drug I was missing out on, like it was a joke I didn't understand. He berated me for leaving people alive, he even killed some of the ones I'd left incapacitated." Her eyes grew distant, and Yang felt the anger creeping in again as her partner became lost in memory.

"Blake—"

"I remember. He cut someone's legs off, some poor SDC salaryman, just someone hired to move crates. He just watched and… and laughed. They tried to crawl away and their legs were just leaking blood and all I did was st-stand there and watch and he-he laughed and laughed as they screamed…"

Yang's desire to comfort her teammate tempered her anger, and she reached forward, pulling Blake into her lap.

Blake sniffled and continued as if she was answering a question she'd posed in her own mind, "What was I supposed to do! He's insane! He would've done worse to me if he thought I was… sympathetic to anyone but him."

It was all Yang could do to focus on her partner, and not focus on the one who kept fucking her partner up!

Yang grit her teeth and tried to steer the conversation away from Adam, "And what will you do if you see one of your former comrades on a mission?"

Blake's head snapped upwards, her eyes meeting Yang's in fury. She pushed herself off her partner and gave her a disgusted sneer, "What the fuck is that supposed to mean?"

Yang's hand found solid purchase with her forehead. God, what a fucking idiotic question, of course that'd make her pissed, "Blake, that's not what I meant. I mean, like, you guys used to fight for the same thing, what if you see one of the members— not him— who you used to…" her hands waved in the air as she searched for the words to end her question, "Run missions with?"

Blake sighed and closed her eyes to let go of a little of her anger. She knew Yang didn't mean anything by it, she was just trying to move the conversation away from him while still keeping her original line of questioning intact. She was not questioning her loyalties. Yang trusted her. "I'm sorry, Yang, I didn't mean to lash out like that. Look, I never fought for what they fight for. I fought— fight for equality, they fight for subjugation. Please don't compare me to them again."

Yang nervously scratched the back of her head, her other hand raised in an apologetic gesture, "Yeah, I'm sorry. It was a bad move."

"So," Blake started while scooting closer to her partner, "What about you? What are your feelings on the whole… thing? You seemed pretty… aggressive about it back there."

Yang chuckled, "Punching things helps relieve my thoughts. When I'm fighting, I get so into the zone that I kinda just retreat into my own mind. It's my best time to think, it's when I'm my truest self."

Blake laughed, "'My truest self?' Jeez you sound like one of my crappy romance novels."

"And just like the novels, you can't get enough of me." Yang responded with a wink.

Blake groaned with false-exasperation. "Incorrigible."

They sat in comfortable silence for a long while.

"So, is that it? Do you just not worry about it?" Blake asked, breaking the silence.

Yang sighed,. "No, I don't worry about it, I think I'm okay with it, now, or at least I've decided how I'm going to feel about it. I'm not happy, but if I'll kill someone if I have to. If they hurt you, or Dust forbid if they hurt Ruby," Red rose in the edges of her irises, "There'll be no fucking mercy."

The growl made Blake's eyes widen, and she felt a cold chill crawl up her spine, "Wow, Yang, glad to see that you've made up your mind, I guess."

Yand pressed her back into the tree, her voice still lingering with aggression, "Yeah."

Blake stood up and offered a hand to her partner. "You know, I thought you'd be a little more," Yang took hold of her partner's offered assistance and rose, their eyes meeting, "Yangsty."

For a moment, everything stopped. The birds stopped chirping, the leaves stopped rustling, the wind stopped blowing. Yang stared, frozen, into the amber eyes of her partner, and her own lilac eyes were widened in surprise.

Yang laughed uproariously, her hand seeking purchase on Blake's shoulder as she doubled over in laughter. Blake knew it wasn't funny at all, in fact she was almost ashamed to say such a stupid pun, but the feeling she got from seeing Yang so happy made her chuckle. Perhaps it was a little clever.

When the laughter stopped, Yang was left gasping and taking in heaving breaths. "Damn, Blake! That was good!"

Blake just smirked and shook her head.

Finally having recovered from the laughing fit, Yang released her hold on her partner's shoulder. "Alright," she said, her voice still light from laughter, "I'm gonna head back to the dorm, you coming with?"

Blake smiled. "I'll walk you back, but I've gotta visit the library."

Yang smirked and held her arm out, "Oh? You'll walk me back?"

Blake rolled her eyes and stepped forward, taking Yang's arm and holding it as if she were a gentleman escorting a fine lady. They walked together, arm in arm, down the hallways of Beacon and towards their dorm. A few people threw glances their way, but most just ignored them since such displays of affection weren't entirely uncommon within Hunter teams. Yang, though, she revelled in it. She knew she shouldn't— they were just friends after all— but being so close to Blake again was like waking up to a sunrise and smelling a fresh breakfast being cooked. It was refreshing. The rage, the ever-present fear, it all felt so tiny when Blake was here, keeping her safe. Maybe she'd do this more often.

"We're here, Miss Xiao Long," Blake said in her most gentlemanly voice, as if she was a chauffeur delivering a passenger, "The RWBY dorm. 'Twas a great pleasure, madame,"

Yang giggled, "Oh, thank you so much, Miss Belladonna. Truly, the pleasure is all mine." Without really thinking about it, she lifted Blake's hand to her lips, and planted a small kiss to the soft skin.

Yang panicked. Oh Dust, that was too much. Too much, too much. She looked up at Blake, ready to be slapped for overstepping their boundar—

Blake was smiling, and her eyes were shining with joy.

Yang felt all her panic slough away, and she quickly slipped back into her character, "I'll be seeing you, Miss Belladonna. Please, feel free to send a pidgeon my way."

Blake chuckled and waved her partner off, then disappeared down the darkening hallway. Yang sood at the door for a while, missing the warm contact of her partner. The rage, the ever-present desire to hit something reared its ugly head again, but Yang was able to temper it down. She checked her Scroll, groaned at how late it was getting, and opened the door.

The room was dark, illuminated by a single, dim reading light that Weiss was using to guide her studying. She was clearly out of it, her eyes only half open, and her hand barely holding on to her pencil.

A few quiet words got Yang's attention, and she looked further into the dark room to find her sister. She was sleeping in her bunk, drool leaking from the side of her mouth which moved slowly to utter half-words from her dreams.

Yang slowly walked over to where Weiss was sitting, and gently plucked the pencil from her hand. Weiss barely seemed to register this, and blearily looked up at Yang.

"Come on, Weiss," Yang whispered as she lifted the heiress, "Let's get you in bed."

Yang reached over and flicked Weiss' reading light off before guiding her to her bunk. She set Weiss down gently and pulled the blanket up past her shoulders. She had fallen asleep the moment her head hit the pillow, and Yang smiled as she, too, went to her own bunk. She wiggled out of her clothes, leaving them in a pile where she stood, and climbed up to her bed. She could feel sleep quickly taking its hold as she once more settled down in the familiar bed, and her dreams showed her a bright future, one with good friends, and new challenges that they'd overcome together.

In her sleep, she missed Blake sneaking in with a pile of new books tucked under her arm. She, too, dreamed positively. This was going to be a good year.