Sun stared up at the ceiling from his position beneath the blankets and comforter, listening intently to the sound of the rain outside of the safe house. After spending the entire day wandering the streets of Mistral alone and taking in the sights, he'd done another meditation with Yang and turned in early, with the intent to focus on healing both his body and mind. A peal of thunder in the distance interrupted his thoughts, and he furrowed his brows.

A second, much louder crack of thunder echoed out within the room as the rainfall just outside intensified. Sun let out a sigh and sat up in bed, the sheets slipping from his chest into a messy pile within his lap as he stared at the clock. The face read 10:43, and Sun grimaced at the thought of how long he'd been silently laying alone, unable to sleep.

Suddenly, a frantic series of knocks rang out on the door of the bedroom. Sun hesitated before slipping out of bed, clad only in his boxers, and walking up to the door. He mentally reviewed who was still in the house before looking over to his cargo shorts slung over the back of a chair on the other side of the room, and let out a halfhearted shrug. Upon deciding that even Weiss would likely have no problem with seeing him mostly undressed, he pulled the door open and raised a brow at what awaited him.

Ilia stood alone in the darkened hallway, with a heavy comforter wrapped around her body and over her head like a giant hood. She held the material tightly around herself in wide-eyed terror, and looked up to Sun while nearly hyperventilating.

"I'm staying with you."

Sun didn't get a chance to reply as Ilia rushed into the bedroom and nearly bowled him over as the comforter trailed behind her like a bridal train. He slowly shut the door and turned in confusion, before another crack of thunder sounded near the house. Ilia visibly cringed and tensed her shoulders, as Sun leaned back against the door.

"…oh, right. Now I get it."

Ilia's panicked expression momentarily turned into a dangerous glare, and she narrowed her eyes. "I told you I don't do thunder."

Sun merely smirked, and offered a small chuckle. "Yeah, I guess you did. That seems like ages ago."

Ilia paused, and then shuffled forward along the floor to crash into Sun's embrace. He gave her a tight squeeze, and nodded toward the bed.

"C'mon. I can't sleep anyway."

"I mean, it's loud, even if it doesn't freak you out," Ilia replied as she waddled toward the bed and flopped over onto the mattress. Sun fell onto his back beside her, and swished his tail against the floor as he kept his feet on the ground.

"It's not even that, honestly. I guess I'm just nervous about the upcoming mission. All we've got is tomorrow, and then we head out," Sun confessed.

"I know," Ilia mumbled from within her blanket cocoon. She twisted herself around to face Sun, and grimaced. "We'll be fine, as long as the storm stops by then. Otherwise, you may have to strap me down in the train."

"If you keep running around and trying to bowl me over, I just might. What can I do to help?" Sun asked.

"Just… talk to me. Keep me distracted," Ilia instructed as she wriggled her way up the bed and leaned her head against a pillow. Sun watched curiously, before sitting up and shuffling along the bed to lie down next to her.

"That, I can do. Why do you get so worked up by storms?" Sun tried.

"…don't know. I've just… always been scared, since I was little," Ilia said. "It's not like there's any trauma, or whatever. They're just the worst."

"Huh. I guess we all have things like that," Sun admitted as another, fainter thunderclap echoed out. Ilia visibly winced.

"Yeah? What's yours?"

Sun pondered the question, before pulling back the covers and slipping beneath them to stall for time. "Uh… I've got a few weird things that freak me out a little."

"Like what?" Ilia pressed as she scooted over into Sun's side, and turned to face the ceiling.

"Promise not to laugh? And… is your arm okay in there? That doesn't look comfortable," Sun pointed out.

"It's fine," Ilia griped. "And I promise. Or at least, I'll try not to. Probably."

Sun gave Ilia an unimpressed stare, before sighing gently. "…scissors. I hate the sound of scissors. The sheering, metal-on-metal sound that they make just… it's like I can feel it in my spine."

Ilia paused for a moment, and scrunched up her face. "Weird. But… not that weird, I guess? What about like, swords scraping against each other?"

"Nope. Just scissors," Sun replied. He made a show of yawning loudly, praying that the motion was convincing. "Let's talk about something else."

"…like what?" Ilia asked as she echoed his yawn.

"I dunno," Sun replied. "Just, anything, to keep your mind off the storm until we both fall asleep, I guess. Question for a question?"

"Sure," Ilia agreed. "Got one in mind?"

The rain outside seemed to lighten up a bit as Sun mulled it over, and finally gave Ilia a smirk. "How'd you choose your weapon?"

Ilia blinked in surprise. "Wow, that's… that's actually a really good one. I was expecting 'favorite food', or something stupid."

"Yeah, I make it a goal in life not to be Neptune," Sun retorted.

"Fair enough. I actually used to do a lot of fishing with my dad, back when he was… you know, alive. I always thought that pulling back the pole and snapping it was kinda fun, and he would yell at me for it, but… it just seemed like it had a lot of impact when it would snap back. It was that, and the fact that I used to do ribbon dancing back at school, so I wanted to incorporate something flowy," Ilia finished.

"…ribbon dancing?" Sun asked incredulously. "I figured you for the type that would rather die than dance in public. That seems way too feminine for you."

"I am so feminine!" Ilia protested. Sun gave her a deadpan look, and she huffed from within her blankets. "Wait until you see me in a dress."

"All I've seen you in is your zipped-up onesie of doom," Sun joked as he reached a finger out to boop her nose. Ilia snarled in response.

"Hey! That onesie is functional and comfortable! Besides, I just bought new clothes today… and at least I can be consistently counted on to wear clothes!"

"Oh yeah?" Sun asked. "What did you get?"

"You'll just have to wait and see, asshat. Anyway, my turn," Ilia informed. "What's up with you and not wearing shirts like a normal person?"

Sun sighed, and shook his head. "If you really wanna know, it became a habit after I started working out at the orphanage. I thought that maybe showing off my muscles would make me more likely to get adopted… but it obviously didn't. It just kinda stuck, after that. It's stupid, I know, but it's not all about a 'nice breeze' or whatever. It's just my thing, now. Maybe like a reminder of where I came from."

"…oh," was all Ilia could think to say as her face fell a bit. The two became silent for a few minutes, before Sun cleared his throat, and spoke up.

"…uh, favorite food?"

"…cherries. If the mystical Gay Fairy descended from on high and used her magic powers to force you to sleep with a dude, who would it be?"

Sun merely stared at Ilia for a moment as his mind tried to catch up to her mouth. "I have… so many questions about where that came from, how that would work, why you want to know, and several other things."

"Too bad it was my turn," Ilia said confidently. "Besides, it's a total softball- it'd be Neptune, wouldn't it?"

"No!" Sun replied immediately. "Absolutely not! I like the guy, but if it was like that… no way. He wouldn't take it seriously, or he'd be super into it, knowing him, and…"

"Wait, you would want them to take it seriously?" Ilia asked through a peal of laughter.

"Oh, shut up!" Sun said, annoyed. "I guess… I guess Ren, honestly. He wouldn't make it weird, his semblance could mask anything embarrassing, and there's no way he'd talk about it after. Happy, now?"

Ilia grinned deviously. "Very. The thought of you and Ren cuddling up is adorable."

Sun blew out a breath, and rolled onto his back to resume staring up at the ceiling as he yawned once again. "You're speeding up in the race for 'the worst', and rapidly approaching Neptune. Alright, my turn. What if the mystical Straight Fairy flourished their wand at you, and you had to pick out a guy?"

Ilia was silent for just long enough to cause Sun to become concerned. He rolled back onto his side to look her over, only to find her normally brown face a bright, burning red.

"…Ilia?"

"Well, game's over. That sure was fun, wasn't it?" she insisted as she rolled away from him, only to almost fall off the bed and roll right back.

"Seriously? You put me through that, and now you're going to just dodge the qu-"

"You, Sun! It's you! Are you happy, now?" Ilia asked with a flustered huff. "What the hell else did you think I would say? You should've known better than to ask!"

Sun's eyes widened as he connected the dots, only for his brain to shut down immediately afterward.

"I… wh-… me?"

"Yes, you, you dumbass. You're the only guy I would trust enough, if those were the circumstances. I'm not saying I want to, I'm just saying that if w-"

"Yeah," Sun interrupted as his cheeks tinted pink. "Yeah, no, I get it. I guess I just… wasn't thinking. Um, thanks? I guess?"

"Anyway, I think the storm stopped," Ilia replied as she leaned to sit up and began wriggling out of her blankets. After what ended up being a long struggle and getting a bit of assistance from Sun, she sat in a pool of fabric wearing a nightie that struck Sun as familiar, for some reason. "I'm gonna head back to my room."

"Of course," Sun said as he tried to keep his eyes off of her. "If it starts up again, you're always welcome. I'll probably still be awake, especially after that."

"…let's literally never bring it up again. Or play that game again," Ilia offered.

"Yep. Agreed," Sun replied with a firm nod.

Ilia gave him a small wave before slipping off the bed, and heading for the door with her comforter balled in her hands and dragging slightly behind her. "Still, that was… nice. Thanks, Sun."

"Anytime, little sis. See you in the morning."

Ilia nodded, and disappeared into the hallway as Sun fell backward into his pillow. Once again, he returned to staring up at the ceiling, and spent several hours awake before finally drifting off.

"So," Ilia began as she continued pushing aside shirts hung upon the spinning rack. "How's your side?"

Weiss paused her own investigation of the circular clothing rack to raise a brow at Ilia through a gap between shirts. "It… still aches, every now and then, and there's going to be a scar, but I suppose it's fine. How is your arm feeling?"

"It's been better, but I can feel it healing. It's weird. Jaune is amazing, though," Ilia offered.

"He is," Weiss agreed as she went back to flicking through shirts. "He… had a crush on me, you know."

It was Ilia's turn to raise a brow as she rejoined Weiss on the other side of the rack, with a few shirts tucked under her good arm. "Had?"

Weiss gave Ilia a sidelong look and displeased expression as she paused her efforts to sort clothing once again. Ilia looked away, and cleared her throat.

"…sorry. We don't have to go there, if it's… awkward."

"No, not awkward," Weiss replied before selecting a seemingly random black shirt plastered with a flaming skull upon the front. "At least, not in the way you might think. Is this 'out there' enough for me to work as part of a disguise, in a pinch?"

Ilia scrutinized the shirt with a critical eye, and nodded. "I mean, it's something I would wear unironically, so, yes."

"Fair enough," Weiss said as she led Ilia toward the counter. "As far as Jaune… to make a very, very long story short, he made several passes at me at Beacon, for more or less the entirety of our time there. I didn't reciprocate, partially because I just wasn't interested, and partially because… well, his teammate, Pyrrha, was head over heels for him, and he just couldn't see it. I liked Pyrrha, and I… wrote him off entirely, so as not to step on her toes."

Ilia shifted uncomfortably as Weiss finished paying and took her bagged shirt, before placing her own purchases upon the counter and offering the attendant her card.

"…the way you said 'liked' makes me think…"

"…she… didn't make it out of Beacon," Weiss finished for her. "Jaune only realized how she felt shortly before that, and her loss devastated him. He hasn't really been the same since. I've tried to be of comfort, but sometimes, I almost feel like he resents me for leaving him… 'open', if you understand my meaning."

Ilia retrieved her bag as well and slipped her card back into her wallet, before stuffing the set into the back of her black jeans. "Like… if the two of you had been dating, he wouldn't have felt so strongly about Pyrrha, after what happened?"

Weiss' mouth twisted into a frown, before becoming a thin line as she started to walk out of the clothing store. The duo began to walk in time, and made their way back onto the main road.

"I know, it's horrible to assume something like that, but the way he looks at me sometimes… I can't help but wonder if that's what's going through his mind."

"Well… have you asked?" Ilia questioned.

"Oh, we've only been back together for a little over a week, at this point, and things have been rather busy. Besides… I wouldn't dare," Weiss confessed. "He seems too close to the edge to experiment with even a light push."

Ilia paused for a moment not far from a metal food cart with a tiny green and white umbrella speared through the center of it, warping the smoke that billowed from the grill beneath. She sniffed the air and closed her eyes as Weiss came to a stop just ahead, and turned to face her again.

"…I suppose it's been a while, since breakfast…"

"Yeah it has," Ilia agreed. "And as for Jaune… just remember, you don't owe anyone your affection. That's a lesson I had to learn from the other side… and I'm still struggling with it, a little."

Weiss took her scroll out of a pocket, and began to text as she followed Ilia to the cart. "From the other side? Meaning, you're the one with the crush?"

Ilia looked over the menu posted on the front of the grill, before ordering a hot sandwich and handing over some lien. "Yeah. I… have a thing for Blake, that's been there since we were just kids. I'm well aware that she's more off limits now than ever before, and I've accepted that just because I love Sun just as much. But… you know. Thoughts."

Weiss eyed up the menu, before deciding to follow suit and order just as Ilia had before her. "Yang's going to meet us here. And… 'thoughts'? About how things could have been?"

"Well, yeah, sometimes that, sometimes just horny thoughts. You know how it is," Ilia commented as she tugged at the bottom of her deep blue sleeveless tee. Weiss merely stared at her in disbelief, and kept her voice incredibly flat.

"…no. No, I don't, and I really don't understand how all of you are so perpetually sex-obsessed, and so open about it."

Ilia merely shrugged as she reached over the cart to accept the tinfoil wrapped sandwich, while Weiss did the same. "It's just in my genes."

"Yes, I suppose it is," Weiss commented as she began to explore the area in search of a bench.

Ilia nodded toward an unoccupied bench at the edge of a nearby park, and headed over to sit upon the polished wood. "…speaking of genes, before Yang gets here… is there any… bad blood, between us?"

Weiss sat down next to Ilia, and slowly began to unwrap her sandwich as she gave the other girl a curious look. "…because of you being a faunus?"

"…because of me being White Fang," Ilia corrected. "Sun told me about how you two talked through the whole faunus thing, and if he's accepting of you, I will be, too. But… the Fang goes a bit beyond that. I think we're both well aware."

Weiss heaved a massive sigh, and folded her hands in her lap while balancing her sandwich upon her thighs. "Ilia… I was honestly planning to ignore that entirely, because I don't know how to feel. I had family friends on the train that Adam raided, not too long ago. People I knew died because of his actions, and their only crime was working for my family, to try to get by. But… I also know that because of my family, countless faunus have died, or gotten sick, or…" Weiss trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

Ilia hesitated, before slowly offering an open hand. Weiss took it, but kept her eyes upon the ground.

"…my parents died in a mine collapse, while working for your family. That's what spurred me to join up, when I came of age. I blamed the entire Schnee bloodline, and so does Adam, for his family. The difference between us is that I'm willing to see the individuals among your family, because Sun opened my eyes. Adam sees you as a collective, and the root of all evil. Unfortunately, his tongue is silver enough that it hypnotized me for longer than I'd care to admit. Now, though… I regret everything."

Weiss gave Ilia's hand a light squeeze, and shook her head. "Believe me, if I could wave a wand and have any other last name, I would. I wasn't even aware of a lot of what's been going on within my family until very recently. It's no excuse, but… I wanted to believe that it wasn't true, and we weren't that bad. I can see now that we're worse."

"Well… you seem okay to me," Ilia reassured. "I just hope you feel the same way. Given that we're on the same side, and headed to Atlas, I wanted to get this out of the way."

"We can't," Weiss replied quickly. "This isn't something we can just brush aside, and pretend that there's no history from this point forward. I'm more than willing to work with you, and even be a friend, if you'll continue to have me, but… this doesn't end here. It can't end here, without being a sign of disrespect, especially not with where we're going. Here comes Yang," Weiss pointed out as she tilted her chin slightly forward.

"…well, at least we're making progress," Ilia commented as the tall blonde approached.

"'sup?" Yang asked casually as she held up her mechanical arm. She fanned the fingers out to splay five small slips of paper out to catch the sunlight. "I got our tickets. We leave at 10:00pm tonight. That way, we can sleep on the train, and we'll be in Argus by dawn."

"Smart," Weiss remarked. "Well… assuming the seats are well-cushioned."

"Suck it up, princess," Yang retorted as she sat down beside the girls. She snatched a pepper from the top of Weiss' sandwich, only for the smaller girl to smack at her hand. "How have you two been?"

"Just killing time, and getting Weiss some clothes that won't draw suspicion while we're in Lower Atlas. Mission successful, so far," Ilia replied.

"Cool. We should probably try to finish that off, and then head back home to the boys. I hope they're alright," Yang said as she ran her natural hand through her long tangle of hair.

"I'm sure they're just fine," Weiss insisted as she finally took a bite of her food. "Besides, it's nice to just hang out with the girls, for once."

"You've got that right. Sun practically leaves a gooey trail of testosterone behind him when he walks. He's like a snail with sexy abs," Yang joked.

Ilia gave Yang a curious look, while in mid-bite.

"…I don't think snails can ever be sexy," she replied through a mouth full of food.

"I mean, the shell's got curves. I'd screw a snail faunus," Yang mused with a smirk.

"Always. Every single conversation, with you two!" Weiss complained, only to earn a snort from Ilia. "What next, a discussion about how one of you is attracted to trains, and how you can't wait to just… nestle into your booth?"

Yang paused, before leaning around Weiss to catch Ilia's eye. "You think that's a thing? A train-o-phile?"

"…it's sex-related. Of course it's a thing," Ilia replied.

"Eating my sandwich, ignoring the both of you. Not thinking about trains anymore, or sex, or anything sex-train related," Weiss sang as she kept her eyes dead ahead.

Yang kept her gaze locked on Weiss, and made a slow, deliberate show of leaning in to the side of her head. With a breathy whisper, she spoke directly into her friend's ear.

"…then why are you going chew chew?"

Ilia burst into a fit of laughter as she coughed into her hand, while Weiss took a deep breath and tried her hardest to seem upset.

"I thought we were done with weapons-grade puns, Yang. That was one of the worst I've ever heard."

"Nope. Nailed it," Yang said confidently as she leaned back and laced her hands behind her head while crossing her legs.

"And you!" Weiss accused as she pointed the remains of her sandwich at Ilia. "Don't encourage her! Ruby was bad enough!"

"Sorry, Weiss," Ilia apologized as she shook her head and rolled her empty tinfoil into a tight ball. "I'll try not to get us off… track."

It was Yang's turn to snort as Weiss stood, and began to stomp back in the direction of the safe house. Yang initiated a high five, and Ilia happily accepted it as they leaned in to speak quietly amongst themselves while they began to follow Weiss at a distance.

"Nice. We've gotta keep this going, until she snaps. Get something with a caboose in there."

"On it," Ilia replied. "We'll push a bit, then let it rest until we get on the train. At that point, we double down, and Sun will jump in. I bet we can annoy her and Jaune, for the entire ride."

"I like the way you think," Yang replied with a smirk as she reached into a coat pocket and withdrew a pair of sunglasses. "Also, we're not letting the fact that she just said 'sex-train' go, are we?"

"Oh, absolutely not," Ilia reassured. "I'm saving that ammo for later."

Author's Note:

I'm glad that the character interaction focused chapters are working for people, as with this many characters all in the running, there needs to be some basis of bonding between the teams. BQKN and whatever Ruby's team ends up being will be covered in Volume 7, which I'm anticipating will be 15-20 chapters on its own. As of halfway through the next chapter, What You Stole will enter its endgame for Volume 6, meaning things are about to ramp way the hell up in terms of 'things happening'. We're closing in on the finale, and some pretty significant events.

Also, believe it or not, "Team Waxy" and "Team Bacon" weren't planned as names at all. I got to the end of the last chapter, realized that Neptune would give them some stupid name, and spent about 20 minutes moving names around in a spreadsheet to figure those two out. It was actually a pretty huge pain to get Waxy, but Bacon came almost immediately afterward.

-RD