A soft groan escaped Sun's lips as he raised his arms into an overhead stretch. He sat in the spacious lobby of Atlas Academy, upon one of the leather couches pushed up against one of the tall, white-painted curved walls. Just as he lowered his arms back down to rest his hands in his lap, one of the sliding doors upon the wall opposite of Sun's couch opened with a soft whirr. Sun stood up immediately upon seeing both Weiss and Marrow emerge from the portal together, his expression a wide smile.

"Hey!" the faunus called as he jogged his way across the massive room. "How's the shoulder?"

Weiss lifted and rotated her arm, which was wrapped within a flexible brace over the sleeve of her dress shirt. The brace itself connected to a velcro-strapped wraparound component that circled her upper chest and seemed to provide her with a full range of motion.

"It aches, but it's much better than before," Weiss informed as she raised her other arm and pulled Sun into a tight squeeze, which the boy returned. "…still can't wear a shirt properly, can you?"

"Nope," Sun answered with a grin as he stepped away from the embrace. His Atlas Academy dress shirt was unbuttoned, and his sleeves were rolled up to the elbow, giving what would otherwise be formal attire a rather unsophisticated look.

"…good. It's really just a part of you, at this point," Weiss replied with a smile as Marrow stepped forward and offered the other faunus a hand.

"Sun," he said simply as he closed his fingers around the boy's palm. "You look a bit better, today. How's the penthouse?"

"It's… huge," Sun answered as he shook Marrow's hand. "I'm honestly not used to having such a giant living space, but it's nice. The ability to actually get some sleep for the first time in what feels like weeks helped a lot, too."

"I can imagine. If either of you need anything at all, you should have my scroll info, now," Marrow reminded as he clasped his hands behind himself. "I'm always willing to help, day or night. Just give me a call."

"Thank you, Marrow," Weiss replied with a warm smile. "I'm sure I'll call on you again soon, and we need to meet up to… reorganize, as it is."

Marrow had the grace to offer Weiss a nervous smile before giving Sun a small bow and a two-fingered salute.

"Yeah. See you soon!"

Sun watched as the older faunus made his way toward the elevators, his grey and white tail wagging feverishly all the while.

"…reorganize?" Sun questioned as he turned his attention down to Weiss.

"He's the team medic, so Elm brought me to him so he could check out my shoulder after she ran into me in the hallway," Weiss explained. "His room makes the old SSSN dorm look like a museum in terms of organization, so I offered to lend him a hand with tidying things."

"Ouch," Sun said as they turned and made their way out of the front door and toward the airfield. "I can't even fight back on that one. He does seem cool, though."

"He's an absolute sweetheart," Weiss added. "A part of me wanted to bring him as our 'third' while talking to Miss Hill, but… I think it's a better idea to establish goodwill with her first and drop that particular bombshell later. She clearly dislikes Clover, and I don't want to upset her by bringing an Ace to what's supposed to be a private conversation."

"Yeah, that's probably the smart way to do this," Sun agreed as they walked up to a terminal and keyed in a flight down to Mantle. "Maybe next time, though, if this goes well. I trust your judgement, Weiss. If you think Marrow's a good in-between, then we'll bring him in to keep the lines of communication open and honest between all parties."

"Honest, yes. Open… I'm struggling to determine what we should and shouldn't say, and to whom," Weiss admitted. "And that includes Yang, Ilia, and Jaune."

Sun took a deep inhale, the crisp Atlesian air stinging his lungs with its cold, refreshing quality.

"…Weiss, I… I'm torn, too. I'm 100% with you on that, but I also do not want to turn this into 'us versus them' within our own team, or act like we're better than them. Let me work on Ilia, and you can provide support here and there."

"And I'll actively work at cooling Yang off, while you tag in as needed," Weiss offered.

"What's your concern about Jaune?" Sun asked. "He actually seems to be handling this pretty well. Better than I expected, even, given the circumstances."

"He is," Weiss acknowledged. "Very much so, I might add. But… Jaune has the tendency to let his emotions get the better of him, in moments of high stress. At the attack on Haven, he… tried to take on Cinder in a one-on-one duel after she made a comment about Pyrrha. As much as I like him as a person, none of us could succeed at that, let alone him. I don't want to sound like a bitch, but you know I'm right."

"…I didn't think you knew the word 'bitch'," Sun teased, only for Weiss to roll her eyes and cross her arms.

"…I'm quite not the innocent flower that you might assume, Sun. Besides- if I hadn't known the word before Beacon, after spending nearly a year in a dorm with Yang, I certainly learned it."

"…fair point," Sun admitted. "And… yeah, you're right. Jaune's gonna need to step it up in training, but we'll be here to help him out. Knowing that four of us are prone to giving in to anger when a fight gets rough, though… that's not great. That's something we need to work on as a group."

"…Ilia, too?" Weiss asked with a worried look.

"Yeah," Sun confirmed. "Oh yeah, Ilia, too. We're all gonna have a little sit-down at some point tomorrow, and just try to get all of our issues out in the open so we can help each other. Jaune's setting up a time with the others right now."

"That's honestly a great idea," Weiss praised as a set of headlights came into view over the edge of the guardrail at the end of the lot. "There are a lot of things currently left unsaid that I think need to be stated bluntly."

Sun sucked in a tense breath as his tail writhed nervously behind him.

"Yeah. Yeah, I think so, too…" Sun offered as they made their way to the waiting hovercar. "But for now, let's play our cards carefully, and get as much info as we can out of this."

"Lunch is cool," Yang answered with a wave of her robotic hand as she kept her other arm wrapped around Ilia's waist. "Not like we have anywhere else to be, anyway."

"And it does sound like a good idea," Ilia followed up from her position laying atop Yang's stomach, with her head resting just below the other girl's cleavage. "I'm still not feeling great about this whole 'working for Ironwood' thing, even if Winter had some good points…"

Jaune finally worked up the courage to look at the reclining girls on the couch opposite his own. He watched as Ilia passed the bowl of popcorn resting upon her stomach up to Yang, who took a few pieces and popped them into her mouth before offering one down to Ilia. The faunus made a show of carefully extracting the food from Yang's fingers with her teeth, before running her tongue along the blonde's thumb. Jaune blushed hard and cleared his throat as he watched the display, only for the girls to ignore him.

"Should I… leave you two alone? Are you…?" Jaune paused, gradually trailing off into silence.

"…are we…?" Yang asked while tilting her head as innocently as possible.

"I…" Jaune hesitated and coughed into his hand. "You two have been… really physical since I got here. Are you… you know, a thing? It's cool if you are! I just… I'm not sure what to think right now?"

Ilia craned her head backwards and looked up at Yang, who returned her gaze. The two women kept up the affectionate eye contact for a good while before Ilia finally broke into a suppressed snort, and Yang pushed her forehead down with a finger while rolling her eyes.

"…nah. We're just messing with ya," Yang answered with a smirk. "Though we do share a bed. Who knows what might happen during these cold Atlesian nights?"

Ilia sat up into a stretch and handed the bowl of popcorn to Yang.

"We decided it would be funny to screw with whoever came in. I was honestly hoping for Sun or Weiss, but you made a good mark, too. It's pretty simple, really- Yang's warm, I'm part lizard, and it's honestly just kinda nice to have a cuddle-buddy with everything that's going on," the faunus elaborated. "Maybe you should try it with Sun. You never know."

"Sun has a girlfriend," Jaune said quickly, his flustered state only intensifying.

"…that's your only point of contention?" Yang asked with a devilish grin.

"No!" Jaune answered quickly. "And I d-"

A harsh buzzing sound rang throughout the room, causing the trio to jump and eye the door suspiciously.

"…got it," Yang offered as she handed the bowl of popcorn back to Ilia and pushed herself up and off the couch. The blonde took long strides toward the door before considering the intercom, and instead just opting to slide the door open. "…oh. Uh… hi?"

Jaune craned his neck as he leaned forward, trying to see around Yang's body while a harsh, unfamiliar voice answered.

"Hi. Can I come in?"

"By all means," Yang answered as she stepped aside and made a welcoming motion with her arm.

Harriet Bree walked quickly into the room, clad in her skintight Ace Ops uniform of a deep blue and white form-fitting jumpsuit that stopped at her thighs. The woman had her weaponized harness upon her back despite the friendly environment, and her fuchsia eyes were equally threatening as she sized up Jaune, and then Ilia.

"Having a little party?" Harriet asked, her tone flat and seemingly disinterested.

"More like a meeting with popcorn, actually," Ilia replied as she arched a brow and held the bowl out in Harriet's direction. "Popcorn…?"

Harriet eyed the snack suspiciously, before turning her glare to Ilia.

"No."

"What, too good for popcorn?" Yang asked as she let the door slide shut and walked around Harriet to deposit herself back onto the couch. "I eat popcorn all the time, and I've still got abs. Live a little."

Harriet made a noise of irritation as she folded her arms across her chest and stuck a hip out to the side.

"…I'm good. I'm not here to eat your food or hang out. I came by to check up on whoever happened to be here. I got no response at the other doors."

"Oh, yeah," Jaune offered with a sheepish grin. "Sun and Weiss went out somewhere, and Sun's rooming with me. Weiss is usually here, with the girls. Sorry about that."

"They went out somewhere?" Harriet repeated as she searched Jaune's eyes for a moment, only for the boy to look away. "And you don't know where?"

Jaune looked up, only to find all three pairs of eyes in the room suddenly upon him.

"…no," Jaune admitted. "I… don't. None of us do. Sun was with me most of the day, and then he went to go meet her."

"They're adults. They can handle themselves," Ilia added to try to pull Harriet's attention from Jaune.

"Be that as it may," Harriet began, "four out of five of you are new to Atlas, Weiss is badly injured, and General Ironwood could call on you at any time. We could call on you at any time as we're given orders to share information and help you train. You're supposed to be recovering from your trip here, and ready to go at a moment's notice if need be."

"We are ready," Yang replied in a tense tone. "And if they need to be called back, we'll call them back. How do you know about Weiss' injuries?"

Harriet rolled her eyes and huffed.

"Marrow. We communicate all essential information on a consistent basis, because that's our job. It's yours, too."

"…how does Marrow know about Weiss' injuries…?" Ilia asked before taking a handful of popcorn.

Harriet sighed, and shook her head.

"Because Marrow spent most of the afternoon treating her and then taking her down to the infirmary. The five of you are supposed to be a team. You're going to need to become an elite team capable of riding with us, and that means constant communication, even when it isn't fun. This isn't school anymore. You should know these things when a teammate is out of commission," Harriet scolded.

"Hey," Yang cut in harshly as she leaned forward toward Harriet. "Generally, we do know what's going on with our team, and we're usually all together. Sun and Weiss needed some time alone, so we gave them time alone. We're all close. We're all friends, and she would've told us when she gets back tonight, anyway, so don't lord it over us like we're slacking off. Ironwood told us to take some time to recover, so we're taking time to recover, and doing what we need to do for ourselves. If you've got a problem with that, take it up with him."

Harriet's eyes blazed with fury as Yang finished speaking, and Jaune quickly waved a hand to try to catch her attention before she could retaliate.

"Miss Bree? I… Yang's just trying to say that we have our own way of doing things, and thus far, it's been working for us. We've all been through a lot recently, and while we appreciate what your team is doing for Weiss, and what you'll be doing for us in the future… we need a little time to process everything that's going on in order to get ready to deal with all of this in our own way. I doubt that you were just ready to go and aware of everything that's standard among the Ace Ops the moment you signed on. We're all serious about this, and we'll learn as we go. But for now… please try to understand that we're trying, and we're not perfect. If things hadn't ended up the way they did, we would still be at an Academy. This is all a little much."

Around halfway through Jaune's speech, Harriet had closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. As he finished speaking, she took a long, deep breath, and shook her head before letting her hand drop to her side.

"…okay. You're right."

Ilia blinked and looked back and forth between Jaune and Harriet with a stunned expression.

"…he is? I mean, he is, but you think he is?"

"I know he is," Harriet answered before giving Ilia an apologetic look. "And I'm sorry. I overstepped."

The room went silent for an awkward length of time as the teens all looked at each other, until Ilia hesitantly held out her bowl once again.

"…uh… popcorn…?"

"…still no," Harriet denied with a wave of her hand. "Look- being able to admit when you're wrong is part of being an adult, and I guess I've forgotten that not all teams work like we do. If… this," Harriet emphasized as she made a broad gesture between the two couches, "is how you guys 'meet' and share information, and that works for you… then fine. But don't expect the Aces to join in, and don't expect to always have the luxury of just lounging around and talking out your feelings. Academy-age or not, the General, Winter, and the Aces will expect results from you, and if we don't get them, you will be cut loose."

"Understood," Yang replied with a nod. "And we'll get you the results you ask for. That being said… the four of you guys aren't friends? You don't 'do this' like we do?"

Harriet once again sighed and folded her arms, her posture stiff and defensive.

"No. We're a team, we're in constant communication, and we have bonds of trust that run deeper than blood, but we don't… 'hang out', or anything," Harriet finished.

"That sounds… hard," Jaune said hesitantly. "Hard, and… kinda unpleasant? Wouldn't it be easier to become friendly with people you work with all the time?"

"If you want me to refrain from judging the way you five do things, then I'm going to ask that you do the same with us, and we'll call it even," Harriet offered. "Call on us when you need us for training, advice, or whatever else that's related to our overall mission, but don't expect anything more. That's all."

"And that's fair," Yang replied. "But if you ever do want to come and hang out with us, I'm sure any of the five of us would be more than willing. Even if you don't want to be 'friends', I think we can both agree that it's better if we're on friendly terms, at the very least."

Harriet stared Yang down for a moment, and neither woman dared to blink.

"…friendly terms are fine, but don't expect me to join in on pillow fights and movie nights. If you three don't need anything, then I've got paperwork to do. Pleasant evening," the woman offered with a backward wave as she turned and made her way toward the door.

The trio of friends watched as Harriet disappeared through the sliding door, and they remained silent until her footfalls in the hallway gradually faded to nothingness.

"…so. She fucking hates us," Ilia said definitively. "And I'd light my cooch on fire before going to Clover for any sort of advice or training."

"You and me both," Yang agreed with a sigh. "But… I don't think she hates us. I think she's… complicated. I'll chip away at her."

"Be careful," Jaune warned. "I trust you to know when to back off, but that's a dangerous game you're playing. I will admit, she does seem more receptive to you than the two of us, at least."

"Maybe, but she did listen to you, too," Ilia pointed out. "I don't know what to make of any of them just yet, but I'll hold my tongue until they give me reason not to."

"That's probably a good idea," Jaune offered as he stood from the couch. "On that note, I think I'm going to go and take a nap. I've been a little jealous of Sun ever since he fell asleep on the couch earlier, and it seems like a better idea now more than ever."

"Sweet dreams," Ilia mocked as she took the last handful of popcorn. "Yang and I are gonna go shower together, and make sure we get all of our hard to reach places. Maybe you can dream about that."

Jaune merely rolled his eyes and headed for the door as he heard Yang break out into laughter.

"Right. See you two tomorrow!"

As the boy disappeared into the hallway, Ilia swallowed her popcorn and cracked her neck.

"…seriously, though, I am gonna go shower. You want in on this?"

Yang raised a brow and remained on the couch with her arms folded.

"I thought we were just friends?"

"…friends can shower together," Ilia tried while putting on an innocent look.

"Pff," Yang offered with a smirk. "Nah, I'm good, but don't take that as a permanent 'no' or anything. I'm not exactly 'looking' right now, but you weren't wrong, either- it is nice to have someone to cuddle. We'll see what happens as the weeks go on."

"Oh, I'm not 'looking' either," Ilia insisted as she began to unbutton her dress shirt while walking toward the bathroom. "But that just makes it more fun. Give it some thought."

Yang watched over the back of the couch as the faunus closed the bathroom door.

"…maybe it does…"

Author's Note:

Obviously, Robyn got pushed to the next chapter. More soon!

-RD