"You know… I had never had pizza before Beacon, but I've really come to appreciate it over the past year and change," Weiss admitted as she pulled a slice from the box upon the coffee table. A long string of cheese followed her hand, and Yang swooped in to twirl a finger through it before popping it into her mouth.

"Hey!" Weiss whined as she plopped her pizza down onto her plate. "You… you cheese thief!"

"Guilty," Yang admitted with a shrug. "Spar me over it once our upgrades are done."

"Oh, I will," Weiss huffed before taking a bite of pizza while holding it farther from Yang.

"…wow. That is some seriously petty shit. I approve," Ilia praised through a mouthful of cheese. "Speaking of approval- you look so much better without the shitty chinstrap, Sun."

The monkey faunus rolled his eyes as he leaned back into the couch seat from his spot on the ground between Jaune and Weiss.

"Yeah, yeah. Shaving wasn't exactly a priority for a while, alright? I had bigger concerns."

"We all did," Jaune pointed out as he looked over his circle of friends gathered around the small table. "And we all still do- thus, this meeting. I can start, if we're just airing anxieties. Mine are probably the least important and impactful, so I can get them out of the way pretty quickly."

"Don't downplay your concerns, Jaune," Weiss scolded from Sun's other side. "Whatever you're feeling is valid, and likely important. We'll support you through it."

"Well… maybe 'least important' isn't what I meant," the boy considered. "Just… the least clearly resolvable? And maybe least unique? I'm really just worried about Salem and being ready for whatever's coming. There isn't too much else on my mind that's a personal concern."

"But there is something," Ilia probed as she poked the boy just beneath the ribs.

"Gah! Don't do that!" Jaune complained as he smacked the faunus' hand away. "You know I hate that!"

"Exactly. So spill, before I employ Level Two techniques," Ilia threatened with narrowed eyes.

"…is Level Two puppy eyes?" Sun asked with a raised brow. "Because as cute as you are with short hair, you just might break him."

"Level Two is tickling him until he pees," Ilia corrected nonchalantly. "And don't even tell me you're not ticklish. I mean… look at you."

Jaune narrowed his eyes and took a bite of pizza.

"Try me."

Ilia hastily tossed her plate and half-eaten slice up onto the table before diving around the furniture and flopping onto Yang's lap in the process. More quickly than Jaune could react, she had her hands on either side of his stomach and wriggled her fingers against his uniform in a desperate attempt to break him. Jaune merely stared and took another bite, while Sun scooted slightly farther away from Ilia with a nervous look.

"…honestly," Weiss lamented while Sun bumped shoulders with her. "You're all acting like absolute children."

"Depending on who you ask, we are children," Yang pointed out as she watched Ilia transition her fingers up beneath Jaune's armpits in a futile effort. After a few seconds, Yang swatted Ilia across the rear with her metallic hand, earning a pained yelp from the smaller girl. "Alright, time's up. You failed."

"Damn it…" Ilia griped as she slid off of Yang and retrieved her pizza, which was suddenly missing several pieces of pepperoni. She narrowed her eyes at the buxom blonde, who kept an unreadable poker face throughout the staredown.

"…anyway," Yang said as she returned her attention to Jaune. "Your personal concerns? We're supposed to be sharing, no matter how stupid we might think they are."

"…right," Jaune agreed with a weary sigh. "Well… I guess I just feel like the least capable person here, and I don't think it's a secret that it's true. I know I've gotten better, but I'm still lagging behind everyone… and I'm really starting to think I need a new hair style. I just feel like it's… gotten old, too long, and unattractive."

The other four teens simply stared, until Ilia took the opportunity to swipe a piece of pepperoni from Yang's slice while she was distracted.

"…well… we're all going to be sparring a lot, soon," Sun offered. "We'll help you out, and as long as you put the work in, we can get you to where you want to be. I mean, the Aces are probably going to be kicking all of our asses on a daily basis, if they're really the elite team they're cracked up to be."

"They are," Weiss confirmed. "The Ace Ops are borderline legendary figures within Atlas. It's like having a squad of four Grimm Reapers working together… which, honestly, is what we should aspire to become. As for the hair… I could try, perhaps? I did manage to cut Ilia's…"

"And Sun said it's cute," the faunus girl proclaimed triumphantly. "Maybe Weiss can get you looking sexy. Maybe we can work on getting you set up with a girl, too."

"…that's… actually another thing that I didn't want to bring up, because it's just…" Jaune trailed off with a nervous look toward Ilia. He took a deep breath before shaking his head and continuing, his eyes on the plush carpet. "I'm honestly kinda worried about how much 'life' we're all missing out on, especially because I'm way behind all of you. I've been thinking about how it's entirely possible that I'm going to die a virgin with one kiss under my belt, for example."

Again, the room went silent as Jaune kept his eyes on the floor.

"…go ahead and laugh. That's part of the reason I said it, but it's still true. I know it's stupid and unimport-"

"None of us are laughing," Yang interrupted, only for Jaune to look up at her in surprise. "Maybe it's not about sex for everyone, but I think we're all feeling that, on some level. We've been directly told from multiple people with far more experience than us that we may be staring down a doomsday scenario, and none of us are even out of our teens, yet. There's still a lot I want to do. I've never held down a steady relationship either, you know."

"…and you've got me beat, at least," Weiss said softly as she shifted upon the carpet. "My kiss tally is currently at 'zero', and I don't see that changing anytime soon. It's… something I've thought about. It's not stupid, Jaune- it's just part of being human. I'm feeling lonely and scared, too."

"…I know I'm probably not the guy you want to hear from right now," Sun began cautiously, "but what they're saying is totally right- maybe some of us aren't thinking about the same things we're missing out on, but we are thinking about everything that's being kept from us while we're fighting… and how we might never get it. I never really had a family until I met Blake's, and it got ripped away from me in a matter of weeks. I want to get that feeling back and start one of my own, but there's… a really good possibility that's not going to happen."

"Ilia?" Jaune asked as he finally dared to look over at the girl, who was avoiding eye contact with the others and keeping her attention down upon her pizza. "You're not even going to jump on that opportunity to make fun of me?"

"…no, I'm not," Ilia answered quickly. She paused for nearly a full minute as the others all turned their attention to her. "Everyone here is right, and I've only gotten so… bitchy lately because I know I'm going to be more vulnerable than anyone else here very soon, and it's my way of kinda preemptively pushing the rest of you away and keeping you at a certain distance. I will lose my shit, either in anger, depression, or both once we start working in and around the dust mines, and I don't want any of you trying to tell me it's all going to be okay. The situation that's about to become inevitable for me is an echo of the one that gave me enough anger to join the White Fang and stand against Blake. I'm scared of what's going to happen this time, when I'm dealing with it directly… and while I'm supposed to be working with Weiss and Winter."

Weiss paled at Ilia's words and took a deep breath before folding her hands in her lap uncomfortably.

"…I don't know what to say," the girl admitted. "So… I'll just say that I'm committed to helping you through this, whatever that may mean. If you need to scream at me, spar with me, or even remain away from me for a time, I'll understand."

"I don't know what will help, but I doubt it's any of those things," Ilia replied as she looked up at Weiss. "I know it's not your fault in any way and that you've been good to me… but I also know I'm a petty, emotional wreck, and not above sabotaging myself and others while lashing out. I'm scared of being forced to deal with the mines, and of myself. And that's without even mentioning how I feel about Corsac…"

"Ilia, we will all be here for you," Sun reassured. "And you know that if you need to stay with me any night, you're always welcome. You also know that I can take a hit, so… there's that, I guess?"

Ilia merely shook her head with a humorless chuckle.

"…yeah. I know."

"…but on that note," Sun continued, "we… really do need to decide what to do with Corsac. Ironwood's leaving it up to me, and I'm not making that kind of decision without consulting all of you. So far as I can tell, he just wants to be left behind bars to rot and feels like he's got no real motivation to fight for anything anymore. I'm not sure how much he knows about what we're here for, but there's the possibility that he knows something about the relics and Salem…"

"Then 'behind bars' isn't even a realistic option," Yang insisted. "We've all done shit we regret… and I'm probably going to get hit for this, but Ilia was Fang, too. We're giving her a second chance, so I don't really see why we can't do the same for him."

"…oh, I want to hit you, but I know I don't have a leg to stand on," Ilia seethed. "All I've got is the fact that he and Fennec served Adam gleefully. They loved what they did, until it stopped being fun after Fennec was killed by Kali. I knew him before he became this… whatever this apathetic monk-charade he's got going on is, and I don't trust him. He spent a lot of time deceiving Ghira and working against him behind the scenes, Sun. He could easily do the same thing to you to try to win Cinnamon back if you give him the opportunity."

"…and suddenly, I think I might throw up," Sun warned as he set his plate down onto the table. "I was thinking of trying to help him start over, but… now that you've said all that…"

"I have an idea, but it's… risky," Weiss offered. "He has interpersonal conflicts among several people here, and Cin warned us that there were White Fang somewhere in Mantle, so keeping him there is also a big risk. What if we somehow got him to Beacon, or even Vacuo, to work with the defenders there?"

"A completely new start, away from us," Sun mused. "But with no way to monitor him at all. If someone went with him, I feel like that could almost work… but that's not happening."

"I don't think this is the kind of thing we can decide on right now," Jaune interjected with a frown. "It sounds to me like the best way to handle this is to get to know him better, and find a way to get him to contribute that benefits both parties."

"Yeah, but with what time?" Yang asked. "And we really can't afford to split our attention like that, can we?"

"We can't," Weiss confirmed. "And Jaune is right- there is no easy or immediate solution, here… so let's keep the discussion open, for the time being. My personal worries right now are somewhat related, in that I'm unsure of who we can really trust, and how I'm going to handle my father. I don't really think either of those are things that I can ask you all for help with, but I wanted to get them out there to let them be known."

"Who we can really trust," Yang repeated. "Surely, you're not including Ironwood in that group?"

"Actually… I am," Weiss admitted. "And the reasoning ties into what I'm sure one of your biggest concerns is. Sun and I have reason to believe that he sent Hope to spy on us while we were meeting with Robyn Hill. It seems like she may have tracked our scroll signals."

"…I fucking called that shit so hard," Ilia reminded as she narrowed her eyes. "He knows we don't fully trust him, and he's just adding fuel to the fire."

"What if he just wants to make sure that he can trust us?" Jaune offered. "He needs to be cautious, especially w-"

"No," Sun interrupted. "Not with some of the things he's asking me to do personally, when it comes to the faunus. Not after we brought him a relic. He should trust us completely. We could have done anything with that lamp, but we didn't. We brought it to him, and we volunteered ourselves for getting Amity Coliseum into the sky. That should be more than enough good will to let us operate without being actively spied on."

"So call him on that," Ilia stated plainly. "Or, if you don't want to damage your position as the liaison between us and him… I'll call him on it. If he kicks me off the Amity job, then so much the better."

"Ilia…" Sun began, only for the girl to sit up a bit straighter.

"No, Sun. You're right. That should be enough to buy us trust, and I'm the biggest sticking point between us and him. You know what? I'll save you the trouble. I'm taking one for the team and confronting him. Unless any of you three think what Sun said is wrong?" Ilia challenged, looking around at her companions.

Slowly, Weiss put her pizza on the table beside Sun's and shook her head.

"I think what Sun said is correct, but… I don't think you should confront Ironwood about this. At least, not alone. Let me come with you. My family name means more than just dust when it comes to him, and I can consult with Winter and… other people to figure out the best approach. Give me a few days?"

Ilia let out a noise of annoyance before giving Weiss a nod.

"…yeah, sure. And thanks, Weiss. You're one of the good ones."

"I guess that's that," Yang said with a shrug. "My only big concern outside of the obvious about Salem and what we're going to be asked to do is Hope, but you all know that. Dr. Polendina was 'out' when I went down to R&D to talk weapon upgrades. That was convenient."

"And that's another conversation that I don't think should be had alone," Sun warned. "Let me come with you for that one, after I get the security footage of the Vytal Festival from Ironwood. We'll confront him together and keep each other balanced."

"Fine," Yang replied with a wave of her hand. "But if we don't have that footage before we're sent out to the mines, we're going down there without it. Anything else on your mind, besides what's already been covered?"

Sun paused to give the question some thought, before shaking his head softly.

"…not really, no. I was just worried about all of you, but getting all of this out in the open has taken care of that, somewhat." Sun scratched the back of his head, before raising a brow at Jaune. "Hey, man. You've been quiet while we've been making plans. What's on your mind?"

Jaune returned Sun's gaze with an unfamiliar, steely determination in his eyes.

"I've just been thinking, actually. Both of those plans sound good, but I think I've got one of my own, now. Let me talk to Corsac…"

Author's Note:

Originally, I wanted to put the next scene in this chapter, but it really doesn't fit and I'd rather let this friendly gathering stand on its own. "Act 2" begins in the next chapter with a conversation that's been a long time coming, as well as some villainous stuff. The upgrade/training arc will also begin soon, as will Ruby's crew arriving in Patch. Things are about to get very interesting…

-RD