Paige stayed silent, and mentally begged forgiveness for her past self's heinous actions. She recalled the incredibly embarrassing occasion where she failed to ask out Cass so badly she somehow managed to get the entire conversation derailed to debating the reliability of methods of historical witchcraft while eating some really good sandwiches.

… She had managed to make a girl go red and breathless from talking, and this girl managed to do rooftop acrobatics and full sprinting without missing a beat.

What was this girl built from? The last time Paige heard someone speak this fast was when she kicked her in-law out of a 23rd story window, and they had at least taken the time to pause for emphasis.

She inwardly rejoiced when the girl's friends came over-

…

What Paige saw was making her glad for the first time that she wasn't standing next to her wife. If Cass saw these women, she'd be discussing costuming for the next MONTH, and Paige did not want to have to sit through that hyper-fixation.

These students must have seen one of those cheesy little fine print "you can be anything you set your mind to!" … then chose anime heroines. They had the black assassin, they got the red (not pink, but still good) cute heroine, they got the brown coated delinquent, there was even the (honestly pretty cool) fancy dressed heel-turned mean girl! These girls even bothered to stick with a color scheme!

...

The people in question appeared to be slightly uncomfortable with her bursting out into laughing, but Paige just realised exactly how funny the scene was. Cackling with glee, she ran up to the three people, and had a guess at who was who. After all, Ruby did tell her three separate times about her team members.

Standing and pointing in front of them while turned towards Ruby, grinning like a selfie taking fan, she called out the team, "We got Brown and sunny here-"

A quick leap turned her face into an ominous smile, "Black."

Two sidesteps lead to her bowing lightly, gracefully introducing the third,

"White."

"It's Weiss."

…

Paige paused. "And the lass here, Ruby." She gestured vaguely towards the other two. "So… It's named after the team leader?"

The leader in question blinked, then looked questioningly. "It's obviously an acronym."

Isn't she in a team? This is really obvious to know.

Ruby heard a quiet muttering for a second as they let the new arrival think it through. "So it's…"

"R, Ruby."

"W, making an "oo" sound somehow with Snowy."

A mutter of annoyance came with this finger point.

"B, for Blacky."

"To clarify, it's Blake. Like the body of water."

Paige turned, and watched Ruby nodded in affirmation. Then Paige fired off her last shot, dealing a critical blow.

"Then, last one: B, for brown."

… They walked in silence.

Brown was frozen in a state of shock, eventually unfreezing and annoyed.

"What did you say I was?"

"What, it's your Color scheme." Paige listed off every brown adjacent hue they could think of. It was actually quite a few.

…

Yang just decided to stop the whole thing by rapidly changing the subject to other equally embarrassing topics. "Where did you meet your girlfriend, Unce Qrow? Didn't see her at all before now."

Ruby gave a very quiet gasp, and would have probably started right then and there if her sister hadn't tapped her shoulder to distract her.

She whispered, "Do it later, okay? They're not going to respond now."

Ruby nodded in silent agreement.

Excellent. Now she has the most effective way to keep this momentum going: Ruby. Both of the targets looked dead inside. She managed to inflict serious damage to the opponent, and has a strong backup to inflict more later. The two of them continued their shared silence, and Yang decided to do some investigation on her copycat.

"So, Rubes. Why did you run after a random stranger that looked vaguely like me?"

"Ruby. You knew we were waiting for you."

Ruby flinched as her team leaned closer, moving ahead of the stymied duo of older hunters. Ruby ended up surrounded by the other three girls, and stiltedly lifted a small lock out of her dress.

"I… broke into a room inside the school. That woman standing with Uncle Qrow was locked inside it. LOCKED. I know she said she was in there for personal reasons, but as soon as she was out in the hallway she was gone! Just… nowhere to be seen in a second! And now, she just appears next to Uncle Qrow and he's literally never let her out of his sight."

"That-"

However, she wasn't finished. "He's either looking at her, or touching her, or practically on top of her, or-"

Blake mutter cut through her rant, "Yang. She gets this from you."

Ruby paused, looking at her half sister's struggling face of amusement.

Weiss's calm face of emotionless blankness.

Blake staring, eyebrows raised.

…

...

She put her face into her hands.

Yang commented with a breath. "You know something? This just gives further evidence towards my girlfriend theory."

"A theory you are not going to investigate!" Weiss exclaimed.

A hitherto unheard voice interrupted Yang's beginnings of gleeful plotting.

"Ms Xiao Long."

SH-

Yang Xiao Ling spun, watching the neutral woman standing right behind her. They slowly raised their hand, paused briefly, then continued, extending their middle finger. At first, Yang was going to get offended, then she reviewed what she was looking at.

"I'm not his girlfriend. It's not very polite to wildly assume."

... They stood for a half second in silence, then-

-Yang nodded. "Nice ring."

"Thank you."

Yang proceeded to turn back, continuing the conversation and glad that there wasn't any kind of extreme reprimand.

...

-Then, after starting an argument on what is or is not polite to discuss about families, Yang realised the implications of what she just heard.

…

"QROW! YOU GOT A WIFE?"

What? That's insane- Qrow looked at the girls standing still up ahead. His nieces were looking insulted, and shocked respectively. He followed his younger niece's astonished gaze to it's target, landing on an ornate ring worn by the woman he was accompanying.

His eyes widened. "You malicious woman." he whispered.

She turned to look at him with a glowing look of joy. "It's just payback." she whispered back.

Qrow smirked, and turned to his nieces.

"Yep!" he called.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his walking companion's face fall like he just kicked her over Beacon's cliff.

Paige's mind went wildly, trying to think of how to handle this.

After 23 seconds, Qrow and Paige walked past the members of RWBY. After a minute, Qrow started to get a very bad feeling down his neck.

... Where are they?

Qrow quickly checked his surroundings.

Ruby was in front of him, looking down toward the ground appearing winded. She probably was using her semblance to get so far ahead, but Qrow assumed she may have actually just tried to run past him when he hadn't been paying attention.

Belladonna to his right. Weiss to the left.

... Yang was at his back.

Qrow chuckled slightly. "Are you all seriously going to tr-"

Ruby raised a fist and shouted out towards them

"Team RWBY! ...huuuu... Cardinal Checkmate!"

You're really doing this.

…

"So you are currently a chaperone for Mrs Woods, who is currently here after a village evacuation where she was trying to locate her partner."

Qrow sighed in relief, finally given a rest from all the fighting and questions on his marital status directed at him. "Yes, Ms Schnee. That's a very clear explanation."

The others had left for various personal tasks, and it was just the three of them waiting in a preset area for reconvening in the town's square. Paige was watching the trees sway in the breeze, Weiss was humming a small melody, and Qrow laid back, eyes closed and from mending the situation he dropkicked himself into…

"Mrs Paige. You are a married hunter, correct? How long have you been with your partner?"

"About 18-20 years."

Qrow opened his eyes. He slowly turned his attention to the women talking.

"Do you have family?"

"We had a daughter. Thirte-"

Qrow sat up and Weiss flinched slightly.

"Paige. Please come over here"

His statement caused all conversation to slow to a halt. He walked her to stand her in Weiss's line of sight, but just out of earshot. "That… is impossible. How old are you really?"

Paige stood still, thinking of a good reply. "Now or then?"

"Your. Actual. Age. You blatantly lied."

"Actually, I didn't. This is my 23 year old self's body. So, this is as good of an age as I can give you. You're not going to get any closer to my actual age."

…

Qrow, at heart, was a blunt person. It was always incredibly annoying when he had to try to subtly dance around a topic. So, tired from all the lack of communication, he just told her exactly what he wanted her to answer.

"Are you my enemy? Because I do not trust you."

She watched him, saying quietly, "I also don't really trust people. Despite that, I am not against you."

She held out her hand.

Angeline. You're good at acting formal. Care to help?

…

A tired voice muttered in her head. "Fine. I'll help for our mutual survival."

Paige spoke crisply to Qrow, delivering a request, "I would like to be on good terms with you, since I'm going to be staying here near your family. Do you accept my presence here?"

… Qrow raised his brows questioningly. "What if I said no?"

"I will probably have to be further interrogated by your school's headmaster, but I would never approach your nieces, and leave after my presence is not needed here."

Qrow hesitated.

"I apologise that my presence gives you discomfort. I will try to alleviate my affection of your emotional state. If it is any consolation, I will work to protect the younger members of your family as well as my own."

She finished her clipped dialouge, her calm veneer breaking at the end, and they both returned to their seats.

…

Paige sat, mentally harmonising with the wind and the melody humming softly, watching the people walking past.

"-Your fault you chose to run across rooftops instead of getting a wallet!"

"I was distracted! Can't I use my good deeds done today to earn a slice?! "

"Nope! This is a cak- HEY!"

…

Qrow looked down the street at the red girl held back by one arm reaching towards a large white box raised up by their laughing companion.

Without turning, he spoke to the air.

"Mrs Woods. Are you serious about that promise?"

Paige watched the siblings as the music slowed. It didn't line up anymore. Shame.

"They know what it feels like to lose someone. Distance, time, or death. Even if you don't trust me, I would not want to wish that on you.

…

I am serious about my promise."

He turned to face her, and watched her silently for a moment.

"Thank you."

…

"Would you like me to make it more official? I can invoke my name if you feel that's warranted."

Qrow chuckled. "It's fine. I was just trying to know if you were serious about your promises."

….

Paige sat in silent uncomfortableness. "Are you people usually like this?"

"Honestly? That was really tiring to keep up. I was just waiting for you to call me out for being an annoying jerk. Kid, when I'm told to work with people, especially by Oz, I'm not a complete bastard about it, I just do the work."

… Paige sighed. Turns out she was not completely immune to mischievous duplicity.

…

Wait. What exactly did he say? Paige slitted her eyes in a suspicious gaze.

Work with? I'm meant to be monitored by him. I'm just an unexpected person staying at the school…

Qrow called out to the others approaching, slipping a small object into her arm pocket as he stood up. Paige stayed sitting on the bench as the other two occupants went over to regroup, removing the small card from her coat pocket.

She sat for a second as a slip of folded paper fell into her hands, then read the card. The most noticeable point was a picture of her blank face next to a stone wall-

-wait. That was a photo of her a few minutes ago. That PUNK-

Paige frantically sped through the card's information.

[Paige Woods

63700-31518-16195]

Here she was briefly distracted by a symbol of a stylised red eye in the bottom corner, wondering how that made any sense in relation to herself.

[PLACE OF ISSUE: VALE

AUTHORITY: BEACON ACADEMY

RESTRICTIONS: UNRESTRICTED]

… WHAT. DID HE JUST DO?

Honestly, Paige didn't really know what this was… but she had a very bad suspicion in this context. It was an ID card, and he very clearly said "work" not "monitor"…

It wasn't that hard to connect the little dots together. Instead of going over the card in stymied confusion, she read the little paper.

"Hey, lass. This is your new Hunter license, brought about by the helpful assistance of yours truly! Don't thank me just yet, though. Ozpin has better explanations for you, but to put it simply: You get official room and board at Beacon now, but you're working under Port.

I give you my approval to head back by the time you're done reading this."

….

Paige looked at her companions, Qrow was silent, the other four were waiting, some impatient, others interested. She tried excusing herself from the group, but it failed with her taking a step towards the group to explain.

"We're going back now?"

… Yes, yes they are.