Qrow is coming, just thought I'd let you know. Again, like Winter, he might be different from canon.

Blake felt a shifting body behind her. It was definitely a body of someone that was barely alive enough to move. Then she heard dry coughing and moans of pain before she finally heard a coherent sentence, though it still had a shaky value to it.

"Blake…" Yang pathetically mumbled out.

"Hmm?" She acknowledged Yang.

"Please kill me."

Blake laughed lightly, before getting out of her bed and stretching, her back making some very satisfying pops and cracks. "Maybe you shouldn't have drunk so much, Miss Yang 'Heavyweight' Xiao Long the hungover."

Yang groaned and collapsed, from her sitting up position, back into the bed, holding her head in the process. "It hurts so muuuch…"

Blake said nothing and left for the bathroom, where she filled a glass with water and brought it back to Yang. "Here, a bit of hair of the dog that bit you?"

Yang looked up at Blake in disbelief. "Blake, are you serious right now?"

The black-haired girl laughed. "It's just water, dummy. Drink it, you need it."

The blonde struggled to put herself up to a sitting position and took the glass. She had a sip before grabbing her mouth with her other hand, throwing the glass on the floor and ran for the bathroom. Before long, Blake heard loud retching noises again.

From behind the cat faunus, a slightly perplexed voice of Weiss rang.

"Did you just… Make a pun?"

"Pun?", Blake answered, not too sure what the heiress was getting at.

"Hair of the dog that bit you?"

"How is that a pun?"

Weiss' already pale face paled a bit more after realizing just what she said. "I uh… Thought it was something else or something."

Blake wanted to retort, but she heard the toilet flush, so she turned her attention to the bathroom door. Not too long after that Yang came out, holding the sides of her head while groaning.

"Urkh… Next time I run away like that, try and beat some sense into me. I'm dying."

Before Weiss could begin to reprimand the blonde for getting so drunk, the illustrious leader of team RWBY awoke with a yelp and fell out of her bed. Ruby fell to the floor with an 'oof' and rolled over, eyes still adjusting to the morning daylight.

"Uhh… hi everyone? What time is it?" she asked.

Weiss looked over at the clock, and then back at the girl, responding "It's 9am. It's fairly late in the day."

Yang, who was supporting herself by holding onto the bed, said "That's at least four hours too early princess, I should be waking up past noon like this. Or, not at all. Kill me now."

Winter chose that moment to walk in through the door, only to see a barely conscious Yang, a bleary eyed Ruby, a frustrated Weiss and the surprisingly prepared Blake staring back at her. Ruby had tried to get up but fell over in the process, eliciting giggles from the girls. Winter only had to raise an eyebrow to prompt Blake to say "Yang got very, very drunk after losing yesterday."

"Oh," Winter said, "So that's what it was?"

Yang shrugged her shoulders. "I'm a big girl, I can handle myself."

"Clearly," Winter said dismissively, though Weiss noticed the disgusted glare her younger sister sent the blonde's way. "Anyways, your father Taiyang told me to inform you that your uncle is visiting. I can't remember what his name was, but, you know. Semantics."

At the news, Ruby immediately perked up and was on her feet.

"Uncle Qrow is coming to visit? Today?! Yang, quick, we need to get ready! Get your clothes on! Stop standing around! We have a great day to prepare for!" Her orderly commands were met by Yang grumbling and falling back onto the bed she supported herself upon.

"Do we have to do it now, or, can I have like five more minutes?"

"No!" Ruby squealed, "Now, now! We need to get going now!"

The answer was more groaning from the blonde, but she did force herself to get up, albeit cupping her face in her hands. The energetic ball of energy that was called Ruby, on the other hand, already dashed out the room.

"What's with her?", Winter asked. "She loves her uncle so much?"

"Her uncle helped her make Crescent Rose. Come to think of it, I think she told me once or twice or fifteen times that he was a scythe wielder too, and that he helped her train," Weiss answered.

Blake decided to help Yang get out of the room. She grabbed her waist with one arm and put one of Yang's arms on her shoulder, effectively carrying her out of the room, muttering a small "See you later, girls" to the Schnee sisters.

Weiss started laughing out loud as soon as Blake left the room, which of course resulted in Winter looking at her as if she just came from an insane asylum. "What's with the laugh, Weiss?"

"I just…" Weiss couldn't finish her sentence without bursting into laughter again. She calmed herself down with a few deep breaths. "Okay. So, yesterday, when Yang came home all drunk, she actually helped me in our plan. Unknowingly, of course."

"Huh?"

"Yang apparently knows about us. Makes sense, when you think of it. But that's not the point. The point is that she wanted to tell her how lucky Ruby is for having both of us. And as you might have expected," her mouth was widening in a smile again, "Ruby didn't take too calmly to that. So I had some fun with her."

Winter pouted. "No fair. You get all the fun with her regarding this."

"I'm her teammate. Not to mention that you weren't completely excluded from it. I seem to recall someone getting caught up in something and resorting to hiding below someone's bed."

Winter nervously looked around, making sure nobody heard what she was about to say. "You know," she started, "when I was down there, you texted me that Blake knows I'm here then. How?"

Weiss thought about it for a minute. I don't know what her stance on faunus is. Do I tell her the whole truth?

"Errr…" What to say, what to say? "She… Has a great sixth sense?"

"Sister, that's not it. Give it to me straight. Is she a faunus?"

Weiss whispered. "Yes."

Winter paled at that, but managed to hold herself together and not burst. "That… That explains it."

"Are you okay?"

No I'm not okay, dummy! A faunus caught me masturbating to her smut novel and now I'm in her debt unless I want it be spread that Winter Schnee is a smutmonkey, do you think I'm okay?

"I've… Been better."

"That reminds me," Weiss said. "I never asked. What do you think of faunus?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, in the time I am here, Blake has shown me a different side of the coin. I can't say I fully support their cause, I mean, in the end it's still my family White Fang is threatening and stealing from, but I've realized not all faunus are criminals." Let's not mention that she used to be in the organization, just in case.

"I've always been indifferent to them, to tell you the truth. I never really agreed with our company's policy on them, but I never thought any more of it than that," she shrugged. "It seemed like the natural order of things. Some people rule, others rebel against them. Almost like if we were royalty of some sort."

"Right. Just to be sure you're not… Too bothered by one of my teammates being a faunus."

That's not what bothers me about her at all, sister. But let's leave that for another day.

"Shall we go see this uncle of Ruby's?", Winter proposed.

"Let's."

"Hey, what's up scamp?"

"UNCLE QROOOW!"

Ruby had launched herself, literally her entire body, into the tall man. They stood at the port, where Bullheads and airships had landed and docked. Some students headed off into town with their teams, others were just arriving back.

Qrow was a tall man, standing well over 6'3. He had black hair, which seemed to be fading ever so slightly with age, yet somehow gave him a more wisened look. His beard was well trimmed and a scar ran across his cheek. He, like his sister Summer and his niece Ruby, had silver eyes. His clothing was generally of a darker shade, with blacks and greys merging together. Unlike what Blake had initially thought upon seeing the man, he presented a kind warmth with himself, and looked like the type who was willing to hear out anyone's problems.

Of course, attached to his back on a specially made holster, was a box of gleaming black metal. It didn't take much for Weiss to figure out that it was probably his own scythe. Qrow was the man who sparked Ruby's interest in weapons; and so he was probably even more enthusiastic about them than Ruby was. Maybe his scythe was also a minigun, perhaps a flame-thrower. Double sided? Weiss could only guess.

Once Yang had forcibly unlatched Ruby from her uncle, she was immediately set off once again. "Auuugh!" she exclaimed, "I haven't seen you in aaages. I mean, I was totally going to call you on the CCT but I kind of got caught up in all this secret stuff and doing missions and homework and… uh… sorry?"

Qrow laughed in a voice that seemed to be a combination between smooth and gravelly, with years of experience underlying his deeper tone. "Yeah, I've missed you too, scamp. So, are you going to introduce me to these ladies?" he asked, gesturing to the rest of team RWBY. Yang squawked, and shouted "Hey, ya lazy old fart! You didn't forget about little ol' me here, did you?"

He rolled his eyes, and responded saying "Uh, blonde and brash? Yeah, I don't think i'm going to be forgetting about you any time soon, squirt."

"Sooo…" Ruby began, "That's Weiss, my partner in crime!" She pointed towards Weiss, who looked to Qrow and said "Pleasure to meet you. For the record, i'm not a criminal." Yang snorted.

"That's Blake," she explained with another point, "and she's Yang's partner. She doesn't talk all that much, but she's totally cool. Finally, next to Weiss, is Winter! She's Weiss' sister, and she's visiting for the festival." At the mention of her name, Winter curtsied.

"Dad is, uh, probably somewhere. I have no idea to be honest. He just disappears sometimes," Ruby then told Qrow. She still wasn't sure if her father had actually played scythe-hot-potato with Yang, like she said she would.

"Doesn't surprise me. So, where are we going? Anything to do?" Qrow was eyeing the campus up and down - admiring the gardens and watching as the wind played havoc on the leaves of the trees.

"Actually, yeah, can we go to the practice range? I've really been meaning to have that rematch with you for, like, forever now. I reckon I could probably beat you, ya know?" At this, Winter's head snapped up. Ruby wasn't talking about a spar, was she? If the match was down to the wire with Weiss, the huntress in training Ruby would certainly struggle to beat a man with what was obviously decades of hunting experience. Not to mention that he was much taller than her, and looked rather strong.

"You're on, squirt. Follow me, I know a good range we can go to. It's got a prep station and everything - you'll love it." Qrow motioned for the girls to follow him, Ruby in particular, as they made their way down the winding paths flanked by hedges. Before them was a building, similar in design to most of the structures on the Beacon site, but the sign above the door read 'Firearm Range #3'.

Weiss was the first to speak up when they reached the range. "I'll bite," she said, "Why are we at a firing range? What's happening?"

As soon as they were inside, Ruby and Qrow headed off to one of the available tables, most of which were very long. Yang took up the job, and explained to her "Well, back on Patch, in Signal, Ruby had a marksman competition against our uncle Qrow here. He basically stomped her, and Ruby said that she'd have a rematch with him when she got better with her sniper rifle. And, uh, here we are. They're having this rematch. You might wanna grab some ear mufflers."

On the tables, both Ruby and Qrow's faces were set in concentration. Ruby had her tongue stuck out the side of her mouth, as she meticulously inspected the sniper rifle element of Crescent Rose. Qrow, meanwhile, removed the black box from his back and allowed it to transform part way. What was presented to him, was a weapon that made Weiss consider redefining the definition of 'too large'. She thought Crescent Rose was large, but Qrow's scythe blew it out of the water. It was well over seven and a half feet long, with an incredibly thick and boxy magazine. The receiver of the weapon was sleek in design, and certainly large. It had a large bolt, and Weiss didn't dare to imagine what kind of caliber it was.

And he hadn't even unfolded it fully. Weiss wouldn't be surprised if the blade was made out of chainsaws, or something crazy like that.

As if it were featherweight, he simply lifted it up and unfolded an inconspicuous bipod underneath the long barrel. A huge compensator finished the end of the barrel, all of which was painted black, and looked large enough to club a grimm to death with alone. One thing Weiss did notice, however…

"Excuse me, Mr Qrow," asked Weiss.

"Hm?" He turned and looked at her. "Something up?"

"What calibre is that supposed to be? Just curious." Weiss had a nagging suspicion, and she wanted to confirm it.

"20x102 millimetres, only the best for my baby. Did Ruby infect you into a weapons nerd or something too?" As if. Calibres were fairly basic weapon specifications.

"Ruby said hers also runs on the same kind… but yet yours look bigger? How is that possible?"

Qrow raised an eyebrow, then furrowed it in confusion, and then began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Weiss inquired.

"That Crescent Rose of hers? No way does that fire twenties. Pretty sure it's 12.7 millimetres in calibre, can't quite remember the length though. She knows that weapon better than anyone."

Weiss did a double take as she made the connection; saying, "You don't think she said it was bigger to show off, do you?"

Qrow shrugged his shoulders with a smirk, and continued to fuss over his own rifle.

A few minutes and a lot of tinkering later, Ruby too brought her rifle forth to face Qrow. It took a similar form, being fully extended but the blade retracted, and the two bowed to each other. "First to 250?" asked Qrow, to which Ruby replied "You're on. Winner gets… uh… bragging rights. Crazy bragging rights."

Weiss had to back away as Qrow rested his weapon on the lane he sat at, with a very long range ahead of him. It was standard; targets would pop up, the shooter would shoot them and knock them back down. 250 targets, however, seemed a bit extreme to Weiss. Ruby kneeled down and braced her weapon on her lane as well, the two a fair distance apart. This way, they wouldn't shoot one-another's targets.

"You two ready?" Yang asked, hand hovering over the button to begin the competition. Both Ruby and Qrow nodded in affirmation, and Yang counted down.

"Three! Two! One! Go!" and immediately, Yang clasped her hands over her ears.

Weiss quickly understood why, barely milliseconds later as the first shot rang out. Ruby's rifle was very loud, and whenever she shot the weapon, it left a bit of a ring in everyone's ears. Qrow's rifle, on the other hand, was a different story altogether. Each shot struck like thunder as it cracked with the sheer speed of the bullet, and it'd make short work of each target he shot at. Even despite the much heavier looking bolt, he was matching Ruby shot-for-shot, if not shooting faster, which was certainly a feat in itself.

After having thrown on the closest ear mufflers she could find, Weiss then turned her attention to the scores, noticing that both parties needed to reload already, and there were at least a dozen targets eliminated in the first 15 or so seconds. She had seen Ruby reload before, and was sometimes quite leisurely about it, not particularly rushed in her movements - now though, she was performing magic, as the spent magazines were replaced in the blink of an eye.

Blake, meanwhile, wasn't enjoying the little show quite so much. Her sensitive ears did not agree with the insane sound levels at all, and so she quickly excused herself outside. No doubt Ruby would talk about her victory, or defeat, to no ends once she finished. Yang could probably handle herself. Weiss didn't seem to care past the initial shock. Winter, however, was to be found outside as well. When did she sneak off?

"Winter?"

The white-haired girl jumped in surprise, clearly not expecting Blake. "Blake! Don't sneak upon me like that!"

The faunus mused. "I apologize. When did you come here?"

"As soon as they started shooting. That was way too loud for my ears. I don't know how the rest of you coped with it."

"As you can see, I didn't."

"I guess that's understandable."

"Hm? Why?"

"Err…" Winter was trapped. "You know…" She decided to lay down the cards. "Because you're a faunus."

"Oh, so you've learned my little secret. I trust you know to not tell anyone unless I allow you to." She sent her a look that would be a warning enough to anyone with half a brain.

Winter just nodded. "You know, since you're here," Blake started, "I could use a favour or even a helping hand, so to speak. Care to come with me?"

"Where?"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. Not all faunus want to kill every single Schnee. Plus, I wouldn't want your girlfriend to kill me. Trust me on this one."

Winter reluctantly nodded and gingerly followed the catgirl off the campus.

Before long, they were at the door of the largest bookstore in Vale. Tukson's Book Trade, home to every book under the sun.

"What are we doing here?"

"You remember Ninjas of Love?", Blake asked. Winter blushed and looked at the floor. "I see you do. Well, yesterday a sequel was released. It's called Ninjas of Passion."

"W-Why are you telling me this?"

"You know, I was under the impression Schnees would understand subtlety. You know exactly why I'm telling you this, don't you?"

Winter blushed a bit more, staring through the window of the store, noticing someone who looked like the owner of the place. "W-Well," she stammered out, "I… Think I know."

"And mind telling me what you think is why I'm telling you this?"

"B-Because you noticed I… Like the first book and want to tell me a new one that I'll probably like just the same is out?"

Blake mused. "That's only partially true."

Winter looked at her in fear. "Wh-What else?"

"I want you to buy one for me, one for yourself, then both books for Ruby, Weiss, Yang and, and that's the kicker, your mother."

Winter looked at the faunus in disbelief. "You can't be serious. I can't buy a book so crass to my mother. Why would I buy that for my mother?"

"Winter, be glad I didn't order you to buy another set for Ruby's father."

"But… But… I can't do that! What will mother think of me?"

Blake smiled and said nothing, she just pushed Winter closer to the entrance and then started absentmindedly looking through the store window.

"W-Wait," Winter stammered again, "aren't you going in with me if I have to do this?"

"Hm? Why?"

"Well, you know… So that it doesn't look too weird?"

"Eh? I'm not sure I'm getting your point."

"I can't go in there by myself! He'll look at me weird and think weird things about me!"

"So? Are you denying you're a smutmonkey?"

"I just… I'm a Schnee, I can't be seen buying that."

"Well, you can either buy that and have only Tukson know you're a smutmonkey, or I can let everyone know you're that."

"You're evil!"

"Nothing like this would happen if you didn't steal my book instead of asking me to borrow it."

Winter bowed her head in defeat and started going towards the door.

"Remember, four sets and two extra new books!"

Winter sent her a glare and disappeared in the store. Inside, there was nobody but the man she saw through the window before. She walked up to the counter and waited for him to come to her.

"Good afternoon and welcome to Tukson's Book Trade, the home to every book under the sun. How may I help you, Miss?"

"Hi," Winter gingerly said. "I was wondering if you have…" The rest of the sentence was lost in incoherent mumbling.

"I'm sorry, Miss, I didn't quite catch that. What is it you're looking for?"

"The Ninjas of Love series," she repeated louder.

"Oh. I see," Tukson gave her a knowing smile, which only made Winter blush more. "So, do you want just the new book or both of them?"

"I uh… Need a bit more than that."

"And what do you mean by that? That and Booty of Vacuo series? Some other series?"

"I… W-What did you say about Vacuo?"

"Booty of Vacuo. It's a series that's very similar to Ninjas of Love."

Winter blushed a bit more before asking the next question. "How… Long is it?"

"It's seven books currently, but the eighth one is in production."

"I… Might want to buy that one too then."

"Sure thing, Miss. So, one Ninjas of Love and one Booty of Vacuo series?"

"Actually, I need four sets of Ninjas. And two extra Ninjas of Passion. And one Booty of Vacuo."

"Oh. I see. I guess the tournament can get pretty boring once you're eliminated."

"What tournament are you talking about?"

"The Vytal Tournament, of course."

"That's not… Can you just give me the books, please?"

"Of course. At once."

Tukson disappeared in the back of the store and returned two or three minutes later with a stack of books. Gift-wrapped.

"There you go, Miss, I have taken the liberty of gift-wrapping each set of books. And it's completely free of charge since you will buy this many books."

Well, at least he's thinking clearly. I really wouldn't want to walk all the way to Beacon with these lewd books on display. It's better if they're wrapped.

"How much do I owe you, then?" She wanted out of the bookstore as soon as possible, so she quickly pulled out a few large notes and offered them to Tukson, who gladly took the money and then attempted to give back the change, but Winter stopped him. "Keep the change."

"Miss, you've given me enough money to buy five more books."

"Just keep the change."

"Thank you," he replied, quickly putting the excess cash back into the register. "Thank you for your purchase and I wish you lots of fun reading those books!"

Winter clumsily waved with a bag full of books in her hand before almost running out of the store, where Blake was eagerly waiting.

"There, I bought them. Happy?"

"For now."

"What do you mean, for now?"

"Every criminal must accept their penance. You stole my book."

"I was gonna return it!"

"You stole my book. Bear the consequences. Also, what's this larger collection?"

Winter blushed. "I'm not telling you. And you've probably read it already."

Blake snorted. "Fair enough."

On the way back to Beacon, the duo talked about Ninjas of Love and the plot and everything they liked and disliked about it. Knowing that Blake was not judging her based on the book, Winter realized that books like that are much more enjoyable when you share your views on them with someone else. She wasn't ready to call Blake her friend, but she enjoyed the conversation and figured that they came back to the Academy quicker than they took to get to town.

And here we go! Qrow is in! Who won? Find out next time!

Thanks for reading!