One

The mission parameters for initiation might have been to find a partner, but Fox was really only interested in finding Coco.

He also wasn't entirely sure how eye contact was supposed to work in his case, but he figured they'd cross that bridge together when they found one another. Not that she'd let anyone claim they hadn't made eye contact. It was one of the many reasons he wanted her as his partner. She'd always been supportive of him, doubly so after he'd come out as trans.

Beacon was already going to be hard enough, having to learn to live with two strangers. There was no need to exacerbate that if they could help it.

He had been planning on using his weapons to catch a tree on his way down, but a slight miscalculation meant that he missed and went sailing right past it and into what seemed to be a meadow.

So, Fox went with plan B instead: he curled up in a ball and somersaulted until he hit the ground, rolling several yards before coming to a stop and picking himself up.

He cocked his head, listening for grimm or fellow students. Satisfied there wasn't anyone, he worked to reorient himself and then started off towards the temple. Coco would be looking for him too - he wasn't worried.

A pointed cough made him jump. "I'm Yatsuhashi Daichi," a low voice from nearby said. "And I do believe that makes us partners, even if you hadn't landed yet."

Fox felt the blood drain from his face. He hadn't heard his classmate, and apparently - Maidens, Coco was going to kill him - they had made eye contact.

"Fox Alistair," he supplied, mouth dry. "I didn't see you there."

Which was technically true, but didn't quite explain what had happened either - he was too distracted by the fact his partner was not Coco to figure out a polite way to say "I'm blind."

There was a strained silence and then Fox's new partner started laughing. "I think that's a first. I'm seven feet tall; I don't think anyone has missed me since I was a young boy."

Fox scratched the back of his head. "Probably won't be the last, you're quiet and I'm blind," he admitted. He'd learn to identify his partner in time, but even Coco sometimes managed to startle him.

"That would explain it," he said, still chuckling. "I'll try not to startle you again. Should we head towards the temple?"

"Sure," Fox said with a sigh. "If you see a young woman with a gatling gun and sunglasses, let me know? We were supposed to be partners." The admission sounded almost rude, but having a stranger as a partner wasn't helping his anxiety about being at Beacon.

Yatsuhashi shifted. "I wouldn't object to having her on our team. I'm sorry it didn't work out the way you wanted."

Fox shrugged. "It's not your fault. Let's go find her."

Two

The school year proceeded as well as could be expected. He'd ended up on a team with Coco, which made him feel much better about everything, and her partner seemed nice enough.

Fox became attached to his soft-spoken partner (who had quickly learned to speak up when he would have otherwise accidentally sneaked up on Fox), enjoying the peaceful company he provided.

Their fighting styles worked well together, with Yatsuhashi providing an easy point to focus on and return to after Fox would scout ahead with Velvet.

The first time the four of them really got to try it out was during their first year mission with Professor Port.

He wasn't their first choice by any stretch of the imagination - they all doubted his skill since his boastful stories seemed to be more hot air than substance - however, it was a simple exterminate mission, so it didn't matter that much.

Coco had managed to get Fox's attention away from his partner, distracting him to discuss watch shifts.

"It makes sense for Velvet and I to take the shifts in the middle of the night - when it's darkest," he pointed out. "Plus it's not like you'd go back to sleep if we woke you up in the middle of the night. You should just work it out with Yatsu over who gets first shift and who takes last."

"Are you sure? I know you don't mind the disturbed sleep schedule, but…"

"Velvet already said she didn't mind," Fox reassured her. There was something off about the area - something that was distracting him. He'd taught himself to differentiate between his teammates' auras, and one was missing.

"Fox, is everything okay?" she asked when she noticed how his attention had been pulled away from their conversation.

"Where's Yatsu?"

Coco went quiet for a moment and his heart rate spiked. Where was his partner? Had he missed something?

"He went off to patrol the edges of camp, he asked Professor Port about it five minutes ago," she said, amusement clear in her voice. "Did you not hear him?"

Fox flushed, his face heating up with embarrassment. "No…"

She took pity on him, though, and didn't tease him the way she could have. "He's fine," she said. "He'll be back in a few minutes. I'm keeping an eye out for everyone."

"I know - he's just…"

"He's your partner, I get it." She wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "I'd worry if Velvet suddenly disappeared too."

Three

Over summer break, Fox refused to admit out loud exactly how much he missed his partner. He loved Coco and no one would ever replace her as his best friend, but he still missed Yatsuhashi.

A small smile crept across his face when he listened to the latest message from his partner - just a quick update of what he was up to over the long break. Apparently his parents lived on a farm in Vacuo and were very grateful to have him back to help around with various repairs and manual labor tasks.

"Yatsu send you another message?" Coco asked, drawing him out of his reverie.

He blushed and nodded, tucking his scroll back into his pocket. "He was telling me about his family farm - apparently he's helping with a broken down tractor," he said, not mentioning their plans to talk properly later that night.

Fox didn't have to see Coco's face to know what look she was giving him. She'd done it a half dozen times before with other friends who had a crush when she was determined to see them get together. "You know, he's gay."

"Coco - " he started, but he couldn't be upset with her, even if she tried to set the two of them up. It was nice to know she approved, at least theoretically.

"Just - think about it?" she said, ruffling his hair. "He's a good guy and, honestly, I don't want to deal with you pining for three more years."

Sputtering, Fox tried to get his hair to lay back down straight. "I'm not pining," he griped. "And even if I was, I don't want to screw up our partnership - or our team."

Coco snorted. "Right, because either of you would ever let your relationship interfere with what you did. Look, just - think about it, please?"

"I will if you drop it, deal?"

"Deal."

Four

Every time he thought about the upcoming dance, Fox's mouth went dry and he couldn't find the words to ask his partner to go with him, no matter how much he wanted to.

He'd managed to broach the subject exactly once - at which point he'd learned that Yatsuhashi was in fact going alone - but he still couldn't bring himself to ask.

And now - collapsed against the bulkhead of the airship - he realized he had completely missed his chance to ask him.

It was some thrice-damned hour way too early on Monday morning - and the dance had been the night before. He did find himself wondering if it was still going, though it would be long over by the time they made it back.

He was too wound up to try and sleep - which is what Coco was doing, if her soft snores were anything to go by - and now he couldn't stop thinking about all the times he should have already asked Yatsu.

Shifting uncomfortably - he'd slipped and fallen in mud at some point and it had soaked through vest and sports bra alike - he tried to at least relax. They wouldn't be back at Beacon for another couple hours at most.

He pulled off his weapons, setting them next to him and leaned back, closing his eyes.

Next time, he promised himself. Next time he'd ask his partner to go with him - ignoring the fact it would be at least two years before a dance like this came up again.

He did find himself drifting off once Yatsuhashi sat down next to him, wrapping one arm around his shoulders.

At least he could have this.

Five

The officiants of the Vytal Festival wouldn't let teammates wait down near the arena and so he and Velvet were banished to wait in the stands.

There was no way for him to know what was happening on the arena floor - everything was impossible to make out with the roar of the crowd and the echoes from multiple monitors, in addition to being able to hear the events live.

They weren't expecting to win - if they'd been concerned with winning, they would have sent in Velvet, but that wasn't the point of entering into the tournament. The point was to get her access to weapons, nothing more.

Even though the betting odds had CFVY coming out on top, the four of them knew better - you didn't send in your tanks to something like this.

The first buzzer came far sooner than he'd expected - and was accompanied by the ominous buzzing of his scroll, telling him someone's aura was drained.

His brow furrowed. Sure, expecting to lose was one thing, but this quickly? That wasn't right.

Before he could ask Velvet about their opponents, a second buzzer sounded and his scroll went off again.

"Coco?" Velvet asked, sounding lost.

It'd barely taken five minutes for them to be taken out.

Bile rose in his throat as Oobleck announced it was the biggest upset of the tournament yet.

He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but she didn't seem to be consolable. She took his arm, and started leading him through the crowded stadium.

"They weren't doing too well," Velvet murmured. "We're going to the infirmary."

Sure - aura drain was bad, but the infirmary? He walked beside her, her grip on his arm just a little too tight, but he didn't care. He wanted to reassure her, but there was nothing he could say to make this better.

How aggressive had the Haven students been? Complete aura drain in less than five minutes? Something was wrong and he had no way of knowing what.

And then, to make it worse: "I'm sorry, but we can't let you in."

"They're our teammates," Velvet protested.

"Our partners too," Fox added, wondering if it would make a lick of difference to the nurse in charge.

"I'm sorry, we're not letting anyone in at the moment, just family and team leaders."

Fox wanted to argue, Coco was like family to him, but Velvet was already pulling him away. "Come on, it's not worth it, we'll see them when they get back to the dorm."

And he hated that - he hated that he couldn't be with Yatsu and Coco now and he hated that he wasn't able to join the fight in the two on two round. (Velvet explained what happened on the way back, from Emerald pulling a disappearing act and then hauling Coco across the arena and away from Yatsu, to the painful environmental damage hit he'd taken in the geyser field. Fox wouldn't have made much of a difference, but he still didn't like feeling like he was helpless.)

When they got back to the dorm, he grabbed the first shirt he could find in the closet and ducked into the bathroom to strip out of his vest and binder - it felt too tight right now - and then walked over to Yatsuhashi's bed and collapsed face down on it - while it wasn't a conscious decision to go to his partner's bed over his own, once he was there he couldn't bring himself to move.

Everything felt wrong and Fox missed his partner and he didn't even know if Yatsu was okay - and wouldn't know for who knows how long.

He curled up on his side and pulled the comforter completely over him. Maybe if he slept some it wouldn't seem so bad - maybe they'd be allowed into the infirmary in a few hours, after the last matches of the day.

+1

It was a long walk back to the dorms alone. Coco had stalked off towards the gym, saying something about wanting to let off some steam (even though the doctors had said to take it easy - his leader didn't know the meaning of the word), and Velvet had messaged saying she was still at the fairgrounds and coliseum trying to get some photos. He wasn't sure where Fox had gotten to. Yatsu hoped he was back at their dorm - while he occasionally preferred solitude, he wanted to be with his partner right now.

Everything ached and his ears were still ringing when he opened the door to the dorm. He had already stopped by the locker room to drop off his weapon and quickly stripped out of his armor upon entering the room.

He pretended not to be disappointed when he saw that Fox's bed and desk chair were both empty, instead opting to take a much needed shower and change into something more comfortable.

When he reemerged from the bathroom, he noticed an odd shape on his bed - one he hadn't seen earlier. He smiled when he realized it was Fox - crashed out on his bed.

Yatsuhashi didn't mind, not in the least, but since it was only mid-afternoon, he still walked over to Fox and gently shook him awake.

"Fox," he said quietly. "You didn't fall asleep in your binder, did you?"

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Fox sat up and shook his head.

Yatsu flushed red when the blanket slid down, revealing that Fox was swimming in one of his shirts. While his partner was by no means a small man, Fox still didn't have anywhere near the build Yatsu did and so the shirt was absolutely huge on him.

"Are you doing okay?" he asked, pulling his knees up to his chest.

Yatsuhashi sat down on the bed next to him, leaning against the headboard. "As well as I can."

Fox leaned against him. "What did the doctors say? They kicked us out so we couldn't see you."

He looked down at Fox, who was pouting. "We'll be fine - just supposed to take it easy and let our aura return naturally." Yatsu wrapped an arm around Fox's shoulders. "We're going to be fine" he reiterated when Fox didn't relax.

Fox let out a contented hum at the contact. "So Coco's at the gym already."

"Got it in one." He sighed. "She apparently was suffering from 'stress-induced hallucinations' and was seeing things in the forest."

"I wish I had been there," Fox said, hands balling into fists. "I should have been there."

Yatsu looked down at his partner in concern. "We talked about it, remember? It didn't make sense for you to go in, not when we were really just trying for Velvet so she could get weapon photos."

He nodded, but still was tense. "I know."

Honestly, Yatsuhashi was glad Fox hadn't been there. If he had seen Emerald grab Fox the way Coco had been, yanking him into the forest -

He shook his head and tried not to think about it. Instead, he tightened his arm around Fox's shoulders and pressed a kiss onto the top of his partner's head.

Fox snuggled in closer. "I just wish you hadn't been hurt."

"I'm fine," he said again. "Didn't get scratched, just aura drain."

Fox took his hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. "I heard what happened in the geyser field."

He moved Fox's hand to his cheek. "Not even flushed," he said. It had hurt at the time, there was no denying that, but he'd walked away from worse.

Fox's face flushed at the intimate contact, and he shifted to caress Yatsu's cheek, eyes drifting shut.

They hadn't done this before. When Yatsu had hesitantly asked early on in their first year at Beacon, Fox had responded with a snarky comment about how no, he didn't want to touch anyone's face, but this was different. Fox couldn't see that he was fine, but he could feel the unbroken skin.

Plus, Yatsu really liked it when Fox was touching him.

Fox didn't pull his hand away, gently running his thumb along Yatsu's cheekbone. "Can - " Fox started to ask, then stopped.

Yatsu looked down at his partner - suspecting he knew exactly what had made him shy. "Can you what?" he asked anyway, wanting to make sure.

Fox's hand slipped off Yatsu's face, and he turned around so he was on his knees facing him, bringing him to nearly Yatsu's height. "Kiss you?"

Smiling, Yatsuhashi wrapped an arm around Fox's waist and pulled him in close. "Yes."

Fox's face lit up in response and he closed the last of the distance between them, pressing their lips together in a sweet and tender kiss.

When he pulled away, still a little shy, he pressed his face into the crook of Yatsuhashi's neck. "This okay?" he asked, wanting reassurance.

"It's perfect, Fox," he promised, holding his partner close and shifting so they were both more comfortable. "Absolutely perfect."