AN: Tablets are now scrolls, both may or may not be used interchangeably. More canon terms will be switched in as more information is given in canon.

"This is some miserable weather we've been having lately, isn't it? Makes me wonder why I volunteered to be here in the first place."

The young man with white feathers in his brown hair sighed as he picked up his mug and took a swallow. Not for the first time, he made a face and dropped the mug back onto the table, the liquid inside sloshing around a bit and a few drops spilling over the edge.

"Wish they had something stronger," he muttered.

"We're on guard duty," the auburn-haired woman responded, her rabbit ears twitching. "And you volunteered because you had nowhere else to go."

She placed a few playing cards onto the table, making the avian faunus throw his cards down and groan. The woman smirked and gathered them up again, rearranging them into a deck and shuffling.

The man stood up and stretched his legs, then walked over to a nearby table that had a variety of foodstuffs on top of it. Lifting the lid off of one of the containers of food, he gave it a quick sniff before deeming it acceptable and grabbing a bowl and a fork.

After filling the wooden container with salad, he sat back down at the table, waiting for the woman to finish dealing the cards.

"You know," he said, his mouth full of food, "I find it insulting that you think I came here because it was my last resort."

The rabbit faunus rolled her eyes. This wasn't the first time she'd heard this, and she was sure it wouldn't be the last.

"After all," he said—gesticulating with his fork before taking another bite—"We're all here for the betterment of our kind. It would rude to think that any of us have ulterior motives."

"Uh huh." She motioned at his facedown cards. "Hurry up and put something down."

He barely glanced at the cards before selecting two and placing them onto the table. "The salad tastes better today. Glad they took my advice."

She responded with a few more cards of her own. "Maybe you should stop being so picky and bothering the poor cooks."

He shrugged. "It's not that big of a deal. I just asked them to change the ratio of the vinegar to the—"

A series of urgent knocks came from the entrance, interrupting whatever he was about to say. The two of them immediately sat upright, glancing at each other before both walking to the door. The woman grabbed the doorknob and opened it.

"Hi," the messenger girl standing outside said. "The captain wanted me to tell you guys that something's happening at the main meeting building and wants one of you to come and weigh in on a decision."

The avian faunus patted the rabbit faunus on the back. "Have fun at the meeting. Tell them I said hi."

She glared at him. "Too troublesome for you, Roderick?"

Roderick nodded. "I need to go finish my snack anyways. Can't let food go to waste, you know. Don't worry, I'll go keep Eric company up there."

She frowned but nodded anyways. "Then I'll be going now. Don't bother him too much."

Roderick looked offended. "Me? A bother? Why, I ought to—"

The auburn-haired faunus shut the door and turned to the girl with a strained smile. She began walking, the girl falling into step beside her as they trod through the fresh snow.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Isaac doesn't usually call a meeting for trivial matters."

The messenger faunus looked at her. "Well, there's apparently a police officer at the main building that has some evidence or something. Isaac took a look through her files and immediately sent me to get you guys."

"A police officer?" The other faunus looked intrigued. "I haven't heard good things about them. I wonder what they'd want us for…"

Maia watched the man across her sift through her pile of documents and photos, his face remaining impassive despite the not-so-sanitary contents of the thick bundle.

She had gone to the central guard tower straight after her last shift had ended and asked to see the captain of the guards. Luckily, the man himself was easily accessible and willing to listen to whatever she had to say after she had handed the folder over. He had taken a single glance and immediately called a messenger to gather most of the wall guards for a meeting.

As she sat in the surprisingly comfortable chair and waited for the other guards to arrive, she took a moment to reflect upon the… home invasion, she supposed she could call it, that had occurred the two days ago. Now that a day had passed and she wasn't sleep-deprived or freezing, she was able to collect her thoughts in a more organized manner.

She had seemed calm at the time, although maybe she had been a little vicious, maybe a little too heavy handed in dealing with the prisoners. She had kept her calm façade to give Red someone stable to rely on during the violence and fire.

But in all honesty, she had been angry. Angry, and more than a little scared. To think that she had been attacked in her own house, that if the attackers were a little smarter they could have just set the house on fire while she was sleeping, that no help would have come due to the snowstorm…

So she had dealt with them harshly, maimed them, broken their limbs repeatedly, and a little part of her mind had been satisfied. Calmed. That sort of behavior probably wasn't healthy, she reflected, but it was most likely due to an accumulation of stress and what she had been through and seen during her time here at New Haven.

She snorted a little at the name. Some "haven" it was turning out to be.

Getting her mind back on track… ah, yes, Red. Maia had seen some of that kind of behavior in Red. A slip of tongue here or there, some extremely eccentric behavior, and a shocking propensity and even enthusiasm for violence. No, Maia wasn't dumb or deaf or willingly ignoring what was in front of her eyes. Red was dangerous, mentally unstable, probably had a criminal record, and entirely too obsessed with her.

She had to admit though that she had, in a way, taken advantage of Red. From pressuring her to join Emmett's group and participate in their activities, to having her run errands, to using her as an interrogation tool, Maia knew that she hadn't been hesitant at all to put Red to work after she had realized just how much Red would do in return for a few kind words and some hugs.

So while Red was dangerous to most of the civilian population and most likely a severe hazard to Maia's own health, Maia still let her live with her, even sleep with her in the same bed. Suicidal Maia was not—she just dreaded to see what would happen if Red was denied any form of access to herself.

Besides, Red was kind of like a cute—albeit vicious—little puppy. Maia could almost see her perky ears and perpetually wagging tail whenever she eagerly asked a question or did what Maia told her to do. That kind of adoration made Maia feel a little fuzzy and warm on the inside, and while she would never admit that it might be her latent maternal instincts sluggishly stirring to life, she'd still take the opportunity to dote on Red and indulge her in whatever silliness or cuddles she wanted.

Red was ultimately just a young girl with a slew of mental issues who just needed some kindness and compassion. Or so she hoped. She knew things were never as simple as that. But if Red had made it New Haven, well, Maia had read the backgrounds of some of the settlers and it turned out that for many, New Haven was a second chance at life. And that was something she wanted to give Red a shot at.

Hopefully, Maia thought to herself, Maia's own ruthlessness hadn't already screwed up Red's chance at redemption.

Ruby waved goodbye to Vincent as she watched him and the workers head back into the settlement. Vincent raised his hand, acknowledging her, then walked through the gates, the large wooden structures closing shut behind him.

After seeing how her campsite had been demolished by the blizzard, Vincent had left her some rations despite how she had reassured him that she would be fine. The two packs of hardtack and jerky probably wouldn't last her very long, considering her appetite, but she appreciated the thought as she chewed on them while running through the forest.

The blizzard and the subsequent few feet of snow had made traveling by ground rather slow, so she was currently hopping from tree to tree. She usually wouldn't have had a problem, but the blizzard had deposited a considerable amount of snow on the branches. It wasn't too hard when there was actually a bit of daylight left, but now that the sun had set she was constantly slipping a little on landing or smashing into a branch when she misjudged the distance.

But after a few mishaps and shattered trees, she eventually got the hang of it. It wasn't as though slamming into a few trees would hurt, after all, although she did use a bit of her aura to protect herself. No matter how dull her sense of pain was, she still didn't want to show up bloodied and bruised when she got back to Maia.

In a few minutes she had arrived at her usual place and began sneaking across the snow once more. The depth of the snow had made her consider digging a tunnel underneath the fluffy whiteness, but after a few minutes of experimentation and a large amount of snow in her clothing she decided that the idea wasn't a very good one.

As she slowly made her way toward the walls, she smoothed out the snow behind her as best as she could, trying to eliminate the tracks she had left behind. She couldn't completely eliminate them, of course, but she hoped that the guards on the walls would just dismiss them as animal tracks or Grimm tracks from a distance.

Just to further muddy her trail, she doubled back to the forest, wandered a little from side to side, then ran toward the wall and did a running leap, slamming her scythe into the structure to anchor herself down and leaving no evidence of any footsteps approaching the wall and stopping.

After shimmying a little from side to side, she found the previous handholds she had made and quickly climbed up the wall, then rappelled down the other side. The ruins of Maia's previous house was still there, a pile of wood and ash, and it took Ruby a moment to orient herself and remember the direction their new house was in.

The only signs of the footsteps from the previous night were a few uneven patches in the snow, but that information along with Ruby's memory allowed her to retrace her steps to the new house she lived in.

As she jogged down what might have been a path before the blizzard, she wondered, not for the first time today, if it had been okay to not go to work because of the storm. She didn't want to disappoint Maia by losing her job again right after getting it back, and she really did need the money to repay Maia and Roxie.

Bits of light leaked through the cracks in the shutters of the house. The house itself was covered and snow and a bit dingy, but it was a sturdy structure overall and probably wouldn't collapse due to the weight of the remaining slow on the sloped roof.

Ruby walked up to the door and knocked.

"It's me," she called, hoping that Maia would recognize her voice.

She had an urge to just break the latches on the shutters and climb straight through them, but after the attacks she knew Maia was probably much more alert than she would be normally and Ruby didn't want to startle her.

"Come in," Maia responded.

Ruby smiled to herself and opened the door. She didn't know if Maia realized, but having a place to return to, having someone to return to, made her happy in so many different ways.

But the rising tensions, the… enforcers being sent to attack them at night, and the possible upcoming faction war between the faunus… those things worried her. They worried her because that meant that sweet, voluptuous Maia would be in danger, and that wouldn't do at all.

"Why are you licking your lips?"

Ruby blinked and focused back onto the present, where Maia was sitting on the couch, bundled in her blankets, as she looked up from the scroll in her hand.

"Ah, I was just thinking about dinner." Ruby grinned, her sharp teeth gleaming despite the dim light from the lantern. "Kinda hungry."

Maia shrugged and went back to swiping through her tablet. "Of course you'd be." She smirked. "I'm also going to ignore the weird emphasis on that last word. Your meat's in the fridge."

"Yessss," Ruby hissed, giving herself a little fist pump. That hardtack and jerky really didn't fill her up much.

Maia rolled her eyes. "So… guess what I did today?"

Ruby took the meat out from the fridge. "Police things?" she tried. Answering Maia wasn't really a priority at the moment with the thick steaks in her hand.

"Yeah, police things," Maia answered. "More accurately, I did things about our police department. Got the wall guards on our side by convincing the captain that shady things were happening, and also realized that we really need some spices because eating bland vegetables isn't very fun."

"Err, right, spices," Ruby said in a muffled voice around a chunk of raw steak. She grabbed a frying pan out of one of the cabinets, placed it onto the stove, and turned the stove on.

Maia glared at her. "Why do I have a feeling that you wouldn't even bother to cook your food if the steak was already warm?"

"Nahhh," Ruby said, waving her hand. "It's just your imagination." She reached for the barely seared steak in the pan.

Maia cleared her throat.

"Fine, I'll use a fork or something." Ruby began rummaging through the cabinets, until she found a lone fork sitting sadly in one of the drawers. "Just for you, though," Ruby clarified, brandishing the offending utensil at Maia.

Maia sighed and wrapped herself a little more tightly in her sheets. "Alright, so did you even hear the other things I said?"

Ruby shook her head, a bit of blood spraying from the rare chunk of meat impaled upon the comparatively tiny fork.

"Was that a no, or are you just trying to eat that thing?" Maia scrunched her nose as the smell reached her. "Also, please wipe the floor after you're done eating."

Ruby mumbled a negative as her pointed teeth made short work of the meat. Maia glared at her.

"I mean, I didn't hear," Ruby hastily amended, swallowing her food. "I'll clean it up , don't worry."

"Ah," Maia said. She relented and gave her a small smile.

Ruby grinned back, relieved.

"So yeah, I talked to the wall guards today and got them and their captain onto our side. And therefore we need to get things moving quickly before the wall guards decide to take things into their own hands. A civil war in this settlement would turn extremely ugly, especially since the perpetrators could be hiding anywhere among the individual communities."

"So what can I do for you?" Ruby asked eagerly, before taking another bite.

"The same thing you did, what, four nights ago?" Maia hummed as she contemplated. "With the blizzard, most of the emergency services have probably been overburdened or overworked. Some of the roads might still be blocked up or slippery, and the police are corrupt anyways. With no one out in the streets, it's pretty much the perfect time for Emmett and the other carnivores to resume their… activities."

Does this mean…? Ruby almost began salivating at the thought, but managed to rein herself in. Finally, something to do…

She mentally shook head. Focus, she told herself. Think about the long-term goals.

She finished off the steak and put the pan in the sink.

If she played this right, not only would she be able to enjoy herself, but she'd also be able to remove the threat to Maia's person. And in the end, Maia was a much greater prize than some paltry, random faunus who would be so much less brilliant than that gem of a rabbit faunus.

And on that note, about threats to her person…

"The wolf faunus said that Sheriff Donagh sent them after you, right?" Ruby asked.

Maia nodded.

"How was, um, your job today? No one attacked you or anything?"

Maia shook her head. "No. I'd probably be dead if they suspected that I went to get help from the wall guards, but after that attempt I think Donagh's settling for sending me a message. He probably thinks that losing more agents, attackers, whatever, by sending people after me again won't be worth it, and I'm sure he's trying to figure out other methods of disposing of me." Maia shrugged. "I'm still on good terms with some other members of the police department. Getting them to attack me would shake things up too much. Honestly, if he wanted me dead I'd probably expect him to poison me or get someone to ambush and kidnap me."

Ruby whipped her head around to stare at her, the metal handle of the frying pan squealing as Ruby tightened her grip. "That can't happen," she said plainly. "That's not going to happen. Maia, can you please reconsider going to work? You can take a few days off, right?"

Maia got up from the couch, keeping the blanket draped over her shoulders. "Calm down, Red," she said, walking sedately over to Ruby and placing her hands on Ruby's shoulders. "Don't be so worried."

Ruby blushed and stared resolutely down at the wet pan in her hands as Maia's chest pressed against her back.

"Just a few more days," Maia promised. "We don't know their locations, so we have to avoid tipping them off to anything. Convince Emmett to bring you along again, get the location of their safe house, find out about the next time they're going to meet and what they're going to hit, and then we call the wall guards down on them. Meanwhile, I'll use this time to grab more files and reports and determine who the worst offenders are and who they're associated with. How does that sound?"

Ruby nodded furiously as she wiped at the pan with a towel and set it aside before turning and plunging herself into Maia's embrace.

"Okay," she whispered. "But please, please stay safe. I don't know what I'd do without you…"

"There, there," Maia whispered, stroking her hair. Ruby felt a light shudder run through Maia's body. "I don't think I want to know what would happen either…"

AN:

Thanks to Pozsich, who edited my stuff in the middle of the night and kept bugging me to write!

Oh man, I love you all so much. I can't believe you guys have still been reading and writing reviews! Thank you guys so much for your support.

I don't want to promise too much, but once again, I'm trying to improve my writing speed. It's NanoWrimo this month, and I want to get a least a few chapters done. Wish me luck!

Oh yes, and I also updated my other story, Shades of Gray! It's monochrome!