Yang

Weeks passed us by with very little to say of them. We went to classes, we studied. I went out clubbing on occasion, whenever I could sneak out. There was no more drama or fighting amongst Team RWBY, Weiss seemed to have really embraced the fact that Ruby was our leader. She was constantly supporting Ruby, helping her in any way possible. She scolded Ruby on occasion, but it was never in a harsh way, merely correcting a mistake Ruby had made.

I'd spend a few afternoons with her, trying to get to know her better. She seemed to have really come down to earth. She never treated us like we were inferior to her, and if she was better than us at something, she was always willing to help us improve. I saw very few traces of her high-and-mighty Schnee Heiress persona from our first couple of days here, and none directed at us. Jaune seemed to be the only person who brought out that side of her. Couldn't really blame her for that one… Snow Angel?

Ruby was taking to being our leader like a duck to water. She was working hard in all of our classes, studying until ridiculous hours. She was certainly trying her best to set a good example. I gushed with pride every time I saw her grinding away: I'd never seen her work so hard for anything in her life.

I'd gradually found myself spending more and more of my free time with Blake. We'd study together, we had most of our classes together, and on the weekends we'd wander around the Academy grounds chatting. Well, I chatted, she listened. I still didn't know that much about her, she kept her past very close to her chest. She was more open around me than I saw her with anyone else, which was very flattering, but she only really talked about events that had occurred after we'd started at Beacon.

The more we talked, and the less she gave away, the more interested I was to know about her. I wasn't going to press her into telling me anything about her past, Ruby and I had more reason than most people to understand wanting to leave your past behind you. But I tried to spend as much time with her as I could, just to get to know her.

As the weeks passed by, I felt myself growing attracted to her. It was the first time I'd ever been attracted to a girl, so I kept my feelings to myself. Not to mention she was my partner and throwing any kind of romantic feelings into the mix was liable to mess up the entire dynamic of the team. I was content to spend time with her when I could, and knowing she was more open with me than anyone else gave me hope that someday she might come to feel the same.

Halfway through our first semester at Beacon, the city of Vale was having an annual holiday, giving us students a lovely three day weekend. We'd decided to wander into the city over the weekend, to see if there were any interesting festivities going on. We were talking excitedly about our weekend off all of Saturday morning as we got ready to go out.

We made our way into Vale in the late afternoon, passing by other Beacon students and Vale citizens who were going to the central square in the commercial district to see the fireworks display planned for the evening. Blake and I stood outside From Dust Til Dawn while Ruby and Weiss went inside. Ruby said she wanted to speak to the shop owner, while Weiss wanted to browse their supplies. We stood in silence for a few minutes, Blake patiently waiting, while I took the opportunity to inspect the crowd of boys coming down the street. I might be attracted to Blake, but we weren't dating, and what was the harm in looking? I caught a wink from one of them, returning it with a grin. I lost interest in waiting quickly once they'd moved on.

"Is there anything in particular you're looking forward to seeing?" I asked Blake, bored.

"Not really," she replied, her eyes wandering up and down the street. "I don't really know anything about this holiday."

"Well I suppose I've never really paid much attention to what it's about, I'm just grateful for the day off. Ruby and I used to come into the city with our uncle Qrow every year from Signal. We'd spend hours just wandering around the city, seeing the sights, trying all the food. Oh! There's a stall here every year that sells takoyaki that's just amazing!" I knew I was rambling, but I had to give Blake more to respond to in order to get a conversation flowing. Strangely though, Blake didn't seem to be paying attention, she was still inspecting the street in front of us.

"Hey, Blake, what's up? Cat got your tongue?" I waved a hand in front of her eyes, trying to snap her out of whatever world she'd drifted off to. She blinked suddenly and shook her head.

"Sorry, what?"

"Are you okay, what's wrong?" I put a hand on her shoulder; I was starting to get concerned.

"Can you hear anything strange?" she asked, somewhat mysteriously. I strained to listen, searching for anything out of place. All I could hear was the sound of laughing children, the dull murmuring of people talking and hundreds of footsteps on the cobblestone streets.

"No, I don't hear anything. Why?" Blake seemed to be focussing her attention on a dark alleyway across the street.

"I can hear growling." She muttered, reaching for her katana.

"Growling?" I whispered to myself. I peered at the alleyway Blake was staring at, looking for any signs of movement in the darkness.

I turned away from Blake to peer into the Dust shop, looking for Ruby and Weiss. I was planning to grab them and investigate the alleyway, if only to set Blake's mind at ease. But, as I caught sight of them at the counter of the store, a piercing shriek ripped through the air. I whipped back around to face the alleyway just in time to see a woman being dragged by her feet into the mouth of the alley, screaming and flailing her arms about in an attempt to grab any kind of hand hold.

I readied Ember Celica and tensed to dash across the street, but Blake grabbed onto my arm, stopping me from moving. I looked at her, shocked.

"What're you doing?" I shouted. "We have to save her!"

Blake cringed at my words, but held onto my arm. The screams were still issuing out of the alleyway, making me fight harder to escape Blake's grip.

"We don't what that thing is," she said, shaking her head at me. "We can't risk going in alone, we need the others."

I growled at myself, realising she was right. As much as it decreased our odds of saving the woman, we couldn't risk ourselves getting torn up either. I shuddered as I imagined Blake being the one dragged into the shadows, kicking and screaming. I wrenched my arm out of Blake's grip and turned back to the Dust shop.

"Ruby! Weiss!" I yelled as loud as I could. I could see them through the window looking around, confused. They must have heard the screams from inside the shop, but not realised what they were. They both looked at me, focussing. I waved them out of the shop, screaming at them to hurry.

They dashed out of the Dust shop, readying their own weapons as they saw Blake and I with ours.

"What happened?" Ruby asked. "What's going on?" She had to shout to be heard over the still screaming woman. Her voice was receding further away from us, but she was clearly still alive. I pointed at the alley the woman had disappeared into.

"A woman was attacked; we need to go see what did it." I replied. Ruby nodded and took the lead as we dashed off towards the alley way. As we reached the mouth of the alley the woman's screams were cut off with a sickening crunch.

Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, things are definitely beginning to happen now. Feel free to drop me any reviews, I really appreciate any input you may have: comments on writing style, character/plot development, grammar/ language or just general ego stroking. I appreciate all of it.