Velvet hummed to herself lightly as she continued to prepare the dinner for the three occupants of the house she lived in. Her young daughter, Jade, was still asleep in her crib upstairs, waiting to be woken up by her mother as soon as dinner was ready and her father returned from his mission. It had been two days since Yatsuhashi had gone with Fox and Coco to close a rift that was spitting out Grimm all over a settlement north of Vale. She missed them all entirely so. It was bad enough her maternity leave as a huntress didn't run out for another month so she could accompany her team out on missions again. The constant loneliness of her beloved samurai not being in the same bed with her at night was driving her close to depression. At least she had friends like Ruby or Blake that would come by to keep her company for a while, or if need be, spend the night.
A knock at the front door brought her attention off of the carrot stew she was stirring. "He's back early!" she thought excitedly as she put down the ladle and quickly walked over to the door, ready to be picked up by her lover in a firm yet gentle hug followed by a passionate kiss before he went on to tell her how the mission went. Opening the door, she didn't receive any of that. In Yatsuhashi's place stood Coco and Fox, both looking battered and bruises, eyes reddened from...crying? Coco was also no longer sporting her sunglasses, a large gauze patch covering her left eye with a large red blotch of color over where her eye socket was on her face.
"Oh, hello, you two. Where's Yatsuhashi?" Velvet asked.
"Velvs..." Coco started, her lip trembling as her good eye started watering. Fox simply hung his head, not appearing to be in the better of moods he usually was after a mission.
The rabbit Faunus was now starting to get worried. "Where is he, Coco?" she asked again, the light smile she had when she opened the door now replaced with a look of concern, not just for her absent husband, but for the sorry state her friends were in.
"Velvet...we're so sorry..." Fox started, his voice crackling. "It was just...There were too many , even for Coco and I..." He looked into his trembling hands. Even though he was blind, he could tell there were still stains of coagulated blood on them that wasn't his or Coco's.
Velvet's expression began to go from concern to horror. The action of her heart breaking in two was almost visible as her eyes began to water, her head shaking in a "no" fashion. "P-Please tell me this i-is a joke..." she stuttered.
Coco started to break down as she left Fox's side and put a hand on Velvet's shoulder. "I wish it was..." the machinegunner whimpered as Velvet fell to her knees, tears now rolling down her cheeks. Coco got back to her level and wrapped the poor widow into a hug as Velvet let out wails of despair into her teammate's sweater for her lost love. Fox broke down again too as he started silently crying to himself as he remembered the last words his friend had said to him.
"Fox...Coco...please...take care of Velvet and Jade...promise me..."
"W-we promise! Right, Fox?"
"Good..."
"...Yatsu? Yatsu, come on. Open your eyes. Please, Yatsuhashi! Don't do this! Please, come back! "
He may have never seen his partner's face before, but that scene was going to haunt him for the rest of his life. He staggered over and joined the two sobbing women in their group hug for their fallen teammate and Velvet's lost love.