Hey! This is the first chapter of Bonds, A story of an as of yet undetermined length. I'll be updating chapters when there ready. Quality over quantity, right? Hope you enjoy! Reviews encouraged.

It was a beautiful Autumn's day in Vale.

Yang was happily eating her breakfast in Beacon's cafeteria with her team mates from team RWBY and their close friends in team JNPR. They were finishing off the last of their breakfast, sitting together at the same table in Beacon's cafeteria, as was the norm for the two teams that had been as close as family since the day they had met, laughing happily and enjoying their day off together, with even the notoriously stoic Ren and Blake letting out the odd chuckle. This day off was an unusual event given the tight schedule Beacon Academy kept them on, which usually kept them at a frantic pace trying desperately to keep up with all the various components of the life of budding hunters-and-huntress-in-training.

"Hey, you guys, how about we go out and do some training with both our teams? We could go to Forever Falls! I hear its supposed to be really beautiful around this time of year!" the young and energetic cookie-loving leader of team RWBY was grinning happily as she suggested an outing that was half-training trip, half-exploring trip to the two teams through a mouth full of pancakes and cookies, her cheeks stuffed full of food giving her the appearance of a red, particularly over-energetic squirrel.
"Ruby! what have I told you about talking with your mouth full! you're supposed to be the leader of this team, and doing that makes you look like an uncultured oaf! surely as the leader of team RWBY you should at least try to look dignified!" said Weiss in a chastising tone, glaring at her younger leader for her blatant lack of table manners.

"Lay off, Weiss" said Yang, looking up from her hearty breakfast of cereal, fruit, pancakes, waffles and orange juice, glaring at Weiss with a look that said she meant business. While Yang and Weiss's relationship had improved quite a bit since they had met and subsequently formed team RWBY, there relationship was still fairly tense at times. Most of the time they got along well enough, but sometimes for one reason or another the two opposing personalities of the happy, boisterous brawler and the frosty, ever-serious princess collided, and it was all their team mates could do to keep out of the war zone. "She was just suggesting an idea."

"Hmph! Fine. I just think that our leader should at least try a little to present herself as befits someone in her position" Weiss crossed her arms in a standoffish manner, begrudgingly letting her issue with Ruby's somewhat less than stellar table manners drop for the moment.

"Still, that sounds like an excellent idea Ruby" said the emerald-eyed, red-haired warrior Pyrrha from the other end of the table. "We've all been so busy lately, it would be a welcome change of pace to just go enjoy the sights and sounds of the forest. Besides, we may as well do some training while we're at it."

"I agree. that sounds like a productive way to spend the day" said the ever-stoic Jade warrior Ren. "Yay, team trip! We could go exploring! we could climb rocks, explore caves, have a picnic, fight Grimm, smash some trees. eat icecr-" the infamously hyper-energetic Nora, whose reputation around Beacon was as "that motor-mouthed, hammer-wielding lunatic" was swiftly cut off by her partner Ren, the only person in the whole school who could actually control Nora and her hyperactive tendencies. How he managed this and why she actually listened to him was a mystery to everyone. "Nora. We get it." "OK Ren!" though clearly still bubbling with energy, Nora heeded her partners words and ended her verbal tsunami for the moment.

"Still, I think its an awesome idea!" chimed in Yang, clearly pumped at the thought of spending the day out training and exploring with her friends. "Besides, its been ages since I got to spend the whole day with my little sis!" Yang said with a broad grin, leaning over to her little sister to wrap her arm affectionately and energetically around her neck and rubbing her head with her knuckles, eliciting a small blush from her little sister, who despite having improved substantially over the course of her time as leader of team RWBY, was still a little lacking in the social skills department.

"I think its a great idea" said Jaune, the blonde-haired, goofball knight leading team JNPR. "It'd be a great opportunity to train and have fun at the same time... wait, where are my pancakes?! they were on my plate a minute ago!"

All eyes suddenly turned to Nora, who was beaming with happiness as she wolfed down the last of a suspiciously similar stack of pancakes.

"Aw, man! oh well. I guess I wasn't that hungry anyway." The table broke out into chuckles at Nora's antics, while Ren gave her a disapproving look, and Jaune looked sadly at his plate, lamenting the loss of his much anticipated breakfast.

"You should probably keep a better eye on your food when your sitting next to Nora, Jaune. You know she really loves pancakes." Blake commented, peering over the top of whatever book she was reading at the moment to comment on the poor knights misfortune, softly chuckling to herself before returning to reading her book. It was unusual for the quiet girl to comment during conversations in the group thought Yang, staring at her enigmatic partner. Blake had piqued her interest from the first time they had fought together during their initiation in the Emerald Forest. She was certain there was more to Blake than met the eye, and her inquisitive personality gave her a burning desire to find out more about the true personality of the quiet, book-loving introverted girl that she called her partner. It felt like Blake was constantly putting up a facade, hiding her true self from the world. While she didn't shun social contact per se, she seemed to prefer her own company most of the time.

"Oh, and I agree with Ruby. Spending the day outside sounds like a good idea." Blake popped her head out from behind the book again, adding her opinion to the conversation as an afterthought before once again returning to the depths of her book.

"All right!" exclaimed Ruby. "So, all in favor?"

"Aye!" the table broke out in words of agreement, the hands of both teams RWBY and JNPR raised showing unanimous agreement for the outing. "All right then, its decided!" giggled Ruby, happy that she would be getting to spend the day with all her friends in teams RWBY and JNPR.

With that, the two teams spent some time chatting over the remnants of their breakfasts, then they got up as a single group to head to their dorms to get ready and prepare. "Meet outside the gates in twenty minutes?" shouted Ruby over her shoulder as the two teams filed into their respective dorms. "Sure!" replied Jaune, also shouting over his shoulder while being eagerly pushed into his room by the ever-energetic Nora, who was eager to get ready so they could go.

"OK then! see you there!" shouted Ruby, before herself being pulled into her room by the hands of a grinning, excited Yang. "Come on Ruby, get ready! I wanna go!" Team RWBY then prepared for the trip at each of their varying paces. Weiss was ready first as usual, courtesy of her impeccable organisational skills, all her possessions being neatly organised in their respective places for speedy access. Blake was ready soon after, and she sat quietly on her bed, watching in silent amusement as Weiss berated Yang and Ruby for their lack of organisational skills, as the two sisters spent the best part of the next ten minutes looking for one thing or another.

"Hold on, where did I put my other Gauntlet?!"
"Wait, has anyone seen my other boot?"
"Where did I put my sunglasses?
"I swear, I left the spare magazines around here somewhere!"

"Would you two hurry up already?! We're going to be late at this rate!" Weiss said to her team mates, stomping her foot in frustration. 'Honestly', she thought to herself, 'How do those two ever manage to get anywhere on time?'

After a frantic ten minutes of Yang and Ruby gathering their things piece by piece and an increasingly irritated Weiss pacing the room and muttering to herself about how her leader and her sister really should be more organized, they were ready. After looking at the clock and realizing how little time they had left until the deadline, they all bolted out the door, sprinting through crowds of bewildered students to reach the gates at the agreed time. After a solid ten minutes of sprinting, they made it to the front gates, all crashing through the front gate at once, met by the surprised looks of team JNPR who appeared to have been waiting there for a few minutes by that point.

"Are you guys OK? Why were you sprinting?" asked Jaune, still reeling from the shock from team RWBY's rather dynamic entry.

"We're... fine..." said Yang, huffing and puffing along with the rest of team RWBY as she leant over with her hands on her knees, trying to get her breath back along with the rest of the exhausted team RWBY.

"Well maybe if certain members of our team had organised their things properly, we wouldn't have had to sprint!" said Weiss through deep breaths, the irritation at her team mates disorganization written all over her face as she cast a glare over her shoulder at her leader and partner Ruby, and her big sister Yang. Ruby responded to the glare by avoiding meeting Weiss's gaze, a little guilt showing on her face. Yang however responded to Weiss's glare with a glare of her own.

"What? have something you want to say to me? we made it here on time didn't we?"

"Yes Yang, we did. However if you and your sister had been better prepared, we wouldn't have had to sprint through the whole school to get here on time!"

"Stop! Please, please don't fight! just let it go? for me?" Ruby stepped between the two huntresses in training with her arms spread out, pleading with the two of them to stop before the conflict escalated into a proper, all-out fight.

Weiss and Yang glared at each other for a few seconds more, then they both sighed, their tense stances visibly relaxing. "Fine". they both said in unison. "I'll drop it if she will" Yang added, still keeping her eyes locked to the Snowy Princess standing across from her. "I'll let this matter drop as well. No point spoiling our outing before it even begins" said Weiss, her eyes also locked to Yangs.

"All right, that's sorted then!" said Ruby, pulling Yang away before the two decided to start arguing again. "OK... um, are you guys ready?" said Jaune tentatively, unsure how and if he should be interjecting into team RWBY's conversation. "Yeah, we're ready! how about you guys?" "Yeah, we're good to go." replied Jaune, his confidence seemingly returning now that he knew he wasn't about to be an involuntary participant in what would no doubt have been a battle of truly epic proportions. "All right! trip time! I was getting tired of spending so much time inside recently anyway!" said Yang, brimming with energy at the prospect of finally going outside for the first time in over a week. Blake stood against the wall, musing at how incredible her partners unshakable optimism was. Not a moment ago she and Weiss had almost come to blows, and now she was back to her usual energetic, optimistic self. She admired that about Yang. She found her... interesting. Despite how when they had met in the Emerald Forest Blake had made it quite clear that she was not the talkative, social type like Yang was, the fiery girl had not shied away from her as many others before her had. Instead, she just remained her usual happy-go-lucky self, even continuing to try strike up conversations with her despite Blakes somewhat unsociable attitude. She had never been one for pointless talk. Yang had put genuine effort into trying to befriend her, and that had not gone unnoticed to Blake. She respected Yang. As a team mate... and as a friend.

"Yeah! I'm looking forward to today" giggled Ruby through a bright, innocent smile. "All right, is everyone ready? OK! Lets get moving!" Ruby was positively bouncing with happiness and energy, almost as eager as Yang was to get outside the confines of Academy grounds. They loved the school well enough, sure, but sometimes you just need to get away for a while.

At Ruby's call, the two teams started walking towards the path to Forever Falls, cheerfully chatting amongst themselves, eager to start their little excursion away from the school they had been cooped up in for over a week. It was going to be a fine day of fun and training.

Right?