Once the reunion bruise had faded from Weiss's cheek, the remainder of the afternoon was dedicated - at Yang's insistence - to a brief list of errands. A visit to Yang's preferred hairdresser had been shot down (There's hardly any of it there, Yang, what's the point?) in favor of stocking up on snacks and liquor for the party that night and tracking down a stock of makeup for Weiss. From there the two stopped to enjoy a lunch Yang termed 'hearty,' though Weiss preferred 'colossal.'

They wandered downtown Vale together for hours, hand in hand. Others had often pointed out the whole 'fire and ice' thing to Weiss and Yang, and it was true, in a number of ways. The mistake many made, when wondering how they could stand each other, was in only seeing the extremes of their characteristic elements. Yang could rage like a wildfire, true, and Weiss could be frigid and unmoving as any glacier, but at times like this, they showed a very different side. Yang would smoulder, burn low and warm like glowing coals, and Weiss loved little better than to melt into her.

It was just past sunset when their meandering led them to a plain brick storefront, devoid of windows. Above the door was an elaborately carved wooden sign which read, in heavy lettering, The Hammer and Gauntlet. Yang gently tugged Weiss to the door, beaming proudly.

"Here we are! Doesn't look like much from outside, I know, but I think you'll like it." She pulled the heavy door open, ushering Weiss inside. "Good crowd of regulars, too," she added in a light singsong tone. Weiss could practically hear the grin on her face.

She was right about the bar, though. It was small enough to be cozy, but still had room for a few tables, a couch, and a pair of armchairs beside a large hearth. The bar itself shared the same dark, glossy wood as the rest of the decor, and lent the whole room a homey closeness, with just a touch of refinement. Looking closer, Weiss could see hints of a certain faunus's input on the design, as well. One wall was lined with bookshelves, and others held small alcoves, each with their own overhead light.

Any further inspection was cut off by the sight of a diminutive redhead vaulting the bar itself and embracing Weiss in a flying tackle that would have left her on the floor, had Yang not been just behind her. A torrent of what were probably words washed over her, though she could just make out a "Weiss," a "glad you're back," and maybe a "what happened to your hair," though that last one could have been anything, really.

"Come on, Nora, let the poor girl breathe," Pyrrha chuckled as she pried them apart, "It is good to see you, Weiss. Nora, let go."

Once she had been extricated from Nora's vice grip and given Pyrrha a much more sedate hug, Weiss cast another glance around the room. Two nearly-identical shocks of blonde hair at the bar could only be Jaune and Sun, and Ren, Yatsuhashi, Velvet and Blake were gathered around a table, chatting quietly amongst themselves. Sun waved with an ear-to-ear smile, and Weiss headed over to sit beside the pair. Jaune seemed to have bulked up considerably over the years, and Sun's already glowing tan had somehow managed to intensify.

"Glad to have you back among the living, girl!" Sun clapped a hand to her back, and Jaune nodded with a slightly embarrassed smile.

"I can't begin to tell you how good it is to... be..." Weiss trailed off, her brow creasing slightly, when she noticed the way Sun's tail had wrapped itself around Jaune's leg. "Are... are you two...?"

"Dating? Hell yeah we're dating." Sun's grin could have lit the room on its own. "Oh! Oh oh oh, Jaune, can I tell the story?"

"Sun, that is the most embarrassing story! Why do you always want to-"

"Oh come on, it's not that bad!"

"Yes it absolutely is, and you know it."

"Look, if I don't tell her Nora will and you know she does the voices and everything."

"... Point conceded. Fine, you can tell the story."

'The Story,' as it turned out, was about how the two got together in the first place. As Sun enthusiastically explained, it had been several years ago, just after team JNPR had returned from a hunt. Sun had been visiting Neptune (Oh, he teaches Grimm studies at Beacon now, I don't know if Ruby told you), and decided to say hi when they arrived. He had noticed two things immediately: Pyrrha and Nora were practically attached at the hip, and Jaune looked like shit.

Sun had made a wealth of assumptions over the span of about 30 seconds, such as:

1. Nora and Pyrrha had (finally) hooked up.

2. Jaune had been pining after Pyrrha, and was heartbroken.

3. The reason he looked like shit was because he was upset about it.

4. He would want Sun to cheer him up.

As it turned out, only the first of these was actually true. The actual reason Jaune looked like shit was because even after years as a hunter he still got terribly airsick, and their flight had just come in from the far end of Mistral, about seven hours east. Sun had rushed off to comfort his assumedly heartbroken friend, and had instead found out just how bad that motion sickness could be.

"Anyway, that's why I don't wear my shirt open anymore. But he felt bad enough to agree to buying me dinner, and the rest is history!"

Behind him, Jaune had his head in his hands. "For some reason, he loves telling people about how we're dating because I hurled on his abs."

Sun's thousand-watt grin was back. "It's cute! Though I guess I can't really judge; I got out of the whole hunter thing after my team split up. These days I mostly help out Blake and Velvet with their faunus rights thing."

A conversation with Blake and Velvet informed Weiss that 'their faunus rights thing' did in fact have a name. They called it the Faunus Rights Reclamation Movement, or FRRM for short.

"It's pronounced 'forum.' Ozpin's naming conventions kinda rubbed off on us, I guess." Velvet's voice was as small as ever, but there was a glint of pride dancing in her eyes. "Starting a social movement isn't a quick process, but we're picking up steam."

"The White Fang hasn't done us any good in a long time, and people are looking for a plan B," Blake added, "Something like half of our volunteers are ex-Fang."

Pyrrha and Nora had apparently been going steady for several years, and while Nora pitched in running the bar, Pyrrha had begun giving one-on-one combat master classes.

"I got out of the tournament circuit a couple years after we graduated from Beacon. I suppose I just got tired of the constant travel, and dealing with sponsors was never enjoyable," Pyrrha mused with a slight wince, "Besides, once you've hit a certain point… this sounds so boastful, but… there's no real challenge to it anymore."

Weiss cocked her head. "I thought the whole point of tournaments was to present a challenge?"

"It is, but… most of the people who get into tournament fighting are in it for either money or glory. For me it was always about the craft, if that makes sense. I never fought for the prize money or sponsorships, I just wanted to be a better fighter. It's a difference in motivation. If you're just there to be better than the person you're fighting, why bother to keep trying once you're there?"

Weiss nodded. "I think I see what you mean. Most people just want to be better than their opponent, but you want to be better than yourself. There's no end goal, just constant improvement."

"Exactly. I really enjoyed the time I spent tutoring Jaune while we were at Beacon-"

"Not that he learned much from it," Nora cut in with a teasing tone.

"Nora! That's very rude." Pyrrha twiddled her thumbs. "But… not entirely inaccurate. Jaune never quite figured out swordfighting. Not that he's useless in a fight, but his strengths are… elsewhere."

"What she means is that he's got more aura than the rest of us combined, and his semblance is like… it…" Nora trailed off, trying desperately to find the words.

"It causes a sort of... tunnel vision in his targets. Oobleck called it 'enforced inattentional blindness,' I think. To Grimm it makes the rest of us all but invisible."

"So we just wail on them while they beat uselessly against his yard-thick aura! It's a good system."

"It really is. Anyway, regardless of how well it worked, I enjoyed the one-on-one instruction, so I've begun doing personal lessons with particularly gifted students. Most come from Beacon, but I've had a few from Haven and a some of the other academies."

Ren and Yatsuhashi, she learned, were celebrating their fifth year married in a week. They planned to have a picnic.

Before long, Coco arrived with Fox in tow. She strode to their table with her characteristic saunter, planted a kiss on Velvet's lips - muffling the startled 'meep' that escaped her - and tossed a bag across to Weiss.

"Sorry I'm late, hun." she turned to Weiss, letting a hint of a smirk cross her lips. "Bet you were wondering why Yang didn't get you any clothes, huh?"

She had had her suspicions, particularly when Yang had informed her that Coco would be late, and a quick look inside the bag confirmed them. "Not anymore, I'm not."

Coco shot her a wink. "Like I'd trust Yang with dressing you on your first day back. There's more where that came from, by the way; me and Fox stocked a wardrobe for you as a welcome back gift."

It occurred to Weiss that ten years ago, those words would hardly have elicited more from her than an obligatory thank-you, and now they had her so overcome that she could barely choke out the words. She embraced Coco tightly before excusing herself to change, swiping at her eyes. The years of hardship had gradually built a numbness into her, a deadened barrier to emotion which had served as her staunch guardian during the hardest times. On nights spent in the wilderness beyond the kingdoms, nestled in rocky caverns and mossy hollows wet with dew, that wall had kept her going, excised the need for anything but survival.

Oh, how her defenses had crumbled. It hadn't happened instantly, but now here she was, getting weepy over new clothes. The past two days had been a whirlwind of emotion, from Blake's joy, to Ruby's sorrow, to Yang's fury. It was starting to sink in, she supposed. She was back, finally back among the people she loved, and who loved her too. Dust, she had needed this. Needed them, so bad the relief threatened to leave her shaking.

The outfit Coco had provided for the evening was simple, but not inelegant. A black, sleeveless overshirt, a long-sleeved V-neck in a contrasting white, and a pair of skin-tight black jeans which, by some miracle, fit perfectly. The whole outfit did, in fact. How had Coco figured out her measurements when she didn't even know them?

She checked herself over in the bathroom mirror one last time before rejoining the party. Ruby had arrived, and was sharing the spacious couch with her sister and Blake. Weiss took a moment, leaning against the wall, to simply drink in the sight of them all together, in the flesh. They had all changed, certainly, but something in the way the firelight danced across her team - her family - made those changes particularly striking.

Yang's wild mane was bound up in a braid thicker than Weiss's bicep, similar though more intricate than the one she had worn it in earlier. Hunting had tanned her already bronze skin, and she had bulked up considerably, doubtless from her brutal exercise regimen as much as from years spent fighting Grimm. In the flickering light, every shift of chiseled muscle under her weathered skin was highlighted, and the sight was enough to bring a dryness to Weiss's throat. Yang's earlier words about 'getting her used to living with them again' leapt to mind.

Blake, she noticed, had likely taken to binding their chest, and their hair had been trimmed to frame their jaw with its slight wave. Weiss made a mental note to have a more in-depth conversation with them at some point regarding what Yang had referred to as their 'gender thing.' The most noticeable difference, however, was in how they moved. As Blake stood to strike up a conversation with Velvet and Coco, Weiss noticed that the edge of tension that had stuck with them during their time at Beacon had vanished over the years. Back then there had always been a slight scurry to their movements, as though they were ready to flee at a moment's notice. Now that nervousness was gone, and even their slightest movements were preternaturally fluid and dextrous - Weiss forced down the urge to describe them as catlike - and the way they walked was nearly mesmerizing.

Ruby had changed as well, perhaps the most dramatically given her relative youth. Hunting had tanned and weathered her skin just as it had Yang's, though not as dramatically. It was just enough to highlight the scars that ribboned her arms and legs, even her neck and face. Weiss imagined that between the scars and Crescent Rose, she had scared the hell out of more than a few first-year combat students. Her movements had changed as well; in her younger years she had often seemed uncertain, even gangly as she grew into herself, but now her stride carried an unmistakable air of purpose and authority.

A hand came to rest on Weiss's shoulder, and her heart leapt into her throat. She whirled on the spot, hands dropping into her pockets - she didn't have her weapons where were her weapons - and her eyes flashing fury at the green-haired woman cocking an eyebrow at her. Blake materialized behind Weiss, sudden enough to shock her already frayed nerves, and stepped between the two.

"Easy, Weiss, she's okay." They shot an irritated look over their shoulder. "Emerald, did you have to startle her? You know full well what she just got back from."

"Hah! Yeah, I guess that was kinda tactless of me. Hey, Weiss. Long time no see." She cocked her hip with a grin.

"Emerald? As in Emerald Sustrai, who tried to kill us on three separate occasions?" Weiss shot another dirty look at her over Blake's shoulder.

"I know it's hard to believe, trust me, but we settled accounts a few years back. Honestly, we probably never would have managed to catch Cinder Fall without her help. With a little nudging from Ozpin she got a full pardon."

Emerald wiggled a hand noncommittally. "Eh, full-ish; I still can't go to Atlas. Never did get that thank-you note from ol' Ironwood."

"Yeah, after that thing with Penny is it really that surprising?" Blake grinned, a bit more mischievously than usual. "Oh, we're kind of talking over you, huh Weiss?"

Weiss gave them a helpless look. "Kind of?"

"Yeah, sorry." They scratched the back of their head, looking sheepish. "Three years back we found out Ironwood had an override built into Penny's AI that would let him monitor everything she did, even take direct control of her. Ruby spotted it, actually. We decided to do something about it, so-"

"So little old me snuck into Atlas, paid a little B&E visit to the good general's office, and disabled the override. But before I get any more drunk or distracted, I have a little present for you and Rubbles." She slipped past Blake and Weiss, swiped Jaune's drink, and plopped onto the couch beside Ruby. Weiss followed, still a bit suspicious and determined to figure out what she meant.

"Em? What's up?" Ruby looked as confused as Weiss felt.

From somewhere on her person (No, seriously, where were you hiding that? There's no way that outfit has pockets) Emerald, smirking proudly, produced a metal trophy in the shape of the Schnee family crest. "Look what the cat dragged in."

"Is that…?" Weiss murmured, her eyes slowly widening.

"Your baby? Sure enough. After your pops had her melted down I figured out what I wanted to get you as a welcome home present. Lifted it from his desk about a week later. The funny part was watching him try to pretend it wasn't gone when the reporters came around." She passed Myrtenaster's remains to Ruby, who took them reverently. "While I was in the area I managed to track down the original schematics for her. There's a memory drive taped to the back there."

Oops, the tears were back. Weiss blinked them away desperately, trying to keep the emotion from her voice. "Then… Ruby, with those can you…?"

"Yes!" Ruby wrapped Emerald in a crushing hug, heedless of the older woman's pleas for mercy. "I can finally…" She made no effort to stop the tears as she beamed up at Weiss. "I can finally bring her back." Those words were enough for Weiss to let bygones be bygones, and she wrapped them both in a hug that had Emerald patting desperately at her back. She wasn't really the huggy type.

The rest of the night was a blur, though Nora's insistence that Weiss try one of each of her lovers's favorite drinks (A black Atlesian for Blake, strawberry daquiri for Ruby, and a Patch island iced tea for Yang) may have been responsible for that. Nora could be deviously heavy-handed with her mixing. Weiss was regaled with many a story from the years she had missed, from Coco and Velvet's wedding (Cardin Winchester had tried to crash it, Coco had thrown him bodily onto the roof of a house down the street) to the time Jaune got stepped on by a Goliath (twice, actually, by the same Goliath), to the time Pyrrha drank Yang under the table (though Yang vehemently insisted that having her girlfriend mix the drinks was cheating).

By the time they all said their goodbyes - or see-you-laters, as Weiss was careful to ensure - her cheeks ached from smiling, brighter and more often than she perhaps ever had in her life. Yang was all too happy to let the task of cleaning up fall to 'future Yang,' as she put it, despite Blake and Ruby's chiding. For her part, Weiss was content to simply lie with her head in Blake's lap on the drive back to their home. A thought struck her, though, and she rolled to meet their amber eyes.

"Hey Blake?"

"Yeah, Weiss?"

"I don't… I don't think I want my last name to be Schnee, anymore."

Blake chuckled softly. "I don't blame you. It hasn't treated you too well."

"I think I…" she paused for a moment, wanting to make sure she got the words right. This was important. "I think I want it to be Belladonna." A contemplative silence settled over the car.

"Are… Weiss, are you sure? I mean-"

"I'm sure, Blake. This isn't…" she trailed off for a moment, searching for the rest of her sentence. "This isn't something I'm just now thinking about, okay? I… I really… I really want to do this. It… well, for one thing, 'Weiss Rose-Belladonna-Xiao-Long' doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but… had I not fallen for you like I did, I don't… think I would be the person I am today. I don't think I ever would have had the courage to stand against my father if it weren't for you. I… If you're okay with it, I…"

There was a glistening shine to Blake's eyes, lit by passing streetlights. "Weiss… I would love nothing better." They leaned down, lifting Weiss's head just enough for their lips to meet tenderly. In the warmth of the kiss Weiss felt her heart thrum gently - and though she couldn't know it, the feeling was shared by each of her lovers - with hope for the future, with love newly rekindled, and with pure joy, knowing they were together again, where they were meant to be.