It had been around a week since Cyan had joined team RWBY, and he was fitting in quite well. It almost felt as if there were another Ren around, only this one didn't have his own Nora to talk with. Speaking of Nora, she was currently in the middle of one of her wild stories. Teams RWBY and JNPR were in the middle of lunch; most of them just quietly eating their lunches, with Yang, Ren, and Cyan the only ones even slightly paying attention to Nora's ecstatically told tale.

"...Then out of the trees came four King Taijitu!"

"Boarbatusks." Ren, only paying partial attention to his friend, corrected in an exhausted tone.

"Their eight heads tried to confuse us," she didn't even seem to hear what Ren had said, "but they were no match for Magnhild! With that, I had saved the village-"

"Travelling merchant."

"And got one thousand Lien as payment!"

"Fifty." Ren sighed. "I don't really know why this is one of her favourite stories to tell; it's probably her most mundane mission."

"The way you try to tell it, sure!"

"Um… I-I liked it both w-ways…"

"Cyan, you don't have to try and please everybody, you know." Now that Nora's story had ended, Yang was able to focus on other things.

"I-I know…"

"Well, I think it's an admirable quality." Pyrrha smiled at Cyan, who returned the expression.

"I didn't say it was a bad thing; I just said he didn't have to. Besides," she gave the slightly shaky teenager a slap on the shoulder that nearly sent him smashing into the table, "I'm trying to toughen him up."

"But why? He beat me in a fight!"

"Not that kind of tough, Nora; the… confidence kind of tough."

"OOOOOOHHHH… like Jaune and Pyrrha, but without fighting!"

"Yeah."

"Hey!" Jaune's fork clattered against his plate, "My confidence is fine!" He got silent stares from everyone at the table. "What?"

"'Fine' is a strong word…"

"Glad to know you all think so highly of me…" Pyrrha put a comforting hand on Jaune's shoulder.

"I see you are all enjoying your lunch." Ozpin approached their table, a sour-looking Glynda close behind. "Might I borrow your leaders for a moment?" Both teams looked to Ruby and Jaune questioningly. "I assure you, they are not in trouble."

"Uhhh… okay… c'mon, Jaune." The team leaders warily got up out of their seats and followed the headmaster to a place just out of earshot of their comrades.

"So, how is he fitting in?"

"Huh? Who?"

"The new member of team RWBY; has he made friends on both teams?"

"Oh; yeah! I mean, he talks less than Ren, but we all like him. Especially Nora, for some reason…"

"And he's doing really well on our team; it's almost like he was always there." As Ruby said that, she could swear she saw relief flit across Ozpin's face, despite his expression staying unchanged.

"Good. We wouldn't want anyone to feel unwelcome."

"Is that the only thing you wanted us for, Professor?"

"Unfortunately not, Mr. Arc. While I wish a new member could be integrated into a team so easily, it is never that simple. Cyan may have gotten into all of your good graces, but he has yet to fight alongside his new friends. Because he was not here for initial team missions, I am sending both of your teams on a small expedition to eliminate some Grimm just outside Vale."

"Hold on… both our teams? We have to go too?"

"Indeed. There are simply too many Grimm for one first-year team to handle alone, and seeing as your two teams are close to one another, your team was the natural choice."

"I guess that makes sense."

"You may want to inform your teammates; you all leave tomorrow morning." The two leaders both gave a nod and went back to their table to relay what Ozpin had wanted.

"Are you sure about this?" Glynda took a step forward, aligning herself alongside the headmaster. "You could have just left him for Haven."

"No, I couldn't. Besides, I wouldn't want to take him away from his new friends." Glynda gave a small growl, which Ozpin chuckled at.

"But don't you think it's a risk? If she finds out-"

"If she finds out, then she will have to deal with it in whatever way she finds appropriate. I believe she will make the right choice."

"If you say so…" They both looked at Cyan, who was looking terrified of what Ruby had told them all a little too enthusiastically.

The next day found team RWBY walking through the halls towards the shuttle landing, a very excited Ruby taking the lead.

"C'mon you guys; Jaune and the others are already there!"

"Uh… R-Ruby?"

"Hm?"

"W-why are you so ch-cheery?"

"How could I not be? We're going to save people, fight monsters, and become a better team!" Cyan raised an eyebrow, but said nothing further.

"Don't worry; our leader may be a bit over-enthusiastic, but she knows what she's talking about." Cyan turned to Blake with the same skeptical look, and continued to stay silent. Yang gave a small chuckle, then slapped him on the back with a little too much force.

"You'll be used to it in no time."

"S-Sure..."

"Hi guys!" Ruby jumped, waving at team JNPR as her own squad approached the airship parked just on the edge of Beacon. The other team waved back, looking very eager to be moving out. "You all ready?!"

"Of course!" Nora was just as enthusiastic as team RWBY's leader, if not more so. "We're always ready to fight monsters!" The two huntresses high-fived.

"I don't know about that, but we're definitely as ready as we're going to be." Jaune scratched the back of his head with a smile on his face. "At least we get to miss some classes..."

"That's the spirit, Jaune!" Ruby patted the swordsman on the shoulder as she skipped her way onto the airship. "Now let's go!" Several chuckles at the girl's enthusiasm came from various members of the teams. They all followed her, and the two first-year teams were off. The airship ride to the small town just outside of Vale was relatively quiet; well, quiet for RWBY and JNPR. Ruby and Nora were chattering the whole time, Yang was constantly butting in with puns, everyone groaned every time Yang made said puns, and Cyan jumped every time his name was mentioned. However, an oddity became more and more apparent as the ride went on: Blake. She was quiet, which wouldn't have been too strange, except that she was entirely silent. Normally, the faunus would at least laugh at her leader's antics or roll her eyes at something Weiss had said, but she didn't make so much as a squeak. Instead, she was staring intently at Cyan, who was too wrapped up in watching the pure, unadulterated energy that came with having Nora and Ruby in the same room to notice. Weiss and Pyrrha, however, did notice. The two girls kept glancing from the girl in black to the boy in blue, one of them at least partially aware of what was going on. Just as Pyrrha became concerned enough to try and ask, there was a loud thump that rocked the entire airship.

"We have arrived," the pilot called from his seat. "I'll be back to pick you up in a week; be ready to leave then." Before anyone had a chance to respond, the doors of the ship opened, and the members in back barely made out the pilot jabbing his thumb in the direction of the doors. Taking the hint, they all got out of the aircraft, which immediately took off back to Vale. The teams then turned their attention on the small town in front of them.

It was miniscule compared to the immaculate city they were used to, but it was still relatively large for a place outside the kingdoms. There were several small homes scattered around the landscape, with the occasional community facility in between. The center of the small town had a fountain, a statue in the middle of it similar to the one standing in front of Beacon, although this one was much smaller. Everyone, barring Cyan, looked around the town in awe, a few of them never having seen any settlements before, the others never having seen large settlements this stable before. Immediately after they landed, a brown-haired woman wearing an old green dress came running up to them, an enormous smile on her face.

"Hello! Are you the ones from Beacon?"

"Yep! I'm Ruby, leader of team RWBY, and they're team JNPR!" The ever-optimistic leader waved her arms, indicating both the rest of her team and the other one present. They all either smiled or waved at the woman, who gave a relieved sigh after looking them all over.

"Thank you all for coming. There have been a lot of Grimm attacks lately; much more than we're used to. We were hoping Beacon would be willing to do something about it."

"Of course." Jaune stepped forward, a small quiver in his step that somehow didn't come out in his voice. "Just point us in the right direction and we'll do what we can." Relief seemed to flood over the woman, her entire body relaxing slightly.

"Then please, follow me; I'll show you the inn you can stay at while you're all here." Without waiting for confirmation, the woman turned around and started walking. Ruby, Nora, and Cyan immediately followed her, while Jaune looked back to the rest of the teens before the rest of them set off. After about a minute of silence, Weiss had a thought.

"Pardon me, but can I ask how you have all defended yourselves out here? Does your town have a hunter or some other form of defense?"

"Nope; you hit the nail on the head. Our town has a team of hunters that normally guard it, but their leader recently caught a nasty fever." The shiver that went across Cyan was almost audible. "Since he hasn't been able to fight, the team hasn't been quite as coordinated. Because of that, instead of taking down the Alpha as quickly as they can, like they normally would, they've just been keeping Grimm from getting into the town. Actually, they're out doing that right now."

"U-Um..." Most eyes turned to Cyan, who had meekly raised his hand despite the woman being unable to see it. "What kind of f... f-fever does he h-have?"

"Oh, it's nothing much; just a stomach flu. It certainly won't kill him, but it is bad enough to keep the poor man in bed."

"H-have you tried ginger?"

"You know, that was one of my first thoughts, but we couldn't find any."

"Oh! H-here, I think I have s-some..." The purple-haired youth reached inside the back of his coat, rummaging around for a second before producing a small root from some hidden pouch. "I-If you can put it in t-tea, it should last l-longer and be easier to d-digest. I-If I had some p-peppermint, I'd say do the s-same with that. A-also, lots of water, and a d-diet of bananas, a-applesauce, rice, and t-toast." The other huntsmen and huntresses stared at him curiously, while the woman simply smiled and took the ginger from him.

"Thank you very much, young man. I'll be sure to tell the others." Cyan grinned sheepishly, returning to his lightly crouched, obviously trying-to-hide-from-public stance. "Come on; the inn's just over here." They continued on their way, with a few of the boy's teammates giving him occasional quick glances.

After they had gotten their rooms at the relatively small inn, the group decided to have a meeting about how they were going to handle the Grimm. So, in order to try and not scare the villagers, the two teams decided to meet in one of the rooms team RWBY had gotten for themselves (there were only two beds per room). They were all scattered around the room, Ren, Jaune, Yang, and Blake sitting on the beds; Weiss and Pyrrha sitting in the two armchairs provided, and Cyan, Nora, and Ruby sitting on the floor.

"So we're all in agreement, then?" Weiss looked around at the gathered friends. "Tomorrow, we ask the other hunters what they know about this group of Grimm, then find the Alpha?" Everyone nodded. "Good."

"Are we done with the boring stuff now?" Nora was rotating in place, her previously bored expression slowly turning to a smile.

"Yes, Nora."

"Whoo!" She stopped spinning, only to sit up on her knees. "Now for the fun stuff! Cyan!" She dramatically pointed a finger at the boy, who jumped as she did so. As soon as he looked at her, she got on all fours and crawled over to him faster than humanly possible, getting very close to his face. "What do you know?"

"Um... w-what?"

"I think what Nora means," Pyrrha interjected, "is how did you know exactly what to do about that sick man? You said those medicinal instructions like they were second nature, and you had that ginger on you; why?"

"O-oh, that. W-well, when I lived i-in the wild, I-I had to find natural c-cures to any kind of d-disease that I might c-come across. P-plus, after that disease i-in my village, I d-didn't want something l-like that to happen a-again, so I-I learned what I c-could from travellers." The answer seemed to satisfy Nora, who backed off, only to suddenly gain a devious grin and survey the faces of everyone there.

"Nora..." Jaune slowly held up an arm in defense. "What are you thinking?"

"This is like a big sleepover, right?" Jaune gave a hesitant nod, Ruby started bouncing on the spot, smiling like a maniac, and everyone else just stared at Nora. "Then..." Blake, Cyan, and Pyrrha saw her reach behind her back. "Pillowfight!" The fluffy cushion flew across the room, slamming an unsuspecting Ren in the face. Before it could fully fall off of the ninja's head, his hand shot up, grabbed the pillow, and threw it right back at Nora, who dodged it, causing the flying headrest to collide with Ruby. At that point, nearly everyone grabbed a pillow of their own. Weiss mostly took one as defense, Yang went all out with any soft thing that was nearby, Ruby and Nora ran around the room hitting whomever they came across, Pyrrha, Ren, and Jaune started throwing the soft objects around the room, and even Blake took up arms, using her semblance to avoid as many pillows as possible. Cyan was the only one who didn't grab one. Instead, he sat off to the side and avoided any that came his way, amber eyes looking around the room, obviously calculating something. This did not sit well with Nora. "Hey! You!" She threw the biggest pillow in the room at him, which collided with the wall as he moved out of the way. "Get over here!"

"I-I'd rather n-not..."

"Not an option!" She pulled another one out from who-knows-where, running at him and swinging wildly. He moved out of the way of every swipe of the down object, Nora clearly becoming more frustrated every time she missed. However, that disappeared when he started laughing. It was meek; barely audible amongst the other teenagers' laughter, but it was there, just like his normal voice. As the warrior brought her weapon around in a circle, she was startled when a rough pair of hands collided with her wrists, stopping the flailing object in its tracks.

"O-okay... I-I'll play..." Nora grinned, then tripped him. Well, tried to. Instead of her foot sweeping his leg out from under him, she was met with what felt like a steel wall as Cyan blocked with his own foot. In a swift movement that Nora barely saw, he took the pillow from her hand and hit her over the head with it. He ran over into the other fray that was currently in progress, Nora grabbing a pillow and chasing after him.

An hour later, they were all back to sitting down, half of them completely exhausted. Ruby and Nora still wanted to keep going, but they were wise enough to know when something was over.

"If we're all done with this," Weiss wasn't too tired, as she had tried to hide most of the time, "then I suggest we all get some sleep." Everyone silently agreed, the people who were in the wrong room standing up. They all turned to the door-

"Hold on!" Everyone turned to Yang, who had a devilish grin. "If this is a sleepover, then there's still one more thing to do." They all exchanged glances. "Truth or dare." The reception was... mixed, to be sure. Some of them paled, some grinned, and others blushed. Yang cracked her knuckles, daring anyone to leave or object. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake cautiously sat back down, staring fearfully at the blonde. Nora eagerly jumped back to her place on the floor, and the other three of her team stayed standing. Cyan, however, decided to act. He pulled one of his daggers out of its holster, giving the brawler a cocky smile. She raised an eyebrow at him. There was a small click as the tip of the dagger swung open, then an ear-splitting bang as the Dust cartridge in it went off, creating a cloud in front of the blue-clad boy. Yang instantly shot up and ran into the smoke, swinging an arm forward to grab him. She felt the fabric of his coat brush by as he ran out the door, slamming it behind him. Unfortunately, her arm kept going and hit the door, warping both the wood and the hinges. "Whoops."

"Yang!" Ruby walked up to her sister, crossing her arms and pouting up at the blonde. "Fix it! Right now!"

"How? We don't have anything to fix it with."

"Oh... yeah... forgot about that part. Well, then you pay someone else to fix it!"

"I was going to do that in the morning, Ruby."

"Fine. But I'm watching you." The red girl walked backwards and sat down, never taking her eyes off her older sister. This continued as Yang went back and sat on the bed, sighing.

"This sucks. I wanted to do truth-or-dare to help us know Cyan better."

"...Huh. That actually sounds like it might have worked." Blake put a hand on her chin, looking at the slightly broken door.

"Actually, now that he isn't here, I wanted to ask you something, Blake." All eyes turned to Pyrrha. The faunus nodded at her, silently telling her to continue. "When we were in the airship, you didn't stop looking at Cyan. May I ask why?" Blake sighed.

"When he told us who he was... he lied. I could see it in his eyes; there was fear that he would be discovered. I just... I can't trust him. Not fully." Silence pervaded the room as team JNPR took in what she said. Even Nora was abnormally still, staring up at Blake with wide, sad eyes.

"Right!" Ruby jumped to her feet, a forced smile on her face. "Let's get some sleep; we need our energy!" Slow nods came from the others, who silently got up and went to their respective rooms. When they were all gone, the red-hooded girl flopped back onto her bed. "Yang?"

"What's up?"

"Do you trust Cyan?"

"Sorta..."

"That's what I thought..." The two girls curled up under their blankets, backs facing each other. Blake and Weiss were doing much the same in their room, only with tension in the silence. Jaune and Ren were staring up at the ceiling, presumably thinking about the only male member of team RWBY. Pyrrha was following their example, while Nora was already sound asleep, dreaming hopefully of the next morning's pancakes. Outside, a blue figure could be seen amongst the branches of an old tree, staring straight up at the broken moon. His face was neutral; untelling of the thoughts swimming through his mind. He sighed, leaning back into the trunk. As he closed his eyes, a small smile flicked across his features.

A/N: Whoo; I had more ideas for this! Well, I actually already had plenty of ideas, just no real idea as to how to implement them into the wonderful world of RWBY. BUT, I think I've figured it out. Don't be surprised if this is the last chapter of this story for quite some time, as I still don't actually have an end to the narrative in mind; just a point I want to get to with the ideas I had before. With that said, I'll see you all next time!