Author's Note: I was sitting, waiting for my first class to start when this idea randomly popped into my head. Hang on tight. Let's see where this ride takes us. Please, please let me know what you think!

Summary: AU: Detective Yang Xiao Long's methods may be…unconventional. But everyone knows that she's the best in the business. That is, until a criminal known as Black comes across her case load. Be careful when you pull on a string. Unless you're ready for everything to come unraveled.

Disclaimer: I do not own any content affiliated with RWBY.

…

"Long! Chief wants to see you."

The shout across the bullpen from the deputy chief causes a head of blonde hair to perk up over the top of the cubicle. The yell causes a few bloodshot, over-caffeinated eyes flicker between the door to the chief's office—left slightly ajar—and the youngest of the detectives on the force, her desk a visual disaster of half-read files, empty coffee cups, and assorted post-it notes. Yang Xiao Long stands up, cocking an eyebrow in the general direction of the voice.

Less than a second later, everyone in the bullpen has turned their glazed attention back to the computer screens in front of them. Everyone, that is, except for Officer Weiss Schnee, whose cubicle shares a wall with Yang's. The two of them have tag-teamed in more than one case together. Which means that Weiss knows all about Yang's…unconventional methods of investigation. And how much trouble she often gets into.

"What did you do?" Weiss hisses in a low voice.

Yang just sends her a smile and a wink, taking a moment to stretch her stiff joints from having been sitting for so long. She glances out the window, almost disappointed to see it sunny and bright while she was stuck inside the pale cream walls of the precinct, typing up the finishing touches on a document and reading over the pile of case files the intern had left on her desk before she came in this morning.

She rolls her shoulders, reaches her arms above her head to do a half-moon stretch, adjusts her orange scarf, and then walks between the dark blue cubicles to the chief's office. She knocks before walking in.

"Sir?" Yang asks.

Chief Ozpin looks up from his desk, which is almost the polar opposite of Yang's. It's neat and organized, with everything in place, the files stacked neatly on the corner save for the one Ozpin has open in front of him. He looks up at the detective in front of him and nods at the door, and she closes it as he shuts the manila folder.

"Detective Xiao Long." Ozpin adjusts the glasses on the bridge of his nose, but looks over the top of them at Yang. "How'd that robbery case go?"

Yang blinks. "Uh, fine, sir." She shifts her weight, standing up a little straighter as if preparing to defend herself. "Robbery at Dust Jewelry. A criminal known on the streets as Cardin Winchester was apprehended and arrested. He is currently awaiting trial. Pretty open-and-shut."

Ozpin lifts the file he had been reading before tossing it back on the desk. "So your report says." There's a long pause, and just as Yang takes a breath to speak up, Ozpin cuts her off. "It's good work."

"I didn't—what?"

The corner of the chief's lips curl upwards in a brief, faint smile. "The work you did on this case, Detective, is good. Your methods of getting information are a bit…unorthodox," Ozpin concedes, "but you creativity is...inspiring."

Yang grins, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet with a surge of confidence. "Thanks, chief."

"Just be careful, Ms. Xiao Long," Ozpin warns, and Yang's smile falters. "Not everyone will appreciate the way you do detective work, and I won't be able to protect you." The insinuation makes Yang's shoulders tense, but the chief holds up a hand before she can speak. "I know you are more than capable. But some of our best people have gotten burned because they got reckless. You're the youngest detective we have. Tread carefully."

Yang shrugs off the warning. "I will, sir," she says dismissively.

Ozpin gives a small nod to the door. "That is all. Rest up this weekend."

Yang swings the door open and sends a grin over her shoulder. "When have you ever known me to rest, chief?"

…

When Yang leaves the precinct at 6:02 PM, she makes sure to slide the pile of potential cases that had been left on her desk into her bag, promising herself that she'll look over them tonight. Or more accurately, she'll probably skim them while watching a movie with her little sister, Ruby, who was visiting for a few weeks.

"So," Weiss says as she walks out of the bullpen to the elevator with the blonde detective. "Are you going to tell me?"

Yang chuckles. "Tell you what?"

"What Ozpin said this morning." The elevator dings and the silver, reflective doors slide open slowly. The girls step inside, and Weiss nudges the button labeled "G". "Did he ream you for the way you handled that witness in the Cardin case?"

Yang resists the urge to roll her eyes, and settles for shaking her head. "Nah. Nothing like that."

"You're lucky, then," Weiss scoffs. "Nobody else in this precinct would have gotten away with something like that."

"Hey, thanks for your help with that case, by the way," Yang says suddenly, changing the topic. "Looks like your gut instinct was right."

Weiss straightens a little with pride. "It usually is."

The two of them walk through the lobby, waving to Scarlet-the-Secretary, and push through the tall glass doors and into the brisk October air. Yang tucks her brown blazer a little closer to her, bracing slightly against the bite of the wind.

Weiss seems unfazed by the sudden drop in temperature, holding a hand up in the air to hail a cab. It takes less than a minute before one pulls up. "I'll see you on Monday, Yang."

Yang says farewell and then heads off in the opposite direction as the cab pulls back onto the street. She takes in a deep breath, adjusts the strap of her bag on her shoulder, and heads down the street to the bus stop. Her ride is roughly half an hour on a light traffic day—which Fridays never are—so she grabs a seat in the back and digs the file folders out of her bag.

Petty theft.

Public intoxication.

Vandalism.

Disturbance of peace.

Yang sighs as she reads them, finding all of them boring and uninteresting. She shifts against the cracking leather seat, and glances out the window. The sky is beginning to turn red and pink, the sun setting somewhere behind the skyline of Vale. The bus smells faintly of rusting metal and urine, but she is used to it. She's been riding Vale public transportation ever since she moved to the city four years ago.

She glances at her watch. 6:32 PM. She figures she has roughly ten minutes until her stop. Enough time to read through one more file. She pulls another one out, surprised to find it heavier and thicker than the last eight she skimmed. She flips it open.

The date reads nearly a year ago. Supposed breaking and entering, but no evidence of either… Millions of dollars in art and jewels missing… Suspect known colloquially as Black…. No further evidence… no eye-witnesses.

Yang's eyebrows shoot up in surprise as she shuffles through hundreds of reports, all near carbon-copies of one another. The dates get more recent with each report, with the last one being two days ago. Yang recalls distantly that she had heard Black's name tossed around with some of the more experienced detectives in recent weeks, but none of them had been able to get anywhere. No evidence, no eye-witnesses, no sign of entry. The cases went cold almost as soon as they opened.

Whoever this "Black" character was, they were meticulous. More than that, they were good. Yang wonders briefly how such a high-profile case had landed in her pile, but she wasn't going to complain.

As the bus comes to a stop, Detective Yang Xiao Long smiles to herself. Black may be good, but so was she. And Yang always had reveled in a good challenge.

…