It took Blake until halfway through Ruby's mission briefing to notice that Yang was doing it again. Her partner was engaged in a game of what she dubbed "Poke the Blake" for some inexplicable reason. Yang seemed to find the name endlessly amusing so there must be some stupid joke or pun involved. She had been having fun with it for weeks since she discovered Blake's selective focus. The whole team had decided to go outside for a while, and they dragged Blake with them even though they knew full well she was mere chapters away from finding out the identity of the Pelican Killer. They at least let her take the book with them, so all she needed to do was wait a few minutes before escaping under a tree to immerse herself back into her mystery.

The next thing she knew, she was disturbed from the thrilling car chase with the killer by a dog toy smacking into her face. When she looked up, she saw two teammates with guilty looks and her partner standing in undisguised glee with a knowing look gleaming in her eyes. Blake knew right then that she was in trouble. Yang only got that look when she thought up a prank she considered particularly amusing. The last time Blake saw it, their team was in Ozpin's office two days later explaining why the fire Dust kept electrocuting people. Seeing it clearly aimed at her was a terrifying prospect.

It quickly became very clear what Yang realized from that unfortunate incident. When Blake was really focusing on something, she zoned out the rest of the world. It was an incredibly useful skill she picked up during her childhood. She grew up on the road, living in camps and traveling place to place. She was very rarely by herself, a problem that was compounded by her naturally sharp hearing. The ability to tune out the world was the only thing that enabled her to ever read in peace. Unfortunately, it also wasn't something she could turn off at will. It took Yang about ten seconds from realizing that about her partner for her to come up with an endless series of ways to exploit it. Which Yang was determined to take full advantage of every single day.

There were a lot of variations to "Poke the Blake", but Yang had apparently decided on one of the simpler ones today. They were, after all, flying towards an area filled with dangerous Grimm. When they had entered the Bullhead, Yang made sure to stay right behind Blake. She knew exactly why Yang was doing it, but she hadn't been able to come up with a legitimate reason to complain about it. Blake tried to keep her attention on Yang, but the mission briefing was too important to ignore. Her focus slipped, and it had been a few minutes before she noticed what Yang was doing. As Ruby was talking, Yang was slowly, one by one, gathering as many strands of Blake's hair together as possible. She reached behind her and slapped Yang's hand away, but she was soon pulled back into Ruby's briefing. She lost track of Yang until the Bullhead shuddered and started to descend. She felt a slight tug on her hair, and she slapped Yang's hand away again before turning to her. The death glare she gave Yang would have petrified a lesser woman, but her only response was a smirk and a wink as the ramp lowered and they walked out.

Blake tried to tamp down on her irritation as she followed Yang out the door. The most infuriating part about Yang's new game was that it wasn't entirely unpleasant. Blake couldn't deny that, when she did notice it, it was hard to get upset about Yang stroking her hair or running her hand down her back. She actually found it pleasant, and a little exciting, in a way that she wasn't entirely comfortable with yet. Yang had been flirting with her since a few months into their partnership, but Blake always wrote it off as Yang's personality. She found it, at best, vaguely amusing over the years. But now, it was starting to feel like something more. And Blake was starting to feel like she wanted something more. She found herself thinking of Yang's warm skin against hers, of breathing in deep the enticing scent of smoke that always seemed to surround her, of running her hands through her silken hair. She was still trying to sort through her feelings, but she knew sooner rather than later she would need to have a conversation with her partner. Which could either be utterly disastrous or the best thing to ever happen to her.

She shook her head and tried to dispel those thoughts. A mission was no time to let herself be distracted. She waited as Ruby and Weiss exited the ship and it flew away. They had landed right outside of a small village, and Ruby started walking away from it towards the trees. "Okay guys, you know what to do." Ruby said. She and Weiss walked into the forest on the right, and Blake and Yang started walking to the left.

"Okay, so what are we doing?" Yang asked Blake once they were out of Ruby's earshot.

Blake responded with a long-suffering sigh. "Were you really not paying any attention at all?"

"Nope, but that's why I've got you, Blakey."

"You would probably know what's going on if you stopped screwing with me constantly."

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"

"Fine. Pay attention. The village back there reported a massive increase in the amount of Grimm in the forest. We're here to check it out and to reduce the population as much as possible."

"Thanks, kitten."

"One of these days, you're going to have to remember the mission on your own."

"Probably, but not today."

They fell into companionable silence until Blake heard growling coming from the bushes ahead of them. They both stopped and waited until a dozen Ursas leaped out of the foliage and charged at them. After three years of fighting together, the pair didn't even need to talk to know exactly what to do. Yang waited until the last few seconds possible before shooting Ember Celica behind her to propel herself forward. Blake waited half a second before sprinting right after her. Once Yang reached the pack, she focused her hits not on eliminating the Grimm but on smacking the Grimm up into the air. Blake was right behind her the whole time, using Yang's perfect setup to cut straight through the unguarded bellies of the flying Grimm. On the ground, they were dangerous and quick. In the air, everything was in the hands of momentum and gravity. There wasn't much they could do to avoid her. It was over before the Grimm knew what hit them. They continued walking forward, moving closer to the center of the forest.

It took them an hour and four more Grimm encounters before they found something. They were walking through the forest when they came to the edge of a large clearing. When they entered it, Blake saw the last thing she ever would have expected. Sitting in the middle of the clearing was a mansion. It was at least four stories, and its back disappeared into the trees. It was perfectly maintained; it wouldn't have looked out of place in the middle of a city. It looked for all the world like someone simply teleported an existing mansion into the middle of this forest.

"Huh. You don't see that every day." Yang said.

"I don't like this, Yang. Something feels off about it. I'm going to call Ruby." Blake replied. From her silence, Blake could tell Yang felt the same way as her. There was nothing specific she could point to, but something about it was giving her the creeps. It seemed like they found the cause of the increased Grimm activity, although for the life of her she had no idea how they were connected.

It didn't take long for Ruby and Weiss to reach the clearing and walk over to them. "Look at how huge this mansion is! What is it doing here?" Ruby exclaimed.

"It's not that big." Weiss said

"That's because you grew up in a mega-mansion, Weiss." Yang said, earning a glare from Weiss. She looked right about to make a reply before Blake cut her off to derail their argument

"It's feels weird, Ruby. We need to check it out."

"Yeah, we do. Okay, let's begin Operation Creepy Manor!" Ruby said as she walked forward. The rest of them moved to follow her. They all moved forward slowly, focused on their surroundings. None of them held any illusions that something weird wasn't going on. They reached the front door without incident, and Ruby moved to grab the handle. It swung open before she touched it, in an entirely creepy manner, but they all ignored their apprehension and walked inside.

The inside did nothing to dispel their bad feelings. The hall they entered was centered on a spiral staircase that moved upstairs into the second floor, and there were three doors around the room that clearly led to the rest of the first floor. However, the only one without thick metal bars welded into the door frames was the one in the back. There was a large chandelier in the ceiling that lit up the room, but otherwise there was nothing. No people, no movement, no sounds.

Ruby looked around and seemed to make a decision. "Okay, we'll start on this floor and work our ways upwards."

"We should split into pairs, Ruby." Blake replied. This mansion was huge, and it would take forever to search it if they stayed together. Her uneasy feeling was already growing stronger. She didn't want to spend a second longer in here than she needed.

"That sounds like a terrible idea, Blake. Haven't you ever watched a horror movie? Never, ever split up inside the creepy mansion." Ruby said.

"This isn't a movie, Ruby. Do you really want to spend all day in here?"

"Don't worry Rubes. If we get into trouble, I'll start blowing things up to let you guys know." Yang said.

Ruby swallowed, hard, but braced herself and showed why Ozpin picked her to lead the team. She was scared, and rightfully so, but she wasn't letting that get in the way of what needed to be done. "Fine. Blake, Yang, you two explore the first floor. Weiss and I will take the second."

Yang waited until the pair disappeared up the stairs before starting towards the back door. "Are you sure that was the right play?" Yang asked her. Now that her sister was gone, Yang didn't bother keeping the nervousness out of her voice.

"No, but it's better than being in here the rest of the day. If we have to, I'm sure we could get to wherever they are within a few minutes. What could possibly be in here that we couldn't at least hold off for that long?" Yang didn't answer, and Blake knew why. Neither one knew of anything that could kill them that quickly.

Of course, if that thing did exist, it would live somewhere like a creepy deserted mansion in the woods.

Welcome to Crossing the Veil. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. The goal right now is around ten chapters of about this length, but that may change as the story continues.

To give very brief background context, this is set as Team RWBY is approaching their final year graduation. Cinder's attack was stopped, and Beacon never fell.

Also, this is the first longer form story I'm writing, which means that I'll actually be able to incorporate any notes or suggestions I get. So please, if you have any feedback, feel free to leave a review or contact me.

And finally, as a reminder, it isn't graphic, but a major character does die. So be prepared for that.