Dove and Sky are camped out where we left them when Cardin and I slip back into our room. It's late; they should be in bed, but there's no indication of any inclination towards going to sleep on their part. They've been waiting for us. I feel a warm buzz in my chest, as well as a tiny stab of guilt, since "waiting for Cardin and me to sort our shit out" basically sums up Dove and Sky's experience at Beacon so far.

'Sorry for bailing,' I say sheepishly.

Dove waves a hand. 'No worries, man. You alright?'

'Yeah. Much better.' I slump back on my bed. 'Uh… you and Sky want to hear what I had to say? Or are you cool?'

Dove and Sky exchange shrugs. 'We're fine,' Sky decides. 'We got all we needed to get.'

'Although, I was wondering,' Dove says slowly.

'Yeah?'

'Uh… did Violet have a tail?'

I snort with laughter. That had actually completely slipped my mind. 'Didn't I mention? She was Faunus.' I pull the photo out and pass it to him again. It's getting easier and easier to let it out of my grasp. There, in the right-hand bottom corner, looking like a belt unless you looked closely, was Violet's long, soft brown tail, wrapped around my hips, anchoring me to her.

'You dated a Faunus ?' Cardin blurts.

'For almost four years,' I say, keeping my voice even with a considerable effort.

Cardin blinks, but keeps his mouth shut. Sky is glaring at Dove, who has to be deliberately ignoring him. Nobody could miss that sort of death-glare. I wonder if I should mention that Belladonna is a Faunus. Surely I can't have been the only one to realise by now?

'She never tried to hide it,' I say, cautiously feeling out the water. 'I mean, she could have kept her tail wrapped around her waist, or something, but she was fine with letting it show.'

'Should she not have been?' Sky asks. 'I mean, did anyone in Vacuo care that she was a Faunus?'

'Not really,' I say with a shrug. 'We both got a lot of shit for dating, though.' I give Cardin a side-long look and am relieved to see he's looking a little ashamed of himself. It's a lot easier to talk about Violet when she's not the point of the conversation. 'There was a bunch of other Faunus at Recluse, so people thought she should have dated one of them. One Faunus, he actually did hide his claws for a year, then made a big reveal, trying to say that people started to dislike him because he was a Faunus. The idiot didn't realise that people started to dislike him because he lied to them purely so that he could set them up to later say they were racist against him.'

'That's warped,' Cardin says.

'Yeah,' I agree. 'I thought it was kind of impressive that he managed to hide his claws for a year though.' Hmm, maybe none of them have noticed.

'It would be easier to hide claws than anything else,' Dove says. 'I mean, can you imagine trying to hide ears?'

Huh. I do not give Dove enough credit. I meet his eyes and he grins at me. 'Yeah, that'd be difficult,' I say, grinning back. 'I mean, they're right there in front of everyone.'

'And they'd keep moving, and twitching, and you'd want to scratch them,' he agrees.

Ha! So he did notice Belladonna's involuntary movements towards her head, and her 'itchy scalp'. Ha and ha again!

~o0o~

We can't keep going without revealing more to Sky and Cardin, but the next day Dove and I conspire to go and borrow some books from the library. In the stacks, we take one look at each other and burst out laughing. 'Oh my God!' I sputter, keeping my voice down. 'Oh my actual God. How? How have they not noticed ?'

Dove slides to the ground, clutching his ribs. 'Oh man. Well, Cardin is a moron,' he whispers, 'And Sky is only book-smart, bless 'em both.'

'Oh wow. Ok. They are officially both idiots.' I pull him to his feet and we start searching for the books that were our excuse to come out here.

'To be fair,' Dove continues, 'I only put it together after she and Nikos tag-teamed Cardin a couple of months ago.'

'When Oobleck made him write that essay?'

'Yeah. Nikos was pissed at Cardin on Arc's behalf, but Belladonna seemed too pissed, you know? Like, at that point she didn't have much to do with JNPR, so why was she so up in arms about it?'

'Yeah, makes sense,' I say.

'And then after that it just became really, really obvious. How'd you guess?'

'Dude. She has ears . I didn't have to guess at all. Though, maybe it was that I'm used to spending time with Faunus,' I admit.

'Heh, yeah. Ok, makes sense.' He grabs a book then we start walking back to the dorm. 'So what are you gonna do?'

'Huh?' I ask, startled.

'I mean, from what Sky and I got out of Cardin, you came here because you were upset about Violet, right?'

'Yeah, I was being so unreasonable,' I reply, nettled.

'Chill, man! I'm not saying you did the wrong thing. But are you going to go back to Vacuo? 'Cause Cardin is kind of scared that you will. He wanted me and Sky to find out, anyway.'

'What?' I stop dead.

Dove sighs and rolls his eyes. 'Look, the way you tell it you came here for no other reason than you were sad, right? Are you still that sad?'

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'The phrase you're looking for is emotional wreck, and no. I'm not.' I grin, despite myself. It's really, really nice to be able to say that.

'Ok, cool, so are you going back to Vacuo?'

'Are you kidding? Beacon is still the best academy in the world, pretty much.' I start walking again. 'How come Cardin hasn't asked me this himself?'

'Abandonment issues,' Dove says knowledgably.

I raise my eyebrows at him. 'You're kidding.'

'Nope. Don't get angry, but Sky and I were kind of concerned you might have PES, so we-'

'Wait, WHAT?' I say, stopping again.

'After the Ursa, Sky was listing off PES symptoms, remember?'

'Yeah,' I say.

'Dude. You had them all. Mood swings, fatigue, depression, I don't even remember the rest. We went to the library and started to dig through psychology books. They pretty much could have stuck your face on a pinboard and used you as a checklist.'

'I was grieving,' I sputter.

Dove shrugs. 'Well, we know that now. At the time we were kind of worried you were gonna have some psychotic break on us. I was honestly ready to hit you over the head if I had to.'

'Your sensitivity is staggering.' I shake my head and start walking again. 'Who automatically assumes that their roommate is crazy?'

Dove raises an eyebrow at me and I remember where we actually are. 'Never mind,' I sigh. 'What were you saying about Cardin?'

'Oh yeah. Abandonment issues. He's totally got them.'

'You know, since you diagnosed me with PES, I'm going to need a little more.'

'Fine.' He grabs my arm and uses his greater weight to tow me back towards the library, despite my protests. 'You said you needed more,' he says, pulling me through the door.

'Yeah, but I've actually got stuff to do!' I snarl quietly, following him into the stacks. At least he's let go of my arm. I rub it sullenly, knowing I'm acting like a petulant child.

'You guys never believe me,' Dove say, a surprising note of anger in his voice. 'I'm serious, man, Cardin has all the signs.' He grabs a book, pulls it open, checks the index then flips to a page. The chapter heading is "Abandonment in Relation to Children". 'Listen to this: "children suffering from abandonment stress may display undesirable characteristics later in life, including feeling at a loss,insecure, rejection and self-esteem issues that frequently expresses as anti-social behaviours including bullying. They feel socially inadequate, avoid social interactions and possess an extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation. They will overreact to these perceived slights in an unhealthy manner, which will contribute to their inability to maintain healthy, communicative relationships."'

'Dove, you're saying this to his partner,' I say impatiently.

'So your relationship is totally normal and communicative, huh?' he says cynically.

I open my mouth, then close it again slowly. 'That's one,' I say, crossing my arms.

'Right.' He checks the page. 'Bullying. That's a no-brainer. Socially inadequate. He doesn't hang out with anyone but us, you know?'

'None of us hang out with anyone but us,' I say. We should probably do something about that, in fact.

'So you agree it applies. Avoid social interactions, same thing, anti- social behaviour, same thing, possesses an extreme sensitivity to negative evaluation.' He shuts the book and looks at me. 'You've got to admit, he's got a real problem being told he's wrong.'

'Nobody likes being told they're-'

'Rapier wasps.'

'Shit,' I mutter. There was really nothing I could say to that.

'See?' he asks. 'I know his mum ran off when he was little. I think that fucked him up more than he's-'

'Shut up!' I hiss, hearing footsteps. A moment later Weiss Schnee and Ruby Rose round the corner, and seeing us, stop dead.

'Hey,' Dove says, nodding at them.

Weiss makes a little hmph -ing noise, crosses her arms, and turns away. Rose looks around awkwardly. 'Oh. Hi, guys. Uh… what are you doing here?'

'Well, it's a library,' I say, 'so clearly we came in here to grab something to eat.'

It's a weak joke, but Rose grins anyway.

'So you guys decided to stay over the break?' Dove asks. The break between first and second semesters is two weeks long; in theory, just enough time to duck out, see the family, and come back for second semester. We're only a couple of days into the first week, and I'm enjoying it immensely - even if I am suddenly struck by the realisation that I've somehow managed to get myself stuck in the library. I need to wrap this conversation up so we can get back out into the sunshine.

'Yep,' Rose says chipperly. 'We decided to stay behind and keep working on our combat skills.'

'Nerd,' I say with a grin to show I don't mean it. Weiss glares at me and I resist the urge to roll my eyes at her.

'What about your team?' Rose asks. 'You aren't going anywhere?'

'Probably not,' I say, remembering that nobody outside my team knows I don't have family to get back to.

'Sky and Cardin and I have family in the city,' Dove says, neatly skirting the fact that all three of them have yet to actually go and pay a visit to said families.

Weiss glances at what Dove's holding. 'Why are you researching abnormal psychology?'

'We're trying to see if we can work out how to get on Oobleck's good side,' I say casually. 'Why are you guys researching…' I squint atRose's arms. 'Weapons construction and maintenance. Never mind, that actually makes sense. You're adding more guns to your scythe?'

Rose grins. 'You say that like it's a bad thing.'

'Doesn't it already have one?' Dove asks.

'I'm researching firing mechanisms,' she says enthusiastically. 'I want to see if I can double the rate of fire without increasing the uncontrolled recoil to a proportionate amount when it's in-'

'Ok, that's enough,' Schnee says impatiently. Rose and Dove both look like kicked puppies, but she's apparently made up her mind.

'Ruby, we're running late and we have a busy day tomorrow.'

'Ok,' Dove says sadly. 'Hey, tell me what you decide, though,' he adds enthusiastically to Rose. 'I want to know how you overcome the-'

'Bye!' Rose calls as Schnee drags her away with a huff.

'What were you even talking about?' I ask.

'It's a gun thing,' Dove says. 'You're not really into them, are you?'

I grin. 'They make it too easy.'

'I was enjoying that. Schnee's such a bitch,' Dove mutters.

'Maybe you need to get to know her,' I suggest with a completely straight face. We look at each other and break into grins at the same time.

'Nah,' Dove says casually. 'She's just a spoiled princess.'

'Why is she even a Huntress?' I demand. 'I mean, you can't tell me she needs the money.'

'Why are any of us Hunters?' Dove says philosophically.

'Well, I'm an adrenaline-junkie who wants to get paid for it,' I say dryly. 'You?'

Dove doesn't answer for a couple of minutes and I realise he took me seriously. 'I want to help people,' he says in an intense voice. 'I actually want to save some people.'

'You will,' I say with complete certainty. 'I have faith in you, man.'

He looks at me and I can tell he's genuinely touched. 'This is getting sappy,' he says.

'Hey, you started it,' I say, holding my hands up. 'So what does that mean? What do you have?'

'Probably an identity crisis,' Dove says confidently. 'Since everyone keeps telling me I'm not a fourteen-year-old girl and refusing to braid my hair.'

I burst out laughing and get dirty looks from everyone in the library. Rose and Schnee are nowhere to be seen as Dove steers me, still laughing, out the front door.

I really don't give him enough credit.

~o0o~

I can see what he means, when I get back to the dorm. Cardin looks glad to see me but a moment later he's staring down at his work like it's the most important thing in the world to him. This is silly. I walk over, kick the desk to get his attention, and tell him, 'We need to start talking to each other more.'

' Dove,' Sky groans.

'Hey, I agree with him,' Dove says. 'Using each other as go- betweens is only going to backfire.

''I guess you're right,' Cardin says, standing. 'Ok, new rule: from now on, if you have something to say to someone, you say it. And nobody can get offended. Not from the opening, at least. Someone says something, you have to give them a fair answer. Anything after that is fair game, though.'

'Sounds good,' I say with deep approval.

'Dove, you're a dick,' Cardin says, turning to him.

Dove shrugs. 'Doesn't mean I wasn't right.'

'Still a dick,' Cardin says tightly.

'Fair game!' Dove yells, pointing an accusing finger at Cardin. 'Fair game!'

Sky and I hurl pillows at Dove's head at the same time. He falls over with a grunt. I turn to Cardin. 'I'm not leaving Vale, man.'

'Good,' Cardin says, and an amount of tension I didn't even notice flows from his shoulders.

'Weird as it is,' I say, glancing around the room. 'I kind of like it here.'