A Grey-Haired Boy

Search and Recover Part 1:Away Mission

Yang stared at Victor as he did his usual work, guiding the various students about and getting greeted by them like the Bodyguard and buddy he was. She smirked, her lilac eyes locked onto the young man before her like your average schoolgirl in love. She almost yelped, however, when she felt a hand land on her shoulder and looked up to see Ruby. The girl with gradient hair smiled knowingly at her sis, patting her on the back, then sitting down.

Yang rolled her eyes, then said, "Hi, sis. Whatcha doin' here?" as she arranged her uniform. Ruby had a habit of sometimes sneaking up behind her friends and Yang, to the point where the girl had gotten proficient enough not to be heard by her sister. Despite that, though, Yang could almost barely make out the footsteps before she approached. In a crowded place like this, though, it was a little tougher.

"Came to see what you were doing," Ruby quipped, then noticed that her beloved older half-sis was staring at the twenty-something man in camouflage and toting a heavy Machine Gun. Now wearing a smug grin, she stated, "I see you're looking at Vic, heh," while crossing her arms to her chest. She knew her sis's looks and the red in her cheeks and slight red flare in her lilac eyes told.

"I wasn't," Replied the Blonde, a little defensive and avoidant. She went on to add, "Just making sure the guy's doin' alright, y'know?" before she cast a longing glance at the black-haired guy as he showed teams of Students which way they were supposed to take to their respective classes. He'd become surprisingly accustomed to Beacon in the time he'd spent here, much like the rest of his team-mates, many of whom were patrolling the ground of Beacon.

"Hehe. Sure thing," Ruby chuckled at her sister's attempt to deflect the question. She herself looked at Vic, watching the young man looking around, trying to maintain a smile for the Students as he guided them or answered requests from them. Every time a student moved away, however, his smile would fade and be replaced by the gaze and facade of an automaton, an empty placation of emotion. Or almost, really. His face would grow impassive as he reported encounters on the radio to their commander, but his eyes darted around, almost looking for an enemy in the crowd.

Oh, well, Ruby was probably overthinking it. So she thought, anyway. Man could've just been tired...

Yang had noticed this and whispered, "You're one to talk," as she recalled one of Ruby's few crushes back in the day, though that boy felt more like a Childhood Best Friend than your standard crush to her. She'd left him behind at Signal when she came here, however, meaning whatever had been building up would be gone. For the better, Yang thought a little selfishly, it was her lil' sis after all.

"Huh?" Ruby, however, furrowed her brows, confused at what Yang meant.

"Nothing, nothing..." The blond waved it off, then tilted her head toward the Romanian machine gunner and asked her, "You catch my cold, though, right? Vic never seems alright, no matter how you cut the cake. Man needs some sorta help..." while they watched him go about his business, oscillating between the friendly and welcoming(if slightly fake) smile and the calm, stone-cold demeanor of a Security droid.

"Yeah..." Ruby frowned, nodding. They needed to find something out about them, honestly. Like what could drive a guy to look that haggard after all was said and done? Vic and his entire platoon supposedly 'died'. She still wasn't sure she wanted to believe that bit, honestly, considering they were clearly alive and walking among them. He was alive, obviously.

"At least he's got Paul around now, too," Yang quipped, then smiled as she joked, "Heh, should'a seen Blakey's face when she saw him. Apparently foreign-accented men are her thing," which garnered a giggle out of Ruby. So, that made two-for-two on girls who were crushing, Ruby thought. Made sense, honestly, the guys were pretty nice, after all. And Blake seemed to like foreign guys, going by the books she was reading.