-Years Later-
Chatter and the shuffling of hundreds filled the large room. Groups of old friends chatted amongst themselves, anxious strangers introduced themselves to equally nervous loners, and every few moments another group of people would emerge from the elevators at the back-center of the room. Large as the room was, it was only a matter of time before the crowded area turned cramp.
The CTC was always abuzz with activity but that went double today.
Propped against a wall in the corner of the room, Yin checked his scroll. The airships would be arriving soon.
He dropped the hand back into his pocket, scanning everyone.
There were more humans than faunus, varying builds, and some more alert than others, choosing to keep their backs near the corners much like himself. Beacon attracted people from all walks of life, that much was clear.
More importantly-
Long legs, nice thighs, racks big and small, posteriors of varying types. Some wore more revealing clothing than others while some covered up entirely. Either way, no matter which way he looked there were women to admire.
Beacon attracted no end of lookers.
Brmmm!
The distant hum of engines.
Many of the faunus in the room moved towards the landing pads, those with human friends taking them along. It wasn't long till the distant hum grew into loud thrums, the airships easily overpowering all conversation as they finally came into view. Soaring clean over the market district below, the large gray vehicles slowly descended as they reached the large skyscraper that was the CTC, their engines turning and allowing them to land on the pads.
Their side doors slide open, ramps unfolding.
Yin waited for everyone else to shuffle forward before pushing off the wall and following one of the splitting crowds at random. Unfortunately, he didn't account for a group to be running late. He also didn't account for that very same group rushing into the same airship he'd chosen.
"Sorry!" An apologetic yell filled the air as several people bumped into him. He didn't get a chance to even look their way before he found himself stumbling in and becoming one with the packed mess of students filling into the airship. Trying to go against it was just asking to be trampled at this point.
Instead, he bided his time, slowly forcing his way towards the edge of the crowd. Then, when he finally got his chance, he forced himself out, stumbling and-
Thunk.
Yin grimaced as he steadied himself and rubbed his forehead. Did he just bump into pure metal?
"I'm sorry." Rather than metal, Yin found himself face to face with a redhead just a little shorter than himself. Her unusual choice of metal armor was the first thing he noticed, its coloring akin to that of bronze or copper. She offered him an apologetic and kind smile, concern clear as day in her vivid green eyes. "You aren't hurt, are you?"
"No need to apologize over a little bump." He said with a shrug. It's not like he couldn't have avoided the whole situation in the first place so some of the blame was on him. "Why the metal armor?"
"I…" She trailed off, the concern in her eyes replaced by…surprise? He wasn't sure. "I have found that it works well with my fighting style."
A bit vague but fair enough. They might all be heading to the same place, but it would take an especially naïve person to go into detail over something like that with a stranger.
He nodded and stepped past her, heading towards one of the airships' corners. The interior of the thing was relatively fancy, railings on either side with TVs installed above, and a line of large windows on the side opposite to the ship's doors, allowing them a look at the bustling streets far below.
Still, he wasn't a fan of it. Too many different-
"Excuse me." Before he could reach the corner spot he was after, a hand landed on his shoulder. He stopped, turning. "Ah, I'm sorry." The armored redhead from before quickly released him and bowed her head slightly in apology. A Mistral custom from what he knew. "If you don't mind me asking, are you on your own as well?"
Normally a question like that would've set off alarm bells but given the fact that just about everyone else around them were chatting away in cliques of their own or too standoffish to bother approaching, he could hazard a guess as to why she was asking.
"Yeah." He admitted. He recognized a good few people from Signal, but those same people probably didn't know he existed.
"I see." She said. Her friendly smile widened slightly. "I'm sure you know but teams here are made up of four. If you don't have a plan in place perhaps, we could team up?"
Abruptly offering to team up with some stranger you bumped into? A rash decision considering they'd be stuck together for the next four years if they really ended up working with one another.
Out of the corner of his eye, Yin picked up on a number of stares coming their way. Or rather, her way.
Whatever the reasons behind the looks, he imagined they had something to do with why she was so eager to jump into a team.
And he didn't have any reason to deny the proposition. The red cloth wrapped around her waist blocked most of her lower half from view, but breast wise she put most of the others on the airship to shame and was probably the most beautiful to boot. From what he's read the clearly defined muscle on her would generally be considered a negative but as far as he was concerned it only lent to her whole warrior vibe.
A perfect ten out of ten by definition.
"If you're fine with me being your teammate, sure." He freed a hand from his pockets and extended it to her. "I'm Yin."
"I'm-" She paused as she took his hand. It was so small and for a fraction of a second, but he was sure he saw her smile twitch downwards. "-Pyrrha."
"Cool, nice to meet you." He said, hand slipped back into his pocket as soon as the handshake was over. "Fair warning, I'm hardly the best fighter around so you may end up disappointed."
"I'm sure that isn't true." Pyrrha said, her smile noticeably wider and a certain excitement in her eyes. "You made it into Beacon after all. That alone speaks to your skills."
Yin knew empty platitudes when he heard them. This redhead, despite not knowing the first thing about him, genuinely believed what she was saying, putting far too much faith into the school's system. Or maybe it had more to do with her own judgement. Unlike everyone else, all of whom he could get a basic understanding of from a distance, she wasn't so easy to fit under a label.
"Hopefully you're right." He turned away from her and back to where'd he'd been looking. The corner spot he'd been after was taken as well as the rest of the ideal spots in the airship. Well, he'd been scooped up by a teammate with little to no effort on his part and an attractive one at that. He was just going to consider this a case of equivalent exchange.
"So, are you from Vale or have you come to attend Beacon from one of the other kingdoms?" Pyrrha asked as they took up spots along the railing beside the windowed side of the airship.
"Vale. I attended Signal, one of the local primary academies, before this." He said. "What about you? Based off the design of your armor I'd say Mistral."
"You'd be right. I'm surprised you could tell that from a look."
"I read a lot. Knowledge is power and all that." He said with a shrug. Even after all this time and with so many options to choose from, reading was still one of his go to activities. "Speaking of, I've only ever read about Mistral. How does it compare to Vale?"
Pyrrha shifted her gaze from him to the buildings beyond the window, the city growing more distant with each passing second. "Its certainly different. The air will take some getting used to." She shared after a moment of thought. "I'm sorry. I only arrived yesterday so I'm not sure I can give you a better answer than that."
He nodded. "Well, see as we'll be sticking together for the next four years, maybe I can show you around? Vale has plenty of places to see."
She turned her attention to him, smiling once more. "That sounds like a grand idea."
It was safe to assume he was leaving a good impression on her.
Ideally whoever else they filled out the rest of their little team with would be just as easy to get along with.
XOXO
"Beacon is quite something." Pyrrha said, head craned back as they gazed out across the structures ahead.
Stone paved pathways decorated with lamps, benches, fountains, and a number of towering statues of honored huntsmen and huntresses alike. Intricate archways that lent a sort of fanciful elegance to the paths. Distant buildings, short but wide, others tall but slim, with many falling in between the two, but all sharing in the simple yet functional styling. Behind it all, centered and overlooking the entire island the campus was built upon, was a single tower that seemed impossibly tall, its pointed tip threatening to reach well above the clouds. Despite its height, it shared in the simplicity of the other buildings aside from the giant clock built along its side.
Yin hummed, inclined to agree with the assessment. Even without all the reading he done, the sheer grandeur of the place would inspire some measure of awe.
"I assume builds like that tower and the Central Transportation Center aren't common in Vale?" Pyrrha questioned, as they, like the countless other students ahead of them stopped their moment of admiration to head straight down the stone pathways.
"Yeah. That tower doubles as the CCT from what I've heard but I think the CTC is around the same height. Nothing else in the city will come close them." He shared. And that was without mentioning the parking garages built below the latter. There was a reason that place was the busiest part of the city at any given moment. He always tried to limit his visits to such places but that couldn't be helped today.
He and Pyrrha shared small talk as they followed the other students. Tidd bits of information about their respective kingdoms, some basic experiences with Grimm, their old academies. All the usual stuff a huntsman and huntress to be might share.
All the while they ignored backward glances and hushed conversations ahead.
Whatever her deal was, it went beyond a simple reputation. It was as if everyone around them knew who she was, be they from the deserts of Vacuo or the icy kingdom of Atlas. He even noticed a few faces from Signal point her out. There was some irony about his former classmates recognizing her but not him.
He didn't bother asking about it. He might not be able to get a perfect read on her, but he picked up that she disliked the attention no matter how she tried to hide the disdain.
Yin's nose twitched.
Dust. Combustion type by the smell of it. Too much of it to be what was loaded in the weapons carried by all the students but-
BOOM!
Yin and Pyrrha twisted around, the black smoke from the abrupt explosion lingering in the air a good distance behind them, not far from the landing pads the airships had dropped them all off at. Others looked back as well but none made any moves to go check it out.
"Should we go see what happened?" Pyrrha asked, glancing between him and the smoke. If it weren't for him, she would've already been on her way over.
Best to set things straight now.
"I'll follow your lead." Yin said. He didn't come to Beacon looking to play leader for a bunch of people. The required effort outweighed the benefits. That said, he was going to be part of a team and that meant following someone else's orders if he wasn't going to take the title of captain for himself.
Why not leave that role in the hands of someone as unproblematic as Pyrrha?
She nodded and, predictably enough, took off leading them away from the crowd and towards the source of the explosion.
"Ugh, I can't believe they let a child like that into the academy." They were passed by a grumbling girl dressed almost entirely in white with hair to match, neither of them spared a glance as she grumbled to herself. A held a vial half filled with crimson dust in it powdered form and a suitcase in the other.
A Schnee. What was one doing so far from Atlas?
"Are you alright down there?" Yin tore his gaze away from the snowflake like symbol on the back of the girl's jacket as he joined Pyrrha beside a young girl lying on the ground, bits of her face and the ground around her coated in soot.
"My sister ditched me, I blew up, and I just made an enemy so I'm pretty sure I've somehow managed to make the worse day possible out of what's supposed to be the best one of my life." The girl complained, an arm covering her eyes. "I should've just stayed at Signal with my friends."
Pyrrha looked his way and he shrugged. He recognized a few faces but hers wasn't one of them. She didn't look old enough to be a part of a graduating class in the first place.
"You still managed to be one of the few students accepted and there's still plenty of time left in the day to turn things around. It's too early to start thinking like that." Pyrrha assured the girl. She held out a hand for her and smiled. "And whatever happened I'm sure that girl doesn't think of you as an enemy. We're all on the same side after all."
The girl moved her arm slightly, peeking up at them. "You really think so?"
"I do."
The girl took a moment to wipe her face before taking Pyrrha's offered hand, brought to her feet in an instant. The difference in age between them, or at least builds, was made even more prevalent now that she was upright, the girl a whole head shorter than Pyrrha and then some in comparison to him. Young as she appeared, the folded weapon attached to her harness at her waist, just beneath her shifting cape left no room to doubt she was a huntress in training.
"Wait a minute." Pyrrha suddenly found herself under heavy scrutiny, the girl narrowing her eyes and staring up at her hard. "Have we met before?"
"I've never been to Vale so-"
The girl's gaze dropped to the shield and javelin in place on Pyrrha's back and her eyes lit up. "You're Pyrrha Nikos!" She exclaimed, cutting off whatever Pyrrha planned on saying. Her previous air of defeat vanished, the girl buzzing around Pyrrha with little to no regard for the concept of personal space. "Oh this is so exciting. I didn't know you'd be going to Beacon. Can I see how your javelin works? What about your shield? Oh, can I get your autograph?"
She was intent on talking Pyrrha's ear off, not a moment given for any of the questions to be answers. He briefly toyed with the idea of watching things play out but thought better of it. Pyrrha's smile was strained, falling from a genuine one to a sort of mask met to hide what she really felt about the situation.
"It's rude to get in someone else's face like that, you know." Yin said.
His interjection brought the girl out of her burst of excitement, her eyes widening and face reddening as she jumped away from Pyrrha. "I'm-I'm sorry!" She cried, too embarrassed to meet either of their eyes. She toyed with the end of her long cloak while kicking at the ground. "I uh, just got really excited and, well, I'm sorry."
Pyrrha shot him a grateful smile before refocusing on the girl. "Its fine but I don't think this is the time for autographs. We do have an entrance ceremony to get too." Pyrrha said, still kind despite her dissatisfaction with the little interaction. "You're welcome to join us."
"Right, of course, you've got things to do- wait I can come with you?"
"As long as you want to." Pyrrha assured the floored girl.
"I want to!" Realizing how loud she was the girl quickly dropped her voice. "I mean yes. I'm Ruby. Thanks for having me?" She said managing to come off as more awkward than formal.
"I'm Yin." He threw out his name with a casual wave.
This Ruby girl was no mature kind beauty like Pyrrha but she had a certain awkwardly bubbliness about her that would fall under what most would consider cute. And, despite being significantly shorter, while they didn't compare to Pyrrha's she had a nice rack beneath that dress of hers.
Introductions over, he and Pyrrha resumed their trail of the now distant crowd of students far ahead, the awkward Ruby quietly in tow.
He hadn't even made it to the entrance ceremony and he'd found himself within the company of two good looking girls, one having taken him as her teammate and he'd still barely done a thing to make it happen.
Luck must've been on his side.
XOXO
(A/N: The CTC is a me creation. With trains, airships, cars, and all that Vale seemed like the sort of city that lends itself to a public transportation system that's essential for getting around. I was also going for a bit of an objective vibe with Yin's perspective. Beyond physical attraction and more practical things, he shouldn't have opinions on much anything quite yet, relying more on observations for reasons that be gone into depth later. Hopefully I'll get better at portraying him. Remembering to not let things get colored by subjectivity is more difficult than expected.)