Ruby sighed. Lately, Blake had been flinching and keeping her distance from Weiss a lot, and it was getting worse. Just now, in sparring practice with Team JNPR, Blake had pulled away from Weiss, leading to her getting knocked flat by Jaune of all people. While Jaune had gotten better by leaps and bounds since they'd started at Beacon, there was still no way he should have hit Blake so easily. Jaune himself had been so startled he'd stopped dead in the middle of the fight, leading to him getting knocked flying into a wall by Yang. "Okay everyone, team meeting time. Dorm room, now. And I mean everyone, no excuses," she added, giving them all her best glare. Normally this would have been cute and endearing, but this time it had teeth and claws.

Up in their dorm room, Ruby stood just inside the door, hands on hips, still glaring at everyone. She glanced at Yang, and then jerked her head toward the open window. Without a word, Yang got up and closed it, then leaned back up against one of the dressers. "Alright, let's talk about the Golaith in the room, shall we? Blake, you've been off lately. For a while after... that night on the docks, everything was fine. But the last couple of weeks, your concentration has been slipping. You've been flinching away from Weiss, and this morning it got you floored. By Jaune, of all people. Jaune. So what's eating you? Why are you so uncomfortable around Weiss all of a sudden?"

Blake fidgeted, glancing around for an exit. Ruby in front of the door, bathroom door closed, Yang standing guard at the window. She was well and duly trapped. "N-nothing's wrong, Ruby."

"Nonsense." Weiss stood up and took a step towards Blake. "Yesterday, I tossed up a glyph for you, and you avoided it. I noticed, Blake. It was perfectly placed, and you didn't take it. Is something wrong? Is it something I did, something I said? You told us everything about your time with the White Fang, right? 'No more secrets' you said. Talk to us, we're you're teammates. And I'd like to think we're friends. No matter what it is, we won't judge."

Blake hesitated. No, it was nothing Weiss had done, exactly. "I-I can't, not this."

Weiss bent down to Blake's eye level, and she could see something in the heiress's eyes she hadn't ever expected to see there. Concern. "Blake, tell me. Or else worrying about it is going to throw me off as well, and then I will be absolutely furious with you."

When Weiss looked at her like that, Blake couldn't help herself. "Ihaveacrushonyou," she blurted out, then cringed, waiting for the reaction.

"Did she just-" Yang started, stopping immediately under a glare from Ruby that could have leveled small villages, Like, say, Vale. But it was Weiss's reaction Blake was dreading as she peered at Weiss out of the corner of her eye.

"I see." Weiss took a step back from Blake, her arms crossed. "Well, then, what do you intend to do about that?"

"N-nothing, I-I can't, you're Weiss Schnee, and, and I'm a F-F-"

"Stop. Listen to me very carefully. I am not my family name, nor my family's company. Right here, right now I am just Weiss, a girl you have just confessed your feelings to. And you are not a Faunus, or a former member of the White Fang. You are just Blake, a young girl who has just confessed her feelings to someone. So I ask you again, what do you intend to do about that?"

"W-wait for you to respond, I suppose. M-maybe ask you out on a date?"

Weiss raised her left eyebrow, pulling on her scar, as if to say Well, I'm waiting.

"Uh, woudlyougoliketogoonadatewithme?"

"Say that again, less uncertainty, more enunciation, and pause between the words."

Why was Weiss torturing her like this? She knew Weiss was a bit cold, but cruel? Fine. "Would you like to go out on a date with me, Weiss?"

"Yes. Anything specific in mind?"

"S-spend Saturday afternoon together in Vale? Lunch, maybe a movie, or some shopping?" Blake drooped. "I don't have a lot of money."

"That would be acceptable. But I do have one stipulation. Lose the bow. If I'm going out on a date with you, I want a date with you, not that. You can wear it until we reach Vale if you like."

"Okay. But you have to wear your hair down."

Weiss reached up to touch her ponytail. "What's wrong with my hair?"

"I... like the way you look with it down."

It was Weiss's turn to look uncertain, and she blushed. "Fine." She shook head and composed herself, then picked up a book off her desk. "I'm going to the library to study for a while." Yang started to speak, but Ruby shot her a silencing look and jerked a thumb towards the door. Outside, now.

Ruby dragged Yang to one of the common rooms and shoved her down into a chair. "Yang Xiao Long, whatever's cooking in that head of yours, drop it. No interfering, no helping things along, no romantic gestures, nada. We are going to leave them alone. If you do one thing that they don't ask you to do, I will shave your head bald in your sleep and leave you to wake up in the pile of cut hair. Understood?"

Yang started to object, then saw the look in Ruby's eyes. Last time Ruby had that look in her eye, Yang had found her motorcycle in pieces. It had taken forever to piece her precious Bumblebee back together. "Ruby, why-?"

"Blake and Weiss are both very lonely, Yang. I know they've both made friends here, we're two of them after all, but maybe this is something else they need. If so, they need to sort this out for themselves. But they would make a cute couple, don't you think?"

Yang shook her head. There Ruby was again, being smarter than Yang despite being her baby sis. "Okay. I'll stay out of it. Although I think you might want to go check on Blake. Weiss pretty much bullied her into asking for that date. I'm not sure Blake was ready to go that far."

"Yeah." Ruby chewed her lip. "I am kinda wondering what was up with that."

Ruby slipped back into their dorm room to find Blake curled up on her bed, knees up against her chest. "You okay, Blake?"

"I can't believe I did that. I can't believe I asked her out on a date."

"She did kinda push you into it. If you don't want to go-"

"That's just it! I wanted to ask her, I was just terrified to. The last time I told somebody how I felt around them, it... didn't go well."

"Adam."

Blake nodded. "I was blinded to his flaws. He used my feelings for him to manipulate me, trying to turn me into a monster like him."

"But you pulled back. Left the White Fang and decided to become a Huntress, to help people."

"I thought I was helping when I was part of the White Fang, too."

"Maybe you were, in a way. Some people think they can push Faunus around, that you'll just put up with it. I'm not saying the White Fang is right, and I don't like most of the things they do, but they've made it so that people can't ignore how Faunus are treated anymore." Ruby sat down next to Blake and sighed. "But where I think they're going wrong is confusing fear with respect. You can make people fear you, by threatening their lives, or the things they hold dear, but you can't make them respect you. And peace, lasting peace, can't be built on fear because fear doesn't last. There's got to be respect between human and Faunus for lasting peace."

"H-How do we do that?"

"One piece at a time. Like you and Weiss being teammates, despite where you both came from."

"Or me asking her out on a date."

"And her accepting. There's no magic spell for peace between human and Faunus, no quick fix, just time and hard work."

Saturday came all too soon, and at the same time, took forever to arrive. Weiss stood waiting at the port for Blake. She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. Weiss wasn't used to having her hair loose in public, and it felt odd. Not bad, just different. She definitely wouldn't want to fight without tying it back though. She'd stuffed a scrunchie in a pocket for just such an occasion. It wasn't the tiara she usually wore to contain her ponytail, but it would do in a pinch.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Blake stood there in a purple and black dress that made Weiss gulp.

"N-no bother. You look amazing. I don't think I've seen you in a dress before."

"Thanks. I've been saving this for a special occasion. "

"Then it pleases me that you wore it for me." Something caught Weiss's eye. "You're not wearing your bow."

"Nope. I thought I'd try walking around without it, at least to the port. I think the only person that noticed was Neptune. He started to say something but Sun elbowed him in the gut." Blake shook her head. Sun Wukong was a problem she was going to have to deal with sooner or later, but not now. Now was about Weiss.

After arriving in Vale, the pair sat down in the cafe Blake had chosen for lunch. "I haven't eaten here before, " Weiss commented as she scanned the menu.

"It's not as fancy as some places, but the food's great. Their seafood is wonderful." Blake was practically drooling as she checked out the chef's special for the day.

"You and fish, of course." Weiss was smiling, but it was a sad sort of smile. "Is something wrong, Weiss?"

Weiss arranged her napkin in her lap with a fussy sort of precision, then sipped her coffee. "Not wrong, exactly, I'm just... second-guessing my motivations." She sighed. "I know I pushed you into asking me out, and I apologize for that. But now I find myself questioning why I did so, and some of the possibilities that come to mind bother me."

"If you didn't want to-"

"Wanting to is not the problem. Why I wanted to is." Weiss sat for a moment, then looked Blake in the eye, "I feel the need to confide in you something that is personal and private. I am... bisexual, but prefer women to men. I realized this when I was about fourteen when I met my first girlfriend.

"Her name was Liana. We met at the primary combat school I was attending prior to attending Beacon. Within weeks, we were head over heels for each other. We tried to be discrete, but in the end, my father found out. He was furious, demanding that I break it off. Being rather smitten, I refused utterly. Liana paid for my defiance.

"Within a month, my father had ruined her family. Liana was forced to quit school in disgrace. We tried to keep in touch, but she became increasingly despondent. The last time I tried to contact her..." Weiss closed her eyes, trying to fight back the tears, "The last time I tried to contact her, Liana's mother answered. Liana had committed suicide. An overdose of her mother's sleeping pills. The note she left said, 'I still love you, Weiss.' Her family naturally blamed me."

"It wasn't your fault, Weiss."

"But I felt responsible. If I hadn't defied my father, if I hadn't pursued a relationship with her, Liana might still have been alive. So I put that part of myself away, locked it in a box. I swore I'd never care about anyone again, so that I'd never hurt them.

"And then you told me how you felt about me, and the box opened a crack. Just enough that I could see Liana inside. You remind me of her a great deal, Blake. So I find myself wondering if I said yes because of you, or because of her." Weiss stood, tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "This-this was a mistake. I should go. I'm sorry, Blake." Before Blake could respond, Weiss was gone.