Blake watched boredly as the bookstore cashier scanned textbook after textbook through the barcode reader, and the total on the screen next to him climbed and climbed upwards. The man himself - a burly specimen who probably spent more time on grooming than on work, if his impressive sideburns were any indication - was the perfect picture of exhaustion, who looked like he wanted nothing more than to close up shop for the day.
Blake didn't care. She just glanced about the shop, folding up her arms in consternation as she waited for the opportunity to pay.
Stupid over-expensive textbooks. She mentally grumbled to herself. Why did Beacon have to switch to new texts for the second semester?
Several of the upperclassmen - CFVY included - had taken to pranking Ozpin, blaming him for the ludicrous expenses of Beacon life. Blake thought the whole thing was rather silly, but it was at least humorous, watching the utterly unflappable headmaster of their school, dodging every practical joke sent his way.
It had almost become a game - prank Ozpin (who was so ridiculously powerful that he could afford to not give a damn) without letting Glynda (always a stickler for the rules) find out.
She was pulled out of her train of thought by a harsh a-hem from someone in the line behind her. She resisted the urge to turn about and deliver a painful stink-eye to whoever was antagonizing her.
"Alright, that comes to 962 Lien." The cashier droned, putting his hands on the counter and turning to face her. "Will that be all?"
Blake almost nodded to the cashier, almost acquiesced and took her heavy pile of textbooks, but something dark and bulky caught her attention from the corner of her eye. A black book-stand covered with ragged piles of used books, placed right next to the check-out lane.
A sneaky little smile crept up over her face, and her eyes narrowed conspiratorially.
I guess I could indulge a little. No-one here knows who I am…
She reached out with the speed of an exceedingly embarrassed Huntress-in-training, and whisked a book off of the stand before anyone could blink, passing it to the cashier silently.
To his immense credit, he was completely unfazed, even as he scanned Ninjas of Love XVI through the checkout and bagged it with the textbooks. Blake turned backwards to face the line of customers behind her, carefully checking to make sure that she hadn't been caught with her contraband.
I'm in the clear!
"Okay, that will be 968 Lien." The cashier said with a grimace and a heavy sigh. "Thank you for shopping at Tukson's Book Trade…"
Blake dropped her Lien on the counter and disappeared in a flash, taking her books with her as she all but fled from the establishment.
Gotta get home before anyone sees me with this!
"Hey Blake!" Ruby peeped up as soon as the black-haired girl arrived in the dorms. "You got our books?"
Blake nodded shortly, as she kicked off her shoes, dropping her bags on the floor and palming her illicit goods with a practiced, surreptitious hand.
She quite deliberately did not think about how she'd gotten so practiced with her sleight-of-hand in the first place. She didn't need to do that sort of thing anymore.
Ruby - completely oblivious to Blake's momentary turmoil - began pawing through the textbooks, before turning to Blake with a winsome, excited smile.
"Cool, thanks!"
Blake resisted the urge to snort with amusement at the sight of Ruby getting excited over homework. But she supposed that being able to complete the classwork at all was an achievement.
"Where are Yang and Weiss?" She asked Ruby softly, casting her eyes about to make sure that she hadn't missed the pair somehow. Ruby shrugged dramatically.
"Heck if I know. They're probably off in the corner somewhere, sucking on each other's faces."
Blake snickered at the crude-but-fitting description.
"Because you never 'suck face'?"
"I don't. So shut up."
As Ruby - scarlet in the cheeks - grudgingly began working on her schoolwork, Blake blithely strode over to her bunk, retrieving a plain white dust jacket from the corner and slipping it over Ninjas of Love with a satisfied little grin.
And then she sat down to read. She was all too good at that - reading smut and porn in public. But she always read for the plot, first and foremost! The racier scenes were just a bonus that she could return to later, when she was alone and unmolested. Yeah, when she was alone… in the dark and quiet of the night, in her thin and flimsy pajamas…
Not now, Blake. She silently chastised herself, her face flushing with silent embarrassment.
Of course, no-one ever believed that she was only reading the story for the plot. So she covered it up, one way or another, and immersed herself in the tale.
And what a tale it was! Naruto (the adventurous lord of the manor) had just proposed to Sakura (his childhood friend), not realising that Sakura was really Sasuke (Naruto's rival) in disguise. What would Sasuke do, knowing that Kakashi (the Faunus maid) was due to come home any minute?
Blake's eyes widened as she turned the page and… and…
Blood trickled from her nose and her jaw nearly dropped to the floor. Sasuke played along, giving in to Naruto's proposal and advances… and then…
How absolutely lewd!
"Holy shit…" She whispered under her breath, suddenly intensely aware of her restrictive clothing, chafing at every joint and feeling too hot to bear.
I wish I was in my pajamas...
"Hm?" Ruby asked suddenly. "You said something, Blake?"
"I, uh…" Blake stammered madly. "Nothing at all!"
"Oh. Okeydokey."
Ruby turned back to her homework, and Blake just felt intensely uncomfortable, shifting in her bed (and shifting her legs together) as if she could find a position and zen out into bliss.
Yeah… bliss…
Blake, with a shudder and a sigh, slipped past the gratuitous sex scenes and bookmarked them for later, coming to the next chapter.
Over in the other side of the room, Ruby stretched out and yawned, raising a hand to her mouth. Blake pointedly ignored her younger teammate's small and youthful form, focusing on the unbelievable action unfolding in the pages before her.
Kakashi was late coming home… because they were having an affair with the real Sakura!
Oh. My. God.
Even more blood trickled out of her nose, like something out of the manga she loved so much, and her pupils shrunk in on the text, before-
"Listen… Sakura…" Kakashi confessed. "I'm in heat."
Blake - taken out of the heat of the moment - snorted in disgust, her brow furrowing up with utter frustration. Ninjas of Love was written by a human, and one rather ill-informed about the Faunus to begin with, so it wasn't always perfect. But this tidbit was… obscenely wrong.
Blake continued reading even as Kakashi, in their 'heat', regressed to some kind of animalistic state, something which never happened to a Faunus in real life. She was almost tempted to throw the book away in sheer disgust… but somehow, she just felt drawn into the tale.
The book was trash, frankly, but she kept reading, turning the pages with frantic focus, and ignoring the unwelcome warmth in-between her legs.
Why am I doing this?
She fell asleep an hour later, slumping across the bed and letting the book fall to the floor in her comatose state.
"Hey, Blake? Blaaake?"
Ruby frowned and bit her lip, turning from her schoolwork to her teammate's bunk. The Faunus girl was zonked out, her hand hanging over the side of the bed and a bubble of drool leaking from her mouth.
"Oh. You're… asleep. Okay, so you can't help me with my Grimm Studies."
She put her textbook down with a sigh, and walked over to Blake's prone form, feeling somewhat conflicted with herself.
I kind of want to… huh.
She picked up the white book splayed across the floor, setting it down on the windowsill.
"Ninjas of Love again? Really, Blake?"
Her rhetorical question was met with a snore, just like she expected it would be. Blake twitched in her bed, murmuring something about 'not smut', and Ruby giggled.
"Okay then."
Blake's arm, stretched out and flopped over, was also picked up and set down again, this time across Blake's chest.
"Good night, Blake."
If she just so happened to kiss Blake on the forehead, no-one was around and awake to tell the tale.