Hey everyone, here's the next chapter of CFtSC. Not a whole lot I really feel like saying right now, kinda tired. Could definitely use a lot more sleep. I didn't even get to go to the petting zoo they had on campus today between classes - I had to take a nap just to retain my focus for later.

Expect more updates soon! Or well, sooner than they have been. 'til later!


Beta: Rising Dragon

"Like an actual petting zoo, or a furry convention?"


Jaune Arc strode through the cafeteria doors with a smile on his face and the rising sun at his back. Taking a breath in through his nose, the blonde couldn't help but draw in the wonderful smells of the cafeteria on an early weekend morning.

Today was going to be a good day.

The boy had been the last of his team to wake: All the beds had been emptied by the time he got up, their dorm room otherwise unoccupied. After lazing around in his pajamas for a few minutes and then going through his morning routine, he'd thought of how to spend his day. Hunger struck, and so he dressed and set out.

That, of course, brought him to the mass of milling huntsman and huntress hopefuls. Jaune's eyes passed over most of his peers, trying to spot anyone familiar. No one caught his eye – not from his team, nor even anyone from his classes... or at least, anyone from his classes he'd actually talked to.

With a soft sigh, the blond headed straight for the back of the line-up leading to the counter that divided the cafeteria from the kitchen. As he stood there, bouncing on his heels, he watched as student after student left, staring at the odd meals that passed him by.

If he could even call some of them meals, really...

Pursing his lips, Jaune wondered what was up with that, wincing as a girl walked by with an entire head of boiled cabbage balanced on her tray – though she seemed pleased to have it. Perhaps he'd ask Velvet about the food situation at Beacon later.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Jaune took a step forward, smiling at the old cafeteria lady in greeting. Should he ask for something in particular? What would he do if he got another swordfish? Or his very own head of cabbage?

"Ah, good morning young man." She grinned, Jaune just now noticing the older woman was missing a front tooth.

The blond tried not to stare. "Good morning."

"Here, take this."

Jaune couldn't believe his eyes as the tray was pushed across the counter to him.

"A whole turkey?" He looked up for an explanation.

The cafeteria lady simply stared him down, rubbing her hands on a towel. She had a distant look in her eyes. Or rather... it seemed more like she was looking through him.

"Excuse me..."

The boy felt someone tug on his sleeve, and he turned.

Jaune had to angle his eyes down to meet the pair of thick framed glasses looking up at him. The girl who wore them looked frail, as if she'd fall over if hit with a stiff breeze.

"Yes...?"

"I do believe I'm next in line..." The words were spoken in a light, airy tone, but as they hit Jaune's ears, they made his face heat up in embarrassment. He quickly shuffled to the side, with a hushed apology.

Jaune's eyes zeroed in on the tray in his hands once more. A whole turkey...

What was wrong with this place?

Another tug on his sleeve. It was the glasses girl again.

She didn't wait for a response, her own tray balanced flat on the palm of her hand. He couldn't see what was on it, her full head of tar-black hair directly in his line of sight. Instead, her fingers remained clinging to his sleeve, dragging him in the direction of the tables.

"Come sit."

Jaune was forced to follow the girl, his feet hitting the floor quickly as he struggled to keep up with her quick gait. He didn't dare try to pull back, for fear such a sudden movement would pull the girl off her feet. Yet, she had the strength to pull him along. Perhaps she just looked frail...

Dragged towards an empty table, the blond's arm was finally released. He stood awkwardly balanced, watching as the girl before him set her tray down, and took a seat. With one final glance around to see if he could spot any of the members of his team, Jaune sat, sliding his tray in front of him.

"My name's Prim. May I have a leg?"

Blinking, it took Jaune a moment to realize the girl was referring to the bounty that sat atop his tray. Far too much for himself – and sure to cause health problems if he hoarded it all.

Adjusting her glasses, Prim smiled. "I'll share, of course. It would only be fair."

Jaune finally took notice of what was on Prim's own tray: an assortment of roasted vegetables.

...Did the cafeteria lady just give him the turkey, and Prim the vegetables that had been in the same roaster?

"Sure. Take more than that, if you like."

"Gladly."

After splitting their trays up somewhat, Jaune looked down at his plate – the first thing he'd seen in weeks that looked remotely like a balanced meal. He still had far too much turkey, though.

Licking his lips, the blond reached for his fork, and set about devouring his meal.

Prim was quiet, in the sense that she didn't speak, only ate. Jaune glanced up at her multiple times while consuming his meal, but every time she was in the process of chewing, not unlike himself.

The seats around the two of them began to fill, as well. There was far too much turkey and leftover vegetables for Prim and himself to handle. Before he knew it both Jaune and the diminutive girl across from him were trading with the newcomers as well. Eventually, all that was left on Jaune's tray was a plate of bones, and the last vestiges of what he'd managed to obtain from the others.

Wiping away the remaining crumbs from a muffin he'd received in exchange for some breast meat, Jaune sighed contently, patting his stomach. It had by far been the most diverse meal he'd had in the entirety of his time at Beacon thus far. The tastes! The smells! The laughter of the table around him!

Jaune looked up with a smile on his face. Prim still sat across from him, giggling at something said by a taller, pale skinned male. She turned to Jaune as she stood, stretching her back. She didn't say anything to him, just offered him a slight, friendly wave before walking off with her empty tray. Prim was gone, but the joviality and friendly air never left the table.

"Say, you don't really look all that familiar. You're a first-year?"

Jaune blinked as he turned to a brunette who'd sat beside him earlier. Her large green eyes shimmered with a smile.

Her eyes were big.

Too big.

Holy, she's close!

"Y-yeb." Jaune replied, wincing as he bit his tongue. The girl seemed to be leaning towards him, her bangs bouncing softly as she nodded in confirmation. He really hoped his breath didn't smell bad.

"Thought so. Most first-years don't really get the cafeteria's system yet, but it's good you're picking it up early. Thanks for the turkey."

The cafeteria's... system? What's on my knee? Oh, it's her hand.

...Her hand?

"What do you say to hanging out today? You from Vale? I could show you around?"

She's getting closer!

"We could even just go back to my dorm if you'd like. Actually..."

Jaune's mouth opened and closed, only able to let out heavy breaths as the girl's hand slid up his thigh. It took every ounce of his willpower to turn his eyes from the brilliant green that seemed to fill his vision, and when he did, he found no reprise – no one else was aware of his plight in the slightest. His thighs slammed together when he began to feel her hand curve inwards.

"Hah..." He was only able to let out a labored breath. The encroaching brunette slid even closer, to the point her chest pressed against – nay, wrapped around – his shoulder.

A single hand was Jaune's savior; fingers wrapping around the girl's ear and twisting with such force she squealed.

"That's enough, Mari. The poor boy is terrified."

Jaune panted, the hand of the girl next to him retreating quickly to pry the newcomer's fingers from her ear. She swatted and whined, even as Jaune's rescuer's grip remained.

"I apologize for my sister's ac-"

As if the blond remembered he could move, Jaune practically leapt from his spot on the bench he'd shared with his seducer and scrambled away as fast as he could.

He didn't look back.


For Yang Xiao Long, it was shaping up to be a nice, quiet day. Nearly everyone who knew her might say she could be wild at times, always on the hunt for excitement or – in failing at finding it in its raw form – things to do that got her blood pumping. She herself couldn't even rebuke the fact: she knew better than anyone exactly what she wanted.

But after however many days with the rest of team VLWR... She really needed a break.

As she drew her fingers through her meticulously brushed hair, she didn't find a single snag. She'd feigned sleep for what seemed like an hour as her teammates bickered, Weiss stalwartly refusing to work out that morning. Yang had to give it to the heiress – she was stubborn, but in the right ways. It had eventually paid off, and the rest of her team filed out the dorm, Yang overhearing Ruby say they should let her sleep in.

Bless her little sister. Just... bless her.

Much like the truthful assumptions about Yang's thrill-seeking ways, many would assume one thing about Ruby and Yang as sisters: that they got on like a thick coating of peanut butter and jam. That was true. Completely true.

As for the argument that morning, the blonde obviously agreed with Weiss – her legs were still killing her from the last workout session – but hadn't voiced her opinion for two reasons: one, it would have blown her cover as a peaceful sleeper...

And two, it would have gotten Ruby involved – and put the part-time troublemaker right on Nora's side.

Yang and Ruby got along well, but they were still sisters: they still argued over things, though they were usually relatively minor. Ruby's silence while Weiss had debated with Nora proved she'd been indecisive – and if Yang had taken Weiss' side, backing Nora into a corner? Ruby would've flocked to Nora's side, she was sure.

It would have been a longer argument - and one they might have even lost. That would have meant more squats, more push-ups, more lunges, more...

The blonde shuddered, reminded that Nora had only put off the workout session. They'd be tackling it tomorrow, or maybe even the next morning.

Weiss had only bought them more time.

It was with that fear in mind that Yang's steps carried her through Beacon's courtyard, hands laced behind her head. She idly glanced towards the cafeteria as she walked along, not really hungry yet, but knowing she would be. She pondered it for a second more-

The doors to the cafeteria exploded open, a familiar head of blond hair stumbling through it. Even at this distance, she could tell Jaune was in a full-on panic.

And headed right for her.

Uh oh.

Yang's muscles tensed up, and as Jaune made to pass her, she reached for the boy's arm, gripping his bicep. Putting her weight on her toes and taking a step to the outside, she spun with the taller boy's momentum and stopped him. Her hands on both of his shoulders, Yang held him in place.

He was shaking?

A moment after her deduction, Jaune stopped shaking, and practically collapsed. Though her legs burned all the more for it, Yang crouched slightly to support his weight.

"Whoa now, you okay there?" She looked over her shoulder, seeing the cafeteria doors swing closed. If there was anything pursuing him, the doors remained closed. She pushed the boy up and steadied him.

He seemed so out of it, eyes staring dead ahead – mumbling on and on about green and turkey. She tried snapping her fingers in his face, shaking his shoulder. No response. There was only one thing Yang could do.

She punched him hard, right in the gut. Jaune crumpled around her bare fist before falling backwards to the ground, clutching his midsection with his mouth gaping like a fish.

A few seconds of silent, writhing pain later, he stopped moving.

"Ow..."

"You okay?" Yang knelt down next to him. That hadn't been too hard, right?

"So long as you didn't rupture something, yes..." Yang could see Jaune wince as he pushed himself up slightly. The girl offered him her hand.

Pulling the boy up, the blonde reached up and patted him down, dusting him off. She eyed the way sweat seemed to trail down his jaw, and had to ask...

"What happened to you?"

"Well..."


"So, you got a giant turkey from the cafeteria lady, a girl about this tall-" Yang held her hand parallel to the ground at bust level "-dragged you to a table, you traded parts of your meal with senior students, and then you were sexually assaulted by someone who gave you a muffin?"

"No, the girl who gave me a muffin and the girl who, uh..." That was cute. He didn't want to say it. "Touched me... They were different people."

"That..." Yang had to take a moment to breathe in. "You didn't just dream this after you fell asleep at the table or anything? Some kind of repressed sexual desires? You're a guy living in a dorm with two girls and one rather effeminate looking guy. I'm sure-"

"N-no! And Ren? Gods no!"

"He is kinda good looking."

"No!"

"I'll tell him you said he was ugly."

The way Jaune sputtered another refusal, Yang couldn't help but laugh. It was like having a male Ruby to tease, the reactions ten times more amusing. She even remembered the night before initiation, and how much of a good time that was.

As the duo walked down the hall of Beacon's main building, Jaune had explained things in such detail it was almost impossible it had been a dream, but she teased him over it regardless. It was too good an opportunity to pass up. Whether or not Jaune had embellished parts of the story a little, Yang wasn't about to doubt him either, even when he mentioned the... attention he got from the older girls.

She could see why someone might be attracted to him, not that she was. Taking it a step beyond flirting was a little farfetched, but not unbelievable at a place like Beacon. Especially not with their seniors.

As her dad had said, the longer someone spends at Beacon, the stranger they seem to get.

That wasn't all she learned after a rather embarrassing talk from her father about the so-called dangers of sticking a bunch of teenagers in coed dorms – hell, he'd even pointed out that he didn't even need to throw in the coed part. Not even the dorm part, really. She'd wondered what he meant, asked, and then really, really wished she hadn't.

The whole conversation – nay, lecture – Yang had her hands over her ears and eyes squeezed closed. She didn't want to hear from her dad what happened during his first year at Beacon, of all people! She shuddered as she tried to avoid thinking about it anymore, failing.

Distraction!

"So you ran?"

"What else was I supposed to do? Let her have her way with me?"

Yang shrugged her shoulders. "Maybe."

"Really?"

What was so unbelievable about that? "I don't know, was she cute?"

Yang racked her brain, trying to remember what she knew about Jaune. Did he have parents who didn't warn him about stuff like this? Yang was sure he'd have clued into something the moment the pre-initiation sleepover happened – she even figured that, at first, he came over to hang with them that night for just that reason, but he'd done nothing then.

Was this boy just that oblivious?

That had to be it. The kind of situation Jaune was just in would only be that panicking for someone who wasn't prepared, or if informed, shy. Jaune wasn't really the latter.

All Yang herself knew was what she'd have to do if there were any untoward advances on her or her sister...

"Well, yeah. I couldn't believe it was happening. I didn't know what to do. The girl's twin sister came along and stopped her, but I was so out of it I panicked and ran as she was apologizing."

Yang whistled. Twins? Hopeless. Utterly hopeless. But the blonde supposed he did the right thing.

Maybe? Who knows.

"That's when I ran into you."

"And boy were you ever out of it." Yang chuckled. What to taunt him with now? He was just so easy! "...Were you even really out of it? To me, it looked like you were headed right for me. What, blondes are more your type?"

"Well, n-"

Yang grabbed his arm, a large grin on her face. It was awkward, as she had to match his step, but she pulled his arm into her chest, and they both stopped.

"How did the bad girl touch you, Jaune?"

Jaune looked down to her with an eyebrow raised. Yang blinked. She squeezed her breasts around his forearm.

No explosive reaction. The boy's lips parted.

"Well, to answer your first question... not really?" The taller boy pursed his lips for a moment, humming. "So long as they have nice hair, I don't mind what color it is."

It... what? Yang looked down to where she had Jaune's arm securely between her bust, before looking back up to the boy's face. He wasn't even looking at her now!

"Though, that isn't to say that the hair would be all I care about. A girl could be bald, and I'd probably still like her."

"Uhuh..." Yang gave the boy's arm another squeeze.

"To answer your second question, she pressed right up against me, and wrapped her, well... chest around my arm-"

You mean just like this?

"-And she rubbed her hand up and down my thigh, before curving it inwards, between my legs." Jaune shuddered.

"R-really now?"

He had to be faking it, but Yang wasn't about to lose! The blonde girl reached down and put her palm right against the front of the boy's thigh. She snaked it inwards, until she was rubbing the inside of his thigh.

Wait, what the hell am I doing—

"Y-Yang?"

The blonde girl's blood froze in her veins. She immediately let go of Jaune, standing up as if her spine suddenly locked straight.

"Ruby!" Yang smiled. Please tell me she didn't see, please tell me she didn't see.

"Speaking of hair though, I really like yours Yang." Jaune continued, unaffected, as her sister strode towards them. "I can tell you take good care of it. Must take a lot of time too."

"Oh, no, it's... nothing." Yang managed to rattle off, Jaune's words not really registering as Ruby stopped before them.

Ruby's cape seemed to swirl as she put her arms up on Yang's shoulders, hopping on her toes. Her expression was tinted with something she imagined her own face was like when she was worried about Ruby. Sisterly concern, maybe?

Whatever it was, it didn't stop Yang's face from being beet-red. She'd been so caught up with teasing Jaune – and flustered at her own failing...

There's no way that wouldn't have some sort of effect on a sane man! No way!

"Did you rest well?" Ruby looked over her shoulder. "Hey Jaune!"

"Ruby. You're as lively as ever."

The younger sibling hummed affirmatively as she nodded, before she turned her bright eyes on Yang. She squinted as Yang stared back. She usually got that stare from Ruby when she wanted something.

What did she...

It clicked. Yang nodded reassuringly, giving Ruby her best thumbs-up and winning smile. "Yes! Yes, I slept well."

"Good!" Ruby exclaimed cheerfully, letting go of her shoulders and skipping backwards slightly. She leant forwards cutely and nodded again. "Weiss convinced Nora to let us have the day off from team duties, so I made sure the other two let you sleep in."

"Aww, thanks sis!" Yang reached out and put an arm around Ruby's shoulders, dragging the girl close to herself. As she did, she took a couple steps away from Jaune, bringing her diminutive sister along with her.

Once she was sure they were far enough away from the boy – even going so far as to looking over her shoulder, seeing his confused expression – Yang bent down to whisper.

"Okay, what did you see?" She asked.

"What do you mean, what did I see?" The picture-perfect innocent smile. Too perfect.

"Don't play dumb, sis..."

"You were clinging to Jaune? Yeah, dad said before we left for Beacon you might start to do stuff like that. He also said—"

"He said what?" Yang couldn't believe her ears.

"He said it was perfectly natural, and that if you ever wanted time alone, by yourself or with anyone else, to give it to you." Ruby seemed to hum in thought, stroking her chin. "I thought it was really weird when he started crying in frustration mid-explanation, though."

Yang stared ahead blankly as Ruby finished speaking. The blonde sighed, pinched the bridge of her nose, and shook her head. Dad had gone so far as to warn her of all the supposed dangers of dorm life at Beacon, while he'd told Ruby to let Yang essentially do what she needed to do? And without beating around the bush?

"Dad also said he doesn't want any grandchildren until you're at least twenty-four with a posting that doesn't involve fieldwork."

The blonde mashed her face into the palm of her hand in embarrassment.

"Okay, that's enough, thank you..." Yang sighed as if Ruby's words had just aged her at least that much.

"You sure? He had one last thing he said to me."

Yang's eye twitched, and a moment later she relented. "Okay, go ahead."

"He said that, if possible, he'd like to meet whoever you... ahem... sleep with. So he can put the... fear of god in them?" Ruby shrugged as she looked up to the ceiling. "I don't know, something like that."

Yang let out one more colossal sigh.

"That doesn't really make sense to me. Does that mean he wants to meet Nora and Weiss? Technically, that big sleepover before initiation, a lot of people slept with us."

"Ruby, I don't think that was what he meant."

"Oh?"

"Think about the connotations of literally everything else you just said."

It took Yang's sister a couple seconds to clue in, her silver eyes suddenly growing wider. "Oh..."

The blonde girl stood straight as she released Ruby from her grip, but not without ruffling her hair, much to Ruby's duo turned back to Jaune, and watched on as he re-tied his shoelaces. He stood, and his gaze alternated between the both of them as Yang stepped forwards.

"Sorry, I needed to have a talk with my sister about something." Yang mentioned, Ruby walking up beside her as she stopped in front of Jaune.

"Just sisterly things!" Ruby exclaimed.

"Nah, I get it." Jaune smiled, rubbing the back of his head.

Yang opened her mouth to carry the conversation forward but stopped herself as she felt a slight churning in her gut, stomach rumbling just slightly.

"Err... I haven't had anything to eat yet..." Yang admitted sheepishly. She winced as Jaune went pale as a ghost.

Ruby spoke up. "Me neither! Wanna eat with us, Jaune?"

"I already ate." The blond said in as level a tone Yang figured he could muster. "You two go enjoy yourselves."

Yang nodded slightly. She was still a little worried about the guy, but considering what happened when she'd been with him over the course of the past ten minutes or so...

And she'd been trying to avoid excitement today.

"Well..." Yang put on her best smile, and patted Jaune on the shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up about it, or anything. If you ever want to talk, come find me."

As Jaune nodded, Ruby looked between them, completely lost. Yang couldn't hold in her chuckle, patting her on the shoulder as well. "Come on, Rubes, let's go get some food."


Jaune watched the sisters go with a smile on a face and a light, content sigh. The two most certainly reminded him of his younger sisters – Yang especially. Sometimes, she even seemed a little... motherly? Perhaps that wasn't the best word for it. Maybe just more like a big sister.

Now, not a big sister like Velvet, but a big sister like... like...

No name came to the boy's mind, but he could picture a familiar figure. No one he knew personally, but from a movie or a show he watched when he was younger. It wasn't an actress or anything either – the series was animated. A cartoon, or something. The blond scratched his head, before he huffed, walking along. He could remember that much, but the rest eluded him.

He'd remember the name when he had no idea why he'd thought of it in the first place, he was sure.

Jaune hummed a few key notes to himself as he pushed his way outside, and then he took a stuttering step into the courtyard.

Dammit, now what was that song he just hummed? The boy squinted his eyes together tightly, rubbing at his forehead.

Now this was actually aggravating, as the same notes kept repeating in his head, on and on.

"What's wrong with me?"

As Jaune opened his eyes, he blinked, looking out across the courtyard. To his surprise, resting in the shadow of a tree, kicking her legs back and forth was Nora.

He remembered the conversation they had recently, and took one step. Then another. A few seconds later, his feet had carried the blond across the courtyard to where the leader of VLWR lay on her front. When his shadow stretched over a flower she seemed to be staring at intensely, the girl pushed herself up by her elbows, and looked up to him.

A pleased smile stretching across her face, her legs continued to kick back and forth. "Jaune!"

"Hey Nora." Jaune found the excitable way she said his name made Nora's smile all the more contagious. He'd been about to ask why she wasn't with her team, but he already knew where Ruby and Yang were headed. Unsure of what else to say, the blond leaned back as he crouched then fell to the grass, crossing his legs beneath him.

To his surprise, Nora didn't seem too eager to initiate conversation, resting her chin in her palms as she continued to stare at the flower. In the awkward silence that continued, the equally-awkward blond glanced from Nora's burning-orange hair to the flower, and back.

"Nature can be so pretty."

The blond nodded along slowly. Jaune could certainly agree with the girl, but to him, it really was just a flower – yellow, with small petals, and otherwise unassuming. "You think so?"

Nora hummed, now resting her chin atop crossed arms as she laid flat against the grass. "I do think so!" She held her hand out to Jaune, and then made a sweeping gesture towards herself.

Jaune just stared at her blankly, until she scoffed. What was that extravagant sweeping gesture supposed to convey to him?

"Come down here. You'll understand." It was like the girl read his mind, how perfectly timed her words had been. Jaune shrugged, then decided to indulge the girl.

The blond sidled up next to his fellow leader and lowered his chin to the dirt. He blinked before he drank in the view, letting out a slight gasp.

It looked like art. The flower was perfectly framed against the distant mountains, with a slight gap between the stem and one of the buildings in the middle ground. Beacon Tower even gave a rooftop a surreal, slightly green tint. Jaune wasn't an artist, nor someone who could really appreciate art – far from it. He barely knew how to use crayons, never mind analyze the deeper meaning behind something. But the view Nora had shown him was the perfect blend of nature and-

"Doesn't it look like the flower could totally fall on the library?" Nora whispered excitedly. "Like, if the flower was actually that big, it would crush the whole thing."

"Uhh... What?"

"Oh, come on, Jaune!" Nora rolled her eyes, before Jaune could meet hers again. "You can't tell me you've never squeezed your fingers together, pretending to crush someone's head?"

Jaune's mouth was agape, and the only thing he could think about aside from how absurd that sounded was how nice Nora's breath smelled.

That split-second realization reminded Jaune of how close the girl was.

"Yeah, no, I've never done that." Jaune turned away slightly, the tops of his ears a little warm. Of course, his mind chose to remind him of what he saw after his first fight in Goodwitch's class too.

"Really? Like-" Nora brought her hand in front of Jaune's face and put her fingers in a pinching position. "Squish?"

"No, never."

Nora simply giggled. Jaune coughed into his sleeve. Wasn't this the same girl who'd threatened to end his existence at some point? Or was he misremembering?

All this thinking was beginning to make his head hurt.

Jaune's head thudded softly against the grass, and he groaned.

Today really had to be some kind of messed up dream... The blond pinched his face and winced.

"You're doing it wrong." Nora chastised. "You don't pinch yourself."

Jaune turned to look into Nora's eyes, an eyebrow quirked and a dream disproven. "You don't say?"

Nora's face was barely an inch from his, grinning. Finally, his brain started to work properly again, remembering everything since earlier that morning with clarity: what happened at the cafeteria, his discussion with Yang. The details flowed fresh into his mind, as if all those events just happened. Emotions coursed through him without restraint.

Nora let out a long, droning hum. "...Okay!"

"O... okay?" Jaune let out a moment later, as if Nora's voice cleansed him of his tense feelings. The two of them were at a respectable distance again, Nora up on her knees.

"Did you want to have another leader talk, Jaune?" Nora asked, bouncing in her spot. "Talk about our teams?"

"Oh, sure."


Blake Belladonna liked reading.

That phrase alone wasn't much – just a sentence that described her in as few words as possible, if you would. Or rather, described her fondness for the feel of a book in her hands, a story just waiting for her to peruse.

Blake loved reading.

Less words, but more impact. Love was a much stronger word than like, though it didn't always apply in the same cases. As Blake sat, thinking about her predicament, she found herself thinking more on how to best describe it, eyes straying from the pages to roam over the two teens in front of her.

Blake loved reading – so much that even sitting here with her two teammates, she was still reading.

But, then again, they were in the library. If they didn't want her to read, they probably could have taken her anywhere else to hang out. Besides, it's not like they expected her to interact with them. Ren seemed to be pointing to a passage in a textbook, Pyrrha's green eyes following the digit.

There was raucous laughter from across the library, and Blake narrowed her eyes in that direction, before returning to her book, but it wasn't long until she was unable to follow the words on the page all that well. The black-haired girl nibbled on her lip slightly.

Right now, Blake could not read.

Her partner's face flashed in her mind. The blond hair, the toothy smile... And that look of misplaced disapproval. He thought she was racist?

Blake hadn't been able to correct Jaune's suspicion at the time, completely dumbfounded that she, Blake Belladonna, of all people hated the faunus. Why had that been the deduction he'd made initially?

Sure, when Jaune's sister Velvet had visited the dorm, Blake may have been a little bristly; though... and she hated to admit it to herself like this, she was always a little bristly. Did staring at Velvet's ears – and according to Jaune, continually glancing at them – really come across as something so... terrible? She could have been curious, or maybe just interested. But no, the boy had to jump straight to the racism angle.

Perhaps it was just Jaune being defensive of Velvet, but people like that were a problem all in their own – even if she'd have welcomed the support herself.

Blake tried to think about what it would be like if she wasn't wearing her ribbon, her ears were being stared at. Was it racist? No, not at all. Not in her eyes. Would it make her uncomfortable, if people were staring at them all the time?

Okay, maybe a little...

The girl rubbed at her eyes, leaning back in her chair as she closed the book. Blake supposed there was nothing wrong with Jaune looking out for his sister, but she was going to have to make some corrections. Speak to him about it.

In an attempt to alleviate her wandering mind, Blake's eyes focused in on the textbook spread between Ren and Pyrrha. At the angle she sat at, it was impossible to read upside-down with the book at more than an arms-length from her, but she could at least make out the diagrams; and, of course, eavesdrop on the duo.

Was it eavesdropping if it was an open study session she just hadn't really felt like paying attention to until now? Maybe not, but she felt she had a good enough grasp on Dust as is...

"So, the threshold for Dust to pass beyond shift point is... entirely dependent on its mass?"

"No, not just the mass." Ren answered with a wave of his hand. He pointed at one of the diagrams in the textbook. "It needs the-"

"Oh, I meant density!" Pyrrha spoke up, cutting Ren off before covering her mouth with her hand.

Blake watched on as Ren smiled to himself, then nodded. "Yes, the density."

The black-haired faunus, on the other hand, just looked at the upside-down diagrams, tilting her head.

Yeah, no, she was either really going to have to start paying attention when Ren and Pyrrha decided to study, or maybe even just crack open one of her textbooks herself, one day here. She hadn't understood a word they'd just said.

"What about you, Blake? You ready for our quiz?"

It was like someone poured a bucket of ice water on her head.

"Yes." She lied immediately.

Okay, never mind cracking open a textbook one day here, she needed to get on it, immediately. She had to hold in a sigh of relief when Ren just nodded and accepted her answer.

"Oh, Blake, have you heard from Jaune yet?" Pyrrha's emerald eyes blinked at her expectantly as she turned her head to meet them. Giving the redhead's question a moment of thought, Blake hummed before flicking her scroll out.

"No, nothing from Jaune. I guess the last we heard was Nora's message about being in the courtyard with him?" Blake glanced up to Ren as a follow-up to her inquiry, the male member of their team present nodding.

"And nothing from Nora since then." Ren pointed out. "About... a half an hour ago now."

"We should probably track him down, shouldn't we?" Pyrrha offered, Blake nodding slowly as the girl looked between her and Ren. "It's... weird without him here."

Blake felt like nodding again, this time to herself. She had to give Jaune that: he may have been trying too hard as a leader, in her eyes at least – but the one thing he ensured is that when he wasn't there, they knew he was missing. Or maybe it was because the three of them were together, and he was the only one missing.

Then again, there wasn't really a time Blake could remember in the past week where they had any other combination of three-to-one. It was a weird concept, but maybe they were growing closer as a team, in some way.

Either way, for now Jaune wasn't there.

"Update from Nora: Jaune isn't with her now. He didn't say where he was going."

... And now, where could he be?