Things were different, yet the same.

Sparks didn't fly, she wasn't swept off of her feet, the sun came up and they both went about their day as adulthood demanded. There were more questions than answers, and responsibilities always had to come first. It wasn't the right time to talk at length at night, because they didn't want to risk waking Ace up by accident. The morning was filled with morning showers, breakfast, chores, and taking care of Ace.

By afternoon, Ace had finally tuckered herself out for a nap, and they finally had a moment to themselves. Even then, they had things to do. Blake had bills to pay, and Ruby needed to make a run to the corner store. In the end of it all, there wasn't anything different about their lifestyle, not really. It just felt that way now. Blake could acknowledge the lingering touches, the glances to the side, the way Ruby hummed nonsense while she repaired her scythe for the countless time.

It wasn't a fairytale like the ones they seemed to drench themselves in both within the pages of books, and across the screen. They weren't damsels in distress, and there was absolutely no reason for either one of them to entirely give up their independency. It made perfect sense to just accept things as they came. To take things slow. That's why it was so surprising that even while covered in dust, Ruby was the first one to start voicing the lingering and unspoken questions.

"Um, so why now?" It was the first thing to come flying out of her mouth, gentle, but confused. "We've gone this long without saying anything, right? So why so suddenly last night?"

"Well, why not?" Blake said, but in truth, it was her own slip of the tongue that caused it.

"Because I know you better than that." Ruby said, though her voice wavered. "And you know me. I've never done anything…not like this."

Blake knew that was most definitely true. Ruby was fifteen when they met. She never had a boyfriend or a girlfriend in the entire time Blake had known her. Prior conversation and gossip explained that while the elder sibling dated a little bit before Beacon, Ruby hadn't been interested in that. "Does it scare you?"

Ruby just shrugged.

"You don't have to say if you don't want to." Blake backpedaled. "I've always wondered…never asked, because I never really wanted the answer before now but-"

"You don't scare me." Ruby said quietly. "No matter what, I don't think you could ever scare me."

"But, what about the situation?"

"I'm not really sure." The meticulous aggravation of loading dust into bullets was a needed distraction from her own mind. "But love can hurt people. It has the ability to make good people do bad things, and that does scare me." She hated all of the measuring, all the math, but that kind of calculation grounded her. "I've seen a lot of bad come out of something that's supposed to be so good…"

"Yeah, you're right. We have seen a lot of negativity. My past came with plenty of it." Blake murmured, not even trying to deny it. "You've seen a lot of good too, though."

"Totally." Ruby nodded. "It doesn't make me less scared though."

"I don't want you to be."

"I don't either, but I am." Silver eyes looked up from her work, hesitancy cracking through the otherwise soft blink that steadied her. "I don't want to screw up."

"We're both going to do something wrong by accident eventually. We may not want to, but it is going to happen." Blake broke the gaze first. If experience in life and romance combined told her anything, it was that failing sometimes was a promised guarantee. "We just have to be ready to deal with it the best we can when it does."

"Are you really okay with that?" Ruby asked shyly.

It was Blake's turn to waver. Her past track record in relationships was one big mess after another. It was absolutely nothing to be proud of, and even the most stable ones that didn't include extremist organizations had ended in disappointment. Her breakup with Sun Wukong was the easiest. Mutual and quiet. She'd had a short fling with Yang too, but it was experimental and they both knew it wasn't meant to last. Even those breakups were damaging to her in their own personal ways.

So was she okay with knowing she could possibly hurt Ruby? No, not in the slightest, but she couldn't let the past hold her back. "Not…exactly, but, let's just say, I'm prepared to make mistakes."

Ruby went back to loading bullets with dust. "At least you have experience. I don't have anything like that, I've never even kissed anyone before. I never really wanted to…" Ruby trailed off.

"That's true too, I suppose…but that doesn't put me off." Blake looked around, the kitchen was hardly the place. "Although, the only way to get experience is to actually do it." It wasn't in the least bit romantic. Especially now, with the table filled with an assortment of dusts and empty rounds. Then again, perfection was always going to be overrated. "Do you want to?"

Ruby very nearly dropped the vial of dust she was holding. "Um." Her cheeks reddened at the thought. It wasn't the offer she was expecting, and truth be told, she knew it was quite visible that her brain had entirely derailed for a second there. "Like right now, while I'm covered in a flammable stuff? Or, like later, when I'm not, and won't blow up the house?"

Blake let out a soft laugh at that, shaking her head. Ruby's expression alone was entirely worth the question. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'd rather not call Weiss and tell her we've ignited the kitchen."

The wall had to be guarded around the clock, perimeter checks took place every eight hours, but guard towers were also manned all day, every day. Scheduled work hours were long, thankfully mundane affairs. There was rarely anything but a lone Grimm or two that wandered just a little too close to the computerized sniper turrets. The high caliber dust rounds normally dispatched the Grimm, or at the very least chased it away from the boarder.

There were also trapped Grimm raised in captivity. These were used to train the younger, lesser experienced students at Signal academy. These Grimm were less wild, slightly tamer around people. They would never be safe to be around, no one could entirely domesticate a Grimm, but it was the next best thing. Weiss decided quickly she hated working with the captured Grimm, and much preferred standing ground along the wall.

Pyrrha also chose this task over the dreary insides, and so they often spent their shift together. "It's always so beautiful this time of day, just before the sun rises."

"Only if you happen to be a morning person." Weiss replied, leaning on the stone slab that made for a defensive railing. "Or someone who just stayed up all night."

"Like ourselves?" Pyrrha jested.

"One could say that."

"Two more hours until we're relieved of our post." Weiss fought back a yawn.

"The final stretch is always the worst." Pyrrha agreed as she squinted. "What's that?"

"I don't know." Weiss said, flipping down her night vision goggles only to see Velvet and Fox making their rounds down on the ground. As a Faunus, Velvet was most suited to nighttime patrols, and since Fox was blind, the time of day he worked didn't rightly matter. "Velvet and Fox coming back, by the looks of it."

"I really wish Coco would bring Jaune back soon. I don't like the idea that she's using him as bait to bring back more Grimm."

"It was Yang's idea, actually." Though that was likely less of a comfort for Pyrrha, it was the truth. "Yang won't let anything happen to him, and besides, he's a skilled hunter in his own right."

"That I don't deny." Pyrrha said with a soft smile. "He has gotten very powerful, and continues to grow stronger by the day. Honestly, I know that's why Yang suggested it. Jaune can withstand a great deal of damage, as can Yang, making them perfect targets for luring Grimm…" Her smile fell however, as she grew more serious and thoughtful. "I still feel as though the entire practice of capturing Grimm is revolting. Keeping them alive only to be slain later is a terrible practice."

"It isn't as if we have a choice. Everyone needs to start somewhere. I was fifteen the first time I killed a Grimm…if you could really call it that." Weiss said, not liking to recall the situation, but it was what made her a huntress. "When I first decided I wanted to be a huntress, my father captured a baby Ursa. Just a little cub really. No bigger than the size of a housecat. He forced me to kill it in cold blood. Strangely, it was easier than I thought it would be."

"I was fourteen, attending Sanctum." Pyrrha replied in kind. "Funny how as a student, I never thought twice about how those Grimm were acquired."

"You weren't the only one." Weiss said. "I never thought to ask where Port happened to get all of his Grimm…but you're not the youngest I've heard of. Ruby was eleven for her first kill. Yang was thirteen."

"Ren and Nora were eight." Pyrrha sighed at that. "When I even think about that, I know you're right. I understand why it needs to be done. I only wish circumstances were different, or at the very least that we weren't the ones trapping the Grimm."

"Many noble practices are usually the most unsavory when you really take the time to look at them."

"And you would consider being a huntress one such thing?"

"Being a huntress, is a personal choice." Weiss said. "But choosing to teach huntsmen in general, man or woman, that's questionable. Taking children, and teaching them how to slay a Grimm. Furthermore, doing that knowing just what kind of danger you plan to put them in…" It was yet another moral grey area to say the least. "I would say that's more unsavory than the capture of Grimm itself, wouldn't you?"

"We were those children once, you know. To me, it didn't seem as cruel as what you just described."

"But now that I've described it that way, it's hard not to scrutinize it. Correct?" Weiss gave her something of a look. "If you could go back and get a degree in something else, would you?"

For a while, Pyrrha silently wondered that. "No." It wasn't the first time she considered such a question. "The system maybe flawed, and yes, it is questionable. We are right to think critically about what can be done better….what should be. In spite of the flaws though, I do not regret it." Her answer was always the same. "There is nothing I would rather be."

Weiss nodded. "Exactly."

Let it not be said that Ruby Rose was a coward. She was many things, but a coward wasn't one of them. In fact, it was Ruby's bravery that stuck out the most in her youth, when her shy personality often worked against her. Blake recalled her first impression of the girl, which, at the time was exactly what Ruby was. A girl who was far too young to be attending Beacon, and far too naive for her own good. A child, Blake had called her, and Ruby had looked the part.

All of those assumptions shattered the moment that selfsame fifteen year old fearlessly beheaded a Nevermore. No child would have been able to do that. A particularly young huntress in training, yes. A child, no. Blake had always considered herself a particularly good judge of character, but in that bone chilling moment, she had been proven terrifyingly wrong.

And, unfortunately for Blake's self-sense of pride, she was wrong about all of her teammates. Ruby was not just a naive little girl. Weiss was not just a pampered, bratty heiress. Yang was not just laughter and smiles, blind of judgement, and of hardship…no. Blake had been so entirely and completely wrong.

So, she shouldn't have been surprised to be proven wrong again as Ruby straddled her lap. An action that was both alarming, and yet so very welcome. It was late, Ace was asleep in Yang's bed, surrounded by pillows and Blankets to keep her safe and warm.

"I don't have dust on me anymore." Ruby said quietly.

"No, you don't." Blake said, inhaling the lingering scents of soap, shampoo, and body butter. All of it from the same line, a very gentle and soothing floral scent that wouldn't disturb the delicate nose of the Faunus using it. Her throat suddenly very dry as she realized Ruby had used her products. "Ruby, did you…" Blake nipped on her own tongue. That was a stupid question, of course she did.

"Ace sneezes whenever I use my stuff." Ruby replied. "You've never complained, but somehow I get the feeling that my body wash and shampoo are too harsh for you two."

That…well…that wasn't entirely wrong. It was overpowering and detracted from Ruby's natural scent. Blake pushed the inherent eroticism of the act away, Ruby had no idea just how intoxicating such an admission was to the primal corner of her brain. "Mm." The distracted reply was all she could offer at that moment, as the obvious fact of the matter smacked her rationality askew again.

Ruby Rose was sitting in her lap, facing her, and the intention was quite clear. She wanted attention and no book was going to get in the way of that. In case it hadn't been crystal clear though, the obvious invitation that followed left no question. "Ace is asleep, so no interruptions."

"For a short while." Blake agreed, her book all but forgotten. "Um, Ruby…this is all just a bit forward, don't you think?"

"I've sat on your lap before." Ruby said with a shrug.

"Well, yes, but…erm." Schooling her frazzled brain back into some clobbered and congealed form of propriety was not an easy thing to do. Not when faced with the object of her affection so close, and yet so far away. 'Head out of the gutter, Belladonna! This is not that sort of invitation!' She mentally berated herself, even as the palms of her hands fell onto unusually smooth bare legs. It took every ounce of effort not to follow that path northward just to see if Ruby was equally as smooth and enticing above the knee too. Slamming her eyes shut, she settled for brutal honesty. "Ruby, I'm going to start getting ideas…"

"Oh, you were reading one of the books from the top shelf again, weren't you?"

"Yes." Blake deadpanned awkwardly.

"Was it a good part that I interrupted?"

Blake cracked her eye open. Met with that same shy disposition that she had come to know from her friend turned…well…was lover even the right word? Probably not, not just yet, but it was entirely adorable all the same. "Very. Here, this is what I was reading."

Blake showed Ruby the page in question. There was no use hiding it, Ruby was well aware of Blake's unquestionable libido. It existed as part and parcel of who she was as a person. She wasn't as lewd and crass as Yang when asked about the subject, but she wasn't ashamed of herself. Just like Yang, Blake was known to put her articles of clothing on door handles too...keeping people out during particularly private moments of relaxation.

This wasn't one of those times, but if she had gotten far enough into her reading, it could have been.

"Steamy…" Ruby murmured having scanned the page.

"I know you weren't insinuating anything such as what goes on in that book, but, regardless…" Blake trailed off. "I don't know quite what it is that you are insinuating and I don't…" She blushed as she looked away. "I don't want to push too far."

"It's just what we talked about before...I was thinking about it…" Ruby said slowly, closing the distance, pulling Blake into a hug that pressed their bodies impossibly close as she rested her forehead on Blake's shoulder. "I'm always going to be a little nervous. If I don't start somewhere, then we're going to end up not starting at all, and I know for sure I don't want to go back to the way things were before."

Blake pulled away slightly, seeing the hopefulness at war with the worry. Childlike innocence muddied by delusions of a woman's desires. "Then, may I kiss you?" Blake asked, watching Ruby nod ever so slightly under the careful study of golden eyes.

It was soft, tender, nothing deep or heavy. Merely a press of lips, a wisps of escaped breath that promised more. Easy to back away from, and meet eye-to-eye once more. Then Blake wordlessly posed question, Ruby answered by another nod. The second kiss was not so gentle, and the obsidian haired woman was no longer the statue she forced herself to be. Her hands lifted, cupping a blushing cheek with her left, and running through tresses of brown and red with her right.

There was nothing innocent or childlike about this kiss, an outpouring of emotion. Her teeth nipped carefully along Ruby's pouty lower lip, not enough to hurt, but enough to warn her that they were there. A soft rumble, not quite a purr, not exactly a growl, punctuated her sentiment, as those teeth dragged away.

The tip of her tongue dancing along the edge as she pulled away once more. Another examination, another question posed to the shivering Ruby Rose. "Are you okay?"

"Ace isn't the only one who has sharp teeth." Ruby laughed slightly, still entirely out of her element. Even so, she didn't mind the outcome.

"Mm." Blake nodded, she had sharp eye-teeth too. Powerful enough to bite through flesh without much effort. "All carnivore Faunus do. Was that too much? Do they scare you?"

Ruby seemed to think on it, but shook her head, her voice ever so quiet. "No…it's not too much. It's just…" She tried looking for words she couldn't seem to find as she tucked herself into Blake. She sighed contently at the feel of that, the rightness of it all. "Can we just stay like this tonight? I don't want to be anyplace else."

Blake grabbed the crumpled up blanket from the edge of the bed and flung it over the both of them. It was her only answer before turning off the bedside lamp. Then she picked up a different book from the nightstand, whispering the beloved tale of the four maidens into Ruby's ear.