"H-h-h-hi."

Ruby and her teammates gave Ahab a blank stare, watching him tremble like a leaf in a hurricane. Then the hooded girl broke into a huge smile.

"Ahab! You came this time!"

"Uuh, yeah..." He blushed and wrung his hands behind his back. "S-s-sorry for b-b-bailing." His voice squeaked out in a near whisper, fading away as he grew ever more conscious of the many eyes on him. Crud, he should have just come anyway beforehand. How could he have predicted that his lack of presence would attract more attention?

"Man, we were beginning to get worried," Yang chuckled as the rest of team ECQA filed into place around the table. "I thought you didn't want to hang out with us."

"Oh, it's not that..." he whimpered and took an empty seat in the corner. 'And now I gave them a bad impression of me! AAAGH!' he screamed internally.

Blake, clearly uninterested in his appearance, went straight back to her book. Ruby was beaming and going directly on the offensive, peppering him with probing questions she hadn't had the time to ask the last time they had met. "So what were you doing? Are you really bad with school? Like, worse than me? That's a relief... so what's your weapon?"

Oh Monty, she had seen him fight before. Did she not notice the weapon last time? And wait, she just mentally answered his question for him without even waiting for an answer! 'This girl... is a handful...'

He struggled to get a word in. "Ummm, I... w-w-well..." Dust, her speed was overpowering even in casual conversation. Was this an interrogation? He was already locked in place by the eyes of his teammates, so escape was not an option. His defense was nonexistent, so his only option was... an attack!

"Ijustneededsomespace," he rattled, breaking through her steadily quickening pace with his outburst. Ruby gave him a puzzled look, then laughed.

"Oh, of course! No problem, I understand. Sometimes I feel like Weiss is being too Weissy, so I pop in on the Weapon Dev department for fun. Yep, yep, space is a good thing!"

And so her rapid fire mono/dialogue continued. He cursed internally, as Weiss had all of a sudden been dragged into the fray.

"Hey, what do you mean by 'Weissy'?"

"Nothing, nothing. Oh hey, Ahab, we look really similar! Like, if you took off the scarf and maybe took down the hood..."

"N-n-n-no thanks!" He declined, flapping his hands uselessly in denial. "I-I need the hood at least!"

"Oh sure, no problem. Say, what do you think about cookies?"

"I... like them?"

"Me too! Well, not so much like as love. I love cookies!"

"Oh my Grimm, me too!" Cammo jumped up and high fived Ruby out of nowhere. 'Wait, what? When did you join?' This was getting a little too complicated for Ahab's antisocial brain to handle...

"I still don't understand what you mean by 'Weissy'," Weiss snapped, pulling lightly on Ruby's ear and pinching.

"Ow ow ow... There! Right there! That's Weissy!"

"Ruby, we should have a cookie party!"

"That's an AMAZING idea! Oh, but Ahab, maybe the hood thing can come off for the dance! Right, the dance!"

'Eh? What? Cookies? Weissy?' Ahab's train of thought, on its singular track, had difficulty following Ruby's more versatile mind. She jumped around quickly from subject to subject, then back to the original topic in a flash.

"That's right, Ahab. How about we help you pick out a dress?" Cammo's eyes were sparkling, and Eido's interest was suddenly piqued. His mouth curled into an impish grin.

"Ahab in a dress? That I'd like to see."

"Oh, haha, we get it," the green girl deadpanned.

"Shame on you," Quincy rumbled. "Ahab's sexuality is his to decide. Besides, crossdressing is a perverse habit."

"But he'd just look... weird in a suit. Like, all stiff shoulders. That's nothing like him."

"I'd prefer to n-n-not..."

"No, I think a suit could work. We just tighten the waistline rather than the chest and it could look just fine."

Yang chuckled. "He'd look like a little toy soldier."

"I agree with him on this one!" Ruby declared, getting behind Ahab and drawing a line between herself, the dress faction and the suit faction. "I don't think we should be forced to wear formal attire for this dance! You see, four score and many fights ago, I decided that my career at Beacon would be comfortable and fun! And dresses," she said, staring pointedly at Yang, "Are not fun!"

Ahab nodded frantically. "No dress, please!"

"Down with dresses!"

"Well, not so much of that..." He kind of wanted to see what Blake looked like in a dress...

Yang stood up and moved to join Eido and Cammo on the dress side of the table. "Formal wear is just another part of life! Y'know, like taxes and alcohol. It may or may not be fun, but you do it anyway! Except for taxes, because we don't do those. And alcohol, because it's always fun..."

"That reminds me, do you have any drink left?" Eido inquired.

"Shhh!" she hissed. "Beacon rules are really strict! If anyone finds out about that, I'm dead!" She glanced around quickly, then whispered, "I won't have any more until later tomorrow. I'm... going on a little expedition, so I'll bring some back then."

Team RWBY all looked at each other nervously. Exactly what 'expedition' entailed, Ahab didn't know.

"Sweet, can you share?"

"Depends... how much money do you carry on you?"

Eido turned to her, dead serious. "How much do you need?"

"It's not about what I need, it's about what I want."

"Two hundred Lien."

"DUST, that's a lot right off the bat! Aren't you supposed to start low and slowly negotiate?"

"Eh? Oh right. Two Lien."

"You're really pushing it..."

Ruby ignored their discussion, which was far beyond her field of interest. Drink? Money? No thank you, she preferred cookies and weapons of the massive variety. Instead, she spoke to Blake and Weiss.

"So what do you say, dress or no dress?"

"I'd prefer he keep his clothes on. Dress," Blake answered without hesitation.

"No, that's not what I meant! Dress or casual clothes, dress or casual..."

"Who cares? It's not like I'm going."

"Awwww..." Ruby's face fell. "But c'mon..."

"No means no, Ruby." Blake stood up and gave a curt goodbye to the group, then proceeded to check out her book.

...

"Well, I'm all for dressing up," said Weiss. "Looking good for formal events sort of comes naturally to me."

"Ah, I see," Cammo snickered. "So you're the showy type."

"Well, it's just the way I was brought up. I'm always on display for some dance or whatever. Honestly, it gets boring having everyone's eyes on me constantly..."

Cammo bit her thumb as she listened to Weiss rant on about being the center of attention. 'You bitch! Do you know how damn lucky you are?'

She did not verbalize this thought. That might get her the wrong kind of attention and ostracize her from the group.

"Yeah, yeah, so you say," Yang interjected. "But we all know our lovely princess just likes dressing up."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I only do the bare minimum of what is required of me and will not let you criticize me for that."

"You're a narcissist," Cammo translated.

"And you're one to talk. I'm a socialite, it's what I do." Weiss answered frankly, seeing nothing wrong with it. That was her way of life, so why was the shorter girl getting so aggressive?

"Alright, but dress or no dress?"

"Dress please. I am highly against public nudity."

"Like I said, that's not what it means~" Ruby whined. "Besides, we already used that joke!"

"Can we not talk about me being naked? Or in a d-d-d-dress for that matter?"

"Oh please, you know you want to try it..."

"I think he's had enough for now," Quincy said commandingly. The intention was clear: this conversation was over. All eyes turned to him as he smiled and gently emphasized the work in front of them, nudging them towards productivity.

The group was silent for a moment. Pencils scratched on paper. For a glorious three seconds, the students were students.

"So are Ren and Nora still not dating yet?"

"You always default back to that..."

"Oh, would you look at that."

"Har dee har har. We know you can't look at anything, so give it a rest."

Team ECQA was assembled in their room in their usual positions. While the attempts to find other things to do had been successful, they continually found themselves gravitating to the same spots: Cammo and Eido in the center, Quincy in the chair, Ahab on his bed. Today, Eido was fiddling around with his laptop as Cammo constructed a card castle. She was never going to beat the heir at poker, so she might as well put the damn things to use. Level four, and still no disturbances to threaten her creation.

"No, I'm totally serious. Apparently veteran-assisted missions are going to start right after the Beacon dance."

"Uuuuuuuu~" Upon hearing the heir's words, Ahab emitted a noise comparable to a dying seal.

Eido raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry, is there a problem?"

"What's all the focus on the dance about? I'd really prefer some less hype around here."

"Woah, I wasn't even talking about the dance," the heir defended himself. "I'm more interested in the missions."

"What's got your panties in a bunch?" Cammo asked, not daring to divert her attention from the card castle, now swaying gently upon reaching level five.

"It's just, the whole thing has so many... negative connotations! What do you think of when you talk about the dance?"

"Dancing, drinking, partying."

"Dancers, drunkards, party people."

"A night of enjoyable youthful activity, facilitated by low lights and loud music." Cammo, Eido and Quincy answered each in turn.

"No, besides that!"

"Dress or no dress?"

"NO! Like... ~~~~." Ahab croaked weakly, and his teammates all leaned in simultaneously to hear just what he had said under his breath.

"Say that again?"

"Like... love n' stuff..."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Three Hunters were stunned silent.

"Don't look at me like that! That's what everybody's thinking, right?"

Cammo returned her concentration to her card castle and began working on level six. "I'm pretty sure you're the only one thinking about that kind of stuff. Not everyone is wound up as tightly as you are."

"I'm not wound up, th-that's what happens!" Ahab shouted, blushing a deep crimson. His forcefulness almost toppled the card tower, and Cammo gave him a strong glare. "Like," he continued, lowering his voice in fear, "don't you think, 'Oh, look at all the couples going together. Maybe I should... bring a date?'"

"That's remarkably perceptive of you," Eido said, closing the screen of his laptop. "I didn't realize you could observe and recognize a couple when you saw one. Aren't you supposed to be totally incapable of understanding society?"

"There is not that much focus on romance during these events," said Quincy. "At least, not as much as you may think. There is nothing wrong with being a part of the single majority.

"Yeah, not every character needs a confirmed pairing," Cammo agreed, then cursed as the fourth wall of her tower trembled. "Don't you fall on me now, you little..."

"But don't you guys think about this stuff at all? I can't be the only one who kinda... sorta... maybe kinda wants a date..."

"Huh... well, I guess I can see where you're coming from..." Cammo mused. "If I could hook myself a really good looking guy, I'm sure it would attract some attention..."

"Your heart is obviously in the wrong place," Quincy rumbled. "Relationships for the sake of relationships never succeed. It is far wiser to wait until one has the wisdom and experience to consider marriage."

"And that is why you have no girlfriend, Quince."

"Because I choose not to?"

"...yeah..." Eido grimaced. That was a lot smoother than he had expected.

"Well, there's definitely other reasons..." Cammo snickered.

*POP*

Sand spilled onto the floor. Quincy reached for the dustpan, which he had on standby nowadays. In the resulting silence, the first one to falter was none other than Cammo's card castle, who trembled and fell apart pitifully.

"Anyways," Eido jumped in to change the subject. "If you're so worked up over the dance, why not do something else to distract yourself? There's something slightly interesting here..."

"Sure," Ahab groaned. "Anything to stop thinking about he- i mean the dance."

"Anything?"

"Somehow, I feel like that was a poor choice of words."

"Don't worry about it. More importantly, don't you want to kill Grimm mindlessly?"

Quincy looked up, then averted his eyes just as quickly. It would not serve him well to be seen as mindless.

"Killing Grimm is always fun," Cammo nodded sadly, mourning her fallen castle. "Why not?"

"I'm honestly worried about you two... but okay."

"Perfect," the heir cackled, grinning wide. "I'll make the necessary... preparations."

"Please tell me you know just how evil you look right now."

I'm fishing for a fight scene! To pass time until the dance, Eido's going to hook them an easy mission.

Cammo's tower almost survived the chapter. Almost.