Weiss sighed as she and Yang waited in their dorm.

Blake had said she and Ruby had something to tell them and Weiss could only guess at what it'd be. I'd be surprised if it was anything other than them going out. The two of them have been getting rather close as of late.

Weiss glanced at the clock. Couldn't they of picked a better time to figure out their feelings? She tapped her foot impatiently, we have exams next week and I should be studying.

"Sooooo" Yang drawled. "Thirty lien that Blakey and Rubes are dating now."

Weiss hmph'd. "No deal."

Focusing her attention on the door, Weiss continued to wait. I did promise I'd be the best teammate… I suppose studying can wait for a little bit.

Blake knew it had only been a matter of time.

Scenarios of it had played through head for months now; if she got injured in a mission and her teammates found out when they were treating her for some injury. Or someone would see her when she was in the shower. Any number of the seemingly hundred scenarios in her head could cause her teammates to find out.

As much as Blake kept secrets it wasn't because she liked to keep them. They were just necessary that's all. She hadn't even planned on keeping it a secret until she got teamed up with a certain heiress.

There had been one person that Blake wanted to tell from the onset; her own partner Yang. The fact that Yang still didn't know after a whole semester was… well… Blake was ashamed of herself for that. Over that semester the number of people grew from one to two as Blake had bonded with Ruby.

Through a series of less than… voluntary events led to Ruby finding out that Blake was a Faunus. Instead of the possible scorn or losing her friend or having Ruby's trust in Blake being dashed… it strengthened their fledging friendship.

Ruby called them cute too. The memory made Blake blush still at the small compliment Ruby had given her. Those handful of words meant a lot to Blake. The words that Ruby had spoken after that about not losing her trust were even more meaningful to Blake.

It wasn't only that, Ruby had promised to help Blake when the moment came. With it set that Blake was going to finally stop hiding her ears and Ruby was going to help her, Blake couldn't help but agonize over it a little bit – it was a big deal after all!

The original plan was for it to occur after the exams when everyone was done stressing for semester finals. That plan did not survive contact – Blake's mind kept returning to the when it would happen.

So why not do it sooner?

Which led Blake to where she was right now – standing outside of her team's dorm, Ruby next to her, giving the Faunus silent but visible support.

Might as well get this over with.

Blake opened the door; Weiss and Yang's attention was instantly on her as she slowly shuffled in followed closely by Ruby. A silence followed as Blake's preplanned speech started to blank on her. In the face of actually doing it all the preparation felt inadequate.

"Well?" Weiss' impatient voice cut through the silence.

"Give her a moment!" Ruby jumped in.

"Are you two dating yet?" the teasing tone of Yang entered the mix. Blake could feel Ruby sputtering for a response, so Blake responded; the black hair teen shook her head slowly.

"Okay, what's up Blakey?" The teasing tone was gone, concern replacing the usual light tone Yang spoke with. "Why are you so serious? You can tell us..."

Blake tried to open her mouth to speak but the words died in her throat. I just need to get this over with. Her hands' shakily rose to the top of her head before tugging on her bow.

Giving Weiss and Yang one last look, Blake closed her eyes as she willed herself to follow through. Slowly her hands pulled off the strip of fabric until her ears could feel the breezy and slightly chilled air of the room.

AU: WELL I WONDER WHAT NEXT CHAPTER IS GOING TO BE ABOUT? I have to say my thought was this was going to happen about ten chapters after the Hunted Arc... the assessment seems to be correct.

The moment you guys have all been waiting for, Yang and Weiss finally get to see that Blake does like tuna a lot for actual reasons.

I did actually deliver seeing as it is indeed Friday and I'm posting this right now. Next chapter, seeing as I leave you guys and girls on a cliffhanger, will be out sometime either Sunday or Monday? I'd like to get Acceptance out tomorrow, which leaves Sunday or Monday or possibly late as Tuesday as the final time slot for when I'd push out chapter 26.

Have a great Friday everyone! I'd say weekend but I may be posting a new chapter before the weekend is out!

IMPORTANT FINAL NOTE: RTX is August 7th, 8th and 9th. In honour of RTX I may release a chapter of Dilation each day of that in it's own special little arc. In fact I may break my rule and take longer then a hour to write each of those chapters because RTX. Would you, the readers/viewers, be interested in that?

TL;DR: Want me to post a chapter every day of RTX?