Blake's sleep lasted all of three hours.
A solid knock on the door to team RWBY's dorm ripped Blake right from whatever dream she'd been having, and she groaned at the wholly physical feeling of it sifting from her mind like sand from an hourglass. Amber eyes leveled a glare at the door, squinting when the knocking came again. Cursing the extensive training that made her a light sleeper, Blake rolled out of bed to answer the door.
"...Pyrrha?"
The redheaded warrior stood in the doorway decked out in her gym clothing, arms crossed and wearing an apologetic smile.
"Good morning Blake," she whispered, "Sorry to wake you. I'm here for Yang."
Head tilting in sleepy confusion, Blake simply nodded and stepped aside, watching curiously as Pyrrha made her way to Yang's bunk and shook her awake.
"Wh-wha?" The brawler tried and failed to blink the sleep from her eyes. Sitting up and rubbing them didn't help either. "Pyrrha?"
"Good morning, Yang," Pyrrha kept her voice low, mindful of the partnership still asleep on the other side of the room. "Ah, splendid, I see you are already in your gym clothes. Come with me."
Reluctantly, Yang dropped from her bunk, exchanging a brief smile and wave with Blake before squinting at the clock on the bookcase. "What... oh my god, Pyrrha what even, it's like four in the morning."
"The earlier we start, the earlier this will be over with," Pyrrha replied, gently pushing Yang towards the door.
"Wait what?" Yang dug her heels in, stopping right beside Blake. "What will be over with?"
"Today's detention." At the confused looks on her classmate's faces, Pyrrha clarified, "I spoke to professor Goodwitch for you yesterday. She's agreed to let me handle your detention, so from today forth, you'll be answering to me."
Exchanging a quick look of wonder with Blake, Yang grasped Pyrrha's hands, staring up at her in complete reverence. "I don't know whether to kiss you or cry."
Pyrrha's smile was sweet. "It would be best to make that decision once I'm through with you. Now let's go." Breaking Yang's grip as easily as tearing wet tissue, she spun the brawler around and pushed her right out the door, shutting it softly behind them.
Blake stared at the polished wood for a while, waiting for her sleep-deprived brain to catch up to whatever it was that had just happened. When it never did, she returned to her bed and curled back up beneath the covers, half-convinced she had just dreamed the whole thing.
Morning came far too bright and far, far too early for Weiss. Outside the sky was heavy and grey, not quite raining but definitely thinking about it. Cursing whatever internal clock had missed the message about extra sleep (her alarm wouldn't go off for another fifteen minutes), she scooted farther down under the covers and mentally calculated the absolute longest amount of time she could stay in bed and still be ready for classes.
Then again... she propped herself up on her elbows and looked across the room at Blake, still asleep on her bunk. Having a little extra free time might not be a terrible thing. Probably nothing would come of it, and it wasn't like she was going to get her hopes up over something as ridiculous as... as... well, they had kissed last night, and Blake had seemed to enjoy it. Right up until they toppled into the bath tub, anyway. Weiss rubbed sleep and leftover embarrassment from her eyes. But that was yesterday. This was today. She threw back the blankets and strode to the dresser to collect her clothes for the day.
Blake woke shortly thereafter, roused by the rattle of drawers and the rustle of clothing coming from across the room. She sat up, leaning forward in a full bodied stretch, but that was about as far as she got, falling back asleep on her own legs in the middle of reaching for her toes.
Weiss was dressed and in the middle of making her bed when Ruby sprang awake.
In a blur of rose petals, she was pumping her fist in the middle of the room, "Good morning, team!"
Weiss smacked her head on the underside of Ruby's bunk and started swatting the petals that tumbled onto her shoulders, "Could you please stop doing that?"
"Nope!" Ruby chirped, unfazed. Her grin vanished and she zipped to perch on the side of Blake's bunk so she could reach her sister's, "Hey, Yang? Yang?" a fruitless search under the blankets and pillows later, she hopped down, "Did Yang leave early?" Ruby looked from Weiss to Blake a couple times, grimacing and fiddling with her hands, "Is she still being kind of..."
"Actually, we worked things out last night," Weiss shouldered her book bag, feeling more than a little satisfied with how the evening had gone. "Maybe she went to the gym."
"So it wasn't a dream," Blake mumbled, finally sitting up and stretching her arms over her head. Sliding out of bed, she rifled through her drawers for a clean uniform. "Yang's fine," she tried to sound reassuring, "Pyrrha took her away somewhere."
"Yeah?" Ruby darted her eyes to the door, "I guess she'll probably be at breakfast then."
Weiss narrowed her eyes at Ruby- was she more fidgety than usual? Weiss knew she didn't have any tests till next week. Oh well. She leaned into the bathroom to make sure she'd gotten her hair and make-up into a satisfactory state the first time around and then pulled out her scroll to check her schedule and do a couple of searches while the others got ready.
Clean and dressed and ready for the day, the trio headed out, filing into the stream of students all heading to breakfast. Blake still wasn't quite all there, functioning on less than eight hours sleep was not something she was fond of, but she still managed to keep pace, walking alongside Weiss as Ruby led the way.
Roughly halfway to the cafeteria, motion and the surrounding student's energy finally woke her up enough to recall something she had been thinking about for a few days. "So, Weiss," she sidled up to her girlfriend, "I wanted to go to the bookstore sometime this week. Maybe today or tomorrow. Do you want to come along?"
The wind sighed through the trees along the walkway. If it rained, there weren't many places to head for shelter on the way to breakfast, but for once Weiss couldn't care less. She glanced up at Blake, her nervousness about being in a relationship lost in a new sort of light feeling, like she'd just aced an exam or completed the first run of a recital. It was a good feeling. Definitely good. "What time were you thinking of going?"
"After classes are over for the day," Blake answered with a smile. It would be a low key date. Something to help her get a feel for how they were going to act in public - almost like practice for the upcoming fair. The weekend could not come quickly enough.
A splash of bright blonde caught Blake's eye as they passed the large picture-windows on their way to the large double doors of the cafeteria. Sitting at their usual table was all of team JNPR plus Yang, but where the other team was talking and eating as usual, her partner was slumped forward onto the table and motionless. She and Pyrrha were both still in their gym clothes.
"That sounds great. I have a few things I need to pick up myself," Weiss said. Her brow furrowed when she belatedly realized that going to town would come with a not unexpected lack of privacy. And a lack of privacy pretty much obliterated the chances of any sort of continuation of the events of the previous night.
Well, anyway, there was no need to rush. It would be fine. She would still be spending time with Blake, after all, and the bookstore might carry a few more texts on... subjects of interest than the library did.
Ruby's voice cut into her thoughts as the three of them entered the cafeteria, "So, uh, you're going to be back before it gets too late, though, right, Blake?"
Blake nodded, waving to Pyrrha as they neared team JNPR. "Tukson's doesn't stay open that late so we should be back at a reasonable time."
Once they reached the group, Blake reached across the table over an untouched plate of pancakes to lay a hand on Yang's head. "How are you doing there, partner?"
The brawler didn't even twitch. "I never want to move again."
"She did wonderfully," Pyrrha added with a smile.
Despite the new pinky-swear bond she shared with Yang, Weiss took a measure of vindictive pleasure seeing her in such an exhausted state, "Well, Yang, at least you won't have any trouble sleeping."
"I wish I had thought of asking to be in charge of people's detentions," Nora traced hammer shapes on the table with the condensation off Jaune's glass of orange juice. She perked up, upsetting Ren's plate as she turned to him, "Do you think if I ask the professors they'll let me?"
"I don't think the infirmary could handle you being in charge of people's detentions," Ren answered, casually eating his upended scrambled eggs from the tabletop without complaint.
"You should come with us tomorrow morning," Pyrrha offered.
Yang whipped her head around to stare wide-eyed at her classmate turned slave-driver, knocking Blake's hand away in the process. So much for never moving again.
"Pyrrha. Why are you trying to kill me."
"Well," Pyrrha tried to look serious, but the corners of her mouth had curled up in pure mirth, "Actually, those were Goodwitch's exact instructions." Bright green eyes looked to Nora. "I think you'd be a great help."
"Yaaaaaaaaaaay!" Nora sprang up from the bench and did a victory dance. Jaune yelped and held onto his own plate of eggs, just in case.
As entertaining as that whole interaction was, Weiss had things to be doing. Namely eating breakfast.
She nudged Blake subtly with her shoulder as she slipped past her in the busy aisle between tables, "Are you coming?"
Blake's attention shifted away from Yang's sorrowful groaning in favor of Weiss and she nodded, all senses focusing on the smaller girl walking before her as she followed along with a slight smile stirred up from that unassuming nudge. There seemed to be a certain confidence to Weiss's gait - she seemed to be in a good mood, and Blake wondered at her powerful desire to keep it that way. Being a bit too tall to properly mimic the light shoulder nudge, the Faunus casually brushed her knuckles across the back of Weiss's hand upon catching up enough to walk beside her.
Weiss glanced up at her, all at once thrilled that she'd actually followed her (even though of course Blake would follow her) and at a complete loss of what to do or say next. Now that they'd spend an admittedly small fraction of an evening kissing in a not-quite-secluded bathroom, Weiss had started to appreciate how gorgeous Blake was all over again.
She was tall, and her hair... and the way they'd fit together when she put her arms around her neck... and... well. Weiss brought a fist to her mouth and cleared her throat, opting for some teamwork before her blush had time to catch up with her train of thought, "You get the food, I'll get the drinks?"
"Okay," Blake heard herself automatically respond. She was paying less attention to Weiss's words, and more to the lips speaking them. Lips she now knew from personal experience to be very soft and wonderfully insistent. Eventually, her eyes trailed up to catch Weiss's, finding them fixed on her.
She'd been staring again, and those beautiful blue eyes were staring right back, and she could look into those eyes all day probably but she really needed to learn to stop staring at Weiss and she was still staring right now.
Blake grabbed a tray, snapping her gaze over to the food. "So, yogurt, right?"
"From the bar is fine," as in she didn't have to make it. Honestly. How do people make yogurt? Weiss didn't actually care, so instead of thinking about she it plucked two mugs from a cart stacked high with them and crossed the open tile floor to the drink station to fix coffee for herself and tea for Blake.
Fortunately, there was only one choice of off-brand mystery tea in the basket of tea bags. Fortunately... or maybe unfortunately, depending on if this was left after the good ones had been picked out.
What kind of tea does Blake like anyway? She pressed the dispenser for hot water. Knowing Blake had a proclivity for fish didn't give her much clue when it came to flavors of tea. A small, snarl of worry twisted in the back of her mind. Should she know this already? How could she be dating and not know what Blake actually liked?
The mug overflowed.
"Ouch!" Weiss dropped the mug on the spill tray and shook scalding water from her hand.
"Are you all right?" Blake appeared without warning behind Weiss's shoulder, already holding a tray with two bowls of yogurt and a third bowl of assorted fruits.
If Weiss had had another mug in her hands she would have flung it halfway across the cafeteria.
"No! Yes. I'm fine. Don't sneak up on me like that," Weiss huffed, keeping her hands away from Blake in case there were burn marks. She refilled the mugs, "Do you have a favorite kind of tea? It can't be this."
"Chamomile," Blake answered without missing a beat, too busy eyeing the red streak running across Weiss's hand to bother playing coy. "Though, I've certainly had worse than Beacon's generic blend," she mused, thinking back to her earliest days with the White Fang. Part of her wondered if they'd actually just been drinking hot water with grass clippings.
Gently, she nudged the edge of her tray against Weiss's elbow, dropping her voice to a conspiratorial level. "I've got some burn ointment in my locker." It had been one of her first purchases upon discovering her partner's semblance involved fire.
"My aura is functioning perfectly-" Weiss paused mid snap and looked at Blake. That drop in tone. That... that... why was she poking her with a tray? It didn't matter. Weiss tugged the edge of her sleeve over the mark, cross and self-conscious while she stifled the thought of alone time with Blake, "... well. I suppose it couldn't hurt."
Anticipation shot through Blake like a livewire, but no one would expect her heart had gone into overdrive from the simple smile she wore. "Then, let's eat and head on over."
A/N: Whoa, was Weiss not totally oblivious just now? Also RIP Yang if Nora signs on to help with the detentions.
Shout out to Gorsouul for summing up the last stretch of events as an arc. Perfect word. That means this chapter is the start of a new arc! We have some pretty significant ups and downs coming... if you've read our other long stories. Well. You know how it goes.
Stay tuned, guys.
- Fiercesomest