The mall in Vale was a sprawling labyrinth of retail goodness. Four floors of just about any kind of store you could imagine, ranging from weapons to dust, to clothing, to everything in between. Ruby had been here more times than she could remember, usually gawking over the expensive weapons and gear she could never afford, or drooling over the decadent sweets of the 'Sugar Rush' candy store. But this time was different as she was following Coco Adel to one of the more expensive clothing stores in the entire mall, a shop simply known as 'Chic'. Ruby knew next to nothing about fancy dress and with a date with Weiss coming up, she knew she had to dress to impress and who better to help than Beacon's own heavily armed fashionista?

"Thanks for doing this…" Ruby said, trying to keep up with the much taller Coco. Ruby often wondered how Weiss could fight in high heels and she was absolutely mystified how Coco could fight Grimm in stiletto heel boots.

"No problem, kid," Coco said with a smirk. "I normally charge for this but consider this a one hundred percent team leader discount. Besides, I always thought you and the Schnee girl would make a cute couple." Ruby blushed, her reflection coming back to her off of Coco's mirrored shades.

"Well, we're not a couple yet…this is just a date…to um, see how things go." she stammered. Coco's smirk widened as she stopped to lower her designer sunglasses, her chocolate brown eyes holding a mischievous glint.

"I know three things in this world better than anyone else: fashion, killing Grimm and women loving women. Trust me, this is going to work out," she said, pushing her shades back up with an index finger. Coco resumed her gallant stroll towards the store, Ruby close on her heels. Upon entering, Ruby was awestruck by the racks of clothing she couldn't even afford to look at. There were blouses, dresses (with and without pockets), boots, belts, gloves, everything that would make a woman look fabulous. Ruby could see why Coco liked it here so much. A young ram Faunus stood behind the counter, her hair the color of peaches and her eyes greener than grass.

"Coco!" the young ram Faunus said. "Haven't seen you in a while." Coco finally pulled off her shades, letting them hang off her fluffy black scarf.

"Venus!" Coco replied with a smile, embracing the saleswoman with a hug and a quick peck on the cheek. "Sorry I haven't been here, busy at the Academy and such. But I'm actually not here for myself, I'm here for my friend, Ruby. She has a hot date tomorrow night and needs our help. Money is no expense, this is all going on the platinum Schneesa card. Mama got paid for doing a little freelance Huntress work, but what the Academy doesn't know won't hurt them."

"Say no more!" Venus said, before grabbing a bright yellow tape measure and trying to push down Ruby's combat skirt to get better measurements. "Hmmm…short, petite, small to medium size breasts…this should be easy," she muttered to herself. "I'm guessing red and black are your favorite colors?"

Ruby's mouth went dry and she stammered a bit. Venus had gone straight to work and took measurements of every inch and curve of Ruby's body. She wasn't used to being touched like that, but there was a cool, professional manner in the way Venus did it that at least made Ruby feel like she wasn't getting groped by Cardin or something terrible like that.

"Hey, she asked you a question," Coco said with a laugh. "You look like she's trying to sell you car insurance."

"Oh! Right, sorry!" Ruby said with a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, red and black have always been my favorite colors. Ever since I was a little girl, I just thought they looked really cool together." Venus nodded wordlessly, tapping her bottom lip with a perfectly manicured finger with a blood-red painted nail.

"I see…wait here," she said and disappeared into the back. The store was empty, outside of Coco and Ruby, so there was a bit of awkward silence between the two team leaders.

"So, uh…you're doing freelance hunting?" Ruby finally asked. Coco shrugged.

"A bit, here and there. Usually on weekends. I design most of my own clothes and all of that fabric gets expensive. Plus, Gianduja needs to be maintained." Ruby blinked in confusion.

"Gee-en-wha?"

"My big gun," Coco said flatly. "The one my purse transforms into."

"OH!" Ruby said with excitement. "I had no idea that's what it was called. I figured it had a name like 'Sweet Tooth' or 'Caffeine' or 'Dark Roast' or something. So, uh, I wanted to ask you - is it awkward to date a teammate. I mean, assuming you are dating one. Not to pry or anything….I'm rambling, aren't I?"

Coco laughed and wiped a tear from her eye, straightening her beret in the mirror when she was done.

"You mean me and Velvet? Yeah, we've been dating for a few weeks now. But to answer your question, not really. CFVY is still CFVY regardless if I was single or not and Velvet can hold her own. Trust me, Miss Passive Resistance can throw down with the best of us, she just chooses not to with inbred idiots like Cardin and his merry band of repressed homosexuality. But you're asking cause you're worried about how RWBY will be if you and Weiss hit it off?"

"More or less…" Ruby admitted. "I just don't know what Blake and Yang would think as I feel like there's…what's the word I want to say…tension? Yeah, the tension between them."

Coco's face became serious as she rested a reassuring hand on Ruby's shoulder.

"Listen, Ruby. You should never feel ashamed of who you are. If all of RWBY ends up in a relationship, who cares? Love is love. Besides, you wouldn't be the only one. JNPR would be following in your footsteps, but Jaune is so blind even Fox can call him out on it." Ruby giggled at this, feeling the stress melt slowly but surely.

"Thanks, Coco. You really do know a lot about this kinda stuff."

"Sorry to interrupt!" Venus said as she came back to the main room "but I found the perfect dress for Ruby." Hanging off a hager was the most gorgeous dress Ruby had ever seen. It was a short, red, sleeveless dress with a thick black sash around the waist and black trim along the bottom. The bodice of the dress was split vertically to the sash and laced with black lacing and the yoke of the dress was a translucent mesh with an opaque collar and hem, as well as opaque lines connecting the collar to the shoulders. In short, it was amazing.

"See, this is why you're the best," Coco mused. "because Little Red here is going to turn a lot of heads when she wears this."

"Would you like to try it on?" Venus asked, barely having enough time to answer before the dress vanished from her hands in a poof of rose petals, leaving behind an empty hanger and a very confused saleswoman. "I forgot that since she's a Huntress she has those superpowers things you all do," she said with a sarcastic chuckle.

Inside the dressing room, Ruby frantically fiddled with her belt and corset, trying to take off her combat skirt as quick as possible. She carried so many pouches for spare ammo clips and it was a pain to remove, but soon the dress and tights were off, followed by her combat boots, leaving her in just her black strawberry print bra and panties. She had just unzipped the back of the dress when there was a knock on her dressing room door.

"Hey Ruby, you decent? Can I come in?" asked Coco.

"Decent at what?" Ruby earnestly replied. Ruby could hear Coco's sigh from the other side of the door.

"I mean, are you too naked for me to come in?"

"Oh, right. Uh, well, I'm in my underwear but just us girls, right?" Ruby replied. Coco cracked open the door and snuck in, careful not to reveal anything to the outside world. Inside, she stopped dead in her tracks and sized Ruby up and down.

"I knew you liked strawberries, but really?" she said, a hint of disgust in her voice. But Ruby was defensive about her choice in underwear.

"They're cute and comfy and they were on sale! I bought seven identical pairs so I only have to do laundry once a week!" she snapped back.

"Okay, when this is done, I am taking you to Dunkelman's Secret and we are completely revamping your underwear. But speaking of which, here - put this on when I step out." Coco replied and tossed Ruby a small plastic shopping bag. Opening it up, Ruby's face turned as red as her dress seeing the matching thong.

"This?!" Ruby exclaimed hoarsely. "This…this is naughty girl underwear. I…I can't wear this!" she said, but Coco just rolled her eyes.

"I'm not buying this for Weiss to take off of you, though if that happens you have me to thank, I bought this so your panty line doesn't show. You don't want a bunch of creeps staring at your butt, do you?" she asked. Ruby's jaw opened and closed several times before it snapped shut.

"I guess, but doesn't it feel weird?" Ruby asked, but Coco just shrugged.

"At first, but once you get used to it, anything else feels like boring granny panties. Trust me, you'll thank me later." Coco said, before blowing Ruby a playful kiss and stepping out of the dressing room. Time passed and Ruby came out of the dressing room, her face glowing like a freshly cut chunk of fire dust.

"H-how do I look?" she asked. Coco just whistled.

"Damn, girl. Making it hard for me to be faithful to Velvet," she said. Venus gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up, partly because she legitimately liked the dress on Ruby and partly because of the price that Coco said she would pay. "But the outfit is missing something," Coco added, gesturing towards Ruby's bare-stocking feet. "You need shoes."

"Oh, that's easy, I was just going to wear my boots!" Ruby replied cheerfully, causing the color to drain from Coco's face.

"Combat boots?! With that dress? Are you insane?! No, no, we're going to get you a nice set of pumps. I'm thinking black." said the fashionista.

"Inflatable shoes?" Ruby squealed, "that sounds so cool!" Venus gave Coco a confused look, but Coco merely shook her head and shrugged. Both ignored Ruby's confusion as Coco made her way to the shoe rack, carefully investigating box upon box of fancy footwear before finding the perfect pair of black pumps.

"Here, try these on," Coco said, handing the box to Ruby. But Ruby's silver eyes went wide with fear as if she had just seen a Grimm eat someone whole.

"Oh no, no, Lady Stilts and I do not get along. Please, Coco! Just let me wear my boots, I'll be so much more comfortable!" she pleased, but Coco was not swayed.

"No, you asked for my advice and now I'm giving it to you. Try these on and take a few steps, trust me," she said. Ruby sighed with irritation and sat down on a nearby bench in the store and slid the pumps on her feet. Taking a few steps, she felt like a baby deer she had seen back in Patch, the newborn taking a few shaky steps as it tried to work out its feet. But she was no deer and every step made it feel like she was walking on a wobbly bridge made of marbles as if any moment she would do a face plant and embarrass herself in front of Coco and her fancy friend. "You're doing good, kid, keep at it!" Coco encouraged. Feeling braver, Ruby took a few more steps and getting a bit of self-confidence, she began to quicken her pace.

This was a huge mistake.

She felt her inertia take over as she saw the ground rapidly approaching and in a blind moment of panic, she tried to halt her trip downwards by grabbing on to a nearby mannequin but the dummy was not bolted to its display and it too fell with her. Ruby hit the ground with an OOMPH and the mannequin went flying across the room, smacking into the shoe rack and collapsing the shelving, sending boxes of expensive shoes spilling out onto the freshly carpeted floor. The entire store was in chaos and a small crowd had gathered from outside to witness the fashionable carnage.

"…and this is why we can't have nice things," Coco said with a heavy sigh, handing Venus her credit card.