The sun set earlier and earlier these days, and Weiss took advantage of the fact to justify returning to the room to lie face down on her mattress for an extended period of time. That was the plan anyway, after finally getting out of the Rose Xiao Long dual hug, thanking Pyrrha for helping that afternoon, and being made to eat the random energy bar Jaune had brought back with the paper towels. It hadn't been the best, but oatmeal raisin was a pretty consistently mediocre flavor. Never terrible. Never amazing. And she did feel considerably better afterwards, if a little embarrassed about the way she'd broken down in the middle of the gym.

Now she breathed the smell of laundry detergent that lingered on her pillowcase, her arms folded loosely up by her head. So far, so good on this very promising way to spend the rest of the late afternoon.

With Ruby and Yang showing off their entire video game collection (of three games) to the rest of JNPR, the late afternoon in the dorm ended up being blissfully quiet for the most part.

Only after a long while did a small sound break the silence - the soft click of the dorm's door opening, and the equally soft click of it closing.

Blake leaned back against the door for a minute or two, trying to get her thoughts in order while also quietly taking in the sight of Weiss crashed out on her bunk. Before too long the warmth and longing welling up in her chest became too much to bear, and she crossed the room at once, hesitating for a moment at the bed's edge. She kneeled down, trying to see whether Weiss was awake.

With her head cradled in her arms, her face was only partly visible, but her eyes were closed and her expression was relaxed. Peaceful, even. Definitely asleep.

Weiss always looked smaller when she slept, especially when she slept in a cotton shirt with no flares at the collar or sleeves. Her breathing was soft and even; her fingers curled in a light grip on the maroon colored bedcovers. If she kept it up, she might miss dinner.

After seeing what Weiss had eaten at lunch, Blake wasn't about to let that happen... but she hesitated still, her eyes tracing Weiss's peaceful features. As she did, a thousand scattered thoughts coalesced into one single feeling - she was lucky. Lucky to have met Weiss, lucky that Weiss was nothing like she'd expected, lucky that Weiss shared her feelings... and lucky that Adam hadn't ruined everything.

A sharp wave of anxiety washed over Blake, forcing her to stand and turn away.

It had taken everything to escape him the first time.

Men like him... They just keep coming back.

Professor Peach's words ran like ice though Blake's blood, because she knew it was true. Adam did have a rash streak, but he was chillingly competent at playing the long game. Even if Beacon's security kept him at bay for now... what about after that? What would hold him back once she graduated? Once she was out in the world, unguarded, taking on missions that would be considered dangerous even without the added threat of a stalker? ...What would he do to Weiss?

With baggage like that, you're a danger to everyone around you.

Unless… you become the hunter.

It was a suggestion she would never have considered before Beacon, before her classmates, before Ruby and Yang and Weiss. As Blake's gaze returned to her sleeping girlfriend, the anxiety creeping through her veins seemed to catch fire, her fears overshadowed by sheer protective aggression. She refused to let Adam destroy everything she had worked so hard for.

Maybe it was just the lingering effects of the catnip, but Blake was struck with the immediate desire to be as close to Weiss as possible, prompting her to quietly kick off her shoes.

Thankfully, since her visit with Professor Peach ended up being purely conversation, she wasn't covered in any strange forest remnants, so Blake felt clean enough to ever so carefully crawl onto the bed and stretch out beside her girlfriend. She watched Weiss's face intently as she took hold of her hand and gave it a light squeeze.

The warm touch pulled Weiss from the depths of sleep. She blinked half-awake, and seeing Blake (as opposed to someone unwelcome) she took a deep breath and shifted partway to her elbows to better arch her back in a sleepy stretch.

"Hey," she said softly, resting her head back down on the covers in a way that unintentionally put Blake's hand in contact with her hair.

The small cascade of white suddenly filling her vision had Blake instinctively reaching out to push the errant strands out of Weiss's face. "...Hi." Staring into those ice blue eyes left her heart feeling like it was about to burst, and now that Weiss was mostly awake and aware and less inclined to lash out in sleepy surprise, Blake could safely do something about it. Slipping both arms around Weiss, Blake pulled her tight to her chest, pressing her face to the top of Weiss's head. It didn't matter if it was Torchwick, or Adam, or Weiss's father himself - no one was getting to Weiss without going through her first.

Weiss whined, grumbling even as she shifted so she could get an arm around Blake's neck, "Everyone's so huggy today."

She was certain that 'huggy' wasn't a word, but it got the point across.

Blake hummed, relishing the feeling of all the warmth Weiss had built up during her nap seeping into her. She pulled back just enough to offer a knowing smirk. "Let me guess. Yang?"

"And Ruby," Weiss was about to duck back into Blake's embrace when instead she started up onto one elbow, her gaze going sharp and alert, "Wait. You're back from training. Was Professor Peach...?"

Blake's eyes and ears tracked Weiss. She nodded. "At first. Then she changed back so that she could have an easier time talking."

"How?" Weiss started to ask, but she noticed Blake's ears, still uncovered, and the way they were laying down together on her bunk, and suddenly all she could think about were memories of last night. She and Blake hadn't been alone since then. I love you. Weiss went suddenly red and brought her fist to cover her mouth as she cleared her throat, "That is. Was she... training went well?"

"If you could call it that," Blake smiled, one of her ears half-flattening, "It was more like... a long conversation."

"... about her turning into a Beowolf?" Weiss hazarded while furiously attempting to work out what she should do. Should she kiss Blake? That was a thing they'd been doing almost all along, but maybe it was different now that they'd talked. Was it different? It felt different, sort of. At least she had a name for the feeling that had her gripping the covers to keep from just going with plan A and kissing Blake. Had she really gotten everything across that she needed to? She'd told Blake that she loved her, but she hadn't been very specific about the details. Come to think of it, Blake hadn't been either. She tightened her fists, trying to look casual otherwise while she figured this out.

"Among other things..." Blake arched a brow at the way Weiss was white-knuckling the sheets. "Becoming a Grimm - it's her semblance. I wasn't in any danger," Blake gave her a reassuring squeeze.

Weiss switched her deathgrip on the bedcovers to an around-the-neck hug on Blake, speaking into the collar of her shirt, "That's still moderately concerning."

Only moderately, though. As a professor at Beacon, she had to have been thoroughly vetted. Plus while taking on the form of a Grimm was a rather horrifying manifestation of one's soul, it wasn't that far of a step from summoning them to your own aid. (Well. Maybe it was a couple of steps.) Not that it mattered to her personally, considering she couldn't summon at all. Even if she could, she didn't have an old foe that could give her relationship tips, which is what she really needed right now.

"Now who's the huggy one?" Blake teased, pulling Weiss close and pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I think she's on the level though," Blake stared off at the beams of light streaking across the opposite wall, "It sounds like she was under a lot of stress when she first discovered her semblance. I can relate."

Okay. This was okay. Weiss hadn't had any luck figuring out what to do herself, but a conversation of a personal nature fit the bill. She managed to relax a little, let the accusation of being huggy slide, and asked, "What happened?"

Blake went quiet for a moment, idly running one of her hands through Weiss's hair.

When people call you a monster enough times… even you start to believe it.

Even though Professor Peach had willingly told her everything, Blake was pretty sure retelling it to someone else would be considered poor manners.

"...I used to take part in protests when I was little." Blake spoke before the silence could get awkward. Weiss was probably asking about her own semblance anyway, and since she'd just recounted this same story to her professor, it was fresh in her mind.

"I always felt safer being in a big group like that... I think we all did. People would listen, or talk with us, maybe get mad and shout at us. But, there was one time…" Blake hesitated. Was she really going to tell this to Weiss? Peach had seemed impressed, deeming her a survivor… but Weiss… Hoping she wasn't about to brand herself a coward, Blake pressed on. "I guess someone really didn't like what we were saying that day. They released a pack of hunting dogs into the crowd."

It seemed twisted to smile about it now, but it was either that or acknowledge the lingering terror permanently tied to the memory. "I bet I could have given Ruby a run for her money, I ran so fast... but one of the dogs must have caught my scent. It chased me clear into downtown and I was so sure it was going to catch me - I panicked and threw myself into an alleyway to hide, and when I looked back..." Blake could still remember the phantom sensation of teeth sinking into her throat as she watched the dog dutifully rip her clone to shreds. "My very first shadow clone got eaten by a dog so that I could bolt up a fire escape to safety. What a brief but noble life she lived."

"That's terrible! Who would do that?" Weiss pulled back, her brow creased as she looked Blake up and down as if she might notice some scar or mark from the event, which, naturally, she wouldn't if the clone had been enough to distract her pursuer. Seeing nothing, she settled back down, "I suppose that's why you're not a big fan of dogs in general."

Weiss's righteous fury on her behalf was an enormous relief and a surprisingly soothing salve for having to relive such unpleasant memories twice in one day, and Blake offered her a thankful smile for it. "Not when kittens are an option."

"Those kittens were adorable," Weiss tucked her head back under Blake's chin, arms still loosely twined around her neck.

Blake nuzzled Weiss's hair, her curiosity growing by the second. Semblances were an intensely personal subject... but Weiss had already asked her... surely it would be acceptable to ask as well? "So... what about you? Your semblance, I mean."

Weiss was glad her face was hidden, because even though she'd decided to go with this conversation, it was pretty personal. Trying not to feel self-conscious, she drew back so she wasn't talking into Blake's collar.

"Mine wasn't a surprise. I was just copying Winter during her training when I called my first glyph." It had felt exciting, even if it happened in a training hall the same way Winter's had, the same way who knew how many Schnees' had before them. That sharp ring in the air, the cold thrill down her spine, the confused way it had fallen to pieces like Winter's wouldn't. What she'd said didn't seem to quite be enough in return for Blake's harrowing story, so she continued, "Our family's semblance is hereditary, so we know to look for."

"Hereditary?" Blake's ears perked. All of the White Fang's intel on the Schnee family had suggested as much, but with every book she'd read on the subject bemoaning the lack of confirmed cases of true hereditary semblances, she'd never personally put much stock in the idea. Thinking back to Winter's visit though... the telltale ring that heralded her two glyphs did sound eerily similar to Weiss's, but she hadn't gotten a good look at the patterns on either of them before being cold-clocked. Blake grimaced at the memory, but shook it off. "As in... identical?"

"In every respect that counts," Weiss shifted in Blake's embrace, painfully aware that that would only be true if she successfully managed to summon anything. "Apparently it's hard to believe. We have a set of training texts back at the manor that have been in the family for generations, though, and they've always been accurate as far as I can tell."

"A complete guide to your own semblance," Blake wondered aloud. "That sounds incredibly useful... and stressful."

Weiss gave a wry, half laugh against her collar, pulling back again and brushing her bangs out of her face. "There's nothing quite like having everything you should be capable of laid out in print for anyone in the family to peruse at their leisure."

"Well, that book's not here," Blake flashed Weiss a devious smile, "so now there are no rules. You can do whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" Blake's grin was just irresistible. Weiss took the invitation to relinquish the touchy subject and let a smile tug at the edge of her mouth. She was tired, but less so after her brief nap. And with Blake here, she just... well, she loved her. Obviously. It was still new, and the feeling still made her chest sort of seize up a little, but that was alright.

Before she could decide whether to try teasing Blake about what she might want, her stomach growled a long, complaining growl.

Weiss grimaced a little, recalling that she was running on yogurt and a single granola bar. "How about dinner?"

"A big dinner," Blake agreed, nuzzling Weiss's cheek. "And you can tell me all about how your training went."

"There's not that much to tell," Weiss flushed and nuzzled back a little before pushing herself up and over to the edge of the bed, "I unfortunately spent a lot of it on the floor."

She reached for the bookcase where she'd left her hair ornament when she'd come in to lie down, but her fingers just found bare shelf. Had she set it on her desk?

"Now I definitely want to hear about it," Blake teased, pushing herself up off the bed as well. She arched a brow at Weiss. "Missing something?"

"My hair piece," Weiss sat up from checking under the bed in case it had fallen. Her brow was furrowed, "I set it on the bookcase when I came in earlier."

She always set it on the bookcase, on the second shelf down in case Ruby fell out of bed or decided to use the top shelf as a springboard. (That was also the reason she never set it on top of her dresser, which was technically a more convenient place.) She moved to check her desk anyway- she had been tired. Working on a new technique might have caused her to break other routines as well.

Blake's brows furrowed as well. She couldn't remember if she'd seen it when she came in... she'd been so focused on Weiss herself. "Maybe I knocked it behind..." She tried to peer down into the slim crevice between the bookcase and the wall.

"You would have noticed," Weiss stood back, arms crossed as she surveyed her desk. The missing ornament wasn't there.

It wasn't anywhere. Not anywhere in the room, anyway.

"Ruby must have borrowed it for something," Weiss grumbled half-heartedly. True, her combat partner had 'borrowed' a lot of her things over the semester. Binders, notebooks, writing utensils. Typically nothing quite as personal as her hairpiece. She gripped the back of her desk chair, considering alternate possibilities.

Blake watched Weiss for a moment, made a brief stealth detour to her own drawers, then crossed the room to stand beside her. She nudged her shoulder with her own, offering one of her black silk ribbons.

Weiss looked up from her desk at the ribbon and turned to Blake, feigning suspicion as a new and entirely plausible alternative struck her. "Did you hide it?"

Blake blinked, then matched Weiss's feigned suspicion. "Weiss, are you insinuating that I hid your hair piece so that I could conveniently offer to tie your hair back with one of my own ribbons?" Her smirk returned before long. "Because that's a great idea. I'll have to hide it myself next time," she glanced around the room one more time.

Weiss stood, halfway between playfully accusing Blake some more and letting it drop. Most likely it was Ruby. She borrowed things without asking all the time... and their professors hadn't said anything about Neo. If there was a problem, they would say something, right? In the meantime, there was no use in being scared of shadows.

"Well, even if that sounds exactly like what someone who hid my things would say..." she looped the ribbon around the base of her side tail. Ribbons never worked to actually hold her hair in place, but as decorations they did a passable job. "I'm starving. Let's go to dinner."

Blake's expression warmed at the sight of her ribbon in Weiss's hair. They looked better on her. "You read my mind."


Sunday night was always spaghetti at the cafeteria, and students often opted to go down to Vale instead of remaining on campus all evening, which made for an uncrowded eating experience. That prospect suited Weiss just fine. It had been a long day, even though technically she had slept in and napped. Training with Yang and Pyrrha would tax anyone's endurance. And now here Weiss was, ready for dinner, wearing Blake's ribbon in her hair.

Blake, who she walked with to the cafeteria, chatting and making playful accusations about her hair ornament.

Blake, who she loved.

It was still so new. The thought was, anyway. As they made their way to the end of the line for food, Weiss resisted the somewhat idiotic urge to hold hands. Honestly, wearing her ribbon was already possibly overdoing things in the realm of public displays of affection. Instead, she cast an impatient look at the unusually long line. "Is the line seriously this long for spaghetti?"

"Longer than one of Port's lectures," Blake lamented, the ease of being near Weiss keeping the stress of a semi-full cafeteria at bay. That is, until the hairs on the back of her neck prickled. That feeling of being watched... She gave the surrounding area a quick scan, stopping short at the sight of Cardin staring her down from a few tables away.

He leaned slightly towards his teammates without breaking eye contact, commenting just loud enough that she could hear it, "Check it out. Beauty and the beast."

Blake silently watched the table of snickering boys, a small pang of embarrassment sending an unbidden flush creeping up her neck. Her last couple of visits to the cafeteria had been rolls of the dice as well... and of course it would have been too much to hope that somehow she would miraculously avoid seeing team CRDL for the rest of her tenure at Beacon... but it was just so irritating that something so juvenile still got to her.

Flashing Cardin her darkest scowl, Blake looked away, angling her entire body so that her back was to their table. Maybe if she ignored them enough they would go away.

The hustle and bustle of the cafeteria continued. Someone at the front of the line couldn't decide whether they wanted meatballs or not. Weiss checked her scroll. This was ridiculous. Holding the cafeteria line up for more than thirty full seconds should be a punishable crime.

She sensed rather than saw Blake go tense, and she glanced up, frowning at the dark look on her face, "What's wrong?"

Blake blinked, pulled from her downward spiral by the simple question. She took a deep breath and tried to even out her expression - it wasn't worth concerning Weiss over a table of clowns. Still, she glanced at CRDL's table. "Do you ever see something so unsightly you almost lose your appetite?"

Weiss tried to follow Blake's brief glance. There were a lot of tables in that direction, but she was quick to narrow the possibilities down to Cardin's group. The one with the pale green mohawk whose name she couldn't conjure up was making fake ears with his hands on top of his head to the amusement of the others. For some reason those neanderthals never quit picking on Velvet when she was away from her team. An idiotic move,considering the upperclassman could doubtless wipe the floor with all four of them if she was even an ounce more assertive. Weiss cast about, but didn't see her. Probably she had already fled the cafeteria. "Honestly, I don't see why she doesn't report them."

"Maybe I'll report them," Blake thought aloud. Goodwitch already had her hands full, but she could think of another equally frightening professor who might want to know about CRDL's abhorrent behavior.

"I doubt Velvet needs us interceding on her behalf." A trace of a frown still lingered on Weiss's face as she watched Blake brood. Obviously she was worried about her upperclassman and fellow Faunus. Velvet had left very fast. So fast she hadn't even seen her. Weiss brushed her hair back over her shoulder with her fingertips as they took another step forward in line. "Did you see where she went?"

"Velvet..." Blake hesitated. Things like this were bound to happen again in the future. Was she really going to try to hide it from Weiss every single time? Blake bit her lip, rethinking her earlier decision. "...isn't who they're laughing at." Her Faunus ears half-flattened at the admission and she looked away.

Weiss's brow knit and she looked around for whatever visiting or transfer student they had decided to gang up on. It couldn't have been Sun- he was too much of a loudmouth to not engage. Were there any other Faunus students on campus at the moment, though? New underclassmen, or maybe someone their classes just didn't overlap with...?

Blake's half-back feline ears registered in her mind. Weiss stared at her, mouth open partway but no words coming out.

She turned to CRDL's table, stunned into silence by the sheer magnitude of their stupidity. It was unbelievable, like witnessing a form of miracle.

As she stared, her hackles rose. She didn't notice that the line had moved another step forward.

Blake knew that look and as gratifying as it was to see, she reached for Weiss's arm, "They're not worth it."

Blake was right. Taking into consideration Weiss's time, the going price of Dust, and any other conceivable measure, Cardin and his pack of bullies were not worth it. However, she had dodged the hand meant to hold her back and was already stalking towards their table by the time Blake had finished her sentence.

Dove, the blonde member of the crew, elbowed his blue haired teammate and the table quieted down. Cardin stayed where he was, seated backwards on the bench, leaning against the edge of the table in his black school uniform jacket, amusement in his gaze.

Against her better judgement, Blake threw an apologetic look at the girl behind them in line and trotted after Weiss, reaching again for the edge of her sleeve. "Weiss..."

Cardin watched the pair approach. Having done the mental arithmetic, he looked smug. Weiss Schnee might be angry, but she was too prissy to risk getting suspended, and her Faunus teammate was going to hold her back. Besides, she was unarmed, and there was no way she'd actually heard his comments.

He looked smug all the way until Weiss plucked someone's full tray-complete with a half finished drink and a heaped plate of spaghetti- from the nearest table and upended it at him point blank.

Cardin leapt to his feet, but not quickly enough to avoid getting spaghetti sauce splattered all down his front. The cup and silverware clattered on the floor as he grabbed for the heiress's front shirt collar, snarling, "What's your problem?!"

Blake reacted on pure instinct, snatching Cardin's hand out of the air mid-trajectory and torquing it in the first (and coincidentally the most painful) defensive hold that came to mind.

Cardin's snarl turned strangled as he folded, trying to relieve the pressure on his wrist. Blake took him all the way to the floor. Weiss stood unflinching, ice in her blue eyes as she regarded the rest of Cardin's team. They said nothing while their leader gasped and cursed, arching and scrambling on the hard tile to get away before Blake could commit to getting him into some worse hold.

What could Weiss even say? She still couldn't believe CRDL even possessed the amount of sheer audacity required to mess with her girlfriend. The cafeteria had gone quiet around them. She looked to make sure Blake could disengage without too much trouble.

Unfortunately, the reason for their fellow students' silence was twofold, as Professor Goodwitch strode across the cafeteria straight for Weiss and Blake.

The prickle at the back of her neck and the sharp sound of footsteps were Weiss's first alert. Without thinking, she stepped forward to shield Blake from Goodwitch's view, her blistering anger mostly on hold as she cast a darting glance at the table of boys, searching for an acceptable explanation for the mess and trying to gauge the professor's mood.

Blake blinked out of her tunnel vision when Weiss moved across her line of sight. She looked up to see Goodwitch and froze, still holding Cardin captive.

The professor wore her typical stern expression as she approached the table, but somehow, even as she surveyed the scene before her, it never strayed towards the fury they all expected. Instead, her brows arched as her eyes traveled from the spaghetti-streaked Cardin, to the wide-eyed Blake, and finally to Weiss standing at the forefront of it all. She focused on Blake. "Miss Belladonna. An unusual choice of location to practice unarmed combat."

Faunus ears springing to attention, Blake dropped Cardin's wrist like a pile of hot coals.

Cardin hissed and shook his wrist out, scrambling to his feet and away from Blake, "They're crazy! They attacked us!"

Weiss bristled a little in the awkward space between Goodwitch and Blake. The professor seemed oddly disinterested, but she offered an explanation nonetheless, "Professor, Blake was only reacting."

"To you throwing a tray at me," Cardin's hands twitched like he'd like to have something more substantial than a tray to throw back. Spaghetti sauce dripped off his jacket.

Goodwitch watched him for a while, staring almost straight through him. "...If you can't dodge a tray of food, then dodging a Grimm might prove treacherous," she eventually answered with a frown. She motioned for Blake and Weiss to follow her. "Both of you, to my office."

Weiss exchanged a glance with Blake. So much for dinner.


A/N: Pray tell what news doth Goodwitch bring? What could she possibly want to talk to them in her office about? What COULD it POSSIBLY be?

Stay tuned, folks!

- Fiercesomest