Blake nervously looked at the door. She was supposed to be here with an escort, like any other time they were on Beacon's campus proper, but it wasn't exactly hard to slip them. Not like anyone tried to stop them—ever since their talk, Qrow had been making a show of not seeing her, even when she wasn't trying to sneak out. Most likely to show they trusted them, or something like that.

But… but it wasn't the fact that she was breaking the rules that made her nervous. If anything, it made her feel more confident. More in control. No, there was another reason causing Blake to hesitate when she knocked on the door.

A reason made clear as it flung open the door and smiled brightly at her.

"You're here! You didn't run away when you had the chance!" Nora cheered, "Oh boy, oh boy, OH BOY! Ren said I had nothing to worry about and he was right! Ooh, I made tea, do you want some? And if you think it's gonna be Valean tea, you don't have to worry—we got the good stuff! Sometimes, I just wonder why anyone drinks Valean tea, but then I realized, if Valeans drank Mistralian tea, then that would be-"

Blake knew she had to nip this in the bud. "Tea sounds lovely, thank you," she said, and her... and Nora just raced off to a small kettle in the corner.

Yes, this was something Blake was not at all prepared for, but… that was why she was here. She had never had to prepare for anything like a date before tonight, and while Blake was extremely well versed in romance from a reading point of view, in practice… she had nearly caused irreparable harm to two of the people she loved most. So when Nora had volunteered to help her get ready for the evening, Blake had, surprising even herself, agreed.

At least the tea was good. Nora hadn't been kidding—Mistralian tea was much better than Valean, though she figured that likely had more to do with Mr. Ren's involvement and careful selection than his… whatever relationship the two of them had. Even for the Hawk, the all-seeing eye of the Prince of the Grimm, Blake couldn't quite get a read on these two.

"So, you've come to the right place!" Nora said with a broad grin. "First of all, let's run down your various assets—first, you're hot." Blake, again, a trained infiltrator and a master at suppressing her emotions immediately spat out her tea. "Like, super hot. Which is really the only asset you need, so I stopped counting after that."

It wasn't just the suddenness or the crudeness or the guilelessness, it was the way Nora's soul pulsed with sheer cheerfulness and optimism. Blake wasn't used to that, and even if the Darkness inside Blake had gone from hating the girl at their first meeting to just conceding to do whatever she wanted to make her go away, Blake was still not prepared for such sudden bursts of positivity. But Blake wasn't giving in to her Darkness today. So she fixed a smile to her face and continued to listen.

"Now, you might be asking yourself, 'Nora, if I'm already a smoking babe, what else can be done for me?' And that's a great question I can't answer! But I can do your makeup and I've picked out the perfect dress for you!"

That was when Nora lunged at Blake with a speed and ferocity she'd only seen before in Pyrrha.

A makeup kit was produced without any warning, and Nora became a typhoon of rouge and lipstick, painting and penciling with a wild abandon that Blake was too stunned to stop—and too afraid of how Nora was using that eyebrow pencil to even think about moving.

"You're really, really pale, so I've gotta give you a lot of color here, like a lot."

Blake was trying not to think on whether or not Nora regularly wore makeup and if she might have any experience with what she was doing.

"But we're making great progress, great progress! And… finished! Man, you were way better for this than Ren usually is!"

But before Blake could think about what that meant, Nora had jerked her to her feet and dragged her to the closet. If she was a typhoon before, now she was a hurricane, as a storm of outfits flew about her as Blake got yanked hither and yon, blouses and skirts held up against her, her own clothes yanked off with a yelp, only to be stuffed into something else.

"Got the perfect outfit for ya!" Nora called as she shoved the more-than-half-undressed Blake forward.

"What- what are you dressing me up- urk!" she cried out as she realized that Nora had put her in a corset.

"You're in Vale, sister, and as a fellow non-Valean, I only know three things about them: they care about wine, they care about cheese, and they do not believe in modesty. So you've got to dress to impress tonight, and I swear I'll make sure that every eye in the room is permanently fixed to your figure!"

Blake wheezed as, with a sudden yank, Nora pulled the strings of her corset as hard as her aura-infused might could manage.

"Do you have internal organs?" Nora asked, with no context of prompting, "Or is it all just grimmstuff in there? Cause I could really give you a dynamite hourglass if I don't have to think about-"

"I have organs!" Blake desperately managed to choke out.

Nora sighed. "Ah, shame." But then she brightened. "Still—check yourself out in the mirror! You look good with a rack, and it'll really help you stand out with Yang there. Oh, was I supposed to know you have a crush on your brother? Ren told me there was something I wasn't supposed to bring up. I think it was that. Do you think it was that?"

Blake was getting good at tuning out Nora's babbling, but more than that, she wasn't listening because, well, the Blake that looked back at her from the mirror looked nothing like who she normally was. It wasn't… well, it wasn't anything good, but it was so radically different that Blake was struck by the sight of herself so… unmanaged.

She would never allow herself to appear like this, her chest thrust out so aggressively, her makeup, whorish, and her hair a mess, but she was letting this happen. She was allowing herself to have no advantage here, to completely give over her own expertise to someone who had no idea what she was doing, and Blake…

Blake was okay with that.

"Okay, so, you've got, like, super-ninja skills," Nora continued. Blake knew not to blush at a compliment that dumb, but she couldn't help herself but preen about her ability, "So these shouldn't be a problem!"

Blake's eyes went wide at the boots Nora produced. Dark leather that went up to her thighs balanced on heels of at least six inches. From all her training under Ms. Fall, Blake had never thought that anything like this would be remotely useful to her, far too overkill for anything subtle, but…

Well, she had conceded Jaune to Pyrrha, but there wasn't any harm in making her have to work for it still, right? He might… like seeing this other side of her. The Ninjas of Love side of her.

The "not your little sister" side of her.

Sliding her legs into the boots and carefully lacing them up, Blake felt… dangerous. Powerful. The kind of feeling she was used to having when she was in control of situations, but mingled with the thrilling possibility of the unknown. She'd never been on a date before. Not even remotely close, and yes, it wasn't a "date," and yes, technically, Yang was her "date," but Blake felt electrified by the possibility.

"Oh, hell yeah!" Nora cheered as Blake strutted around the room. "You are going to slay tonight, girl!"

She was. She was going to slay. Show Pyrrha a thing or two about her skills at this. Make her step it up a notch. Especially when she saw the see through blouse Nora was holding up. She'd look like a streetwalker, but maybe… maybe that's what she needed as she got herself dressed. Yes, this was good, this was nothing like anything she'd ever wear, and that's what Blake needed tonight. To be not Blake. And if she had it in the outfit, she'd have it in her mindset, she was sure.

"Any more advice?" she asked Nora with a grin.

"You've got to learn not to take things so seriously!" Nora explained, "Have fun, flirt with a cute boy, be the badass bitch you know you are and get some!"

"Get some?" Blake asked.

But Nora just kept going, though her tone shifted slightly. "I believe in you, Blake. Not just because you're a babe with a killer bod, but because you're a strong woman. You've got this—you're a lot more than you think you are. Have confidence, not that you're going to get everything you want, but that you're gonna have fun. That's all you have to do—go looking for a good time, have fun with Jaune and Yang and Pyrrha and Blake-"

"But… I'm Blake?"

"I know! Have fun with yourself!"

For advice that came out of… literally nowhere, Blake had to admit, it wasn't bad. Or she was just winging it, but maybe Nora had a point about that… though maybe this outfit was… a little much. Maybe it was more than a little- wait, what was she doing? This was insane! She couldn't-

Suddenly, the door opened, and Blake froze.

"What are you doing?" Coco Adel (second year Beacon student, leader of Team CFVY, emotional connection to Emerald, parents are wealthy figures in Valean society) shrieked at the sight of them. "Who- How- Did Yang say it was okay for you to give fashion advice, Nora?"

"Yang never implied that I couldn't."

"How did Ren not stop you!"

"He tried," Nora growled, and Blake realized that she had stepped into something she was entirely unaware of and wholly unprepared for, except… it felt nice? She, rationally, knew that this was not at all an appropriate outfit for a ritzy dinner date, but at the same time- awk!

"I am going to fix this," Coco said with a growl, yanking Blake out of the room, "And you don't get to object!"

Blake cut in, "I don't actually mind working with Nora-"

"I meant you don't get to object," Coco said, more forcefully, "I am not about to allow a travesty against fashion to happen at my school, thank you very much."

Not giving Blake time to respond, she dragged the Hawk down the hall, straight to the CFVY dorm.

Nervously folding, then refolding her hands, Emerald really hoped she didn't look weird while she was looking across the table, staring into the eyes of Neopolitan.

Neopolitan!

She was on a date with Neopolitan!

Yes, it wasn't a "date," and her little sister was accompanying her with Ruby, but Neopolitan (who had told her to call her Neo, but Emerald was too scared to try) had picked out an ice cream parlor for them, and she was over the moon.

Alright, time to play this… cool.

Real cool.

Cool, cool, cool.

Just gotta be-

"Weiss," she hissed under her breath to her sister, "use a spoon!"

Placing her thoroughly licked first bowl of ice cream down with a pout, Weiss grumpily picked up her spoon and started the second.

Little sisters, huh? Neopolitan smiled at her.

Emerald blushed, and couldn't help but have a nervous giggle, "Yeah," she mumbled, "Do you have any sisters."

Nope. It's always just been me and Roman.

"Oh."

Suddenly becoming nervous, Emerald realized she'd run out of things to say. Ohhhh, this was just like the party again, and this time, she couldn't even pretend she was on a mission, because she was trying to be normal and normal girls didn't pretend to be spying on their friends! And was Neo a friend? Or a g-girlfriend? Or was she blowing it? Ahhhh, this was too hard!

So she looked down to her ice cream, instead, hoping it would buy her some time.

Mint chip. Though she realized that, with Neopolitan getting, well, Neapolitan, it seemed almost like they'd color coordinated. Was that… was that good? Should Emerald have ordered Neapolitan? Ohhhh, she should have asked Blake for help, Blake always knew what she was doing in moments like this!

Glancing over to her right, she saw that Weiss and Ruby's bowls were… impossible to tell what flavor they'd gotten, them being a blend of multiple kinds of ice cream and every topping imaginable. Weiss, she knew, could handle that level of sugar bomb, but she was surprised that Ruby apparently could… or the rest of Team YRRN was about to learn that, no, she couldn't.

"Emerald!"

Weiss's voice jolted Emerald out of her thoughts. "What?" she quietly hissed back

"Emerald..." Weiss whispered to her sister, yet obviously not so quietly that the rest of the table couldn't hear, "can Ruby come back to the Grimmlands with us?"

"Weiss," Emerald sighed, "Jaune said you weren't allowed to bring anyone back without-"

"But she likes Jaune! In that way, the one we talked about with-"

Ruby had to interrupt that! "I d-don't!" she sputtered, realizing too late she wasn't supposed to be hearing what was being said, "Really! I don't- it's not- not at all like that! He's just..."

She seemed to realize that she'd said too much and clamped a hand over her mouth, hard, as she turned a shade of red brighter than Emerald thought humans could naturally turn. Emerald felt she could sympathize.

"See?" Weiss said, smugly, "She likes Jaune. She likes frogs. I like her. Ruby is coming back with us."

Neo burst into silent laughter as Emerald wanted to just die. She glanced to Qrow for some way to bring sanity back into the situation, but, of course, he was way too wrapped up in his date to be paying attention to the abduction Weiss was planning here. And Emerald really didn't want to interrupt them because she really owed Qrow to not ruin his date, especially with all the help he'd given her in order to make her date happen, even if he was their chaperone and Weiss was talking about kidnapping his niece!

So with a sigh, she made an apologetic look towards Neo, who just seemed to find the whole thing hilarious. She was so cool, Neo only saw her sister ruining everything as a super-cool kidnapping plot, or something like that. Man, Emerald wished she could be as cool as Neo was. Not caring about anything, not respecting any rules, being a cool badass who took what she-

Is that what you think of me?

Emerald was startled from her thoughts in an instant. Stupid! Stupid, stupid Emerald! Of course Neo could read her face as well as she could read-

It's true. I am a super-cool badass. I think it's sweet you think that, though.

Words weren't Emerald's strength right now, but, she realized, they didn't have to be. She didn't have to say anything, not that she, a blushing, stuttering mess, could, when Neo could just tell from the subtle movements of her face what she was trying to say. Which was a huge relief. Weiss and Ruby were talking about… something with frogs, didn't matter, but they were too involved in their conversation to notice anything weird going on with them. So she could just gaze into Neo's gorgeously heterochromatic eyes, their green and yellow- hold on a second!

I didn't think it was fair if you were the only one who could change her appearance, Neo replied with a silent, but somehow musical laugh.

But that might have been the wrong thing to hear. Because Emerald started thinking about how she could shift her own face, and that made her suddenly self-conscious about how much control she had over her face, and her facial muscles. The things that were communicating with Neo, but now that she was thinking about it, she wasn't sure what she was doing anymore, and instead of just making graceful, natural movements—or even the precise, prepared movements she'd been trained to do—Emerald could feel her face droop as she suddenly panicked. Nobody alive had the level of fine-motor control over her face that Emerald had. Nor did anyone also have the ability to shift their appearance at whim. Or were under the scrutiny of a master of face reading. Nor were they a total nervous wreck like Emerald was.

Are you… are you okay?

"I'mn fffine!" Emerald slurred, her cheeks drooping into jowls, her lips curling out of control, her adrenaline rising to heights never before- never before… seen…

Emerald's panic was caught off guard as Neo gently took her hand in hers. Looking at their hands on the table, Neo's creamy fingers entwined with Emerald's, she felt almost like time stopped. Like she had to remind herself to breathe to restart time and bring herself back to the ice cream parlor. And then she realized she had to tear her eyes off of Neo's hand to look up and see what she meant.

Is this better?

"M-much," she stammered, "I- I like this v-very much..."

But her words trailed off into silence as she gazed into Neo's eyes. It was… she was so unprepared for this, so inexperienced with this kind of thing, and Emerald was never unprepared, and yet… she wasn't worried at all. This was… this was nice. She liked it. This was what… life could be like if she-

"We should get cookies after this! What do you think, Emerald?" Weiss loudly interrupted and Emerald cringed.

Sisters!

"Strawberry ice cream," Clover started, sounding professorial and officious as he began his lecture, "is the pinnacle of Valean culture, and I cannot understand how you can be in the heartlands of this manna from heaven, and yet… chocolate."

"Chocolate with brownie bits," Qrow corrected, taking a spoonful and tasting it, "Good stuff."

The ice cream parlor they were in had been selected by Emerald's date, who had a striking resemblance—though, certainly just a resemblance as far as Qrow was concerned—to the notorious henchman of a certain wanted criminal, and Qrow suspected that played as much a role in how easy it had been to secure the location as Summer throwing her weight around with the Council.

Her "resemblance," of course. As far as Qrow and Clover were concerned, there was no malign criminal influence at play here. Just an interesting-looking young woman who was doing her part to help out some kids in need at a time of crisis. She was, presumably, good people like that. Qrow wasn't asking questions how Ms. Fall happened to know her.

He gave a quick glance to the other table. Nothing really to report, just as he expected. It was cute, really, a reminder of happier times when he was a younger man, with the rest of STRQ, enjoying a carefree moment in the city, not thinking about the future, utterly unaware that they were all about to be torn apart by his sister's ego.

Qrow sighed. He didn't want to be thinking about Raven right now, but he kind of had to. There was too much on the line for him to take a breather, even now. Lowering his voice, he quietly asked Clover, "What's the word with my sister?"

Clover shook his head. "Nothing to report, to be honest. She's… hard to pin down, thanks to her Semblance, but we're… keeping her busy. Dummy work, through a decoy corp hiring her to do pointless, but time consuming, stuff. With a 50/50 shot she's figured out that we're playing her."

"And a 50/50 shot from there," Qrow added with a sardonic grin, "you've either pissed her off… or she'll have no objection to fleecing you for what she's worth and call it a vacation."

"Don't worry," Clover replied, rubbing one of his many lucky charms between his fingers, "Whatever she's thinking, Atlesian Intelligence is reasonably confident we have her managed enough that she's not in a position to launch a strike against the Prince or otherwise."

Talking with Blake about Raven had gotten the gears turning in Qrow's head, and he didn't like where that was leading him. There was good intelligence on who Queen Salem had for henchmen, some of whom were likely candidates for an assassination mission—like the disgraced Atlesian scientist Arthur Watts or the Faunus serial killer, Tyrian Callows—but it was also likely that Salem could make use of the same resources anyone else on Remnant would, and if they were looking for a contract killer… Raven was frighteningly good. The last time they'd met, Raven had beat Qrow's ass soundly, and really, back at Beacon, Summer was the only one who could really hold a candle to her. Who even knew what she was capable of now?

Most importantly, Raven had a direct line to Summer, Yang, or himself, and any line of security they might have could be easily undone by her opening a portal. Getting out wouldn't be easy, but… well, his dear sister was the sort who'd carry out crazy plans just because they were crazy.

"Well, if you think she's locked down," he said, in between taking another bite of ice cream, "I trust you guys on this. She's not… well," Qrow sighed, miserably, "I'd like to say she wouldn't do something like this, but..."

Clover gave a sad nod. "Hard to see how far your sister's fallen?"

"She used to be… hard to be nostalgic for the old days, but she used to have principles. Shitty ones, godawful ones, but there used to be more than money to her. It was about family, once. Independence. But she's all that's left of the Branwen Tribe now and… even I have a hard time seeing what's become of my old man's legacy."

Knowing a bit about fatherhood and disappointing legacy himself, Clover nodded at that. "No matter what, you always hate to disappoint 'em."

"Ain't that how it is..."

Qrow glanced back to the kids. No matter how bad Qrow's childhood had been, it didn't hold a candle to Emerald or Weiss over there. And Ruby… the daughter he never had, hers was a blessed childhood, raised by the sort of parents Qrow wished he'd have had. Even as much as she grumbled about spending the summers with her Aunt Maria for training, she grew up in a household full of love and support.

It was unbecoming of him to spend so much time comparing his life to teenagers, of course. So turning his mind away from the past, he brought it back to the future. Glancing to Clover, he grinned and asked, "Hey, you've been talking big, but how about you prove it—give me a taste of that strawberry ice cream."

Clover took up his spoon and scooped up a generous pink blob. He extended it across the table, and Qrow opened his mouth to receive it. Wrapping his lips around the spoon, he sucked the colt treat off of it. Licking his lips with a smack, he and Clover exchanged smiles. It was rare that they did this kind of couple stuff, but Qrow had to admit, it was pretty cute.

And he had to admit: it was delicious.

Thanks to Renarde for feedback on this chapter!

From a writing perspective, it's always hard for me to find Neo's "voice," considering she doesn't exactly have one in the show. She's got a clear character, but what she's "saying," outwardly or in an internal monologue, is always hard for me to write. Especially in contrast to Emerald, who, for this AU, I have a very strong sense of her voice.

And as we know, Raven's not actually part of the assassination conspiracy, but... that doesn't mean the scene was just dramatic irony. She might show up later. Or this might be misdirection. Who knows :)

Looking forward to next week's chapter, where you'll get to see how the other evening is going, with Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake, and Yang.