Three moons sat high in the sky, each in separate phases of their cycle, all casting an unearthly pale but beautiful light down upon the white sands that She walked. Their light was reflected in the ocean's waves, the soothing sounds of the tide lulling all that would hear it into a supreme sense of calm. Ahead of her, a familiar figure. One that She would always remember. One that She had forced herself to forget. The girl's footprints left small indents in the sand, and She followed in them, readily waiting. The girl's long, grey hair swayed, shimmering in the moonlight in the way that She had hoped it would.

The girl gave a delighted giggle, "Alright, you've really outdone yourself this time. The three moons is definitely a nice touch."

"I knew you'd like it," She grinned, happy that She had created something worthy of Her, "It took awhile to get them all situated that way. You have no idea how big of a pain things like gravity can be some times."

"Oh, I'm starting to get an idea," the girl laughed. She waved her hand above her head to create another group of stars in the night sky. The girl held her fingers up in a square as she inspected her own work. With a small frown, she licked her thumb and rubbed it in the air, wiping away a few of the stars that had been out of place.

"So, what do you want to make next?"

"Hmmmm…." the girl put a hand to her chin in thought, then brought it forward in a snap, "Oh! Let's make a forest with some elves!"

"Elves? What is this, Middle Earth?" She chided playfully.

The girl raised an eyebrow, a coy grin playing at her lips, "You can't tell me you'd say no to some busty elves~"

She smiled softly, a light tinge of red heating her cheeks, "Why would I need elves when I have-"

The high pitched ringing of Ruby's alarm clock startled Violet awake. Her hand instinctively went to her own scroll, though she'd forgotten to set an alarm the night before. Violet blinked back the blur that had settled in her eyes, finally managing to check the time, then rolled back into her blankets with a grumble.

'I was having a good dream, Ruby… Whatever it was about…'

Yang breathed out a sigh of relief as she finished off the final question for Oobleck's test. It had been long and full of what felt like trick questions. Blake had already turned hers in, and Ruby was nearly done with her final page as well. As always, Violet lounged off to the side, still half asleep from earlier in the day, looking for all the world like the test had been anything but difficult.

Violet had been joined shortly after by Weiss, with none being surprised. The heiress was by far the most studious of their year, followed by Pyrrha and Ren. Between their two teams, Nora was the only one aside from Ruby that hadn't finished yet. Looking around, Yang could see that quite a few others in their year seemed to be struggling with the test.

'When you have Violet or Weiss as your team leader, there's little hope for not getting history down to a T. The rest of you should have studied more.'

Ruby hummed happily to herself as she got up with her test papers and handed them to Professor Oobleck. The green haired professor nodded his thanks and excused Ruby to go sit back down. Yang checked the clock. With only five minutes left until the bell rang, time was running short for Nora and the others in the class.

It appeared that Nora was well aware, as she began to scribble down her answers much more roughly. From her spot along the rows, Yang could see the bead of sweat running down her forehead, and the way she was holding her tongue out to the side in concentration.

Nora's movements slowed, eventually pausing completely as she stared at the last question on the exam. Her pen hovered over the paper, confusion palpable from the way her brow furrowed and lips curled into a frown. Violet glanced in her direction after checking on the clock, then turned away to cough into her hand.

Nora's eyes lit up, her pen resuming its inky crusade as she quickly scribbled down whatever she'd come up with for the final question and jumped up with a cheer, "Take that, test! Nothing stops Nora!"

"Miss Valkyrie…" Professor Oobleck chided, but smiled when he held his hand out for the papers. Nora giddily skipped across to his desk and handed them in before returning to Ren's side. She sat shoulder to shoulder with him and rocked from side to side while swinging her feet back and forth.

Yang caught the small doting smile that Violet flashed, though she didn't turn back to look at Nora when she did it. Yang had been around Violet often enough to tell who it had been directed towards.

'She really is 'Auntie Vi' at the end of the day…'

A constant point of confusion that morning had been the way Violet and Blake had been acting towards each other. Yang would have figured Blake would pop the question the night before, but if anything, the two seemed more distant than usual. They were still being friendly with each other, but neither had even offered to hold the other's hand yet. 'Surely they'd be going further than that if it was official…?' Yang had only been in a few flings herself, and gone as far as to kiss a boy once, 'gross', but the way they were acting couldn't be normal.

Yang was pulled from her brief reverie by the bell ringing, signalling the end of second period. The majority of the class shot to their feet, a few glumly shuffling forward to turn in their incomplete papers. Yang joined Siren and the rest of team Vibrant as they all headed out into the hall, one big brightly colored group.

Violet stepped ahead and spun around to walk backwards, her hands clasped behind her back, "So, how'd everyone do?"

Weiss pompously raised her hand to her chest, "Perfectly fine, thank you."

"I was really struggling on that last one!" Nora admitted with a cheery smile, "But I remembered part of the book right when I thought I wouldn't get it!"

Violet smirked, "That was one of the easier questions~"

"What did you put down?"

Violet shrugged, "Captain Yoma said in his reports that he was captured while out on patrol. In reality, he was deserting his post for the night to hook up with a Mistralian prostitute he fancied in one of the taverns. The book probably said what was in his reports, though. I'm sure Oobleck will find it interesting."

"Are you sure you aren't making things up now?" Weiss crossed her arms with a huff, "How could you possibly know that."

"Yoma kept a journal before he was captured. It detailed all of his 'nightly exploits' and his plans to do it again the same night he was taken."

Weiss raised an eyebrow with a frown, "And where is this 'journal'? I've never heard of it."

"You can find a copy in the library," Violet shrugged once more, "I wouldn't recommend it, though. Not a very good read, even for a smut book."

The heiress's cheeks reddened, and she stammered accusatorially, "T-then why did you read it!?"

Violet laughed, "Because history is important, duh. And the prostitute sounded like a real cutie~"

Yang frowned and glanced over to Blake to see her cheeks reddened as well, though unlike the offended stance that Weiss had taken, Blake was instead looking dejectedly off to the side. Yang sidled up next to her, falling into step with the faunus girl's pace.

"You okay, Blake? How did last night go?" Yang whispered the question, hoping to give the two of them a little privacy away from the loud din of the rest of the group.

"Not well. Violet… turned me down," Blake confessed with a heartfelt sigh. She crossed her arms as if to comfort herself and darted her eyes to Yang's, seeing the pity shown there, "She said Ruby talked her into giving it a shot in the first place… At least I got a week out of it, right...?"

"Did Violet say why?" Yang grumbled quietly. She was confused beyond belief that their team leader would turn down Blake like that. 'What isn't there to like?' The thought was frustrating, to say the least. Blake didn't deserve to be shot down!

Blake shrugged weakly, "Just that she didn't feel the same way I did. That she'd never felt that way about anyone… I played it off as well as I could, but it's still hard… ya know?"

Truthfully, Yang had always been the one turning others down, so she hadn't ever really experience it from Blake's point of view. Seeing the way she curled in on herself and seemed to have lost so much of her self confidence, though, was more than enough to get Yang's blood boiling.

"I'll talk to her," Yang promised with a fierce glower towards their leader's back, "I need to get to the bottom of this."

"No, Yang," Blake protested quietly, sending an uncertain glance in Violet's direction, "Violet was nice about it. You said as much yourself, remember? 'Can you imagine Violet being anything but as nice as possible if she turns you down?' or something along those lines."

"Yeah, but I never thought she'd actually do it," Yang argued back. Violet and Blake had seemed like such a sure deal, destiny in the works to draw together two people that were perfect for each other. Blake wanted someone she could feel safe around, and Violet wanted…

Yang frowned, 'What does Violet want in another person…?' On second thought, that had been a huge oversight on her part. She hadn't spent time with Violet like she had with Blake. Was there some secret to their leader's heart, something she searched for in others that Blake had been lacking?

Yang's fist clenched tightly, 'If there is, I'll make her tell me. Blake deserves better than an 'I'm just not into you that way' excuse. That's more like something I'd tell the guys back on Patch, not something you'd say to a sweet girl like Blake.'

"Hang in there, kitty cat," Yang gave Blake a playful pat on the back, then firmed as she stepped past the rest of the group to Violet's side.

Her leader smiled when the blond fell into step next to her, "How'd you do on the test, Yang?"

"Not too bad. There were a couple things I wanted to go over with you, though. Do you mind heading back to the dorm with me for a minute instead of to lunch?" Yang noted with some satisfaction that they were about to pass the stairs. Now would easily be the best time to divert their course without drawing too much attention and let the rest continue on to the dining hall without them.

Violet looked over her shoulder to take in Blake's muted demeanor, and gave Yang a curt nod, "After you," her eyes swept across the rest and she gave them a cheery wave, "Yang and I will catch up. Save us a seat!"

Yang nodded her thanks and led the way back upstairs to their dorm room. It was on the highest floor at the very end of the hall, but despite the couple minutes that it took to walk there, Yang waited until they were safely in the comfort of their room before rounding on Violet.

"How could you say no to Blake!?" Yang planted her fists on her hips and tried to use her height to her advantage. Unfortunately, even being more than a few inches taller than Violet, she still didn't feel taller.

Violet casually walked to her bed and sat down on the edge of it before patting the spot next to herself. When Yang refused to budge, she raised an eyebrow. When the blond continued her stony stance, Violet let out a gloomy sigh, "Suit yourself."

Violet leaned back against her hands, "Blake took a lot of the things I did for her out of context. Making her feel safe with her team, reconnecting her with her parents, not judging her for her shady past… I would have done the same for any of you…" she shrugged dejectedly, "I don't love Blake. Not that way, anyway."

"What's stopping you?" Yang asked with a bit more ferocity than she'd meant.

"Hmmmm…" Violet thought to herself quietly for a few moments before looking Yang in the eyes, "Tell me what you like about her. Maybe it'll jog a few screws loose."

Yang gave a small 'hmph', before crossing her arms, "Where to start? Blake is a great fighter. She's really smart. The way she sits up in her bed when she reads is adorable. When her ears twitch, it's always really cute. I bet they're so soft. She's getting the hang of the fighting games we play, even though she didn't like them at first. We have the best chats in the mornings when we go to the gym. It's my favorite time of the day. Just the two of us, working out and talking about whatever's on our minds… She looks great in her combat outfit…" Yang frowned, realizing she'd been very clearly picturing a part of her teammate that she hadn't before then.

Violet seemed to catch on to the blond's internal struggle, "What is it about her outfit that you like~?"

"Th-that's not important," Yang could feel her cheeks heating, but tried to play it off as well as she could, "You can't tell me all that isn't enticing."

"It is… for you," Violet replied with a small chuckle, "Sounds to me like Blake isn't the only one around here with a crush. Sure there isn't something you need to admit to yourself, Xiao Long?"

"N-nope," Yang's eyes darted to the door and back to Violet in hesitation, "We really shouldn't keep the others waiting too long."

A tall wall of amethyst flames shot up from the floor to blanket the door, trapping Yang inside with Violet, "I think they can wait~"

Yang narrowed her eyes at the flames, "You wouldn't hurt me like that…"

Violet gave a hearty laugh, "No, I wouldn't. Nobody said anything about your clothes, though. Walk out there and you'll be as naked as the day you were born. I'll be sure to lock the door behind you~"

Yang stared at her leader in wide-eyed horror, "You aren't a maiden… you're a demon."

Violet held her hands wide, palms upward, "I've been called worse. All you have to do is admit how you feel."

"I don't-!"

"Come on, Yang," Violet interjected easily, "No judgement here. You can be real with me."

Yang sighed, thinking back on the thing's she'd said, and the real truth that lay behind them. She hadn't even been able to admit it to herself, yet. Even now, she knew it wouldn't work between the two of them. Blake liked Violet, '...not me…'

"It would never work. She's so caught up on you…"

"And now I've set her free," Violet chastised with a playful smile, mimicking holding a fishing rod, "So grab your pole and cast that pickup line!"

Yang shook her head sadly, "How…" her eyes wandered back up to Violet's, barely able to meet them, "How could I measure up to you? You've done so much for her, Violet… You're so charismatic… It's nice just being around you… I'd only ever be second best…"

Violet scoffed and jumped to her feet to walk a circle around the blond, "Yang, Yang, Yang… How could someone as beautiful as you feel inadequate? So I helped her with a few issues she had… What's the big deal? Do you think we wouldn't have helped her with that as a team sooner or later? I just stuck my nose in early because I want everyone to be happy. You would have done the same, I guarantee it."

"But I didn't. I had no clue about any of that stuff!"

"That doesn't change the fact that you would have been just as supportive as I was. You care for Blake, in a way that I never can. Blake doesn't need me. She deserves someone like you. I've never thought about the way she sits in bed, or fawned over the idea of touching her ears, or fantasized about her in her combat outfit..."

Yang's cheeks reddened and she held her hands up in denial, though Violet was currently behind her, "Fantasize is a strong word."

Violet placed a hand on each of Yang's shoulders, thumbs kneading into the tensed muscles on her back, "You can't lie to me, Yang. You know me well enough to realize that I won't be fooled, even when you're lying to yourself. I saw the potential for you and Blake so long ago… I've been waiting ever since. You two would be great together."

"Why would Blake settle for me...?"

Violet sighed in exasperation and spun Yang around to grab her around the shoulders and stared into her eyes, "What in the world makes you think she'd be settling at all in the first place?"

Yang fought back the heat beginning to burn in her eyes, held there by the fierceness of Violet's gaze, "Have you met you, Violet!? I'll never escape your shadow!"

"My shadow!?" Violet laughed, leaning forward against Yang before looking back into her eyes, "Yang, you're the sun. The only shadows that exist for you are the ones you allow. Look at you!" she gestured up and down the length of Yang's body, from the smooth skin of her exposed legs, up to her ample bosom, and finally to her reddening cheeks, "You're to die for. Any girl in this world would be lucky to have you, and Blake is no different! She'll get over me soon enough."

A small smirk played at Yang's lips, "Sure you aren't hitting on me with compliments like that?"

Violet snorted, "You're more than I could ever handle, Xiao Long."

"Damn straight," Yang smiled, then sighed a few seconds later once the moment had passed. Her eyes rose back up to Violet's uncertainly, "You really think I've got a chance?"

Violet nodded, "Better than anyone else ever could. Give it a couple days maybe, but be there for her now. If she needs a shoulder to cry on, you. be. that. shoulder."

"And you aren't going to change your mind down the line…? What if you end up realizing your own feelings?"

Violet shook her head in amusement, "Not gonna happen," she spun Yang to face the door and slapped her on the backside, "Now get out there and conquer that kitty, Xiao Long!"

Yang flinched at the slap and dropped two hands down to defend herself, shooting Violet a glare before nodding her head back towards the door that was still wreathed in flames. Her voice shared none of the hilarity that Violet seemed to be feeling, "Forgetting something?"

Violet eyed the door, a coy grin on her face, "What, you thought that thing about your clothes was true? Don't be silly, Yang. I wouldn't do that to a friend~"

"Then you go first," Yang replied dryly, stepping to the side so that Violet could get to the door.

"Don't mind if I do~" Violet strolled past and whipped the door open. She walked through the frame without a moment's hesitation, and though the flames consumed her form for a second, she emerged on the other side, sans birthday suit.

Yang breathed out a sigh of relief and began to walk forward, but stopped as Violet grinned once more, "Did I mention there's no reason I couldn't make it leave my clothes perfectly fine, but still burn yours to ash in an instant?"

Violet laughed while Yang stoically refused to move further, a permanent disapproving frown etched on to her face. Eventually, she snapped her fingers and the flames withdrew, back into whatever fiery aether they came from in the first place. Yang certainly hadn't been about to take her chances with Violet's maiden powers, let alone her sense of humor.

The two of them headed to the dining hall to find it already packed with other students that had made it there well before them. Violet and Yang waited in line to pick out their food before heading over to Vibrant and Siren's usual table. Violet found a place to sit between Weiss and Nora, while Yang took the left over opening next to Blake at the end.

The faunus paused in idly stirring the food around on her plate to glance at Yang as she sat down, "So, what'd the two of you have to run off to the dorm for?"

"Ummm…" Yang gave a weak shrug, "Violet was giving me… life advice."

"Auntie Vi, at it again?"

Yang chuckled, "Yeah, pretty much. She had some interesting things to say."

"Did you get what you wanted out of it?"

She shook her head, "Not what I wanted… but what I needed, I think," Yang flashed a smile to the faunus, "Are you doing anything tomorrow before we go to the movies? I figure with Tucson leaving for Menagerie, you're going to need to find a new bookstore, right? We could go down and look for one together."

Blake began to shake her head, but then paused in the middle of it and gave Yang a long, considering look, "You… really want to?"

"Of course!"

Blake brightened somewhat and nodded, "Another pair of eyes wouldn't hurt. Any idea where you'd want to start looking?"

Yang placed a finger to her chin, "Oh, the shopping district is probably a safe bet. We can buy some new clothes while we're there!"

Blake smirked, "Sure you don't have any ulterior motives?"

Yang waved a hand dismissively, "Not at all! Your workout clothes are getting worn out. I'd hate for you to have a wardrobe malfunction in the middle of training~"

"Good point," Blake conceded, knowing for a fact how roughed up her clothes had become in only the last week's worth of having Yang as her personal trainer, "Did you want to invite anyone else?"

Yang glanced down the length of the table and shrugged, "Not really. It can be our fun little outing, just us two."

Blake shared a soft smile with Yang, "Sounds like fun. If I buy clothes, you're going to have to buy a book, though."

"Maybe they'll have something on workout strategies that I don't already know."

Blake giggled, "I'm positive they won't. Maybe you can pick out a book about something else, like knitting."

Yang snorted, "You know, you could just ask me to keep a ball of yarn lying around."

Blake rolled her eyes, though she couldn't hide the slight twinge of a smile on her lips, "You're awful, Yang."

"You know it, kitty cat~"

Violet took sneak peeks down the table to where Yang and Blake sat. Seeing the two of them chatting, the slight shade of red on Yang's cheeks as she made suggestive remarks, the tinge on Blake's as she played them off… 'Finally, something going how it's supposed to.' Among all the recent craziness that had happened, the sight of them together brought some measure of peace to her heart. Not everything was out of her control.

Violet's gaze spread outward, taking in all of her friends, all of her classmates. She could feel her heart warming, seeing the smiles on their faces as they talked about what they were going to do for the weekend, about their troubles and offers from others to help.

'You're all so precious to me…' That warmth was devoured by the steadily growing pit in Violet's stomach. The thought that all of them would be going out with her and Qrow to fight Torchwick, to fight Cinder, and eventually even Hazel, Watts, Tyrian, or Salem herself… 'I can't always keep you all in sight…'

'...but I can keep you all safe.'

Violet's eyes flashed once, a brief brightening around the irises that went unnoticed by those around her, too caught up in their own conversations as they were. It was a simple enough use of her omnipotence, one made all the easier by the rules of the world itself.

'If any of their auras break… I'll know.'

And Violet would be there, no matter where or who it was, no matter what she'd been in the middle of at the time, to make sure those she cared for didn't fall prey to her own lack of foresight.

'I'm not losing anyone… not again.'

I'm going to be moving the release dates of The Lonely Goddess to Mondays for the foreseeable future. I always have the weekends off, and it's usually the time that I can get the most work put into my fanfictions. Only makes sense to me, honestly. As such, Black Lotus will be moved to Tuesdays, so that they're still being released the same way as before, just later in the week.

Thanks for reading,

- Sybaen

Was going to post at 2am PST when I woke up before work, but had no internet. Meh.