[#2]

Blake left the library with an impressive stack of books in hands. Another everyday convenience she was glad to return to after being roped into a save-the-world plot.

Throughout her adolescence, she had gathered quite a respectable collection of books. It was so large in fact, that it could be used to build not only one, but two forts for her friends to play with. After she had been tricked into lending said books, that is.

But regardless, it had all been lost after the Fall. Her precious books, including the ones used to sustain the bunk she and Yang shared, were gone. Her prized collection had become one with the ashes that were once Beacon Academy.

Either that, or a pair of sapient Beowolfs were going through her old books right now and making fun of her. One of them being named Marty, according to her theorical tangent. 'Screw you, Marty. You uncultured mangy.'

Blake obviously couldn't rebuild her collection right away with the books she just borrowed from Atlas's library, but she could always buy some later with the Lien she earned from her services as an official Huntress.

Turning a sharp right into the following corridor, she came face to face with another group of students. A whole team, actually.

They were none other than Team FNKI, one of the most popular teams of Atlas Academy and contestants from the last Tournament of Vytal, with Flynt as their leader and Neon as their dedicated speedster.

You probably already knew these characters anyway, so I'm not sure why I felt the need to introduce them, but whatevs.

"Heyo!" Neon chipperly greeted her. "Fancy meeting you here, Blake. Whatcha got there?" She asked, referring to the pillar of books the other Faunus carried.

"Hi Neon. Good afternoon." She politely responded. "Not much. Just something to help pass the time, I guess. And how are you guys doing?"

"Oh, we're doing awesome, alright! We just finish sparring with your friends from JNPR. And woo, we got our asses handed to ourselves! It was a great time, let me tell you!"

"Wow, I…" Blake readjusted her pile of books so she didn't lost balance of them. "I'm glad you guys had fun."

"They're tougher than they look. I'll give 'em that." Stated Flynt. "Almost makes me wish we were dealing with your teammates again instead."

"Yeah, I can imagine." She rolled her eyes playfully. Only then she noticed the two remaining members of their team. "I don't think we have ever met before."

"Oh! Silly me!" Interjected Neon. "These two handsome fellas are Ivori and Kobalt."

"Neon, please." Kobalt crossed his arms.

"We heard plenty about your team." Spoke Ivori. "We even got word our Headmaster granted you all honorary licenses for your efforts."

"Very admirable, indeed." Kobalt said.

While flattered, Blake made a few mental observations with just a few sentences from them. Kobalt sounded very much like Ren if he had grown in Atlas, while Ivori's mannerisms and looks reminded her of Scarlet from Team SSSN.

"It was nothing, really. We mainly helped the General out with some errands." Blake humbly spoke. "All in a day's work, I suppose."

"Hey, we were wondering if you're all free this next weekend." Asked Neon. "There's this sweet nightclub we like to go, it's called the 'Lightish-Red Head'."

"Sounds… Oddly suggestive?" Blake inclined her head.

"Eh. We don't mind." Shrugged Flynt. "Most people from the zone knows the owner and just refer as the 'Donut Hole'."

"Doesn't sound much better, but okay." Blake said.

"I dig it." Claimed Ivori.

"Of course you do." Kobalt snarked.

"Well, I'm not much into clubbing, but I'm sure Yang would be down for it." Blake responded to their offer, still remembering the time she and her team went out clubbing that one fateful night.

'Never again.' She shivered at the remembrance of the 'Flames of Disaster', as many would call.

"Alright, It's official!" Exclaimed Neon. "And don't worry, we already asked out the guys from JNPR. The blondie in special."

"…Wait, you mean Jaune?" Asked Blake. "Why him in special?"

"Uh, because he's cool and good-looking? I mean, have you seen his hairdo?"

"I know, right?" Ivori concurred.

The rest of their team seemed to mutually agree with the assessment that Jaune's new haircut was great. To Blake's utter bemusement.

"Anyway," Continued Neon. "We'd love to chat some more, but we got an assignment with our names on it."

"Well said." Agreed Flynt as everyone on his team began to walk away. "We can exchange contacts some other time. See you around, Belladonna."

Blake could only offer a meek "Bye" as she waved them off.

Though to her surprise, Neon rested an elbow on Blake's shoulder. "Hey, between the two of us, you don't happen to have his number, do you?" She asked whilst grinning.

Blake hadn't been able to formulate an answer in time. "Uhm…"

"Not a good time? Understandable." She gave up and followed after her team.

Then without thinking, Blake said: "Hey, I got a haircut too!"

"Yeah, looks cute!" Neon replied in a hurry. "Kaygottagonowbye~!"

As they rounded the corner, Blake just huffed and proceeded to carry her stack of books back to her dorm, visibly annoyed by yet another strange behavior caused yet again by Jaune and his haircut.

You'd think after a whole week since its conception, any comments surrounding his hair would have died down or something. But apparently not.

Then again, she could be imagining things. After all, she had been proven to be obsessed and paranoid over anything that bothered her. Such were the ways of old-Blake.

So for precautional purposes, Blake decided to take action. She would stick close to Jaune if only to make sure that nothing out of the ordinary was going on.

And no other reason besides that.

None at all.

No siree.

…

You know, now it'd be a great time for a scene chang-

The sun had barely shown itself from beyond the horizon by the time everyone got together in the operations room. Both former Beacon teams sat around with baggy eyes.

The Ace-Ops didn't look that much better in comparison, but they still managed to look professional. Well, as professional as sleep-deprived Specialists could be, but professional nonetheless.

With the sole exception of Clover. Their leader somehow appeared in perfect condition without even needing a single grain of caffeine. As if being a morning person was part of his Semblance or something.

"Look alive, everyone!" Announced Clover while clapping his hands. "We got a lot of work to do and Atlas wasn't built in a day."

"Then how long did it take to build Atlas? Hmm?" Nora questioned, finding that quote very suspicious for some reason.

"Good question." Chuckled Clover. "More than a day, perhaps?"

"That seems factually correct." Vine added.

Marrow was the last member of their operations unit to show up. He immediately sat down beside Jaune while waggling his tail.

"Hey, Jean, my man. Did you get it?"

"Sure thing. Here, have it." Jaune responded as he gave Marrow a spare cup of coffee, seemingly unbothered by the name change.

"You're a life-saver." Marrow sipped from its contents. "By the way, your hair looks Great today. Did I ever tell you that?"

"Uh… Yeah. You say that almost every day."

"Hey! Dumber and Dumberer." Harriet called them out, snapping her fingers. "Can we focus here?"

Blake was silently grateful for that, given how Marrow's comment had managed to sour her already sour mood.

"Now, now." Clover turned everyone's attention to him. "We got a long day ahead of us, so let's speed things up and get all of this done before curfew. First thing on our list is… Harriet, what did I tell you about putting up a bounty to try tricking the kids into buying pizza for you?"

"You say that, but it has worked once before." Harriet stretched out on her seat with both arms behind her head. "Right Marrow?"

"It was my First day on the force. C'mon!"

A small round of laughter later and Clover went back at listing the available jobs for the day.

Guarding the walls of Mantle, patrolling the districts and generally helping keep the public peace. The majority of Amity related missions were usually taken by the Ace-Ops themselves, which left RWBY and JNPR in charge of most of the grunt work around the city.

All the while, Blake took the opportunity to observe one team leader in particular. Jaune sat across the room with his ever-lasting smile stamped on his face, and his spiky hair well-kept.

She supposed it was kinda nice of him to take good care of his hair, considering how much effort it took Blake to cut it in the first place. She too made sure to wash hers every day. Twice in fact. Well, not because it was his handiwork or anything, but you know. Basic hygiene.

"…Elm will be guarding the perimeter for an incoming shipment today, and next up we have…" Clover tapped his scroll. "I believe you might want to pay attention to this one. We have been receiving reports of Grimm sightings at an abandoned subway line at southwest of Mantle. We have reasons to believe our recent operations at the mines may have caused them to migrate directly under civilian territory. So, any takers?"

"I'll do it!"

The whole room shifted their attention to Jaune, who was extending his right arm.

Harriet let out a whistle. "Look at you. Going from local street guard to field agent."

"That is indeed quite a career leap." Vine pronounced himself, Harriet's irony was obviously lost on him.

"I must agree." Concurred Ren in the same manner. "Are you sure you're up to the task?"

"I mean," Jaune responded. "Mantle is kinda my turf anyway, so… I figure I should start doing something to contribute to its safety."

"Now this is what I like to hear!" Elm exclaimed. "Nothing makes me more excited than seeing fresh Huntsmen taking on the Grimm threat alone!"

"Whoa, easy there." Clover adverted. "I should stress that this is a two menoperation. We need at least one more volunteer before I can authorize this mission."

This was her chance! If Blake went on this mission with Jaune, she could finally spend some time with h- Er… Find out if there was anything strange going on with him.

"Welp. Look no further." Yang extended her arm.

'Huh?'

"Ooh! I wanna volunteer!" Her sister extended hers as well.

'Et tu, Ruby?'

"Sorry, sis. You snooze, you lose." The older sister boasted.

"Uh-uhm." She denied. "I already called dibs on any counter-Grimm expeditions last night."

"So what? Just pick any of the other half-dozen Grimm missions available."

"Oh yeah? If you wanted this mission so much, then why didn't you say anything before Jaune did?"

"I-I- Pfft. I dunno." Yang waved off. "Maybe I just wanna tag along for the ride? Make sure he doesn't get hurt too badly, you know? What's your excuse?"

"H-Hey," Interjected Jaune. "I appreciate the help, but-"

Ruby cut him off. "Well, other than assuring everything goes right for Jaune's first field mission, I just don't wanna let my newer upgrade get rusty. Is all."

"Hey, hey. Settle down." Clover calmly spoke out. "I'll have to ask you both to compromise and responsibly determine who's going with whom on this mission."

"Yeah," Agreed Harriet. "As much fun as it is to watch you two throw a fit, I don't feel like being stuck here all morning. Does anyone have any qualms with this?"

Blake sighed. "Well…" She raised her hand, volunteering herself like the others. "I guess I could be of assistance?"

""What?"" Both sisters turned to their feline teammate. Blake herself wasn't really sure of her decision either, but she wasn't much in position to beg, let alone choosing.

"That doesn't make things easier for us, now does it?" Marrow said.

"Actually, I believe Blake has a point." Ren inferred. "She may be best suited to accompany Jaune on this operation."

"Totally." Agreed Nora. "She's the one whose eyes can see well in the dark. What you called it again, leader? Binoculars vision?"

"That was years ago." Jaune complained. "How do you still remember that?"

"Join the club, pal." Marrow placed a hand on his shoulder.

Blake blinked as the whole room, sans Ruby and Yang, began to speak in her favor. She honestly didn't think that would work, but she wasn't about to start complaining.

Ruby pouted at that. "So what if her eyes can see in the dark? Mines can zap Grimm into stone, remember?"

"Yes, when the plot demands it." Weiss pointed out.

Ruby raised a finger to argue. "…Touché."

"Right then." Said Clover. "In light of this information, I'll be allowing Belladonna and Arc to go on this mission. All good?"

Blake saw as both the half-sisters were giving her a mild stink-eye. She could only hope this wouldn't affect the team's dynamic.

Both Blake and Jaune stood before a hastily put yellow line over a subway entrance. A few cars passing by on the street behind them as if nothing serious was happening.

"So, ehm…" Jaune spilled out what sounded like words. "Ladies first?"

"…Are you insisting that I head first into a possibly Grimm infested zone?" She asked with a dull expression and raised an eyebrow.

"No, no! I mean, I am, but not like…" He mumbled the rest of his sentence. "Here! let me get that for you. He heh." He lifted out the yellow line so they could duck under it.

As cruel as she felt for saying that, Blake found it necessary to maintain a certain posture in order to tread alongside Jaune. She couldn't allow herself to fall prey to his charms or whatever nonsense he was imbued with.

Going down a series of stairs and walking through a non-functioning electronic turnstile, they arrived at an empty and vandalized subway station.

There were clear signs some odd people frequented that place. Probably by delinquent teenagers from the looks of it. Aside from that, there really wasn't much to write home about.

Blake then noticed how her partner started acting uneasy. Either by the swear-words graffitied on the walls or by the buzzing lights that barely illuminated the station at all.

"Is everything okay?" She asked with a hand on her hip.

"It's nothing." He responded. To which she waited for him to say… "It's just that…" There we go. "I didn't think this place would be this… Eerie?"

She frowned. "You volunteered yourself to go to an abandoned subway station with Grimm lurking about. What did you think it would look like?"

He did his trademark 'scratching the back of his head'. Blake wondered if she could fill out a bingo card with just these kinds of things.

"Guess I precipitated myself there. Heh. I just thought it would be as simple as 'go there and do that', and forgot to take the whole subway thing into account."

Even worse considering he thought he would be sent on this mission alone. Jaune was usually good at evaluating the risks whenever his team was involved, but not when he was all by himself. And as careless as that seemed like, it also brought forth how selfless he was-

'Nope! None of that!' She interrupted her own train of thought. She knew exactly how this was going to play out if she didn't keep her focus: She would start noticing his qualities, open herself more and more to him and end up completely infatuated by the end of the day. Oh, and his haircut would have something to do with it too.

"Look." Said Blake. "If it makes you feel any better, there's probably nothing down here. Clover said there were only reports of Grimm sightings. Some loiterers may have mistaken one for the shadow of a rat or something."

"Wait, there are rats in here?!"

"Oh, god." She facepalmed so hard that she forgot to pluralize the word 'god'.

Blake went up ahead towards the tunnel disclosed on their mission-app. She walked over the safety line painted on the floor and hopped down on the rails.

"You sure it's safe to walk up in there?" He made sure to ask.

Blake pointed at the walls of the tunnel. "This line has been out of use for over a decade. If you're afraid a train will show up, it'll be the least of our problems. Come on."

"Uh…" Jaune looked around before stepping down on the rails. "Coming."

They walked along the railed pathway for a long set of minutes. Blake scouted ahead with her night-vision while Jaune kept watch of their backs with his scroll's flashlight.

He honestly considered the idea of making a torch before she pointed out his scroll had that functionality.

And so far, she was able to resist... Whatever unusual effect Jaune was seemingly having on her and on other people at the Academy.

Having thought of that, she realized how silly it all actually sounded. Maybe the whole situation with the Amity project was causing a mental strain on her and she had been imagining things this entire time.

So yeah. It was just coincidence all along. 'Mystery solved…' She unenthusiastically commemorated in her mind.

Then there was the issue of the mission itself. Neither her or Jaune were able to start a conversation ever since they left the station. And now the echoing void of the tunnel was becoming unbearably annoying, thanks to her augmented hearing.

It didn't help either that she was really bad at small talk. There was a good chance she would be asking him about the weather even though they were in an underground tunnel.

"So…" Jaune beat her to it. "Have you done any reading recently?"

Oh, right. She forgot he was bad at small talk too.

"Yes. I did go to the library yesterday."

"Oh." He went back at surveilling their backs. "Neat."

Blake sighed. Not wanting to risk another half-hour of silence, she said. "So, remember that 'pirate-woman' I showed you last week?"

"The one you based your haircut from?" Questioned Jaune. "What about her?"

"Well… I actually did find the book she's from at the library."

"Oh, would you look at that!" He spoke happily. "You've been reading that one?"

"Mostly fast-reading to the parts I like. There's this one chapter that always made me laugh when I was little." She went on. "So one morning, the main gang is resting by the ship's bow. And not even a minute in, that same woman gets in a heated discussion with an annoying guy on her team, some thief from a backwater town. Then the man in charge of being the ship's lookout and second-in-command… Wait no, he's the third-in-command. The second-in-command is a cat."

"As in, like a Faunus or…"

"No, it is literally just the captain's cat." She explained. "As I was saying, he gets fed up with all the noise, goes to the troubling duo, gives them an oar each and says: 'Here. Take these and kill each other.' And the woman basically chases the other guy around the ship trying to smack him while he runs for his life."

"Oof. Poor guy."

"Not really. He's an obnoxious loudmouth and is always giving his teammates shit."

"Yeah, but they're still friends, right? Him and this woman too?"

"They are more like rivals." Blake paused. "Actually, not even that. They act more like bickering children whenever they're not on a mission together."

"Hah." Jaune laughed at that. "Sounds in par with half the teams I remember seeing at Beacon… And few from Atlas too."

"Heh." Blake let out a small laugh for the first time that day. "I suppose that isn't too far-fetched-"

One of her Faunus ears twitched.

"…Blake?" He asked. "You there?"

She only responded with a 'stay still' hand gesture and slowly moved on without him.

As she approached the strange noise, she began making out sounds of insect legs twitching endlessly. The sounds became more apparent the closest she walked to it.

Blake forced herself to a stop upon finding the source of the noise.

Centinels. Dozens of them.

All bunched up, crawling over the rails, walls and the ceiling of the tunnel. An entire hive buried under the streets of Mantle.

She made sure to keep her emotions in check, as any form of distress would send them storming over to her direction. Her best course of action right now would be to turn away and report her findings to Clover.

"Blake, you found anything?!" Jaune ran over to her with his scroll's flashlight still on.

The Faunus almost froze. "Shh!" She tried to shush him, reaching out to grab his scroll to block the light from it.

"H-Hey! What is it? I can't see anything."

"Be quiet." She whispered to him. "We need to get out of here. Turn off your flashlight."

"Okay, okay. Just let go of my scroll."

Blake did as he told and released his scroll, only for Jaune to let it drop on the ground. The device bounced on the rails and the flashlight briefly shined on the Centinels she was trying to avoid alerting.

"…Oops." It was all he could offer, mortified by what he just saw.

A collective screech resonated from the Centinels. Hundreds of insect legs began marching towards the duo.

"Run!" Blake ordered.

"Good idea!" Jaune frightfully grabbed his scroll and ran to the way they both came.

Blake whipped out Gambol Shroud and started taking potshots while she ran. She couldn't tell if she was hitting anything or not, as there were so many chasing after them.

She ended up bumping on Jaune's back as he had stopped for some reason.

"What are you-!" Then she saw why. Other Centinels were caving out from under the rails, barring them from going back to the station from which they entered. "We're trapped!"

More and more of them were unburying as seconds went by. The second batch of Centinels that were ambushing them were double the size of the ones originally chasing them. All of them slowly approaching their prey.

Surrounded from both sides, they both pulled their respective swords. Blake could handle herself well in the dark, but not Jaune. He would have to be forced to carry a flashlight as opposed to his shield.

"Hold on! I got an idea!" He announced. "Do you have a fire Dust round?"

"No, I only brought my standard ones." She quickly responded.

"It's okay, you can use mine." He pulled out a red colored round from his pocket.

She scoffed. "Why do you have this? You don't even use ammunition."

"How did you think I was gonna make a torch earlier? I don't carry a lighter with me."

Normally she would be dumbfounded hearing him say something like that, but she just snatched the fire round from him.

"What am I doing with this?" Blake asked as she inserted the round through the ejection port of her pistol.

"Just shoot in a straight line." Jaune answered. "That should disperse them away."

Blake ended up choosing the path with least resistance, which ironically was the way they were running away from, and fired. Just like he said, the screeching Centinels were spooked by the fire trail and hugged the walls, giving a clear path for them.

"There's our escape!" Jaune pointed. "Come on!"

They both ran past the frightened Centinels. So instead of being surround by two groups of Grimm, Blake and Jaune now had a massive horde of chasing after them. Only a slight improvement to their current ordeal.

"Okay!" Blake huffed. "Let's see if we can reach the next station in time!"

As if she just jinxed them, a couple more of Centinels dropped from large cracks on the ceiling. The two were able to dodge them as they plopped on top of the rails.

In a desperate attempt to slow the hive down, Blake turned and emptied her whole clip on their chasers. She did manage kill a handful of them, but there was a whole mountain of insect-like creatures on their tail.

"Blake, here!" Jaune called out for her. "I found something!"

Hearing his alert, Blake holstered her weapon and went back at running. She caught up to her partner and came across what he was talking.

"Quick, get in!" Jaune shouted from the door of a subway train-car, signaling for her to come over.

Blake sprinted for the remaining stretch and jumped through the door. Jaune took his cue and closed it right after.

That single train-car served as a safe-haven for them to catch up their breaths. All windows and doors were closed, and last she checked, Grimm hadn't been able to develop opposable thumbs yet.

"You were right." Jaune said as they were huffing. "A train really isn't the worst thing in the world right now."

A single Centinel jumped and smacked itself against one of the car's small windows. More of his buddies showed up attempting the exact same thing.

"This will buy us some time, but not for long." Stated Blake. "We need to find a way out of these tunnels."

"Right. Maybe there's something here we can use to…" Jaune's eye scanned the interior of the train. "Oh, hey! There's the cabin with the control panel!"

Blake watched as Jaune in all his naïve hopefulness rushed after the operator's cabin. "Jaune, I already told you. This line has been out of use for years. There's no way-"

The young-man pushed the seat aside and flipped the first switch he found. All the lights in the car went on. The train itself began humming as the systems were now operational.

Jaune stared back at one dumbfounded Blake. "…If it makes you feel any better, I didn't really think this was gonna work either."

One of the windows broke as a Centinel pushed its ugly head inside, screeching violently. Blake used the cleaver portion of Gambol Shroud to cut its head off.

"Get this thing moving!" She loaded another clip. "I'll hold them off!"

"Alright, alright." Jaune inspect the controls. "Uh, which way do we go?"

Blake kept shooting at any stragglers trying to break in. "It's a train! It only goes in one direction!"

From the cabin's window, Jaune saw as more Centinels undug themselves in front of the train. He gulped and reached out for a lever, cranking it all the way up for good measure.

The whole train-car went from zero to one hundred in about a second-and-a-half. It ran over any Centinels in its way with extreme ease, turning them into a black fog. Consequently, it also made Jaune lose his balance as the sudden speed made him stumble away from the control panel. "Whoa-oa!"

Blake held in one of the train's handles, watching as they finally distanced themselves away from their pursuers.

"I think we lost them!" She turned to him. "You can stop the train now!"

"Working on it!" Jaune struggled to get himself back up in order to return to the front cabin.

However, due to the poor conditions of a decade-old rail-line, the train shook and scraped by a wall. Jaune was thrown further away with the impact. He attempted to get another step in, but another tremble made him fall forward on his backside.

Blake was able to stand her ground and managed to move closer to him while inside the speeding train. She raised her weapon as her eyes targeted that same lever Jaune had interacted with.

With a calculated throw, her pistol flew right into front cabin and hooked itself on the lever. Blake pulled the ribbon tied to it, and brought the contraption all the way down.

The railcar decelerated immediately. Sparks could be seen flying from both sides due to the brakes also activating. The whole thing came to a grinding halt in just a matter of seconds, which did not give Blake the time brace herself as the momentum made her trip forward.

Fortunately, she did manage to cushion her fall…

On top of Jaune's chest.

Now, his breastplate wasn't particularly the softest place in the world for her face to land on, but his broad torso more than compensated by absorbing the impact.

They both recovered from their brief daze and locked eyes with each other, realizing their predicament.

"Hey…?" He uttered at the sight of Blake laying on top of him.

And just like that, Blake's neural functionalities went all the way down to just a mere and faint "Uhh…"

This was exactly what she feared it would happen. Especially after extended exposure to Jaune and his dreaded haircut. The same trance that haunted her since that day at the colosseum had returned with vengeance.

"…Blake?" He asked her again, only to receive a total of zero responses.

Several smaller Blakes inside a command center in her brain watched as all systems had inexplicably blue-screened.

It appeared as though the physical contact with him had sped up the delirium process of which she and many others fell victim to. Trying all she could, she couldn't get her eyes away from him.

Not to mention how similar their situation was when comparing with certain scenes from her novels. If she didn't regain control of her mental faculties in time, she wouldn't be able to stop herself from whatever was going to happen next.

But not all was lost. One of the top technicians at Belladonna HQ was able to override their systems and overclock Blake's auditory sensors in the hopes she would pick up something and snap her out of that trance.

And just in time, one of her ears twitched.

She rolled away from him, breathing frantically. "You hear that?"

"…No?" Jaune confusedly responded as he sat up.

In the distance, the surviving Centinels crawled along the rails searching for the pair of Huntsmen who had disturbed them.

Hundreds of insect-like legs marched as the creatures got closer to the subway train used by the duo.

…Which was completely empty by the time they arrived.

In a random alleyway in Mantle, a manhole lid was pushed open and dragged away. Blake was the first to climb out of it, followed by Jaune.

They had been able to find an emergency exit nearby that had led them to the neighboring sewer line and eventually back again at surface level.

"In hindsight…" Jaune spoke with relief as he sat on the edge of the manhole. "Those children are looking a lot less terrifying right now."

"…Uh-hum." Blake replied dryly.

"…You." He cleared his throat. "…You wanna talk about that? Back at the train?"

She didn't respond and simply turned away. Blake still hadn't come to terms with what just happened. If anything, it only made things more confusing as she still refused to accept that Jaune's hair had any influence on her. It was too crazy for her to believe.

"Say." He coughed. "You clearly look bothered by it, so how about we discuss this some other time? Huh?"

She nodded. That had been his best plan all day in Blake's opinion.

"Hey, I said I'm sorry, okay?" The blonde pleaded. "I know I shouldn't have followed you back there, but I just wanted to make sure you were alright."

She wasn't angry. Not in the slightest. She tried communicating that to him ever since they fled from that train, but he kept apologizing over and over.

"It's fine." She turned back to him. "Our mission isn't done yet. We still have to fly back to Atlas and report this incident to Clover. And hope they'll employ scorched earth tactics to deal with the infestation down there, given how underprepared we were."

"Severely underprepared!" Jaune stood up and closed the manhole. "Totally because I didn't botch things up or anything."

"Jaune…"

"Yeah, yeah… We should go."

After that exchange, they exited that alley and cruised the streets for the nearest transport center. All citizens of Mantle carried on with their lives as normal. Including that elitist guy with glasses Blake saw the other day. He was waiting in a bus-stop alone this time.

"Still, I really wanna make up to you. You know, since I almost got us killed back there." Jaune said.

"You are welcome to try." Blake replied. Jaune had more than made up for it by getting them out from those tunnels alive, but it wasn't like he was going to shut up about it anytime soon.

"Oh! I know!" He snapped his fingers. "I got word of this place from some fellow students the other day. There's this new fancy restaurant in Atlas that just premiered last week. From what I heard, they specialize in seafood. I could arrange us a reservation. My treat, even. What do you say?"

A seafood restaurant in a flying city in the middle of the white tundra of Solitas? Now she heard of everything.

Blake was willing to politely refuse if only to save him from spending his hard-earned Lien on her. But then again, it'd be nice to humor his request after the way she acted with him all morning. That, and she was meaning to go back to her old pescatarian diet for a long time now.

"If that's what it takes for you to realize we're already even, then sure." She gave in to his invitation.

"Great! I'll see if I can get us a table there within the week." Jaune merrily remarked. He then checked the time on his scroll. "Oh, we better hurry. My shift with the elementary school starts in an hour, and I left my most important tool in Atlas."

"Your stop-sign?" She guessed it.

"Try stopping a car with a just a whistle. It's not as effective as you might think."

Blake smiled, letting an inaudible laugh. Sure, the whole issue surrounding Jaune was still up in the air, but all things considered, she wouldn't mind tagging along with him in another mission. And better yet, she had a date… to look… for…

Wait…

'Did I just accept to go on a date with Jaune?'

She looked up to him as they strode by the sidewalk. That smile. That damned smile. And that face, and those blue eyes and of course, that same haircut she had been responsible for. The fool likely hasn't realized what he did either.

She averted her eyes before shaking her head.

'It can't be the haircut.'

An update to It's Totally the Haircut has been released. The major changes include:

} Moved "Bold text." from the first chapter's header to the second chapter's footnotes.

Bold text.