Ruby, by virtue of her semblance, beat Yang to the gym by a long shot. Red rose petals scattered across the locker room floor as she punched in her combination and started shedding her school jacket to swap for her combat gear for the Team RWBY-minus-Blake sparring match vs their new hall buddies, EMC... MEC... who was their last member? Emerald, Mercury, Cinder... hm. Ruby frowned for a second but shrugged it off.

She'd had Crescent Rose with her all day, as her entire team was operating under special permission from the headmaster, which was both a grave responsibility (since multiple people wanted to hurt Blake and Weiss and one of them could teleport and apparently impersonate other people) and super fun because carrying her scythe with her everywhere and protecting people was exactly what she'd imagined doing at Beacon. But mostly responsibility. (But still fun.) So all she needed to do was get changed and she'd be ready to go.

Footsteps sounded in the gym proper on their way into the locker room just as she was refastening her cape, and she turned, grinning and expecting Yang.

Curious crimson eyes greeted her instead. "Hey Ruby," Emerald flashed the younger girl a knowing smile as she stopped a few lockers down, punching in her code, "Always early for sparring, huh?"

"Oh, sure, I mean, we didn't have like a super fixed time anyway," Ruby shrugged with a little too much fake nonchalance. She was so ready for sparring. The only thing keeping her from circling Crescent Rose open right here in the locker room was her awareness of how cool it looked to do it at the start of a match. "So... tournament rules?"

"Not quite," Emerald could practically see Ruby vibrating out of her skin with anticipation, so she made sure to pull off her school uniform piece by piece in favor of the combat gear she'd pulled from her locker as slowly and languidly as possible. "We were thinking weapons only. No semblances. Gotta leave some surprises for the tournament, right?" She winked.

Yang skidded around the corner at that very moment, jogging a wobbly path down their row of lockers over to Ruby before she stopped altogether, doubled over and wheezing. "Why... do I always... let you talk me... into racing..."

Ruby was already punching Yang's locker code in for her and handing her the water bottle she kept with her other gear. She ran her free hand over her short hair, giving Emerald a sort of lopsided grin, "Oh, uh, that's fine. I mean, you do already know our semblances, though, right?"

Emerald's only response was a coy smile and shrug as she pulled her last belt securely into place.

"Wait so-" Yang spoke in a rush between gulps of water, "we're doing what now? No semblance? Unarmed sparring?"

"Oh, no," Emerald pulled her revolvers from her locker, spun them around her fingers for good measure, and holstered them behind her all in one smooth motion. "Definitely with weapons."

Ruby couldn't hold back anymore, sweeping Crescent Rose open and into her ready stance so she could pose with Emerald. "Yeah."

Without looking, she held out her hand to her hall buddy for a high five.

After a split-second's pause, Emerald arched a brow and returned the high-five.

"All right all right, haters," Yang laughed, diving into her locker for her combat outfit and Ember Celica, "But just because we're not using semblances doesn't mean we're gonna go easy on you guys!"

Emerald's smirk returned in full. "Wouldn't have it any other way."

On most days, the entrance to the sparring area of the gym was just another door. Today though, for Blake specifically, it was a portal to hell. A hell in which she would be sitting and watching people fight, when she could be sleeping. Well, at least, she could have been sleeping if Ren hadn't caught up with her after her last class of the day. She had been so out of it by then she'd almost completely forgotten his offer before he showed up and handed her a water bottle full of something practically neon green.

Ren's mysterious drink certainly had her feeling... awake... if "awake" meant feeling like a lifeless marionette being jerked about by the all-powerful strings of caffeine. She wasn't entirely sure the effect was worth the five-day-old sun-wilted salad flavor.

Sullen bloodshot amber eyes drifted sideways, happy at least to land on Weiss. "...Remind me again why I agreed to come to this?"

Despite being somewhat low energy, what with recovering from being sick and all, Weiss was in peak form. Her hair was perfect, her shoulders straight. It had occurred to her that this was a perfect opportunity to get some inside information on their future competitors, even if the tournament wasn't until the end of the semester.

"Because this is a valuable chance to get to know the students from Haven," Weiss pronounced loftily as they entered the gym's propped open door. "Plus they're our new neighbors. As good teammates, we can't leave all the work to Ruby and Yang."

Despite being hopped up on caffeine, Blake felt quite possibly the worst she ever had in her life, disheveled hair slipping over one of her shoulders as she slowly nodded, "Mmm hmm..." She fixed Weiss with a blank look, "Hear me out though... What if.. we did."

"What if you lie down on the bleachers for a while so you don't have to hike all the way back to the dorms?" came Weiss's counter offer as she pulled Blake off to the side of the corridor to straighten her collar and fix her hair. She really did look terrible. If she wasn't sick, she was at least sleep deprived beyond all reason.

Blake stared off into the middle distance for a few seconds too long. Eventually she blinked back into the present, and held one hand up. "Bleachers are hard and cold." She held her other hand up. "Beds are warm and soft."

Weiss scoffed gently, her hands slowing as she finished adjusting the ribbon at the collar of Blake's shirt. Play arguing was entertaining, but the fact of the matter was that they'd moved dorms to hopefully get a reprieve from Neo. Neo, who was still at large. Until she was brought in, neither of them were going to be walking around alone, much less taking impromptu naps without any means of defense. Even if the two of them went together, Weiss could still feel she wasn't quite in top form. She was tired; if she and Blake both returned to the dorms and fell asleep, how quickly could they be ready to fend off an attack?

It felt stupid to wish Beacon were safer. Honestly, they were here to learn to fight Grimm. Safety was hardly high on anyone's list of criteria when choosing a monster hunting school. Still. Maybe it had just seemed safer before, when Grimm were the only monsters they had to worry about.

The hair on the back of Weiss's neck prickled up and her gaze snapped to her right.

"Oh," It was Emerald's teammate, Mercury. He'd just turned the corner and had stopped, a knowing look crossing his features, "... am I interrupting?"

Weiss relaxed a fraction, giving Blake's uniform ribbon a final tug as she sighed, "No. Did Ruby send you?"

"Hey, take your time," The gray haired young man smirked. He was already in his silver-gray and black combat gear. He laced his fingers behind his head, "Your team lead is pretty antsy, though. Almost like she's worried about you guys getting jumped or something. Crazy, huh?"

Blake gave an irritated flick of one of her Faunus ears at the intrusion, twitching with the desire to interject that actually Mercury had in fact interrupted the otherwise delightful experience of being fussed over by Weiss. Instead all her energy-drink-addled brain could focus on was the sudden and completely unwelcome reminder of her and Weiss's situation, the unfortunate power of caffeine allowing her brain to replay each and every close call they'd shared in the past weeks in rapid-fire high-fidelity detail. Torchwick, Cerise, Neo, Adam - people she would much rather not be thinking about at the moment, given how often she'd already been seeing them in her hallucinations and nightmares as of late.

Before Blake knew it, she was scowling. Who did this guy even think he was? With that overconfident pose and that... that cheese-grater smirk... Wow caffeine made it incredibly hard to find the right words sometimes. Mercury had seemed neutral enough the few times their paths had crossed in passing, and as their server he'd been two steps shy of vaguely pleasant, but at this very moment Blake wanted nothing more than to watch Ruby and Yang tear this guy to pieces. Metaphorically. And maybe a little bit literally. Had she been well rested and not strung out on one of Ren's mystery drinks, she would have happily torn him apart herself with some kind of... subtle... stabby remark. But with her turbo-boosted thoughts sprinting circles around her capacity to actually speak, Blake opted for something a bit more concise.

"...I don't like you."

Mercury looked at her, more entertained than insulted, he shrugged, "Hey if you wanted privacy you could always try a closet or something."

Several snappy retorts came crashing through Blake's mind all at once, but with her inability to pluck one from the whirlwind, she settled on just scowling harder.

"We weren't-," Weiss cut herself off. Honestly, she'd been entirely neutral towards the other student when he'd shown up but she was rapidly picking up on Blake's irritated wavelength. "Never mind. We're here. Let's go."

She all but waved Mercury off as she guided Blake past him and into the gym proper. They were running late, and antsy Ruby meant ready-to-tear-the-school-apart Yang.

It was a school day, so the gym was busy with students keeping up with their weekly routines. A handful of upperclassmen were doing something to a treadmill- running on it but also possibly attempting to send it into some kind of turbo mode. The whole place smelled like sweat and burning electrical tape. The sharp clang of metal rang out as a couple of the inconsequential members of team CRDL racked their weights. The aluminum bleachers along the wall closest to the equipment were littered with workout bags and towels. The open mats were clear, though, possibly because Ruby Rose was idly swinging her massive death scythe around, her brow knit in what looked like distracted concern, which was not a state you wanted a fifteen year old to be in while wielding a tool designed to shear through flesh and bone. Weiss stopped short when Ruby spotted her and a split second later she and Blake had rose petals flying in their faces.

"Guys!" Ruby pushed them over to join Yang. Mercury had followed them in with a sour look on his face. Ruby glanced from him to Blake, "Whoa, are you okay? You look..."

"...totally ready for some friendly sparring!" Yang threw an arm around Blake and also Weiss, for equality's sake. "Yeah? Yeah?"

"No." Blake slid out of her partner's grasp, but barely got a half-step away before Yang grabbed her sleeve.

"Aw wait what! But what about our cool partner attacks and stuff?" Yang whined, daring to unleash her expertly-honed puppy-dog eyes without warning.

Unfortunately for her, Blake had no energy left to feel remorse, her expression stoic as she placed a hand atop Yang's and stared her down. "Fight well."

"Betrayal," Yang clutched at her heart and dramatically leaned into Weiss as Blake pulled away and dragged herself towards the bleachers.

While Ruby and Yang grabbed onto Weiss, alternately pleading and sales-pitching her to lock her in as a participant, Blake found herself sprawling out on the hard bleachers in the vicinity of a familiar face.

"Blake, was it?" Cinder Fall was dressed in a well-cut white long sleeve shirt and the black and gray checkered skirt of Haven Academy's uniform. She spared the tired Faunus a small smile as she drew a needle through the shoulder of what appeared to be her black school jacket. "You didn't catch your partner's cold, did you?"

In the interests of maintaining amicable relations with their new "hall buddies" Blake suppressed a groan at the interruption of her attempted catnap. She made a noncommittal noise, pairing it with an equally noncommittal shrug. Not exactly lying, but hopefully vague enough to keep the other girl from venturing closer.

The sound of shifting fabric garnered a curious twitch from one of Blake's Faunus ears, and she cracked an eye open, finding Cinder sitting the next row up. Blake blinked, then blinked again. Ah - that's right, this was the same girl that had taken the seat between her and the headmaster at the symphony.

Memories of that less-than-ideal evening crashed through Blake unbidden, flashes of Adam's sneering face flooding her with adrenaline and cold fury.

Well there was no way she was going to be able to nap now.

Ears flat, Blake ground the palms of her hands into her eyes, as if she could push the images back into her skull. When that didn't work, she begrudgingly opted for her very last resort - engaging in small talk. "...Not going to join the fray?"

"Not today," the dark haired woman said lightly, almost knowingly. That was probably just the exhausted edge of paranoia speaking, though.

Back on the mats, Weiss was gesturing between Yang and Mercury, whose smirk was really starting to get on her nerves. "Obviously if semblances aren't in play, you're a fair match up. I do not want to end the day with a decapitation on my record."

"I like that confidence, princess," the exchange student said in a way that absolutely didn't change her mind. At all.

Weiss gritted her teeth and continued, "And Ruby, you should spar first, while I check on Blake."

Ruby had Crescent Rose balanced across her shoulder while Weiss tried to talk her way out of sparring, like that could ever happen. She turned to Emerald, "Is your other teammate not coming?"

Emerald shrugged, never losing that coy smile. "Eh, who knows, she kind of does her own thing."

"But she might come," Ruby emphasized the 'might' with both hands in a sort of slow, semi-karate-chop motion, like she wasn't quite setting aside the hope of showing off for the entire across-the-hall-team. She fumbled quickly to catch her scythe as it tipped off balance.

"If she does, she's mine," Weiss informed Ruby off-handedly as she crossed to the bleachers. Staking her claim on a mystery opponent could be a risk, but she had training with Goodwitch and could certainly stand to conserve her energy if possible. Plus what were the chances a flaky teammate showed up when they'd never seen her around before? It was to the point where she might have assumed Haven operated with teams of three if she didn't already know better. Ignoring the arrangements being made on the mat for which match was up first and whatever other pestering Ruby was doing, Weiss took a seat next to Blake's head and unshouldered her bag, telling her, "Here, sit up."

That earned a small groan of protest, but Blake let her hands fall from her face and tried to push herself off the bench with her elbows, feeling like she was fighting against one of Weiss's gravity Dust glyphs the whole way up.

Weiss slid her bag, which contained her folded up combat outfit, under Blake's head so she didn't have to lie directly on the hard bleachers. "Okay, you can lie down now."

Blake arched a brow and craned her neck over her shoulder to investigate what the heck was pressed against the backs of her elbows. She took one look at Weiss, one look at the bag, then picked it up and held it against her chest, promptly lying back down and claiming Weiss's lap as her pillow of choice.

Weiss jumped at the sudden intrusion of her personal space and almost dumped Blake's head right back on the hard bleacher. Instead, without thinking she wound up with one hand gripped in Blake's school jacket and the other lightly in her hair, like maybe she was going to just... slide her over, like a cafeteria tray along a table to restore their respective amounts of personal space. That was ridiculous, though, and would require more of a shove than Weiss could get at this angle, and she didn't want to shove Blake exactly.

Before her brain could get any traction, Cinder Fall commented from her spot one bleacher up, "You two seem to get along well."

Weiss snapped her mouth shut so fast her teeth clicked.

"Excuse us a moment," she said to the transfer student, who merely paused her... sewing project?... and continued to watch. Weiss ducked close over Blake who was in her lap on the bleachers at the edge of the mats in one of Beacon's very public gyms to hiss, "What are you doing?"

One of Blake's Faunus ears flicked, lightly brushing Weiss's nose. "Resting," she half-sighed, far too comfortable to even bother opening her eyes.

Weiss could feel the redness creeping up from her collar. Her grip on Blake's school jacket and hair tightened as she resisted the urge to smooth those Faunus ears back and make an idiot of herself over how adorable Blake was. Because she was not adorable- not when she was lying on her like she was a piece of furniture. Mastering herself, the fencer took a breath, "I'm not a couch, you know."

"No," Blake agreed, briefly cracking one eye open to peer up at Weiss, before shutting it again and lowering her voice just shy of a whisper, "you're far more comfortable."

Weiss had no idea if Blake, having cat ears, also had cat hearing, which was the only way she'd be able to hear the very high register furious whisper back, "Is that supposed to be a compliment?!"

Before Blake could muster a reply or Weiss could build up to a proper tirade, Ruby (clearly the ambassador of Yang who was over by Emerald and Mercury on the mats grinning hard enough that a normal human would have strained a muscle) joined the whisper-huddle, her red cloak trailing after Crescent Rose, "Weiss it's fine if you need to sit out since you're trapped but if you get untrapped you can just join in later."

The fencer inhaled to snap at her partner, but stopped, suddenly realizing the out being handed to her on a silver platter. She shut her mouth and seethed for a half second before releasing her holds on Blake's hair and jacket and indicating her with both open hands, "As you can see, you are correct. There's obviously nothing I can do about this."

"Yeah, good luck," Ruby cast Blake a conflicted look, but they were decidedly not kissing so it was fine. She rejoined the others, who were looking ready to take their places and start.

Weiss sighed, ignoring how red her face was as she tried to brush Blake's hair into some semblance of respectability. "This isn't going to be a regular thing."

Ruby looked over her shoulder one more time and regretted it because Weiss was playing with Blake's hair. She loved her team, but why couldn't they be nice and romance free? Like JNPR? Sighing, she gave an exaggerated shrug to Yang, "Well, they're out. Who wants to go first?"

"All of us," Yang punched her fist into her open hand.

"We figured since your teammates are... occupied, we could just do a little two on two." Emerald clarified, smirking up at the crimson-faced heiress.

Mercury plucked imaginary lint from his jacket, "Don't worry- you're what? First years? We'll go easy on you."

Ruby had been looking a little surprised. She and Yang hadn't fought as a two person team in a while; they'd been two years apart at Signal and at Beacon Yang got along with everyone but Ruby had mostly been working so hard to mesh styles with Weiss. She grinned at Yang, half shrugging Crescent Rose off her shoulder and into her ready stance, "I think we'll be fine, right?"

"Oh yeah," Yang drawled, stepping back and squaring up beside her sister. "Maybe we'll be the ones going easy on them, huh?"

"You better not," Emerald smirked and stepped back as well, whipping her chain sickles free and idly twirling one in a tight circle. "Because I'm not going easy on anyone."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," Yang smirked right back.

Up in the stands Blake half-listened to the ridiculously cheesy banter, but even the ensuing sounds of battle couldn't pull her focus from the delightful sensation of Weiss's fingertips brushing across her scalp. "My money's on Ruby and Yang." She mumbled, at least attempting to feign interest.

Metal clashed on metal- how Emerald's chain sword... things... worked, Weiss had no idea, but they were a tough match for Ruby's Crescent Rose. Somehow being on the sidelines was- well, it was nice to stop for a few minutes. Weiss was definitely watching the start of the match and was one hundred percent not distracted or flustered at all by the peaceful way Blake was falling asleep in her lap. The ex-heiress would never admit it, but she was about ready to lie down on the bleachers herself. (Not directly on the metal. She would put down a coat or something, at least.)

Being sick had just been the latest of a series of events, and now in addition to not being fully recovered herself, it looked like Blake might be suffering from the same sickness and would need looking after. Maybe being this tired was just an early stage, or maybe her immune system was handling it better than hers had. Probably she'd had experience with whatever bugs circulated in Vale, whereas Weiss hadn't. She looked at Blake, and just felt... she wanted to ask if she was sure she was okay, but she restrained herself from asking what would be the third or fourth time by now and instead answered Blake's comment on the match. She intended her opinion to come out with a little more bite, but wound up keeping her voice a little low, "Naturally I hope they win, but if they do it by burning down the gym I'm never agreeing to come to a 'hallway buddy' spar again."

Blake's lips quirked. "This from the girl who set the forest on fire."

"Hey," Weiss crossed her arms, feigning offense, "if Ruby hadn't gotten in the way, maybe I wouldn't have to live with all of these unfair accusations. And that's beside the point anyway. Those were trees. This is a building on school grounds."

Blake stifled a small snicker, but didn't press further, content to let the conversation lull. She knew actual sleep was an impossibility with the energy from Ren's drink still running rampant through her system, but at the very least she could let her body rest and just focus all of her senses on the here and now. Ruby's small squeaks of effort, no doubt fending off that Emerald girl's chain sickles - always nice to see a fellow chain sickle user, though she questioned the efficacy of actual chain over a more flexible fabric. Yang's growling laughter, tinged with frustration, understandable, given just how much Blake knew her partner despised guarding against kicks and just how much Mercury seemed to love kicking and only kicking.

A particularly heavy series of grunts and thuds cemented Blake's certainty that yes, sitting this particular sparring session out was in fact an excellent idea. Especially with Weiss right here, keeping her very good company. If she was lucky, resting up like this beforehand might make training with Peach... smoother.

Weiss snuck a glance down at Blake and slowly dropped the offended act so she could fix her hair again even though it didn't need fixing. She... she liked this. When Blake was relaxed around her, with her. In the gym, though, where just anyone could walk in? The heat that had crept up her collar remained, even though she told herself it was fair turnabout. She'd kissed her in the cafeteria, after all, none too discreetly at that.

The match was starting to draw the attention of the other students working out in the gym, and Weiss's blush worsened considerably when she noticed Pyrrha and Jaune heading their way.

"There you two are," Pyrrha greeted the pair, briefly fixing Cinder with a curious smile. She took a seat beside Weiss, leaving just enough room to preserve the visibly flustered ex-heiress's personal space, but not enough that Jaune might try to sit between them. "Where's the rest of the opposing team?"

Weiss tossed her hair a bit. A little self-aggrandizing might keep Pyrrha and Jaune's attention off of Blake's head currently being in her lap. "I picked the no show, apparently. Maybe he or she was just too intimidated."

Jaune was not distracted and was in fact staring around Pyrrha, brows up near his messy blonde hairline. Before Weiss could turn any redder though, she heard the other member of the opposing team chuckling.

Cinder had a smile that was both amused and condescending as she drew her needle through the fabric of her school uniform's jacket. She glanced up when she noticed that Weiss had turned towards her. "Oh please go on. It's adorable to see Beacon's first years so full of completely unwarranted confidence."

Blake cracked an eye open and fixed Cinder with a look of fresh disdain. "Pretty big talk for someone sitting the fight out herself."

One of the transfer student's slender brows rose, her hands going still as she paused her work as she asked lightly, almost amused, "Is that a challenge?"

Blake arched a brow in kind. "Feeling threatened by Beacon first years?"

The clash of steel and sound of Ruby laughing and Mercury and Yang bantering on the mats continued, but had very much fallen into the background.

"No," Cinder drew her words out, something like contempt showing in the curve of her mouth, "I'm just curious to see if your Schnee is really going to let her friends do all the fighting for her. It wouldn't be a surprise."

Weiss hadn't gotten a word in, mostly because she had Blake's head in her lap and was trying to figure out how on earth she managed to look aloof and dignified in that position. Hearing her family name, however, snapped her back into focus faster than a team attack call from Ruby.

"Excuse me?" She bristled from her seat, not sure whether to be angrier over the implication that she was using her teammates to get out of sparring or over the phrase 'your Schnee'. "I don't know who you think you are-"

"Hey, hey guys," Jaune, ever the peacemaker, appeared between them, arms loosely apart as if to separate the two (three if you counted Blake). He laughed a little nervously, "It's just sparring, right? Just a rousing good time. No... actual personal attacks."

Blake had half a mind to make a personal attack or two right at that moment, but a flash of movement caught her eye and she glanced down at the sparring match just in time to see Yang sprint full-tilt at Mercury, duck a high sweeping kick, and surprise body-tackle the poor guy, sending them both crashing off of the mats through some of the other students, landing in a sprawl of limbs against one of the dumbbell racks that lined the wall. She thought she saw Emerald snicker, but the girl was quick to refocus on Ruby, who barely left her room to breathe with the sheer speed of her attacks.

"Looks like it's one-on-one now." Pyrrha laughed, standing to go check on the pair. In full support of Jaune's earlier olive branch of peace, she offered Cinder a passing smile, "Once the mats are free I'd be more than happy to go a round or two with you, if you'd like."

"That's very kind of you," Cinder started with a slow, knowing smirk at Weiss. Everyone was ready to jump to her defense.

If Jaune hadn't interrupted, Weiss might have already dumped Blake out of her lap to stand up and demand a match. She hesitated, though, and the few seconds' delay that Pyrrha's offer bought gave her a moment to see she was being baited.

Maybe Weiss was missing something. Obviously Cinder was an upperclassman at Haven- maybe she was just looking to bully a freshman student. Would it be a bad mismatch if she agreed to a match? Hackles rising, Weiss discreetly gripped Blake's sleeve to get her attention and see if there was any glaring reason she shouldn't challenge the older girl.

Blake's Faunus ears, which had flattened inch by inch with each word out of Cinder's smirking mouth, finally relaxed again in response to the gentle tug on her sleeve. Amber eyes trailed up to Weiss, briefly flicked to Cinder, then back to Weiss again. Something was definitely off about that Haven student... but she was just that - some random student. Weird vibes aside, she was holding an actual conversation with them, which meant she wasn't Neo at the very least.

Weiss had been out sick the past few days... Maybe she would enjoy a bit of a warmup before returning to Goodwitch's clutches?

With a light hum, Blake stretched a bit, gripped the bag on her stomach, and slowly sat up, finally freeing her poor trapped girlfriend.

That was good enough for Weiss, who was up in an instant, ignoring Jaune, who had hung back apparently to referee if necessary, and positioning herself directly in front of Cinder.

"Pyrrha is very kind, but you called for a match with my team." The fencer let the rest go unsaid: Cinder wasn't here to see how JNPR fought. She was here for RWBY.

After all, what better way to gauge the competition than to watch a little extra curricular sparring? It was the only thing that made sense, given that the upperclassman had proposed the match and come to see it. She clearly hadn't even planned to participate, which made her motives pretty blatant in Weiss's book unless she was honestly prioritizing her sewing project over the event she'd proposed.

"So now you want to spar, hm?" Cinder trailed off without looking at Weiss while she finished her line of stitching, leaving the ex-heiress standing there for a handful of seconds. She slipped her needle through a fold of the cloth to keep her place. By the time she set the jacket aside on the bleachers, Weiss might have been red in the face from being effectively ignored if she wasn't already familiar with this sort of subtle power play. As it was, she waited with icy patience until Cinder rose, brushing her dark hair back over her shoulder in a fluid motion and drawing her words out, "I'll admit I'm curious to see if there's any talent under all that money."

"Can't exactly buy your way into a Huntsman Academy," Blake laid back down, using the bag as a pillow in lieu of Weiss's lap. She was this close to challenging their delightful hall-buddy to a sparring match herself, curious to see if there was any substance beneath all of Cinder's silky-smooth posturing, but she had the sneaking suspicion Weiss would prefer to defend her own honor.

"Did you hear that?" Cinder walked over to the narrow stairs that cut down the center of the bleachers and came down to stand in front of Weiss, indicating Blake with a tilt of her chin. "She thinks that you'd still be here without private training. A custom weapon. Access to the finest Dust in all of Remnant."

Weiss's icy gaze faltered for a second. This wasn't exactly a new line of attack, but it stung more than usual after weeks of working with Ruby to modify her sword to reliably take courser grain Dust. Still, she didn't give ground.

"And your name besides that," the taller woman traced a fingertip down to the center of Weiss's collar. "You could have turned in a forged... no, a blank transcript and still been given a place."

Jaune had been climbing down the bleachers, but hesitated halfway off the last one next to Blake, his face a little pale.

Weiss waited for Cinder to pause, mastering the full force of her self control to not swat away the light touch from her collar and instead just clenched her fist and maintained eye contact. "Are we going to spar, or am I going to have to hear about your tragic childhood first?"

At that, Cinder's smirk dropped into something more serious. There was a moment of stillness where she might just as easily have adjusted her touch of Weiss's shirt collar to a grip on her throat, but it was broken by the sharp report of Crescent Rose being fired in the gym.

The scythe had gotten tangled in the chains of Emerald's weapons, and Ruby had leveled the rifle directly at her opponent and fired.

Blake's attention, which had been laser focused on Cinder just in case she needed to engage in a little bit of violence, snapped back to the sparring mats, where Emerald was mid-dive-roll, having quickly abandoned her sickles in favor of not taking a shot to the face. "...I see Ruby is being extra friendly today," Blake said with a smile.

Emerald cleanly rolled back up to her feet just behind the younger girl and threw both her hands out. "Okay wait - you're allowed to fire rounds in here?"

Ruby spun Crescent Rose so the slack chains of Emerald's sickles fell free to the mats.

"Nope!" She said and popped her magazine loose, holding it up so she could see a crude marker drawing of Zwei with angry eyes and the magazine in his mouth between the words 'no bullet, only sound'. "I mean, we can in the arena set ups in some of the classrooms but here's just the gym and I figured you'd be fine if we wound up using a classroom, so..." she was rubbing the back of her neck, grin fading as she glanced towards the Cinder-Weiss situation, which... was... it looked like they'd stepped away from each other. She bolstered her grin and tried to gauge Emerald's reaction, "you're fine, right? We don't have to count that, I mean, if you want to keep going."

Weiss was already at the edges of the mat calling to Ruby as she flung an arm towards the onlookers, "Ruby are you serious?! You're going to give everyone hearing loss!"

"I am not!"

"There's a sign on the door." Technically it said 'no live ammunition allowed', presumably to prevent damage to students using the equipment, not to mention the walls.

While Weiss and Ruby bickered, Jaune noticed Yang, Pyrrha, and Mercury returning from the weight lifting area. The blonde swordsman finished descending the bleachers, intercepting Cinder before she and Weiss could re-engage, "Hey, how about we take a break on the sparring for now and give you guys the unofficial Beacon tour? Building's you've already got, sure, but vending machines, good hangout spots... there's this great tree..."

He petered out with a nervous laugh, hoping for backup before the daggers in the visiting student's eyes turned to something more tangible.

"And some great views as well, with the school being located on a cliffside," Pyrrha Nikos, backup incarnate, sidled up beside Jaune, armed with her usual sweet smile.

Yang appeared at Jaune's other side, slinging an arm around his shoulders, her free hand clutching her stomach. "Well I don't know about you guys, but one of my favorite hangout spots is the cafeteria. Which will be opening for dinner very, very soon."

"I could go for some food," Emerald kept her tone neutral, grabbing her weapons from the mats. "I think I'm fine calling it a draw," she said to Ruby, casually pilfering the younger girl's magazine of blanks as she spoke. "Devious. I like it," she handed it back with a wink of approval.

"Thanks!" Ruby brightened at the compliment, but almost instantly went sober, brow furrowed. "Wait, devious?"

Emerald's interruption checked Weiss's scolding for a split second and the ex-heiress had to set her teeth to not swap targets and insist on Ruby clearly being the match's victor. Instead, she turned, to see Cinder coolly enduring her green-haired companion's barely shuttered enthusiasm over just being in her proximity. The older student looked up as the others started to move towards the door, her gaze fixed on Weiss's for a moment, almost as if in promise. Then she was walking with the rest of her team and the mix of JNPR and Yang, through the dispersing crowd of other students who'd been interested in the match.

Weiss stood where she was, silent and livid that the others would shield her like this- like she couldn't handle a sparring match. The part of her that kept her from storming after the group knew she'd just recovered from being sick, and that that student, Cinder, almost certainly had a lot more experience than she did. Was she a third or fourth year student? Maybe some kind of teacher's assistant? The display of self-assurance Cinder put on wasn't the same as, say, Winter's well-earned air of absolute competence, so probably if she'd graduated it had been recent.

Weiss knew that she herself had improved from her time here at Beacon quite drastically. Gone were the days of struggling to take down a single boarbatusk. How much better would she be in six months? A year? How far ahead were their own upperclassmen? She'd have to keep training to find out.

In the meantime, having the others so obviously cover for her when she didn't even want them to was humiliating. Not that there were any circumstances when she would want them to. She could handle herself. Maybe she could have learned a trick or two from a match with an experienced upperclassman. Simultaneously, though, she appreciated the gesture, which was very annoying.

"Hey, you don't think I'm devious, right?" Ruby was starting to fret at her side, "Like, not too devious. Like, maybe enough that I can be a little edgy and cool, but not devious in a bad way?"

Weiss took the magazine from her hand and bonked her lightly on the head with it, "Never do this again and you probably won't have to worry."

"Ouch," Ruby rubbed her head and stowed Crescent Rose. Weiss, still a little hot under the collar, could hear her following at her heels as she headed back over to the bleachers, "So... things looked kind of intense over here." She looked from her partner to Blake. "Everything okay?"

Blake had finally motivated herself to get up once she saw everyone leaving, but she was clearly in no hurry, languidly stretching her arms over her head as she stood. "Just one of our new hall buddies making a great first impression," she answered, her tone as flat as the look she leveled at the back of Cinder's head. When the visiting upperclassman vanished with her teammates through the doors, Blake kept staring off into the distance, eyes narrowing in distaste as she casually linked hands with Weiss, lacing their fingers together. "...I bet you could take her."

Now she was hot under the collar for a different reason, and she could feel the blush spreading lightly to her face as she opened her hand to pull away. Upon belatedly realizing what Blake was doing, she kept it open so Blake could find a comfortable grip, which she returned, relaxing a bit into the easy contact and scoffing. "In a no semblance match? Please. Between the two of us, she obviously correctly pegged me as the easier target."

Blake exchanged a quiet glance with Ruby before nudging Weiss's shoulder with her own. "I don't think she's as insightful as she thinks she is." Since Blake hadn't yet changed out of her regular school uniform she didn't have her own bag with her, so she picked up Weiss's and shouldered it, flashing her girlfriend a smirk. "She had the worst read on your work ethic I've ever seen."

Weiss arched a brow at this, Blake's second very direct compliment. "Are we just saying nice things about each other now? I don't mind."

"I kind of mind," Ruby contributed as the resident third wheel on their way to the gym door. "Unless I'm included?"

"Of course-" Blake hid an enormous yawn behind her hand, happy to let Weiss lead her around obstacles like gym equipment and doors and other students, "-you are. That was an excellent use of subterfuge to secure that win against Emerald."

Ruby had brightened at being involved, but her grin dropped at the word 'subterfuge'.

Weiss noticed the way she leaned away from Blake and drove the knife home, "You know, some people might even call it 'devious'."

"Weiss!" Ruby whined, grabbing Blake's sleeve as if the Faunus would defend her, "I have a sniper rifle! I'm supposed to snipe! It's not devious, right?"

"What's wrong with being a little devious?" Blake smiled, deviously.

By the time they got to the cafeteria for dinner, they'd managed to tease Ruby all the way around about her trick shot, and in Weiss's book she deserved it- her ears had been ringing for at least five minutes after that. The conversation evolved into an attempt to rank each other and their fellow teams on a 'scale of deviousness', and once Ren and Nora and the others (sans Cinder's team, who they had seemingly successfully disengaged) joined them at the table, chaos reigned. Thank goodness, because the cook's attempt at Mistralian vegetable noodles consisted mainly of broccoli and spaghetti noodles in some kind of brown sauce that was possibly gravy. Weiss was slightly too hungry and too broke to pull her usual 'grab an apple and fall back on takeout' maneuver, and welcomed the distraction.

"Well I think Ozpin is hands down the most devious," Nora jerked her thumb over her shoulder to indicate Beacon's tower, which wasn't actually in that direction. Jaune craned his neck towards the library, confused. "How else would he get to be the Headmaster?"

"Maybe he killed the previous headmaster in gladiatorial combat," Yang punched her fist into her open hand, nearly upsetting her plate of noodles.

"He is rumored to be exceptionally skilled in battle," Pyrrha added with an amused smile.

"That would make him bloodthirsty, not devious," Ren countered, lazily reaching across the table to move Nora's drink out of range of Yang's arm as she swept it wide.

"Assassination, then."

Blake shot her partner an incredulous look, but actually saying anything took way too much energy - energy she was currently funneling into talking herself into eating the... thing Ren had handed her the second she'd taken a seat beside him. Some kind of... energy bar? Suspiciously green. Smelled vaguely of grass and nuts and perhaps a hint of cinnamon. He'd apparently made it himself and she'd just watched him eat the one he'd brought for himself, so it probably wasn't poisoned. At least, it would be rude to refuse. And anyway it seemed easier than trying to spear Beacon's equally suspect sauce-slathered noodles with a fork... and she would need the energy to make it through training...

Weiss cut her noodles into reasonable lengths with a knife and soldiered through. It was worse knowing what dish they were probably trying to recreate- a light vegetable stir fry with beef, noodles, and a distinctly Mistralian glaze of honey and herbs. It had been a foolish attempt given the school's need to cook a metric ton of food at once, and the gravy as sauce was a mistake that failed to make up the difference of substituting in chicken. It wasn't inedible, though, and Weiss knew she was short on calories for the day, so that was that.

Blake, however, appeared to be willing herself to eat a compressed rectangular lump of freshly cut grass. Weiss lowered her fork, looking from Blake to the 'food' in her hand and back, brow raised.

Blake caught the look, shrugged in defeat, and took a bite.

A/N: The one time Weiss and Cinder interacted (at the end of volume 8) made me realize what a good opportunity having them butt heads might be. Team Monochrome has a lot to deal with right now, so will Cinder really contribute to it? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Next up is a training session I have been looking forward to for a while.

Stay tuned!

- Fiercesomest