AN: Another short chapter for you guys. It's why I was able to get this done so fast.

Enjoy!

Chapter 35

Emerald really couldn't believe how lame most of these kids were. She was starting to understand why there was an Advanced Combat class, if this was the performance of people in regular Combat class. She was sitting next to Mercury observing the class from the back.

Cinder had decided it was a pretty safe bet that the female students from Advanced Combat were the only ones they should be observing, so they only really participated in Combat Class when they felt like having fun.

It was thanks to those observations that they had confirmed that Pyrrha's Semblance was Polarity. She could manipulate the weapons of her opponents subtly so it looked like she couldn't be hit, giving herself an advantage in combat without giving it away.

"We have time for one more match," Goodwitch said. She looked around at the stands. "Any volunteers? Miss Belladonna?" Blake jumped in her seat, slamming her book closed. Even Emerald could see that the bags under her eyes had gotten much darker, and her skin was even paler than usual.

The stupid girl was tearing herself apart researching the White Fang, and she couldn't even leave campus to do anything about it. If she was being called on to fight, she was going to get slaughtered.

"You've been rather docile for the past few classes," Goodwitch said to her. "Why don't you—"

"I'll do it," Mercury said, interrupting her and confusing Emerald.

"Mercury, is it?" Goodwitch asked. "Very well, let's find you an opponent."

"Actually, I wanna fight her," Mercury said, pointing at Yang. The blonde smirked and cracked her knuckles.

"Very well. Both of you, please come down to the arena."

"So, why'd you wanna fight me all of a sudden, Merc?" Yang asked, expanding Ember Celica.

"We haven't had a real spar with each other, and I wanna see what you can do."

"Yeah, I'm pretty curious, too."

"What do you say we make this more interesting?" he asked.

"What do you have in mind?"

"I'm thinking if I win, I take you to the dance," he said. Yang laughed.

"Well, someone's getting bold," Yang said. "You know what? Fine. What do I get if I win?"

"Whatever you want," Mercury said, winking at her.

"Oh, well, I'll have to come up with something good." Goodwitch cleared her throat, reminding them of where they were. Yang looked over at her team, and Weiss's face was red, while Ruby just looked confused. Yang rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.

She had to admit, though, something about Mercury impressed her. Maybe that was why she decided to take him up on his offer.

"If you're quite done," Goodwitch said, "We can begin." Yang and Mercury nodded. "Start!"

Mercury jumped right into action, firing the shotguns in his boots to launch himself at her.

Truly, a man after her own heart.

She crossed her arms above her head to block the kick, throwing him backwards. She used Ember Celica to dash forward, throwing a right hook at him. He ducked under the fist, throwing a spinning kick. She grabbed his foot with her left hand, trying to get into a position to punch him, when used his other boot to launch his other foot straight up at her. When his foot was in front of her, he fired it again hitting her in the face with the blast.

She growled and fired a shotgun blast at him, but he block it. She stepped forward to throw another punch, but he grabbed her wrist and flipped her, throwing her to the ground. While she was down, he raised his foot as if he was going to step on her. She quickly threw a punch at the foot, firing Ember Celica at the same time to deflect the foot. Mercury lost his balance, And Yang quickly stood up, activating her Semblance. She buried her fist in his gut, launching him away.

Out of the ring, evidently, as she heard the buzzer sound.

"Yang Xiao Long wins by ring-out," Goodwitch announced as the bell rang. "That's all for today. As Mister Black has reminded us, the dance is this weekend. But you all have your first mission on Monday. I will not accept any excuses."

As the rest of the students filed out of the room, Yang walked over to Mercury, holding out her hand to help him up. He accepted, and she pulled him up.

"Well, you win," he said. "So what do you want?"

"Hmmm," she said, putting her hand under her chin in thought. "I'm thinking… You take me to the dance."

"Huh?" he asked. She winked at him.

"Wear something nice."

Ruby was leading her team back to their dorm, the leader thinking about Blake. She was in pretty rough shape. After the team was grounded, she decided to take it upon herself to continue investigating the White Fang, and it was taking its toll on her. The team was starting to get worried, but they had no idea what to do about her. They had tried talking, but she wasn't willing to listen. The team was interrupted by Sun calling Blake's name and grabbing her by the shoulder.

"Hey, Blake!" he said. "You, uh, doing okay?"

"I'm fine," she said, convincing absolutely no one.

"So, I hear there's this dance going on this weekend," he said. "Sounds pretty lame, but you and me, I'm thinking, not as lame, huh?"

"What?" she asked.

"The dance!" he said. "This weekend! You wanna go, or what?"

"I don't have time for a stupid dance," she said, starting to brush past him. "I thought you of all people would get that." Sun's shoulders slumped, and Ruby couldn't help but feel bad for him. Everyone could tell that he had a thing for Blake, but she wasn't even giving him a chance. She was so obsessed with the White Fang that she couldn't even let herself take a break to have a nice night with Sun.

She got a Scroll message from Professor Ozpin as she thought about it.

Well, talk about timing. He was asking her if Team RWBY wanted to handle planning the dance.

This gave Ruby an idea.

"You what?" Blake asked.

"We want you to go to the dance," Ruby answered.

"That's ridiculous."

"Blake, we're worried about you," Yang said. "This investigation is starting to mess with your head."

"You can't sleep," Weiss said, counting on her fingers. "You hardly eat, and to be honest, your grades have been suffering."

"You think I care about grades?" Blake asked incredulously. "People's lives are at stake!"

"We know," Yang said. "And we're still trying to figure out what Torchwick is up to."

"Thanks to you and Sun, we know they're operating somewhere outside of southeast Vale," Ruby said.

"And the Schnee records singled out Vale as the primary target for Dust robberies over the last few months," Weiss said.

"Don't forget about the missing military tech, too," Yang chimed in.

"But there's still unanswered questions!" Blake insisted.

"Blake, you won't be able to find anything if you can't even keep your eyes open!" Ruby said.

"All we're asking is that you take it easy for one day," Yang stressed.

"Besides, it's not like we can act on anything you find," Weiss said. "After all, we're still under house arrest until next week, precisely because of this investigation, I might add. Just have fun for a day and relax. Yang and I will make sure it'll be great."

"Yeah!" Yang said. "We're planning the whole event!"

"Excuse me?" Blake said, narrowing her eyes. She almost sounded insulted that the rest of the team was doing anything that's not contributing to the investigation.

"Team CFVY's away mission lasted longer than expected," Weiss explained.

"So, Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off," Yang said. "And now we can make sure you have the perfect night."

"And once it's over, we'll return to our search, rested and ready."

"So, what do you think?" Ruby asked.

"I think this is a colossal waste of time," Blake said, getting up and heading to the exit. "I'll be in the library." She slammed the door as she left.

"Great," Yang sighed.

"She can't keep going like this," Weiss said. There was a knock on their door suddenly, and Weiss opened it, expecting that Blake had come back.

Instead, it was Jaune badly strumming a guitar.

"Weiss!" he sang, before the girl in question slammed the door in his face. "Oh, come on, open the door!" he said. "I promise not to sing." She opening the door.

"I lied!" he sang. "Weiss Schnee, will you accompany me, to the dance on…Sunday?"

"Are you done?" Weiss asked.

"Yes?"

"No," she said, slamming the door again. She turned around, and saw Ruby and Yang looking at her. "What?"

"This is why they call you the Ice Queen," Yang said.

"All my life, boys have only ever wanted three things from me: my money, my last name, and my body. Besides, I already have a date in mind."

"Date or no date, none of this matter if we can't get Blake to go," Ruby said.

"Um, are you forgetting you have a date?" Yang asked. Ruby blushed.

Jaune's legs were swept out from under him by Pyrrha while they were sparring on the roof. He fell hard on his back, and Pyrrha laughed good-naturedly.

"Well done!" she said. "Your swordplay's improved immensely." She reached out her hand and pulled him up to his feet.

"I couldn't have done it without you," Jaune said.

"So, are you ready to move on to Aura?"

"I'm actually thinking maybe we just skip Aura for tonight?" he asked. "Might go on a jog or something."

"Come on, I know you're frustrated, but you must keep trying," she said. "I'm sure you'll discover your Semblance any day now."

"That's not it," he said. "It's just…It's dumb."

"What is it?" she asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Jaune, you know you can tell me." Jaune sighed.

"It's Weiss."

"Oh," Pyrrha said, her voice losing some enthusiasm. "What about her?"

"I asked her to the dance and she shot me down. Big surprise, right?"

"Well, I believe the saying goes: There's…plenty of fish in the sea," Pyrrha said.

"That's easy for you to say," Jaune said. "You've probably got guys clamoring over each other just to ask you out."

"You'd be surprised," she said quietly.

"Oh, please," he said, walking towards the door. "If you don't get a date to the dance, I'll wear a dress."

AN: Damn it, Jaune. Don't talk about the girl you like with the girl that likes you.

Got really nothing else to say, other than Blake being her annoying self.

As always, thank you all for reading, and I'll see you next time!