Grimm Reaper of Remnant

by Storm VII

Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long have completed their BEACON entrance exam to officially form Team RWBY. Fate has much in store for them as two especially menacing teams were also accepted in Ozpin's evaluations; Team JACK led by the cold Jin Kisaragi... and Team RAIN led by the enigmatic Ragna the Bloodedge. [RagnaxHarem] ARC TWO FINISHED!

22. Denial

Crimson XXII: Denial

Some time ago...

During their tenure at Beacon Academy, every student had come to know that keeping your volume at a reasonable level in the library wasn't optional. The threat of talking just a little too loudly and getting caught by Instructor Goodwitch was enough for most students to keep to whispers during their trips to the facilities, knowing that she'd be quick to assign them cleaning duties as punishment. Even when students had a much more justified reason for talking such as a group assignment, they kept their volume low when she was around and that was if they were brave enough to not silence themselves entirely until she left. At this particular moment, the library was currently without any form of discussion… though this silence had been brought about by very different, very drastic means.

Many students stood with mouths hanging ajar at the display while others were simply frozen in place with their shock. The only sound was the occasional stone of rubble, falling from its place in the newly blasted hole in the library's wall… or one of the many openings behind that. The recently created hallway of breaches stopped at the office of one very surprised Doctor Faye-Ling, staring down in surprise at the unconscious female student that had just been blasted into her infirmary. Her medical experience told her that the student's life wasn't in any danger and only carefully moved to address their injuries, seeing that was her job as Beacon Academy's nurse.

Back in the library stood the cause of said destruction, wearing his familiar red coat with his sword set firmly upon one of his belts while the smaller blade remained sheath at his side. He hadn't drawn his weapons, not for this… he hadn't needed them. Letting out a deep and heated breath out of his nostrils, he glanced over at the table of girls he'd been sitting with. The youngest and the leader of the group was just looking shocked at the several holes in walls, in terrified awe of the silver haired man's strength. The nobler looking one was gathering her nerves, looking like she wanted to make some sort of comment unable to find the words. The dark dressed one with the cat ears didn't say a thing, in fact it didn't look like she'd even registered the blast as she stared down into her lap and stared at her shaking fists. As for the spunky blonde, she seemed more disappointed that she couldn't get in a punch herself.

Hearing footsteps coming through the wall's newly made opening, the delinquent turned his head back and saw the dreaded Professor approaching with eyes wide in disbelief as she observed the damage. While she couldn't possibly be surprised by the agressor's identity, she could afford to show some shock at how far he'd taken his actions. Under any other circumstances this student might've given her a shit eating smirk as she prepared to bring down the hammer… but he was still feeling a bit too pissed for that.

"Unbelievable, just... completely unbelievable," she said to him, shaking her head. Her words weren't those of rage, disgust, or even annoyance. Goodwitch was only disappointed. "I'm not saying that you've ever stopped being a nuisance to the Academy with your constant antics and misdemeanors, but out of all the chances you've been given you decide to cause this much damage, right before your first quarter finals?'

Ragna didn't offer any excuses, no vocal rebuttals. All he did was give the teacher a grunt and an obvious eye roll. Some of the students shivered as they noticed Goodwitch's eyebrow twitched, breaking her normally collected demeanor. Now she was enraged.

"H-He was provoked!" Ruby called out, trying to come to his defense.

"Like… like REALLY provoked!" Yang tried to add. "If you'd heard half the things she said to him you'd-!"

"Know that he was still overreacting and nothing said can justify putting a student's life in danger or extensive damage to Academy property," Goodwitch interrupted, her gaze not leaving Ragna for a second.

"...Yeah, yeah, I'll grab the mop," the Reaper finally said as he began gathering all of his books and notes from his work table.

"You're working this entire weekend; no exceptions," Goodwitch told him, knowing full well the hell it would be putting Ragna through for his upcoming finals. Flicking her wand, she activated her semblance and started repairing the walls that the Reaper had destroyed in his outburst.

"You're not going to try to fight her decision? You know how much time you're about to lose on studying for the finals and you were already behind before this,' Weiss reminded, trying to be a voice for reason.

"I'll be fine; not like it's the first time I've had to deal with this shit,' Ragna told her as he started heading out for his regular clearing duty. Passing by Blake, he leaned down and whispered something in her ear that caused the cat Faunus to look at him in shock. The Reaper only smirked as he headed off, facing yet another round of punishment via menial labor.

"What'd he say to you?" Ruby asked Blake as her eyes continued to follow their friend.

"It was… nothing, absolutely nothing,' she lied, a storm of differing thoughts and vortex of conflicting emotions running through to her core.

Worth it.

Later That Night -Beacon Cafeteria-

"So sticking me with this pain in the ass work wasn't enough for you Goodwitch, you had to make sure I missed dinner too?" Ragna growled to himself as he submerged his mop in a cleaning solution before continuing to wipe down the floors.

As usual whenever he was put up to do this kind of work by Goodwitch, the Reaper was in one of his usual crass huffs. Sure he'd said it had been worth it even if he knew he was going to get punished, but that didn't mean he wouldn't mouth off about it like he always did. To him either that was one hell of a stick Goodwitch had up her ass or she had it out for him worse than Tsubaki used to… and this was supposed to be AFTER he'd already managed to score some points from the time they'd fought. No matter what, he'd either find himself on the receiving end of one of her disciplinary decisions or one of her scowling glares… and the really screwed up part was that there seemed to be more than a few students that wanted to be in his shoes.

"God dammit. Did some asshole start a food fight before I got here? There's no way this place should be such a pigsty," he muttered while he searched under one of the tables and somehow found an entire dinner plate's worth of uneaten food just dumped on the ground. No, if it had been a food fight that had caused this mess he would've had some help cleaning it, he knew Goodwitch was reasonable to punish other lawbreakers at least a little fairly. More likely word had gotten out about the stunt he'd pulled and anyone that had a bone to pick with him had done this to try and make things harder for the Reaper. "...Tch, petty bitches are all over the place today."

Shaking his head, the Reaper delivered a modest kick to the table's side to shove it off to the side. Glad that he'd at least been given some rubber gloves to work with, he started scooping up the mix of cheeseburgers and meatloaf (the smell of which was already far from pleasant) and loaded it into the garbage bin. While he was cleaning the mess, his enhanced hearing managed to catch the doors to the cafeteria opening.

"Read the sign; we're closed for cleaning," he called crassly to whoever was coming in.

"I don't have anything to worry about falling from the ceiling this time, do I?" came Blake's voice. Picking up the last large clump of this floor food pile, Ragna rose to his feet to face his friend. Her passive demeanor made her attitude a little hard to read and she'd come into the cafeteria with an arm full of notebooks topped with a small bag full of something. "What's with the new outfit?"

"Goodwitch recently got these for the punishment cleaning crew, but I'm pretty sure this set is tailor made for me at this point." In addition to the rubber gloves, Ragna was also given a white cleaning apron to wear. He also had a white cleaning sash on his head to protect his hair. Noticing his friend was a little off put by his attire, he gave a snarky smirk. "Clearly I look better in black."

"I guess, but is she forcing you to wear that?"

"Not really, I doubt she'd make too big of a fuss if I went without it. But as long as I have it, 'figure I might as well use it to keep the rest of my clothes clean. This however…" Ragna held up the mop he was using. It looked like just about any other mop you'd see students using at the academy, whether it be for cleaning the hallways or even borrowing from the supply closet to clean out their dorm rooms. The only difference for this particular one was a label printed cleanly on the handle for all to see.

PROPERTY OF RAGNA THE BLOODEDGE

Despite the situation her friend was in, Blake couldn't help but smirk. "Who knew that Professor Goodwitch has a sense of humor?"

"Who knew," Ragna muttered in agreement. "But enough about my problems, what with all of those books you've got there?"

"They're the notes we've taken while we were in the library," she told him, her smirk fading as her demeanor turned serious once more. "You're going to need every bit of help you can if you're going to pass finals after going through this, so I don't want to hear you being stubborn and not taking the help."

"Don't worry, I'm not stupid enough to turn down this kind of help," he assured before removing one of his gloves so he could toss her his room keys. "Just drop those off in my room and make sure the door's closed. I'll get 'em back to you before breakfast tomorrow... Crap, she's going to make me miss breakfast too, isn't she?"

"Maybe it wasn't as 'worth it' as you were saying," she tried to tell him. Ragna didn't bother addressing that. "Listen, I know I should thank you for what you did; I want to thank you… but I really wish you hadn't."

"Don't expect an apology Blake, I'm not apologizing to anyone for what I did. Not to you, not to Goodwitch, and I sure as hell won't apologize to that racist bitch that tried to slut-shame you."

"Ragna…"

"She called you A Stray Cat in Heat," Ragna reminded her with a scowl. "Before that she was mouthing off about your entire team and even before that she was clearly trying to piss me off with her insults. She got what she wanted."

"And I know that Ragna, of course I know that," she sighed as she thought back with this odd sensation of deja vu. "I know what you were pressured into doing. Ruby, Weiss, and Yang? Of course they know too."

"Goodwitch probably knows, but if she has the chance to get me in trouble I think she'd rather take that." Ragna's smirk wasn't helping to lighten the mood and Blake's serious scowl let him know that. "...You were saying?"

"Ragna, my team knows what you were trying to do and there were probably plenty of people that saw what happened in the library. But to some of those people that isn't going to matter, and that's the problem. They're only going to see what they want to see and that's someone who'd be willing to kill another student just because they insulted a Faunus."

"You know I'd never go that far," Ragna told her. "Clearly I can get dark at times, but you'd know I'd never kill another student." 'Unless they did something that warranted it.' "I know that this Faunus intolerance shit is still tense at the Academy, but staying down and taking the beating isn't what's going to isn't what's going to solve that problem."

"And throwing wild punches isn't fixing it either. I… I know what counter attacking humans can do, and in that sense everyone loses." She sighed, it really was just like talking to... But there was one part nagging at the back of her mind, one part that was ever so different. "...What about when she was insulting you?"

"It was annoying, what else is there to say?" Ragna told him as he continued working.

"Really? Because I don't think you came even close to boiling over when she was trying to rile you up, and she was throwing some pretty offensive terms your way." The Reaper paused in his work, trying to keep his back to Blake as not to show his own guilt. "So you won't can't even be bothered when someone like that wants to get under your skin, but the moment they think of going after us you fly off the handle?"

"Uh… sorry?" Ragna answered, not really sure how he was trying to respond.

"Honestly," Blake sighed, though the cat Faunus couldn't help but give a small smirk. There was one difference; a difference of reason… to her a BIG difference. "You're impossible, you know that?"

"You say that about me, but here you are attacking me for throwing that punch instead of the student who should've been expelled from the Academy long ago," the Reaper muttered. "If anything, I'd say that your way of thinking makes you the impossible one." Blake rolled her eyes, though she couldn't exactly argue with him. "But then again…"

"What?"

"If fixing Faunus-Human relations were really that simple, someone would've done it by now." As Ragna turned to his head to face her, Blake saw that rare and well meant kindness is his eyes. "If anything it's probably going to take someone impossible like you to fix it."

"You… you really think I'd be able to do something like that?"

"Hey, if I had to have faith in anyone's cause, I'd put mine in yours in a heartbeat," the Reaper told her. "Not saying that shit would be easy, but I'm sure you'd manage something… isn't that why you came to Beacon in the first place?"

"You're giving me too much credit," Blake told him modestly, the slightest of pink tinges decorating her cheeks. Taking the bag she'd carried in with the notebooks, she set it on the nearby table. "There's a small dinner in there that we managed to sneak out, make sure you don't starve and grab some when you get a chance."

"Seriously? That's awesome!" Ragna said, thankful since he'd originally thought he'd have to miss out on dinner entirely.

"And…" Blake started before sighing. "You do always come to my defense whenever anyone wants to make trouble for the Faunus… and those other times… so I definitely owe you."

"C'mon, you know I wasn't doing any of that because I was expecting a favor back. You're my friend, so if I got a chance to help you out there's no reason why I shouldn't."

"So it goes both ways; if we're friends there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to pay you back," Blake argued. "Whenever we force you to come along with one of our plans or we need a hefty favor from you, you'll always help us out no matter what we're asking. Meanwhile we barely have the chance to pay you back. We're all thankful… but I think I'd feel better if I could do something to show how much what you do means to me."

"I mean…" Ragna began before looking at Blake with wanting eyes. Under normal circumstances Blake might've been offended if someone looked at her like this, but this was Ragna. She knew him enough to know what he was really after and where he was looking was kind of a dead giveaway. "If you don't mind…"

Blake glared at him for what he was implying he wanted… but didn't turn him down just yet. She'd often caught Ragna passing glances at her ears and he'd often have to avert his attention whenever she caught him doing so. Letting him pet her ears was also a complicated issue; this was supposed to be done only by spouses or dedicated lovers, not even her ex had been given that right. But, if it was the one thing he was asking for…

"Listen to me; no one else finds out about this," she ordered. Ragna himself seemed a little surprised that she was finally giving him permission. "Well?"

"...You're sure about this?" Ragna asked, confirming that there was proper consent.

"Yes, now do you want to or not?" she questioned fiercely.

Nodding slowly and removing his rubber gloves. Blake didn't look as he slowly touched her ears, but she did give a short shiver at the immediate contact. Though he'd been waiting for this for quite some time, Ragna held himself back from being rough as he felt Blake's ears. The silky smooth fur between his fingers was a feeling that he could barely put into words, the ears themselves offering just the slightest of resistance and bending slightly against his touch. Getting in a bit closer, he tried stroking the tips and-

"Purrrrrrrrrrr."

"Uh, Blake?"

"Th-that's enough!" Blake demanded as she grabbed Ragna's wrists and forced them off of her ears, her face flushed with crimson as she scowled at him. He honored her wish and didn't go for a second feel, his face oddly neutral as he kept eye contact with his Faunus friend. "I'll drop these notebooks off in your room… AND DON'T EXPECT THAT AGAIN!" Turning to head out, she couldn't help but cover her ears in embarrassment with one of her hands, realizing why something like that was usually reserved for intimate relations. After she'd left, the Grim Reaper could only give one of his largest grins as he put his work gloves back on.

'Double... no TRIPLE worth it.'

-Present Day-

"Blake? Blaaaaaaake? Helloooooo?" Hearing Nora's voice snapped the Cat Faunus out of events of the past and brought her back to the present. "You okay, you've been spacing out for the last few minutes."

"Er, I'm fine," she told her, trying to shake those lingering memories out of her mind. "I'm just tired with all of this research we have to do."

"No kidding, we've barely started Project Hell and it already feels like we're a couple dozen weeks behind at least," Nora sighed. "Guess all of those rumors of this being a waking nightmare were true."

"...Weren't you the one spreading those rumors?" Blake reminded her random project partner with a heavy dose of reality. Nora didn't seem to be in the mood to comment. "Either way, I think we should call it good for today; trying to work while we're not all here is only going to hurt our chances."

"Speaking of chances," Nora began with a scheming smile towards Blake. "What would you say the chances are that as soon as you started staring off into space, your eyes just happened to start following a certain someone?"

'Don't tell me I was-' Blake thought before she glanced to where she'd been staring, catching sight of Ragna as he reshelved the library books that had been taken off by other students during their own Project Hell rush. As expected, the Reaper was swearing under his breath about the situation and how Goodwitch should've found someone else to pick on by now. Trying to keep a still face, she turned her attention back to Nora. "Just a coincidence, you're reading into that a lot more than you need to."

"More like I can read you like a book," Nora taunted with a goofy grin. "I've been catching you giving Ragna the occasional passing glance; your goo-goo eyes aren't that subtle." Blake coughed into her fist at Nora's phrasing. "So what do you think his best feature is? His spiky silver hair, his awesome combat skills, that ever mysterious dark personality, or is it that swearing tough guy side?"

"For someone accusing me of having a thing for him, you seem to have plenty of good things to say about Ragna yourself," Blake whispered back with a hiss.

"Eh, no shame in complimenting a buddy of my team and my team lead's past trainer. 'Sides, I've already got my eye on a different tall, brooding, and handsome gentleman." Nora then seemed to turn oddly serious. "So, when do you plan to make a move?"

"There's not a move to make; Ragna's just a friend. He's always been a really good friend to have, but that's all there is between us," Blake explained. "And I'm not interested in taking things any further with him… or anyone else."

"No need to clarify that last part, if you're not willing to start a flame with Ragna I doubt that you're half as warm with anyone else here," the hammer user decided, though Blake felt those words would be better applied to Weiss. The orange haired student then gave a nasty smile as an idea formed in her mind. "Guess we should make sure he's in the loop, right? Oh Ragna!"

Letting out a sigh at Nora's call, Ragna placed one last book back before heading over to the two. This was much to Blake's horror as she tried to shut her project partner up by delivering a swift elbow to Nora's ribs. She didn't seem too bothered, smiling brightly through the pain as the Reaper finally made his way over.

"You should probably keep your volume down while we're in the library; last thing you want is Goodwitch to send a chore your way on top of project hell," Ragna told them. Since the quarter had begun, the Reaper had somehow managed the seemingly impossible task of keeping himself out of trouble and focused on his studies. He hadn't been caught doing anything wrong by the instructor and the only reason he'd been forced to help here was because of a regular assignment for these duties. "So… what'd you need?"

"I didn't need anything, but Blake here has something important that she wants to tell you," the hammer user told him innocently as she looked expectantly to her Random Project partner. "Go on, he's right here isn't he?"

'THIS LITTLE-!' she thought to herself as she briefly grit her teeth only to realize that Ragna had bought into it and appeared to be waiting for an answer. Thinking fast, she glanced at the pile of books in Ragna's hands and snatched one. "I was hoping to grab this from the shelf later, but Nora just thought that we had to have it now."

"Sounds about right," he agreed with a shrug. Nora wasn't sure which of them to glare at. "I'll see ya around; gotta finish shelving the rest of these damn things before I get back on track with my own projects."

"Take care of yourself," she told him, giving a kind smile as parting words. Ragna nodded as he headed off, pausing only to give a brief snarl as a group of students added their library books to his pile instead of putting them away themselves. Blake smirked slightly at the exasperated look the Grimm Reaper gave her, but remained silent until she was sure Ragna was out of ear shot. Once she was sure however, her expression turned venomous as she scowled directly at Nora. "What were you thinking?"

"You could've just told him, but you didn't," Nora noted slyly. Deciding that a comeback here would be pointless, Blake gathered up her belongings and headed for the front desk so she could check out the book that she'd had to take from Ragna to save face. Nora only continued to smirk as she watched her leave. True she didn't exactly have too much stock in putting the two together, but it was obvious that there was something there that Blake wasn't caving into. What kind of partner would she be if she didn't give a little… push in the right direction? Playfully humming to herself, she tried to come up with a plan on how to give that spark a little fuel.

"Pretty sure I know what you're trying," said a new voice from behind her. Turning to the speaker, she found herself looking at the Squirrel faunus, Makoto Nanaya. While Nora hadn't talked much with her, she'd seen her around enough to know that she was a close friend of Blake's. Taking the empty seat that Blake had been in a moment ago, Makoto sat down so she could speak to Nora at eye level.

"Don't say that you're trying to stop me. It's clear as day that those two need to-" She couldn't finish as Makoto brought her hand up, but not in any form of a punch. Instead she'd brought it up with an open palm, like she was hoping for Nora to take it.

"You kidding? I'M IN."

"...I knew I'd like you," Nora said with an eager and cocky smile as she roughly grabbed the hand with her own and sealed their new alliance.

"Jin and Tsubaki after this?"

"One dense couple at a time."

Later That Night -Beacon Dormitories-

"We've been waiting here for a while now," Makoto noted as she and Nora ducked behind the corner in wait. "Are we sure he hasn't gone yet?"

"Positive; Ragna always waits to shower until he's completely sure that there won't be anyone else in there with him. No one knows why, but I guess it's a part of his more modest side. I'm not that surprised he hasn't shown up… scratch that, he's here!"

Both girl's ducked around the corner as the Academy's Grimm Reaper made his way to the public showers. With a black towel over his shoulder and a set of night clothes (which he'd reluctantly headed out and bought) under an arm, Ragna was in fact heading to the showers stifling a yawn as he was exhausted from another day of harsh study, mostly with Cinder.

"Dang it, someone else is coming," Makoro groaned as it seemed like their plan was coming undone.

"Not to worry, it's just Ren," Nora noted as her partner began to strike up a conversation about something with Ragna. "This isn't a big setback. Even though it's those two, Ren's not one to keep a conversation going."

"I've noticed that he's been the quiet type and that he's not the most social person. You gotta wonder why he gets along with the guy who'll smash someone through the Academy walls when he gets too pissed."

"I asked Ren about it and the only answer he gave me was a cryptic He's like us. Aside from that, they seem to get along pretty okay without even trying that hard. I like that Ren has someone else talk to, even if every other word out of their mouth is a swear."

"Good for him I guess. And it looks like they're done talking," Makoto noted as Ren headed off and Ragna finally went into the showers. "Great, now we need to find a way to get him to drop everything and leave his scroll unlocked. Any plans?"

"Already got one, completely foolproof," Nora told her confidently as she pulled out her own scroll and started tapping out Ragna's number. It rang about four times before Ragna finally decided to answer. "Hey Ragna, kind of in a bind right now and I need your help."

"Dammit Nora, I was just about to shower," came his crass grumbling voice on the other. "Can't you take care of whatever the hell it is you're bothering me for?"

"I would, but I don't think I'd be fast enough," the mallet user told him, keeping her voice serious. "We have a Code Skull so…"

Nora didn't have to say another word as both girls heard clattering on the other end. Running out of the bathroom with nothing in his arms and hastily readorned clothes was a panicked Ragna, going seemingly as fast as his legs could carry him. The call was still on Nora's phone, confirming to both girls that their plan had gone without a hitch.

"Code Skull?" Makoto questioned.

"It's Ragna's codename for whenever Noel starts cooking," Nora explained.

"Oh, Tsubaki and I call it Death Dinner," the Squirrel beastkin noted, not too surprised by the similarity. "I'm going in. This shouldn't even take a minute, but stand guard just to be safe."

Keeping her attention between her scroll and the hallways, Nora did just that. Her phone call with Ragna soon ended on the other line as Makoto took control of the device, easily using it for their own means since Ragna had left it unlocked. Much like she'd said, the quick warrior got out of the bathroom without a hitch and gave her accomplice a thumbs up.

"So we got the message we already prepared sent, deleted it on his phone, and Ragna's none the wiser!" Nora told her Random Project partner with her own thumbs up of victory.

"I'm not sure that none the wiser is how we should put it; it's going to be obvious to him that something's up when he gets to the student kitchens and realizes that Noel's not there," Makoto told her. "We'll just have to hope that he doesn't care."

"Then it's a good thing I made sure that Noel was there to sell our story!"

"Yeah, it's… you… YOU DID WHAT!?" Makoto screamed, which might've blown their cover if Ragna hadn't been so busy. "YOU'RE GONNA KILL US ALL WITH THAT STUFF! AND IF SHE TRIES TO MAKE PUFFER FISH AGAIN-!"

"Don't worry about it, thanks to a horror story I heard from Ragna and Ruby I know we'll be fine!"

"A… horror story?"

'Wow… She's shoveling down that… that… what the hell even is that supposed to be?' Ragna thought as he stared at the scene, the tension matching something right out of a horror movie. Mai was currently wolfing down Noel's newest creation; a thing so pungent and disgusting to look at that Ragna was half sure that his brain was self censoring the details just to keep him sane.

"M-Mai! Try to control yourself! I was going to try and offer that to the rest of my team!" Noel tried to protest as Mai was downing an entire bowl of her cooking by the spoonful, going so fast Ragna was wondering where she found the chance to breathe. "I can always make you your own some other time!"

"I'm sorry Noel, but it's so good I couldn't stop myself if I wanted to~!" the violet haired girl explained. Ragna had a distinct feeling that she wasn't sorry in the slightest… not that he was complaining.

"Help yourself, I had a big dinner anyways," he muttered as he left the kitchen in a huff. "Called out of my shower for nothing, what a damn waste of time."

"...Wow, for someone that acts really energetic like me, you've really got this whole planning thing down pat," Makoto complimented as the two walked down the hallways, already a long distance away from the showers to avoid running into Ragna and raising his suspicions. Nora gave her a smile, their unlikely alliance blooming ever further. "Next part though… no matter what we did to plan for it, this next part was always going to be a gamble."

"Eh, I'd say that we took a safer bet here," Nora countered with a smirk. "But you're right, it's a gamble either way and we need both of them to go along with our plan without realizing it."

"...I might just have a way that we can put it further in our favor," Makoto added thoughtfully, taking out her own scroll to shoot off a quick message.

The Next Morning

"Ugh…" Blake groaned as she slowly rubbed the sleep out of her squinting eyes. Her ears still hearing the soft breathing (with a little snoring) from her teammates, she realized that she'd awoken before their alarm had gone off. Though her cat eyes could easily see in the dark, she went for her scroll so that the bright screen would help wake her up. 'Jeeze, even with how exhausting the projects have been it's been getting so hard to get a full night's sleep, like there's something that's been keeping me up…'

Opening her scroll up, she was surprised to find that she'd been sent a message from Ragna. While Ragna was never one for using technology to keep social (or to be very social in the first place) Team RWBY had been trying to get him to use his scroll more to help him keep in touch. Ragna hadn't seen much of a point in it as he could easily say what he wanted face to face, but he'd at least managed to send a few messages even just to get them off his case. Curious about what her friend had to say, she opened up the message.

Hey Blake, starting to see why they call this damn thing project hell. I've been surviving, but having Goodwitch on my ass if she thinks I so much as breathe too loudly ain't helping. I need an effin' break and I'm sure you could use some R&R as well.

Planning isn't my strong suit, so let's head into town, grab some grub, and see what else we're in the mood for. A half hour after class on Friday work for you? Write back heads or tails; no way of knowing if we're going to have time to talk between all this shit.

"...You have got to be kidding me," Blake sighed as she re-read the message. "Ragna sends me a message like this right after Nora tries to get me to open up? What was she thinking would happen trying to trick me like this?"

Glancing down at the delete button on her scroll, she was about to press it and end the charade… but had second thoughts.

'I mean… with the swearing this does sound like something that Ragna could write… And I guess maybe he might want to go out… B-But that doesn't mean I have to play into Nora's hands! I can-! I...'

She was once again about to delete the message… but once again, committing to the action was far easier in her head. Much like Nora and Makoto had planned, the ball was now in her court. No matter what the choice she made going forward would be hers and hers alone.

That Afternoon: Free Period -Sparring Room-

(Cue Under Night In-Birth Monochrome Memory)

'I used to think that Azrael was just a battle crazy freak, treating most of his fights like he was on a relaxing break,' Ragna thought to himself, smirking as he used Aramasa's wide blade to block a widespread volley of gunfire. 'But now that we're in Project Hell, I'm starting to see what he was getting at; this feels like the most fun I've had in a while.'

While using his main blade to maintain his defense, he used a free hand to grab Clarent from its sheath and instantly turned the weapon from longsword to rifle form. Timing it so that he'd retaliate just as soon as his opponent ran out of bullets, he dropped his guard and fired off a single powerful shot dead at them. The rubber ammunition was cut cleanly in half by Lie Ren who then shifted to a close quarters offensive now that his ammunition was spent. Ragna fired off another shot, but Ren managed to quickly flip to the side before closing the distance between the two. Honestly glad that the two were now up close like he prefered it, Ragna quickly shifted his rifle back to sword form and prepared for a match between twin blades.

The Grim Reaper managed to deflect the first StormFlower blade with his Aramasa easily enough, but while using Clarent to deflect the second he actually swung too fast and missed the clash entirely. Ragna barely managed a backstep in order to narrowly avoid the attack, but Ren only used that mistake to continue his pressure. Slashing inward with both of his weapons, the attack was easily blocked by Ragna while Ren used the force of the clash to vault himself into the air. Unlocking one of his empty weapon clips while twisting around in midair, he kicked the object downwards before following with a powerful dive kick. Trying to handle a better control of his lighter weapon, Ragna batted away the clip with Clarent before blocking the kick itself with Aramasa. Using the blade's surface, Ren then jumped away to create more distance between them. Ragna tried to fire off another shot from Clarent to catch him, but his opponent unlocked his second clip and used that to take the bullet meant for him. Now it was Ragna's turn to close the distance as the two went to close quarter combat once more.

Trying to take the more offensive approach this time around, Ragna started with a slash from Clarent followed by a massive swing from the Aramasa. The attack from Clarent was certainly fast, but Ragna was so focused on the weapon's speed that it lacked the raw power that his fighting style was so used to. As such Ren had managed to block the attack easily enough and wasn't even stunned by the force, effectively letting him dodge the massive blade before retaliating with another blade swipe of his own. Ragna managed to deflect the attack with Aramasa, but he also noticed that his opponent managed to use the opportunity between the attack to attach a fresh bullet clip to his free weapon.

'He's getting pretty damn cocky right now,' Ragna thought to himself, though Ren's face remained as stoic and focused as it usually was. Stabbing forward with the Aramasa, the risky move would usually have left the user wide open to a counter attack but Ragna had ways of covering those openings. Using Clarent he managed to once again deflect Ren's incoming strike, this time with enough force to send him stumbling back. He tried to capitalize on the opening with his weapons, but was forced to use the Aramasa to defend against yet another barrage of bullets as his sparring partner made for a desperate defense. What was worse was that while the Reaper was guarding, Ren was able to use the opportunity given to him to unlock his second weapon clip and reload his second StormFlower. 'Dammit, this is starting to get old.'

Again Ren used every last training bullet in his clip, creating a short stalemate to give himself some breathing room. With Ragna once again ready to go on the offensive he kicked a third empty weapon clip his way just to give himself a brief second's advantage and to get a shot in at enraging the Reaper. Ragna to his credit didn't fall for the attempted tilt and used the Aramasa to deflect the clip this time before shifting Clarent into blade form and using a ranged strike of his own. Once again Ren managed to cut through the almost ridiculously powered rubber bullet before returning the battle to melee range.

Ren seemed to open with another pincer attack with two different angles. The twin strikes only proved to be a feint as Ragna swung outward with both of his swords, unable to connect with either of Ren's blades. Using the still fully loaded StormFlower, Ren unleashed a short hail of bullets and forced Ragna to use Aramasa as his defence one more. Following that with a strong overhead swing, Ragna managed to deflect Ren's attack with Clarent before knocking his other weapon away and misdirecting the next safety barrage. Ren jumped back as Ragna tried to combo an Aramasa swing into the attack, barely dodging the blade. Ragna rushed forward with a twin slash just as Ren landed, forcing him to do the same in a desperate defense. Now that it was power against power, Ren was at a serious disadvantage and needed to come up with something that instant to-

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

(End theme)

Both Ragna and Ren came to an abrupt halt as their third sparring round of 99 seconds came to a halt. Normally the two could have engaged in much longer bouts, but unlike Ragna's confrontation with Azrael neither of them were fighting to prove a point. This was just a few friendly matches between colleagues to relieve themselves of stress, and to its credit it seemed to be doing the trick. Also, with the match so short it was easy to identify their opponent's style and make observations that would carry onto the next round, hence the two minute grace period in between.

"You're acting pretty ballsy out there, far more reckless than I'd expect from someone like you," Ragna commented, resheathing his longsword and setting his larger blade back on his belt. "Using up all of your bullets and reloading right in front of your opponent? That takes some serious nerves… though I guess I was giving you plenty of chances to."

"You were, it's pretty clear that you're still unused to fighting with two weapons at the same time," Ren said in response.

"Honestly I've never had any real practice with it; most of what I was doing out there was mimicking a couple of moves that my master showed me and trying to copy bits of what you were doing," the Reaper admitted. "I'm pretty damn surprised that I even managed to do that well against you."

"That's not because of your skills with twin blades, it's-"

"My basic fundamentals in fighting, I know," he finished with a sigh. "Trust me when I say I wouldn't be able to forget those if I tried; my master drilled those too damn hard into my skull."

"...If half of what Team RWBY's said about you being thick headed is true, he must have been forced into some extreme drilling," his friend responded, smirking as he made a very rare joke. Ragna chuckled a bit in response, admitting that there was some truth to that. "Don't stay too hard on yourself though, the sheer difference in weight alone between the two weapons would make fighting with both near impossible, and that's nothing to say about their differing shapes and lengths. It's impressive that you managed to do that much with such a handicap."

"I felt that too," Ragna admitted as he glanced back at Clarent. "If I really want to use that style I'm going to need something heavier so that I even myself out."

"And you need to find some way to use your rifle more; you still have plenty of ammo left in your first clip," Ren advised. "Speaking of which…"

While Ren headed to restock his ammunition clips for their next round of sparring, Ragna felt a small buzz coming from one of his coat pockets. Taking his scroll out and unlocking it, he saw that he'd been sent a study request from Cinder (still didn't know how she got his number), an electric reset warning for the next day, and a rather strange message from Blake.

Sounds good. I'll see you then.

'See me then? For what?' Ragna confusedly thought to himself as he scrolled through the conversation thread he'd had with her to check if he was missing something. '...Nothing there, so what the hell is she replying to?'

"Something wrong?" Ren asked as he went back to the center of the room, fully reloaded and ready to commence their next bout of sparring.

"Nah, it's nothing. Let's just keep going at this while I still have some idea of what I'm doing using two weapons at once," he encouraged as he pocketed the scroll and prepared himself. 'She was probably just trying to message Yang or something, sent it to me by mistake. Doubt it's anything I gotta worry about.'

That Night -RWBY's room-

"...He read my response… and he hasn't sent anything back about sending it to the wrong person," Blake realized as she sat in her team's room alone, checking to see if Ragna had sent a reply to confirm her suspicions. "Does he really just want to go out… just the two of us?"

Needless to say, Blake had mixed feelings. While it was true that part of that was still due to her lingering suspicions toward Nora, there was more to be considered even if she knew for certain that Ragna was really asking her out. The more she and the Reaper had seen each other during their tenure at the Academy, the more she'd realized that underneath all of the snark and abrasiveness there was actually a warm, genuinely sweet, and understanding guy there. It'd almost be an understatement to say that she thought highly of him… but that was almost a problem considering the last time she'd formed a strong relationship.

"Calm down Blake; he's only asking you out on one date, not some lifelong commitment," she told herself, trying to relax. Though she was alone, she put on a smile and tried to look forward to whatever the next evening would hold. "...But if I'm going out tomorrow night, I suppose I should look the part."

The Next Day: After Classes -RAIN's room-

"Going to fess up a bit here, just so I can give everyone context," the Mad Dog of the Academy told his teammates. "Back during the break while you guys were off on your vacation, my leader and I got into a pretty big fight for a day."

"I would probably be more surprised if you didn't clash that entire time we were gone," Tsubaki admitted. "And you're telling us this because…?"

"No, you don't get it. We fought. For a day," Azrael emphasised. "We began fighting in the woods just after we finished breakfast, and only stopped fighting at just after 6. We didn't have any breaks to catch our breath, never stopped for a lunch break, and we were constantly going full force."

"Um… is that why we passed by a large wasteland in the forest on our flight back?" Noel asked her partner, though she already had a feeling she knew the answer.

"That was probably us, yeah," he admitted, figuring there wasn't much point in hiding it now. "The reason I'm telling you all of this is that the fight only ended there was because Ragna had plans that he refused to miss out on. He was still looking like he could go an hour or two at least…" Azrael then glanced to their team lead's bed. "And he wasn't half as exhausted as he is now."

"Shut up," Ragna growled from his bed as he laid on top of the bedcovers, his face planted deep into his pillow as his arms stayed at his side. Project Hell had hit him harder than he'd imagined, not only because of the reginime that Nora and the others had warned him about, but also due to a multitude of outward factors… not least of which was the partner he'd been assigned to work with. Mentally, the Reaper was completely drained.

"L-Look on the bright side, we're done with classes for this week aren't we?" Noel tried to encourage her team leader. "You won't have to worry about those for a while!"

"That just means that I have to get more research done this weekend so I'm ready for next week," came Ragna's muffled retort from his pillow. While Tsubaki was at least a little pleased that her leader was treating his studies seriously, she was worried by how brutal it seemed to be for him this early in. There was then a short knock at the door, leading Ragna to give a tired groan. "Someone mind getting that?"

'If he's burning out this early, there's no chance of him making it through the whole quarter,' Azrael thought as he headed to answer the knocking, even he was slightly worried that his leader was going to face a harsh burnout… of course his reason for that worry was how it would affect his fighting ability. Opening the door, Azrael paused for a brief moment before turning to his leader's bed. "Pretty sure it's for you."

"Of course it is," Ragna groaned as he forced himself out of bed, a harsher effort than he'd would've liked to admit. Rising up and heading for the door he found Blake… but she didn't look like her regular self. "Uh… whoa."

The Cat Faunus couldn't help but feel a surge of pride as she noticed that pink blush that was rising in Ragna's cheeks. It was certainly worth putting on the extra makeup for their night out, though she was sure Ragna probably would have been fine had she had gone without it. She'd applied the slightest bite of blush to her face along with her usual eyeshadow and a few other basic cosmetics to brighten her best features. She'd changed out of her regular clothing as well, this time wearing a set that she'd picked up while the group had their shopping adventure with Coco. Instead of her regular white shorts and purple leggings, she now wore a pair of tight fitting black denim jeans that went down to her mid thighs and were then covered by a pair of brown leather boots. On top she wore a white button up shirt with the top few buttons left undone. She wore a dark purple short sleeved jacket over that, her personal insignia added to both of the outfit's shoulders. She'd also added a black bow to her hair, but no instead of using it to cover up her ears it sat aside her left one and only added to her charm.

'Ragna's completely speechless,' Noel thought to herself, unable to keep a small giggle from escaping her lips. That managed to break Ragna out of his daze as he turned to glare at her, but for once Noel didn't seem to care. "You look great Blake. What's the occasion?"

"...You mean that you didn't tell them?" Blake questioned her date, who she noted looked far from 'date ready.'

"Uhhhh…" Ragna couldn't really comment as he scratched the back of his head. Right about now Blake's earlier doubts were starting to return about whether Ragna had sent the message in the first place. Bracing herself for the worst, she took her scroll out and turned to their conversation, giving this one final chance to play out.

"You're the one that invited me out, remember?" she said as she showed Ragna the message. The Reaper only stared intently at the message and the response after it, remembering the notification during yesterday's sparring and he hadn't thought much of it. Now that decision to let it go was going to come back and bite them both in the ass.

"Look Blake, I-"

"Of course you can't expect him to remember, did you see how many assignments he had to finish in a last minute panic last quarter?" Tsubaki chimed in, stopping Ragna cold as she read over the message. "You'll have to excuse him, he's been having a hard time keeping himself together during Project Hell."

"Now wait just a damn minute!" he interjected.

"Two seconds ago you were face down in bed unable to move, I think you've already proved my point," his partner said, not letting him have any say in it. Turning to Blake, she gave her an apologetic smile. "We'll have him out for you soon, could you wait in the lobby for just a second?"

"What the…" the Reaper could barely protest. Glancing back to Blake, he realized how expectantly she was looking at him and his ridgid defense crumbled. "Yeah… I… I'll see you out there… sorry about that…"

"Sure thing," she said in response as Tsubaki closed the door. She was far from convinced that Ragna really had wanted to send the message… but why on earth would Tsubaki of all people be trying to convince him that he'd sent it? It didn't make sense… but that was neither here nor there now. Heading for the lobby, Blake tried to keep an open mind about the night ahead of her.

"What the HELL WAS THAT!?" Ragna demanded as he scowled scathingly at Tsubaki. "This is none of your business!"

"You saw how she'd prepared for a night out for the both of you, your awestruck silence was proof enough of that," she informed him with a scowl of her own, not backing down. "Were you really going to break her heart and cancel your plans after she went to such lengths?"

"I didn't send the damn message!" he yelled in protest. "Someone set us up!"

"If that really is the case you're entitled to be angry about it, but don't take it out on her," Tsubaki tried again.

"So you're saying I gotta lie to her about it?" he argued back.

"Of course not, but I've seen how you two are around each other. Do you really even want to turn her down in the first place?" Ragna didn't retort, only crossing his arms and continuing his pissed glare. "Like I said, you were face down and unable to move a minute ago, I think that after the week we've had we can all stand to have some fun while we have the chance. Did you already have plans tonight?"

"I mean… Cinder was probably going to drag me off for more project research when she catches me," Ragna admitted, realizing what this choice meant. If he didn't take the chance to have a night out with Blake, he would probably be stuck with Cinder and after the week he'd already had... "But you can't deny that she deserves to know the truth."

"Then you can obviously tell her, in fact I think that you should absolutely let her know what's going on," Tsubaki agreed with him. "But what I would recommend doing is letting her know after you two are done with your date, that way it's not on her mind all night. You're being honest while getting what both you want, so I don't see any downside."

Ragna couldn't come up with an easy argument against that, try as he might.

"Right Noel?" Tsubaki tried again, looking to her friend for extra confirmation.

"I mean..." Noel began cautiously. Under most circumstances she would have gone along easily with the idea, but after her short talk with Ruby a while ago she knew that her classmate had strong feelings for her team leader. Setting him up on date with someone else might harm Ruby's own chances. But with the timing and how busy Cinder had been keeping Ragna, he could also use this chance for a break. And it didn't mean that it was necessarily going to be romantic. "...Maybe you both could use something like this?"

Sighing at her self questioned advice, Ragna then turned to Azrael and wondered if anything the brute said could get him a better way out of this.

"Don't look at me; for all I care the two of you can go get laid tonight."

...Or just make things very awkward.

"Don't go that far," Tsubaki ordered with a cringe. Beside her, poor Noel's face seemed to be overheating with how red it had already gotten.

"Wasn't planning to," the Reaper assured with a heavy facepalm. "Fine, I'll play along with whoever the hell set this thing up."

"Good, but you're not going out like that," Tsubaki told him as she pointed to his usual attire. "She made the effort of making sure that she looked nice for you, you need to do the same. Pick out another set of clothes and take a shower. Be quick about it; she's already waiting on you."

"Oi oi, I'm going. It's not like I knew I had plans until a minute ago."

With the Reaper well on his way to quickly preparing himself for an evening out (and mentally readying himself for the chaos that might spark), Tsubak took out her scroll and began typing out a message.

"You sound pretty invested in getting him out on this date," Azrael noted with a tad of due suspicion. "Didn't seem to give a damn one way or the other last quarter, so why start butting into his love life now?"

"I'm not butting in, I'm just making sure no one's heartbroken by the end of this," she said as she finished typing out the remainder of her message. 'They're both on their way out, but Ragna knows that someone's setting him up. It's pretty clear that Blake is suspecting something too, but I'm not going any further here… You still owe me for this one, Makoto.'

Later -The City-

'Come on coward, you two are on a date and you haven't said a damn word to her since you've left the lobby,' Ragna belittled himself in his head as he tried to figure out what he was supposed to do here. 'Tsubaki was saying how much Blake was dressing up for this, maybe I'm supposed to start there?' "You look really great now, you know that?"

'...Even when we're on a date, Ragna's still as blunt as he usually is,' Blake thought to herself, but she knew too well who she was dealing with and only smiled. "It's been a while since I've gone out like this, so I wanted to make sure I looked my best." She then gave her date something of a flirty smirk. "You're not disappointed that I'm not wearing my evening gown, are you?"

"Not really; the goal was for the two of us to have an awesome time, not make every guy want to put a knife in my back," Ragna countered with his own smirk. He managed to get a laugh out of Blake.

"You have the weirdest way of giving someone a compliment, you know that?" she questioned. Ragna only gave her a modest shrug. "Though I admit that you clean up pretty nicely yourself."

Ragna was wearing an outfit that was very much out of the ordinary for him. Out of all his usual equipment, the only thing that the Reaper had left was the glove that he wore one his left hand to blend in with his artificial right arm. He had on a red, long-sleeved, tucked red dress shirt with bright yellow buttons down the center, though most of them were covered by the slim white tie that he also wore. While a recent shopping trip had focused on finding clothes that were the right size for him, the shirt was certainly on the snug side as it gripped and highlighted parts of the Reaper's well toned body. Instead of his usually baggy black hakama pants he was now wearing a set of much slimmer black slacks along with a dark leather belt though the metal buckle was a bright yellow. He was also wearing some sharp black dress shoes and while his hair style hadn't been changed, it did look like it had been tended to… almost like it was put together a bit more intentionally this time.

"Thanks," he said to her earlier comment, before giving her a smirk. "If Weiss was with us though, I have a feeling she'd have adjusted my tie into a vice grip by now."

"Knowing her, probably," Blake agreed with a laugh. "So, what's first for us tonight?"

"Depends on if you're up for eating now or want to hold off for later," Ragna told her. "Also what you're in the mood for having. Don't want to be an ass and assume, buuuuut I'm guessing something with fish?"

"That's not an assumption, you know me too well for that," the Cat Faunus agreed. "I'll let you choose where we'll eat. Just don't feel like you need to spend too much… I mean, were you planning to pay?"

"...It's a date isn't it; kinda feel like that's what I'm supposed to do," he told her before chuckling. "Don't worry about it, I got cash on me."

"Even after you got kicked out of the fight ring?" Blake asked. "I mean, how much were they paying you?"

"Enough to make it worth it... for a time anyways," the Reaper admitted. "Truth was I probably would've left anyway after all of the crap they tried to put on me that night, but I've still got plenty of money saved up from that and before I came to Beacon."

"You mean the money that you got doing work in the outlands?" Blake asked, remembering the few stories Ragna had told them about his past. "Then don't worry about spending it tonight, I'd feel bad if you had to waste it on me."

"Jeeze, it's not a waste. I'm hanging out with someone who's had my back and I'd call a dear friend. That's more than enough reason to splurge a little tonight," Ragna told her seriously. "But if it makes you feel any better I promise not to get too spendy, alright? Just focus on having a good time and leave the rest to me."

"I... guess you're right," she agreed before shaking her head. "I'm sorry, this quarter's just been getting to me. Now that I finally have a chance to relax I'm finding it hard to settle down."

"Don't worry about it, you'll probably feel better..." Ragna paused in his words as he gave a quick glance behind. "...After you eat."

"Huh?

"...It's nothing, must've just imagined it," Ragna muttered, as he turned his attention back ahead and tried to focus more on his time with Blake... whilst Makoto and Nora kept themselves pressed against the corner wall in a panic, not risking another peak should he glace back a second time.

Fortunes of the Depth Restaurant and Cafe

"Welcome, table for two?" the middle aged Coyote faunus host asked as he stood with a welcoming smile, dressed in his waiter's uniform. At Ragna's nod he grabbed two from behind the desk. "If sir and madame will follow me?"

As Blake walked with Ragna she could see that this restaurant was far from an exclusive five stars establishment, but it was hardly what you'd call casual dining. Instead with it's pleasant decor, decent portions, and specialty dishes, one could see that it fit comfortably at the center. The restaurant was about half filled with guests since it was still early for dinner. They were a mix of both humans and fauni, ever more evidence that Ragna had specifically chosen this restaurant to cater to Blake's needs. The host led them over to a window side table with a fantastic view of the streets as the sun began to slowly set overhead.

"Your waiter will be with you both shortly, would either of you like something to drink aside from water?"

"Yeah, I'll take a cup of coffee thanks," Ragna told their waiter.

"Of course sir, we just happen to have a specialty house blend made from coffee beans found exclusively in Vacuo's southern territories."

"You mean Silphal Bean?" the Reaper asked, almost sounding impressed.

"You know your coffee beans sir, that's exactly the type we're offering. How would you like it prepared?"

"Strong and black." If Ragna hadn't said that with such a straight face, Blake might've thought that he was flirting.

"And for you, Madame?" their waiter asked.

"I'll have a cup as well, but with cream… also could you please make mine decaf?"

"Of course, I'll have your waiter bring your cups of coffee when he comes for your orders. Our special tonight is honey lemon glazed salmon with sides of steamed asparagus and rosemary roasted potatoes, but feel free to look over your menus to decide what you're in the mood for this fine evening."

"I'm pretty sure I already know what I want; that special almost caught me off guard," Blake said, though she gave the menu a quick look over if only out of curiosity.

"Probably the same for me, but what I really need is that cup of coffee," Ragna told her as he only gave his menu a passing glance before setting it down. "Not saying you're bad company, but without it I'm pretty sure I'd fall asleep before the night's over."

"We… haven't seen much of you aside from what happened with Yang a while ago. Has Cinder been keeping you busy?" Blake asked, not able to mask the concern her words carried.

"Of course she has, you think I'm trying to avoid you all on purpose?" Ragna asked rhetorically with a groan. "It's… been kinda tough, but I guess her idea from work is if we do as much as possible now there's going to be less to do down the road."

"I think what she's doing is pretty severe, we haven't even been seeing you at mealtime," Blake sighed. She suspected the only reason she'd managed to see Ragna a few days ago at the library was because he'd been assigned his duty to work there by Goodwitch. If Cinder had her way, Blake suspected that she'd have never allowed the two to see each other even as briefly as they had talked. "Have you had any downtime to yourself?"

"A bit; Ren and I were actually in a bit of a sparring match when you texted me back. First time I haven't either been in a lecture, researching one of my projects, or passed out exhausted… but hey, things are probably going to start lightening up in a little bit. Her constant need to work on the project can't last forever, eventually she's going to find a point where we can't possibly work any further ahead and she'll have to give me some time off."

"Looking forward to that day." ...Blake hadn't given him a question, it was her own statement.

"Do you have a problem with me spending so much time with her?" Ragna asked.

"Not exactly, it's just…" the cat Faunus hesitated. "I just think that there are better people for you to spend that time with, some people that you won't cause you to become exhausted just by being around them."

"I'll drink to that," Ragna told her... before glancing over his shoulder. "Seriously I will; I need that coffee before I pass out." His somewhat corny display at comedy desperation forced Blake into a small giggle. Seeing her able to laugh like this helped Ragna feel a little more at ease himself. "What about you and Nora?"

"Let's just say that I have a new appreciation for Ren's patience and leave things there," Blake told him with a smile.

"Heh, who could've guessed that?"

After the meal

"Didn't want to stay for dessert?" Ragna asked as the two headed out the restaurant, both were very satisfied with their meals and the coffee had provided the Reaper with the perfect pick-me-up to get through the rest of the night.

"I didn't see anything on their dessert menu that interested me, but if you wanted to stop somewhere later I could definitely go for a small treat," Blake promised him. "Did you want to grab something else now?"

"I was thinking we'd walk around first before looking for something. 'That work for you?" Blake nodded, still a little stuffed from dinner. "Great, so since I got to pick out where we ate dinner, how about you decide where we're headed next?"

"Let's see… there was a bookstore that I wanted to try shopping at. Maybe we could stop by there for a bit?" she suggested. "I'm not sure why, but my usual place was shut down right before the quarter started and I've been looking for somewhere else to go. I know it's not the most interesting, but-"

"Save it; I already know how much you love your books and it's not like you're going to bore me by taking us there for a bit," he interrupted, stopping Blake's apology there. "You know where it is?"

"Just a couple of streets down this way," she directed as the two turned onto the proper street. "Now that I think about it, you've never really told me what it is you like to read."

"Must be because I haven't picked up a book just to enjoy it for… years." The look of terror on Blake's face told Ragna that she believed him, but she wasn't taking it well. "Don't get me wrong, I was actually doing a lot of reading when I was with my teacher out in the wilds. The problem was that I only ever read books related to Semblances and Souls… all of them written by Relius Clover."

"What about books teaching survival, Grimm Hunting, even cooking?" Blake demanded, feeling that there must be a reason his skills were as good now as they were.

"Explicitly forbidden by my teacher, I wasn't allowed to learn anything about them that he wasn't already teaching me. I think the only reason he let me read Relius's books in the first place was because teaching about Semblances wasn't his strongest suit. That and he didn't want me to somehow forget how to read."

"Given how much he was forbidding you to do, I can see why he was worried," she told him, though it was clear that she wasn't blaming Ragna. "But if you started off by reading Relius's books, does that mean that you understood them even as young as you were?"

"You kidding? The first time I tried reading one I couldn't make sense of two words in one of those damn things," Ragna told her. "After a while, I learned that the best way to understand his thinking was to look at what he was suggesting in just about the most ridiculous way you could and work your way back bit by bit… though I usually didn't have to go that far back."

"With the stories that we've heard about him, I can understand why," Blake agreed. "What about before that?" Her date seemed to hesitate as he thought back, leaving her to worry that she might've said something to make him uncomfortable. The past seemed to be a difficult subject for both of them to discuss.

"I mean I had to learn how to read somewhere, so I guess that my caretaker must've taught me while I was little. Don't remember much of that... though I do remember reading to Jin a couple of times; he used to keep me up all night begging to hear another story of some brave hero."

"Jin did?" Blake asked, it was hard to imagine Ragna's brother acting like that with the constant cold persona he displayed.

"You'd be surprised, he was actually pretty sweet as a runt," Ragna told her with a nostalgic smirk. "Past that though I can't really say there's much that I'd like to read; all the more reason to go and find out I guess."

"All the more reason," Blake repeated in agreement.

Shortly -Remnant's Finest Pages-

"So?"

"I'm only on my third recipe in this cookbook and I've already seen over a dozen changes I'd make at a glance," Ragna told her with a sigh as he reshelved the product he'd been looking at. "Fantasy novels ain't cutting it for me either, and those self help books just felt insulting."

"...You realize I didn't make you look at that last one, right?"

"I know, I know, but I'm supposed to be trying everything here, won't know if I find something to stick to unless I get a good look at everything," he finished with a sigh. "What about you? You haven't looked at too many books yourself."

"I'm just browsing," Blake told him, though Ragna could see she was a touch more reserved. "What's next for you?"

"...I mean there's always the romance section," the Reaper suggested slyly, only for Blake to scowl. "Come on it's me, I already know the kind of books you're hiding from the others."

"And I still have no idea how you managed to find those," she told him, her yellow eyes in a scathing glare though Ragna didn't seem to mind. "And I'm not going there."

"Eh, you can do what you want but I've been seeing you glance that way since we got here," Ragna said as he started heading for that very section.

"What are you doing!?" she hissed at him, trying to keep it under her breath.

"So sue me, I'm curious," he told her as he walked into the section and started checking around based on titles. Though Ragna was only a short way into the section, Blake kept herself just outside in her stubbornness. "Let's see here, this one's called Of Rough Hunting and Smooth Loving... Sounds smutty."

"You'd be surprised, that author takes around a half book before you get to any scene with even a hint of romantic tension. I can appreciate all the set up work he does and how he tries to flush out all of the characters, but waiting so long for something to develop is almost infuriating. In one of his series it was three whole books before even a married couple so much as kissed and-"

Blake froze as she realized that Ragna was staring at her in amazement, causing her face to immediately turn crimson and quickly turning so that she wouldn't have to look him in the eye. Scratching the back of his head, Ragna kept looking.

"Alright… let's say that I'm trying to figure out if this type of book is right for me? Any classics that you could recommend so I'd know that much?" He then gave a small chuckle. "Or better yet, any favorites?"

"I… I guess I've one or two books back in my room that I could let you borrow," she promised. "But if you want to get started, maybe by this author. She's pretty tame when it comes to hia more heated scenes, but you can usually follow along well enough with the emotion. Her settings are-"

Later

"Feel like kind of a dick since we spent all that time there and I didn't end up buying anything," Ragna admitted as the two headed out of their second stop.

"Don't worry about it, I'm pretty sure I bought enough books for the both of us," Blake assured him, having spent a little of her own money on the purchase as she carried the paper bag holding the most recent addition to her collection. "Besides, you don't have your own room anymore. You'd have to find a good place to hide them to keep your team from finding any of them. Or you could just try the library again."

"Ugh, I'm already in there enough with these damn projects. Any more time in that hell hole and I might as well just move in," he countered, leaving Blake to smirk before sniffing at the air. "What is it?"

"Something smells good, something sweet with cinnamon," she said, trying to find where it was coming from. Eventually her eyes landed on a small shop selling- "Crêpes."

"Huh, never actually had one of those. Want to try one for dessert?" Ragna offered.

"That sounds pretty good, let's go for it," Blake agreed, the aroma making this an easy sell for her. There were plenty of people waiting in line ahead of them, but thankfully the shop was decently fast at putting orders out. "Two of your classics, with the works please."

"Of course, I'll have those out for you both in just a minute," the worker said as she began making the Crêpes in front of them, humming a company jingle as she made them.

"This might be the place Ren brought up to me a while back," Ragna guessed as he and Blake waited for their order. "He and Nora had just stopped by here during the break and I guess they ran into Sun and Tao here."

"That's right, Tao..." Blake said as she thought back to Ragna's other cat-like friend. "So she's still in town then?"

"Maybe, maybe not, I don't really know myself," the Reaper admitted, though he didn't seem too worried about her unknown whereabouts. "Not like this is anything new for her; whenever I came across her in the past she had a tendency to run off without letting me know where she's going. She was fine then, so I ain't worried about her now."

"I get the feeling that she's been a handful to deal with," Blake guessed with a smirk as their crepes were brought out and Ragna paid for both of them.

"You've got no idea, but..." Ragna sighed as he thought back. "For a while she was the only real friend I had; I'd be lying if I said she doesn't mean a lot to me... even if she can get me irritated in a heartbeat."

"Not so different from the rest of us," Blake noted with a small smirk.

"You're cheaper to treat," he countered, a dead serious look in his eyes.

His date looked like she wanted answers, but there wasn't a continuation of that point. Ragna then tried taking a large bite out of his crepe, silently admitting that he enjoyed the taste it offered and the warm feeling it gave on this slightly chilly night, but could do without getting the excessive whipped cream all over himself.

"Damn it…" Blake couldn't help but laugh a bit as she caught sight of his face. "I've said this to you before; glad you find it funny."

"I'm sorry, but if we had a mirror you'd laugh too," the Cat Faunus apologized before taking a napkin and starting to wipe Ragna's face off, a move that obviously surprised him.

"Uh…"

"I mean, you just had it everywhere," she explained though blushing slightly as she realized what she'd done. Trying to get her mind off of it, she took a small bite of her Crêpe without realizing she was squeezing it too hard and got quite a bit of whipped cream on her own face. She was about to wipe it off, but then saw Ragna was about to do it for her.

"I mean…" He seemed hesitant. "I'm just returning the favor." Though she remained blushing slightly, Blake didn't protest as he reached over and gingerly removed the cream with his napkin... though something about how close he'd been and the situation that they'd caused reminded Blake of something... something that was going too far here.

In the end, neither were able to finish the Crêpes that Ragna had paid for. It wasn't because they'd already eaten too much, more that both were a bit more nervous about dirtying their face again and starting the whole thing over. With that awkward turn finished for the night, Ragna and Blake were in silent agreement to start heading back for the Academy. It was sort of a sour note to end the night on, but they both figured they'd get over that. Heading down the streets, they passed by a small roadside flower shop.

"Thanks, come again," a lamb Faunus said as she took payment from a customer purchasing a bouquet of crimson roses. She gave a parting smile at the business before looking at the two date goers. "Blake! What brings you out into town?"

"Hey Ariel, not… not much," she said with uncertainty, but the lamb Faunus seemed to be picking up on the signals rather quickly.

"Not much? From the looks of things I'd say that you're out and about on a little date," she said with a smile on her face that seemed to cause the fellow Faunus to freeze up. "So who's your friend?"

"Ragna; we're both the same year at Beacon," he explained, honestly wanting to get back to the Academy before things turned more awkward for them.

"Wow, you really are amazing," Ariel said in admiration. "Not only are you fighting to support Faunus rights and equality, but you're also dating a human to get the message across."

"Th-those two things have nothing to do with each other," Blake told the lamb, though Ragna silently admitted he might've been a little peeved if he was being used as some sort of display without knowing. "Besides, we're not dating! This… this… this is…"

"Just a time two friends decided to head into town for the night," Ragna finished for her. Blake was admittedly thankful that he saw eye to eye with her… at least she hoped he did. "...How do you two know each other anyways?"

"She helped out a while back. There was a small gang of Academy students in town always making a mess of my stand and harassing anyone that shopped here. I tried going to the police, but they've been no help…"

"We've noticed," the Reaper agreed bluntly, thinking back to the time Blake and Makoto had been profiled.

"So I was honestly about to quit my job selling flowers for my own safety, but Blake here convinced me to keep going. Apparently the administration at Beacon found out what they were doing and those students didn't get off too easily." She smiled gratefully to the Cat. "You helped in a big way, I still don't know how I'm going to pay you back."

"It's not a problem, they were always causing that sort of trouble back at the Academy anyways; this was just something that I could use to show that," Blake admitted, playing it cool.

"...Is that right?" Ragna asked before giving another look over the flower. "Are those-?"

"Black Tulips; still a very rare flower," Ariel told him with a pride filled smile. "They're still not completely black yet and have a bit of purple in them, but they're still a sight to behold. I don't have too many of these left to sell since I only got them through a very rare deal." She smirked as she noticed how intensely Ragna was staring at them. "Are you interested?"

"...I'll take a bouquet of them for the lady," he decided, taking out his wallet.

"R-Ragna!" Blake exclaimed. Even though she couldn't see it, most of the observing crowd was smiling from ear to ear. "I-I think you've already spent enough for one night! You promised that you wouldn't be too spendy!"

"Maybe, but at least for a bit I think you should have some sort of reminder for tonight," he told her while Ariel took the payment and began preparing the bouquet. "Also call it thanks; you didn't have to force yourself to come out with me."

"I-I'm not…"

"You kinda are," he told her with a smirk. "But I guess I can live with that."

'Wha… What am I doing?' Blake thought as she took the flowers from Ariel. Her face wasn't flushed… it was too pale for that.

Later -Central Fountain Park-

"Damn, think that coffee's finally starting to wear off," Ragna groaned as he fought back a yawn. It was getting dark out and the two had decided to take a shortcut to the Academy through the park. While the fountain was still going, the area was empty save for the two of them leaving only a bit of lighting from the nearby lamps. "So… got your excuse ready?"

"My… excuse?" Blake repeated, not sure where Ragna was going but not liking his choice of words.

"For your team. You know, why on earth you were out in town so late and they couldn't find me anywhere?" He only smirked as usual. "Sorry, just got the feeling that you didn't tell them about this."

"...You've really got me figured out then," she admitted with a sigh.

"Course I'm not exactly helping, now you've got flowers to explain too," the Reaper realized.

"I can… probably just say they were a gift for saving Ariel's stall. There's a bit of truth to that, isn't there?"

"Come on, I got them for you cause I thought you'd like 'em. Sure, I sorta did that while thinking you were a total badass, but I usually do that anyways."

"Well thank you for them, I really appreciate what you've done for me tonight," she told him as she held the flowers closer. There was a bright moon overhead tonight, almost seeming to bounce off the Reaper's hair.

"Yeah, I had a great time too," he agreed. "...But are you alright with this? You were fine after we started tonight, but ever since we left the bookstore you've been starting to act more reserved again, like you were back when we first met."

Blake didn't answer immediately, choosing her words carefully.

"I… I know you didn't send me that text, I mean at least I mostly knew beforehand. But seeing your reaction back at the Academy, even if Tsubaki was pushing for this it's clear that you had no idea what was going on." Ragna was silent, he knew this would have to be discussed tonight… but damn him if it didn't sting. "You and I just both played along… I did it because I didn't want to hurt you if you had sent it."

At this point Ragna would have usually responded with a usual comeback. A I'm made of tougher stuff than that or trying Tch, you know me better than that… not this time. This wasn't the place for that kind of bravado.

"And… and… the truth is…" Blake let out a long breath. "I'm… just not looking for that kind of relationship right now… and I don't know when I will be."

"...Yeah, I can understand that," Ragna said with a slow nod. "Thanks for being straight about it, I can always count on you for that."

"Please, you're saying that like I haven't been keeping secrets for the past few months," she reminded, smiling sadly.

"Secrets are fine with me, you know that," the Reaper responded, his voice staying almost eerily even.

"I guess I do, but can I ask you about something I don't know?" Again, Blake hesitated. "I… I said that I wasn't looking for that sort of a relationship, but what about you? Are you okay with that? And… what are you looking for?"

"I…" Ragna started to say, taking a deep breath himself before stiffening. And glaring, harshly.

"R-Ragna, I-?"

"We're not alone here," he growled darkly.

"Busted," Makoto mouthed to Nora.

"Let's get out of here before-!"

Ragna then got between Blake and the path leading to the fountain, protectively putting his arm in front of his friend as his harsh eye glanced around the forest. He remained unblinking, gritting his teeth as his eyes focused on the darkened pathway leading to the fountain clearing.

"Get out here," he demanded, showing anger that was rare even for him. Eventually several different figures walked close enough to where the lanterns showed who they were. And at the front of that group was- "You…"

"Oh no, please both of you go on. I was so enjoying the show, watching you both break each other's hearts," the lead woman at the front said. Ragna and Blake could easily recognize her; the one that had called Blake a stray cat in heat during finals last quarter. Blake recognized everyone else she was with easily enough too; human elitists from the Academy. The type that would hang around people like Cardin's team… though they were oddly absent here. "You've got a debt to pay, Grimm Reaper."

"...What? Putting you through eight walls wasn't enough?" Ragna bit back, though he wasn't smirking at his mocking words. The area began to slowly darken with mood as dark clouds overhead blocked out the moonlight. "How 'bout I send you through a building this time? That work?"

"You have no idea what you did, I was almost expelled from the Academy!" she yelled with a hand gripped tight in rage. "I was in the upper echelon of students my first two years, but last quarter… Last quarter I was so bedridden that I couldn't even concentrate those last few days! You robbed me of that chance to continue that!"

"So? I actually had to work my punishment off on mop duty during those last two days," the Reaper told her, not impressed. "And you're trying to pin this one on me? I don't think you had to pick a fight with me, you shithead. What gave you that bright idea?"

"Ask that freak of nature behind you!" she shouted as the seniors around her took their weapons out and started surrounding the two, though none of her followers made a move at either of them. "Back before miss uppity came along, every Faunus at the Academy knew their place. Maybe that idiot headmaster of ours was an obstacle, but we could whatever the hell we pleased. But then… but then she started fighting back!"

"I get it; your lot was the one that was terrorizing Ariel's stand," he decided.

"You mean that lamb slut? Yeah, and we were suspended when that black cat ratted on us," the girl told him. "I could easily see that she was sweet on you, so I tried getting a little aggressive with you both at the library."

"And you saw how that went, didn't you?" Ragna reminded again, the lights in the area starting to flicker.

"Of course… so this time we decided to be a little more direct! You need a proper beating, but her..." she glared evilly at Blake. "...I have different plans for her; they involve an iron collar and a cage."

...The Reaper just smiled, not tauntingly, not a cocky one… just a plain smile.

"You're pathetic, worse than a worm."

"I wouldn't talk such a big game if I were you!" their attacker shouted. "You might be tough, but I've already heard that your perfect mock battle record was broken! Besides, you've got no weapons, all of us are seniors, and you've got her to babysit." She gave an ugly sneer as she took out her bow and transformed it into a painful barbed whip. "Or are you too stubborn to see that!?"

"You're the one that's not seeing things," Ragna told her as the lamps continued to flicker. "You followed us out here because you knew no one else would be here, no would be able to call for help, no one would see what you're about to do."

"...Is he trying to signal us?" Nora whispered to Makoto in panic.

"I don't know, but for now we should wait until he gives us a clear signal."

"You hit the nail on the head, congrats," the attacker said in response to Ragna's earlier comment, the lights around the area flickering madly now. "So what am I not-?"

Then all of the lamps were off, bathing the entire area in a deep darkness.

"...Seeing?" she finished in terror. She was frozen for a long moment before going for her scroll to give her light, only for the device to stay deactivated. "Wh-what is this!?"

"Remember reading about the Human-Faunus wars? You didn't sleep through Oobleck's class, did you? Many of human's greatest defeats came either at night or in caves. They underestimated a Faunus's keen ability to see in the dark, and whenever that happened… it was a massacre."

"No…" Blake could see clearly through the darkness, she could see the dark aura around Ragna, she could see the threatening look in those heterochromia eyes of his… she didn't have to; even blind she could have seen the dark resemblance.

"Y-YOU'RE NO FAUNUS EITHER!" the lead senior shouted frantically. "YOU CAN'T SEE IN THE DARK! YOU'RE BLIND LIKE US!"

"You think something like that's about to stop me?" Ragna's voice echoed throughout the area, seeming to come from every corner. "You're all terrified of darkness while I've lived in it. I can see that all of your weapons are shaking in your hands, three of you have already wet yourselves, and you… I can see all eight beads of sweat on your forehead." The attacker was turning to the attacked, causing her confidence to dissolve further. "Make that twelve beads of sweat… coward. I can see all this easy… but you won't be able to see what I'll do to you."

"B-B-B-" she stuttered, gasping for air. "B-B-But if you attack us, then you'll-!"

"Nothing will happen to me. Like I said earlier; you all made sure that no one would be around, that no one could walk in, that no one would be the wiser…" Somehow the darkness became stronger, deeper, so much so that even Blake could barely see. "And when I'm finished THERE WON'T BE ANYTHING LEFT OF YOU."

The seniors all fell to their knees, choking on their own breath in terror. Blake began taking a cautious step back from someone she thought was her friend… but was now proving himself as a of darkness. Feeling the terror that she had on Grimm's Day, she dropped the tulips she'd been given as her hands shakily went for her weapon only to find she'd gone on this date unarmed.

"But… it's not for me to say what's going down here," Ragna said with a pause, turning to Blake as his eyes pierced through the darkness. "Say the word…"

"...What?" Blake asked while the other students turned deathly still.

"These people are a threat to the Faunus, they'll probably never look at you as equals. If they'd had their way you might've been dead now or worse. Say the word and they're all gone, wiped away like a stain… It's your call."

To Blake, it felt like she was talking to the Devil. Someone promising rewards of a dark future; and Ragna could do it if he wanted to. Wipe away these fools and anyone else who tried to silence the Faunus. And be better than anyone in the White Fang had been, much more dangerous. He could get into places that they wouldn't have been able to, and who would've suspected a human would be behind it? It'd be like it was before; she'd return to the role of a Black Queen to a King of Shadows.

"...No."

"Say that again." Ragna wasn't requesting.

"...No... You're not going to go any further," she told him before glaring down at the seniors. There was no sign of hesitation or weakness when next she spoke. "You're not going down to their level."

The Reaper smiled harshly, a bright toothy smile that tore through the darkness. It was at that instant that the lights suddenly returned, the clouds passing overheard stopped blocking out the moonlight, and suffocating darkness vanished like it was never there. That hadn't been a dream; the senior's soiled garnets and terrified expressions were proof of that. Ragna hadn't moved a step from where he'd been standing earlier.

"You know something?" he asked casually as he glanced up at the broken moon. "If I were you idiots, I'd thank my lucky stars that Blake isn't half as intolerant as you are, might've just saved your lives now." Turning his gaze back to them, his face was then the definition of rage. "Now get the fuck out of here before I stop listening to her."

With many of them giving terrified screams, the Seniors then ran as fast as their legs could carry them. Who cared about a single uppity Faunus? That man was a straight monster! When they were finally out of sight, Ragna let out a deep breath.

"...That was close," he muttered, scratching the back of his head.

"You almost lost control…" Blake said to him, still a little terrified of her… friend?

"No I didn't, I had the timing down perfect," Ragna told her.

"Timing? In your threat delivery?" the Cat Faunus asked.

"Well I mean the clouds overhead were easy enough to time, but check your scroll real quick. You'll see what I'm talking about quick enough."

Glancing down at her scroll, Blake saw that it was 9:02 PM and there was a message sent to her phone.

Thank you for complying with the Vale Electric Grid reset. Systems were quickly restored and mechanical alignment was quickly achieved. We apologize for any inconvenience or temporary loss of Scroll use due to discharge. On behalf of-

"The reset? You… you timed it with that?" Blake asked as Ragna just gave a smirk and shrug.

"I mean yeah, I know I can be dark but do you really think I'm some kinda monster?"

"But you said you could see them in the dark!"

"And I can, partially, thanks to all my training in the wilderness," he explained. "I could easily see the weapons shaking, and the smell made it clear they'd soiled themselves from my earlier timing and intimidation. Sweatdrop guessing was just grandstanding, but I don't think they were together enough to tell the damn difference."

"...I'm not sure if I should think Ragna's really clever for this or if he's the world's largest asshole," Makoto commented from the bushes.

"I'm going firmly with both," Nora decided.

"You… THAT WAS A BLUFF!?" Blake demanded.

"No, I was making a point to both of you. To her, she needed to know that you could have killed her any chance you wanted. You'd never say that, you'd never want that, and you'd never make that clear. So I did, I made her think that you had the decision in your hands. With one word from you I could've ended them all there… but you didn't take that chance. You showed that you're better than them in so many more ways than just being moral… and I doubt they'll be bothering you or any Faunus after that."

"So you traumatized them for that? That's why?" Blake asked.

"No, I need you to learn something too. Those people were ready to hurt you, they were prepared to hurt you badly. It's not going to matter how much you're going to insist on unity, how much good you show the Faunus can do, how far the two races can develop… there are just going to be assholes like that, and they can't listen to a word of reason."

"I can see that, but what makes you so certain that they could never change? They're still in school even!" she demanded.

"Easy, 'cause I'm one of those assholes. Not on this, but my point still stands," the Grim Reaper explained. "You already know that there are some people that you just can't win over… but you also need to be alright with hurting 'em back. These guys were clearly extremists, but you can't just stay down to take their smack if they weren't as harsh. Staying down's only going to let that damn voice echo… trick is knowing when you're in the right and need to raise that hell."

"...You really think that's going to work?" she asked, Ragna's analogy was also far from perfect, but…

"Positive, and it's the same with me," he said with a smirk. "Whole damn world could be against me, the four kingdoms could make me out to be the most wanted man in Remnant, but even if I still had one or two friends like you who believed in me I'd still be able to do what I had to."

"Ragna…" Blake said quietly.

"All the same, sorry for scaring you like that. And that our date ended up like this," he said before glancing up to the Academy. "We should start heading back."

"Y… You go on ahead," she told him. "I… I'll catch up."

"...Still terrified of me? I can't really blame you; the master knew what he was doing a little too well when he taught me intimidation," he turned away. "I'll see you around if ya still want, might be busy though."

"Ragna, I-!" Blake couldn't help herself, she dropped the bouquet Ragna dropped for her and ran up behind the Reaper just stopping short behind him. "I… I'M SORRY."

"Sorry? Sorry for what? You didn't do anything," he asked as he glanced back at her.

"About… about us," she admitted. "I just… I don't… I mean… And you..."

"Oh that," he said, taking a deep breath in before turning around. "Hey."

Blake looked up and saw his eyes, those kind eyes with a small gleam in their eyes. Reaching his hands forwards, Blake knew at once he was going for her ears. She let it happen as his hands…

Gently grabbed at the side of her head. She was practically frozen as Ragna slowly pulled her forward. He wasn't fondling her ears… he wasn't kissing her either… instead it was something else. Leaning his head down, he made their heads touch in a still intimate connection, but not exactly a romantic one; it was more so one of comradery, respect… trust.

"No matter what ends up happening, you deserve to be happy. And don't you dare forget that for a second," he whispered gently to her. "You got that?"

"I… understand." Blake could easily feel Ragna's heat dancing onto her from where they were connected and given her own state she was pretty sure he could feel hers just as easily. Letting go, Ragna gave her own last smile before heading off. "...Thank you."

"Anytime Blake, anytime…" he promised as he headed off... or was about to. "I think someone's still here."

"Really?" Blake asked as her eyes darted around the park clearing. "How can you te-?"

Ragna didn't give her the chance to answer, instead picking up a stray stone and chucking it to the treeline. The force behind that throw was at least enough to break a bit of wood off of the tree it hit, but Blake was more focused one the two screams he'd caused with that throw... made by two voices she recognized.

"Nora... and Makoto..."

There was a bit of shuffling behind the treeline as the two finally made their way into view. Neither of them looked that guilty about what had happened, more like they were simply concerned now that they'd been found out. The look of disappointment and exasperation on Blake's face was an uncanny resemblance of Goodwitch to Ragna, particularly when she was about to dish out a particularly big punishment for him. Fun as it might be to someone else on the other side of a lecture...

"Mind if I step out here?" he asked with a casual shrug. "Pretty sure you've got this one."

"By ALL means," his date told him sternly. "Thank you for a wonderful evening, Ragna."

"Had a hell of a time myself," Ragna told her as he headed off... but not before reaching up to finally get a good feel of Blake's ears. She scowled at him but said nothing, not that he'd taken too long. Nora didn't know the big deal of petting ears, but seeing Makoto's blush let her know there was something up with it. 'Alright you two, I played along with your scheme for this long. Time for you both to face the music.'

"So..." Makoto began once Ragna had left. "You and Ragna are at the ear petting level? Did not see that-"

"This isn't about that and don't think for a second that you can get this conversation anywhere away from what the two of you just did." Makoto knew better than to finish that sentence. "But if you have to know about that since you've already thought it was alright to get involved with our relationship, Ragna is an amazing friend that's had my back whenever I've needed him. He also has a deep love for Faunus features. Because of that I can give him a small exception and let him pet my ears occasionally. That's it."

"Lots of emphasising words in that sentence, but I think I get it," Nora said. "I didn't want to say anything to sell Ragna out, but this explains why I thought he was passing glances at Makoto's a-" Blake's scowl let her know that their time for talking had passed.

"Now then... I cannot believe either of you! I knew that you both were going to be nosy about this, but you completely overstepped your bounds! What in Remnant made you both think that it was alright to go behind both our backs and set this up!?" Despite the fact that she was now full on yelling to the guilty party, neither of them seemed too uncomfortable with the situation. In fact now that she'd yelled at them, they almost looked comfortable again. This was concerning for a number of reasons.

"What made us do this was that we were both worried about you," Makoto explained. "You said yourself that even after coming to Beacon that you were a mess. Well it doesn't take a genius to know that Ragna probably played a major role for why you're doing so well now, and that floor show he just gave us proves it and then some."

"I..." Blake had fully expected that she'd be able to rant here. The fact that Makoto was able to fight back now told her that something was up. Though, if she didn't put her foot down these two would only try this again. "He did... and that's why I consider him such a dear friend. By trying to push us closer together, you're getting close to ruining things for good."

"Not what I saw," Nora spoke. showing the same confidence to fight back as her partner in crime. "You looked like you were having fun with the guy the entire night, even when you both were acting like an actual couple."

"Because I was spending time with Ragna as a close friend!" Blake insisted again, suddenly forced to the defensive herself. "I even told him that I'm not looking for that kind of relationship! That should have been the end of it!" The cat's fists were shaking as she tried to tell the two off... failing. "Give me one good reason why Ragna and I should... should..."

"Blake."

Makoto wasn't trying to trick her with these words. Her face was the most serious anyone had ever seen her. Even Nora was taken aback by the sudden shift in the air.

"Ragna's not Adam."

"...You didn't... You did not just say that." Blake's scowl was absolutely scathing, but her pushy friend was standing firm. Memories of her ex flooding back, Black couldn't help but tremble as Nora looked on in concern. "If either of you try this again, or even talk about it... I'll never speak to you again as long as I live."

"But Blake..." Nora tried to say, though Makoto grabbing her shoulder stopped her.

"Let's go, we've done and said enough," the Squirrel Faunus instructed, almost irritatedly. "The rest is on her."

"I guess so..." Nora agreed as she started to follow her out of the park.

Blake had stayed behind, not only because she didn't want to see her own friends when she was in this state and blow up, but also because she needed to process her own thoughts here. Makoto's words repeated again and again in her mind, nearly deafening any other thought she tried to have.

Thoughts of her past relationship with Adam, when she'd finally left him and the White Fang, her early days at Beacon, meeting Ragna, and of course... Grimms Day.

Try as she might, she couldn't forget the night where she'd literally seen Adam when she'd looked at Ragna and shot him. He'd forgiven her quickly, almost like he never blamed her in the first place... but forgiving herself wasn't so easily done. If she had killed him...

Glancing to the ground, she caught sight of the tulips that Ragna had bought for her as a gift on their date. Something he was happy for her to have, even if she continued to insist that there was nothing romantic between them. All to convince Makoto, Nora, and the others... but most of all, herself.

'Damn those two...' she thought as she picked the flowers up and held them close to her as their aroma washed over. Her smile was one of melancholy; Ragna being a part of her life seemed to have no end of complications...

...but she wouldn't give that up for the world.

Next Time: Project Hell Part 2

Well, that's one chapter slightly altered so that it fits into a canon. If I'm being honest, despite how campy, silly, and inane the original ending was... it'll still stick with me. Also I had to change it from a quintet to a duo, since three of those characters barely had any screen time.

No telling when the next chapter will be put, but I at least have a roadmap for the product as a whole. Anyways, onto the reviews.

Primus1661: Named? Do you maimed by chance?

Dasgun: ...You left a period... that's it.

The Unplanner: Yep, Bang was the leader. I hope to get more into the town's history down the line. As for Ragna's relationships... I mean, anything could happen at this point.

Wlyman2009: It would be a nice moment between the two.

Leo0074: WHOOPS! I had originally planned to have him here, guess I forgot to change that.

Ragriz: Her reasoning has already been stated, but I'm thinking I'll make it a little more blatant in the next chapter... with some other revelations.

Hotshot6: Oh... there's a reason for that.

Fernandamichelleraya: Is there a girl he wouldn't flirt with?

Mrcito: An idea for sure, but I need to make sure that Cinder isn't TOO obvious of an instigator.

Guest: Well, I'll have to give our local Ice Queen some love coming up.

Yuki terimi: Again with the role playing? I'm not sure too many people are going to join in with you here. Maybe make a Discord? Thanks for the review though.

Infinite Zangestu: Hilarious is certainly one word for it.

Until next chapter! Ciao!