Co-author - ToxicExotic

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Rooster Teeth Productions

Not much had been said about their conversation on roof in the week since it had happened, and while a lot of the awkwardness that permeated every interaction between her and Blake had faded, Ruby still often found herself nervous around the girl. Though she certainly no longer stumbled over herself whenever Blake was in the room, she did find that catching the amber eyes of her teammate still made her blush furiously at the remembrance that they did indeed have an upcoming date at some point in the future. Unfortunately, they had yet to organize a day they could go out, as their classes, which ran from seven in the morning to five in the afternoon, kept them rather busy.

To add to her embarrassment, Yang had taken to teasing her at every given opportunity. Whenever she entered their room, sly comments would be made as the blonde laid on her bed grinned down at them both; and while she would normally tell her to shut up, Ruby knew her sister was only trying her best to distract herself. It was mostly because of that however, that she was dreading what would meet her as she walked to her dorm, though partly due to an unfortunate incident that had happened at lunch.

As she'd returned to the table with her plate of food, the usual cheese and ham sandwich with some cookies, and gone to sit down next to Blake as she had done for the past few days, Weiss had activated a white glyph that pushed the Faunus sideways. Unable to stop her descent in time, Ruby had quickly found herself sitting on her teammates lap causing her to turn bright red and leap up. Thankfully her reactions were good enough to make sure she didn't drop her food, but Yang and Weiss had both burst into a fit of giggles as Blake blushed from the incident too.

Shaking her head of the still fresh memory, Ruby let out a sigh and continued towards her room that as finally in sight and pushed the door open. The same sight greeted her as it always did, Blake was sat on her bed reading a lengthy novel...

Looking as beautiful as ever.

… While Yang was sat at a desk next to the door, a bored look on her face as she studied what she instantly recognised to be one of her own books on mechanics.

"Hey, sis," Yang said as Ruby entered the room, picking up her pen and quickly shifting through her papers that were filled with messy handwriting. "What's the name of the part of your scythe that moves everything?"

"The actuator?"

"That's the one," She replied and quickly wrote it down. "Your book was useless by the way."

"What," Ruby said indignantly, pulling the book towards her and shaking her head. "There's an entire half a chapter dedicated to them in here."

"No there isn't," Yang scowled and pulled the book back. "I swear I looked."

"Chapter twenty-five, Motion," Blake said in a happy voice while not looking up from her book.

Watching her sister throw Blake a dirty look as she flipped through the pages, Ruby moved to the bathroom and glanced inside to see if her partner was there. Seeing nothing, she moved back into the main room and placed Crescent Rose on the spare desk before starting to take her boots off.

"What the he…" Yang huffed and threw the book back down on the table, the page turned to the exact thing Blake had said. "Why didn't you say something, Blake? I've been doing this for over an hour now."

"Payback."

Though the single word as said matter-of-factly with a small shrug, from her position Ruby could see that the girl was giving her a smile from behind the book, and feeling a slight warmth crawl up her cheeks, she gave one back in return. However, once her boots were off and she went to sit down, she had a sudden urge to sit somewhere else; and knowing Yang was eventually going to tease them regardless, she took a small breath and gave in to the urge.

"So where's Weiss?" She asked, trying her best to sound calm and collected as she sat down on Blake's bed despite feeling her heart pick up its pace a little.

"She said something about training with Pyrrha," Yang replied, her eyes narrow at them slightly. "She should be back soon though."

"Fair enough," Ruby said, sitting back against the wall but making sure to keep a respectable distance from her teammate.

"Welp, I robbing you of your headphones so I can focus, Rubes," Yang sighed and leaned over to pull them from the bag Ruby had left them in before turning back to them with a half-stern glare. "But I am still in the room, so no frickity frack in that sack."

"Yang!"

Blushing as Yang chuckled to herself while linking her scroll and slipped the headphones on, the bright red standing out oddly against the head of blonde, Ruby let out a frustrated sigh and crossed her legs. With Yang finally no longer looking at them, she shuffled a little closer to Blake and the girl moved her book down so she could see it. Reading a little of the girl's current page, she saw that it was a rather dry book for her tastes as it revolved around a mafia in a fictional city called New York.

However, the feel of simply sitting next to the girl was causing heat to flush her cheeks; but wanting to finally push through the awkwardness, she took a deep breath and tried to focus on reading.

"So how was class?" Blake said quietly, one side of the girl's cat ears flicking towards Yang and Ruby knew the girl was listening for the music.

"Not bad," she replied honestly. Shortly after being announced as the team leader, Ozpin had told her that she could take up some extra classes to catch up with everyone else if she wanted; and while at first she had been reluctant, after a falling out with Weiss, she had decided they would probably be for the best. "Glynda says I shouldn't need them anymore after this semester."

"That's great…" Blake hummed, and even Ruby could tell there was more the girl wanted to say. "So… You're going to have some more free time?"

"I-I guess," Ruby stuttered back and kept her eyes glued onto the book despite no longer taking in a word.

Feeling a little tension rise between them, Ruby remained quiet as she could tell Blake had more to ask.

"I don't… I don't suppose you have some of that free time this Saturday, do you?" Finally looking up from the book, Ruby saw Blake biting her lip a little. "If you do, then maybe we could finally go on that date?"

Despite knowing it would eventually come and even having waited for them to arrange an actual date for almost a week, Ruby still found herself caught off guard at the question. Saturday was only two days away and it wasn't that she didn't want to say yes, as she certainly did, but she had never actually been on a date before. While the talk of the roof had floated the idea by her, it didn't have a date, so didn't hit her as much as it just had. Apparently however, Blake took her silence to mean something she hadn't intended.

"If you've changed you mind or do…"

"N-No!" Ruby interrupted quickly and span around to face the girl, noticing the slight look of uncertainty in her eyes. "It's not that!"

Feeling heat rise up within her for fear that she had caused Blake to doubt herself, Ruby shook her head and tried her best to show there had been a mistake the best she could. By gently tapping the tips of her two index fingers together.

"I just… i'veneverbeenonadatebefore."

As it usually did when she was feeling extremely self-conscious, her words came out in one string of incoherent babble; and she wasn't surprised to receive a raised eyebrow in return.

"I didn't cat…"

"I've never been on a date before," Ruby interrupted, albeit still speaking quietly and very fast.

Taking a deep breath and looking down at her lap, Ruby waited for Blake to reply; however the one she received only confused her.

"Honestly, neither have I," the Faunus replied in a soft voice and Ruby saw the book being placed aside. "Not really anyway."

"But you're so bea…"

In her disbelief of the girl's admission, Ruby had accidentally spoken aloud instead of in her head; and though she had quickly caught herself, she knew Blake could make out what she had said and was suddenly gripped by the desire to completely wrap herself in her cloak and not come back out until she was sure Blake had forgotten she even existed.

"Th-Thanks," She heard Blake chuckle nervously. "But I sort of just fell into my last relationship."

Despite the embarrassment that still lingered, Ruby felt a little bit of curiosity well within her at those words, however, knowing Blake was notoriously secretive about her past, she decided not to question her. Instead she looked up and gave the girl a small smile. "I guess this will be both our first dates then."

"It doesn't have to be this Saturday," Blake said slowly and Ruby could tell she was trying to not put pressure on her. "We can wait until you're comfortable."

"N-No," Ruby shook her head, not wanting to chicken out as she knew that if she did then it would just drag her embarrassment out longer. "This Saturday is fine."

"You're sure?" Blake asked again and Ruby gave her a quick nod. "Okay the…"

Both of them were cut off as the door slammed open, making all of them jump as a sweaty and rather annoyed looking Weiss stormed into the room, her t-shirt slightly torn and muddy up one side. Muttering to herself something about stupid magnets, she quickly rifled through her drawers to pull out some fresh clothes and a towel and disappeared into the bathroom, the door slamming just as loudly behind her as the other had.

"Looks like Pyrrha had fun," Yang grinned at the bathroom, having pulled the headphones off due to the sudden intrusion; however, her eyes quickly turned to them and squinted suspiciously at the fact they were sitting rather close and facing each other. "Hey, thought I said no frickity frack."

"First," Blake sighed and turned to her partner. "I have no idea what that means but I'm pretty sure we were not doing it. Second, we were just talking."

"Yeah, Yang," Ruby replied and stuck out her tongue at her sister. "Butt out."

"Fine, I'll believe you for now," slipping the headphones back over her ears and turning back to her work. "But I'm watching you both."

"What does frickety frack mean?" Blake asked a couple of seconds after Yang had returned to her work.

"N-Nothing," Ruby replied, very aware that her cheeks were likely very red as she grabbed the book that had been discarded on the bed and opened it back up to the page they had left off at. "L-Let's just return to the book."

Watching the Faunus' beautiful eyes slowly work it out, Ruby pulled the book up to cover her face as she knew it really wasn't that hard to decipher Yang's meaning. Thankfully, whether Blake figured it out or not she didn't know, as the girl silently joined her side and gave her a smile as she reached out and took the book. Much to her annoyance however, as Ruby looked at the girl's lips, certain images came to her mind.

Stupid Yang, she thought to herself as she settled in to read the book, hoping the images would pass in time.

Blake stared into the mirror as she fiddled with the bow in her hand, trying her best to convince herself she didn't need it. She hated what it meant, hated that it made her ears itch, hated that people often referred to it as cute; but the thing she hated the most was that it hid who she was. She had originally begun to wear it during her later years in the White Fang as it had helped avoid the looks whenever she was transferred to a new camp, due to the fact that many there looked at her ears as a Belladonna mark and attributed them with a leader who they believed abandoned them, and even she had believed it too.

For years she had hated her parents, thinking them too weak to do what was necessary, too cowardly to stand up and fight; so in her attempt to leave them behind, she had pulled a ribbon from the hands of a travelling merchant that had refused her service and hid her ears from the world. However, since leaving the White Fang, while it certainly still helped avoid unwanted attention, it was more to remind her of what she did, so that every time she looked in the mirror, she could judge herself; but she didn't want to judge herself, especially not when the night ahead made her happier than she had any right being.

Saturday had finally arrived, and with their classes having finished at one, it was almost time for her date with Ruby after four hours of worry. In less than an hour, she would be meeting the young reaper, whom she had not seen since their classes had ended; due to the reaper deciding to get changed in Team CFVY's room. They had agreed to meet each other near the gate that lead out of the school's premises, and from there they would be headed to a small food court that was located along the road that led into Beacon from Vale. While the food court was not exactly approved by the school, a number of students tended to flock to it anyway as Beacon's cafeteria food had a tendency to be rather bland.

At that thought, she remembered that no-one at Beacon knew that she was a Faunus and let out a deep sigh. Due to her bow, she had managed to avoid Cardin and many others like him, and was not too keen on dealing with them; so feeling her resolve crumble and preparing for the stab of guilt that always came, she looked into the mirror and slowly affixed the fabric over her ears. However, just as she was finishing the knot, she heard the door click open behind her and a light sigh of exasperation, turning to face the door, expecting to see Yang, she was surprised to instead see Weiss standing there shaking her head slightly.

"Still wearing that stupid thing I see," the heriess said bluntly with a scowl painted on her face, as she placed her bag onto the desk. "I had hoped today might finally make you see how dumb it is."

"It helps avoid unnecessary attention," Blake sighed back at the girl and finished the knot before giving herself one last check over, purposely keeping her eyes away from the reflection of her head.

"If you say so," the girl said dismissively, the tone of her voice making it clear that the shrugging of her shoulders was more in reply to her answer than to remove her jacket. "So where are you two going? Ruby refused to tell me."

"Because she knows that you will tell Yang and both of you would spy on us."

"Please, I have better things to do with my time than watching my partner blunder her way through a night with the only person who can apparently look past her idiocy."

Though she raised an eyebrow in response to the insult, just like Weiss' words, it was more for show. She knew for a fact that the two girls were much closer than anyone could guess, and that while Weiss still had a tendency to be less than hospitable, she really did care for her partner.

"Well, I am still not telling you," Blake said stubbornly, not trusting the girl's words for a second. "Where is Yang anyway?"

"With Ruby, though she was paying more attention to Coco's pillow than her sister when I left."

Not surprising, Blake thought to herself, recalling a foggy memory from that morning during which she had been woken up early by Yang talking on the phone to her girlfriends. She knew their check in had originally supposed to have been days ago, but no word had been heard from them, so she could hardly be angry at being woken after hearing the relief in her partner's voice.

"Well at least they finally checked in," she sighed and turned around to finally face the heiress. "So what're you doing tonight anyway?"

"Studying."

The tone was less than convincing and caused Blake to scowl suspiciously at the girl.

"Port's class? Or Oobleck?" Blake asked with a straight face as she knew the girl had studied for all but one class for the last week.

"Peach's," Weiss answered, her voice a little smoother than before as she clearly caught on to Blake's ploy.

"Would you mind if I borrow your notes tomorrow then? You know I'm struggling for that class."

Knowing that Weiss had no way out of that one, she suppressed a victorious smile as Weiss turned to face her with a defeated look. As strict as the girl was, she never refused to share her work as she considered a bad score for one of the team also reflected badly on her.

"Fine!" She sighed in frustration and crossed her arms. "If you must know, with you and Ruby gone, and Yang staying in CFVY's room for the night, I'm having Neptune over. It's not like I am going to have the room to myself like this again for some time."

Though the small heiress was stood resolutely with her arms crossed, Blake could clearly see the red tint on her snow-white skin; for as regal and dignified as the girl acted in public, so much so that Blake often forgot that they were the same age, Weiss still had those moments where the normal, teenage girl she actually was shone through. While she wasn't exactly sure of what Weiss and Neptune's relationship was, as she frequently saw the blue-haired boy flirt with other girls while hanging out with Sun, she knew that Weiss could be rather testy when people tried to dig too far into what the two of them got up to in private. So deciding that it would be best not to press the point, as the last time she remembered Yang doing that Weiss had pressed the point of her rapier to the girl's chest, Blake simply rolled her eyes at the girl and moved to sit on her bed so she could put her shoes on.

"Well then," Blake sighed and slipped her shoes on. "I will try not to screw up so that we can stay out longer."

"As if you could screw this up," Weiss scoffed, searching through her drawers for a second before pulling out a towel. "Ruby hasn't shut up about you for the past month. Blake this, and Blake that. I'm just glad you felt the same because I think I would rather go back to Atlas than deal with that again."

"You don't mean that," Blake said, looking down at her shoe to hide the blush she feared was on her cheeks.

"I suppose not… not entirely at least," Weiss admitted with a sigh. "But trust me when I say you cannot screw this up."

"Thanks."

Because Blake was still busy tying her laces, she didn't hear the heiress approach until it was too late, and by the time she did, there was already a small tugging feeling on top of her head. Before she could react, she felt the ribbon slide along her ears as Weiss pulled it away and out of reach for the grab Blake quickly threw out to reclaim it.

"Though she would much prefer you to not be wearing this," she said, holding the fabric beyond Blake's reach.

Despite knowing Weiss was right, she still stood up and snatched the ribbon from the girl. Quickly tying it back in place, Blake saw Weiss rolled her eyes and walk away to sit on her bed.

"You know I can't," she said quietly and sat back down to put her other shoe on.

"Why?"

Weiss' voice made it clear the question was less her asking for an answer, and more her demanding one. As usual, she considered lying, just as she had when Weiss had first entered the room, but since she girl had been honest with her about her plans even though it embarrassed her, she decided that she should at least be honest for once too.

"I'm... " Taking a deep breath, she shook her head and looked up at the snowy-haired girl. "I'm not ready yet."

"You never will be until you take that first step," Weiss countered immediately. "You know that as well as I do."

She knew that was true. While Weiss was just as secretive about her family as Blake was about her past, she had learned enough over the months to know that Weiss' life was far from what she first assumed it was; and that to even get to Beacon, she had to make a sacrifice. Most obvious of which being the scar that stood out prominently over the girl's left eye.

"I know, Weiss," Blake sighed and stood up, now fully dressed. Checking the clock on the windowsill, she saw there were only fifteen minutes until she had to meet Ruby, so she quickly grabbed her wallet from under her pillow and shoved it into her back pocket before turning back to the heiress who was already sitting on her bed. "And I will take that step one day, just not today."

"Your choice," The girl shrugged, her attention turning to the cabinet and ran a hand through her hair as she flicked her finger through one of the many old, vinyls the team owned. "But the longer you wait, the harder it will be. Inaction breeds doubt..."

"... Action breeds confidence," Blake finished, knowing the quote well, though originally having heard it under different circumstances. "I know."

"Good," Weiss nodded, picking out an album that Blake had the girl listen to many times before, the songs on it rather pleasant and soulful. "Then you should take action, and get going for your date."

"Yes… That I should," Blake replied with a small nod. "Have a fun night yourself."

"You too."

Giving the girl one last look to see she was no longer paying her any attention, Blake turned and made her way to the door. Stopping for a brief moment to collect herself as she knew that once she stepped out of the room, there would be no turning back; she closed her eyes and took a deep breath before reaching out and pulling the door open. Giving it one last thought and seeing nothing but the smiling face of the girl that was likely already waiting for her, she felt a small smile pulling at her lips as she opened her eyes and took her first step out of the room.

A/N

Heyo, Toxic Here, This chapter is set up for the next one, and also touched on subjects in last chapter. As far as difficulties with this chapter, we had a few it was a few minor issues, but we got past them. As far as Raalm's break from writing, I'll continue posting on this story for a few weeks until Raalm wants to take over again.

Anyway, Hope you enjoyed this chapter, if you did feel free to leave feedback, we both love reading the comments on here