It was a couple of days after school had started and Yang pulled Blake aside one evening, Weiss was studying, and Ruby was reading a comic on her bed. "You doing ok?" Yang asked Blake, and she could hear the concern in Yang's voice.

Blake smiled warmly back, "I'm completely fine. Are you?" Worry crept into her voice at the end.

Yang's face mirrored Blake's warm smile, "Yeah, I'm good, I'm golden," she winked at the second bit before continuing, "I just noticed you weren't wearing your bow. Not that it's a bad thing or I prefer you wearing your bow, I don't! I like being able to see your ears more and I think it goes better with your hair now it's shorter, but I wanted to make sure you were doing ok." Yang's voice sped up the more she spoke, and she felt nervous and awkward, butterflies flicking around her stomach like they had when Blake had first shown her new haircut off.

Blake's smile got wider, and she waggled her cat ears on top of her head a little, "I decided that it was time to stop hiding who I was, after everything we've faced and everything we've done, I'm not going to hide who I am just to fit in more at school." She laughed, and the sound sent shivers down Yang's spine, it had always been one of her favourite sounds and that hadn't changed, "Besides, the professors here don't care if you're a Faunus or not, and I know you guys are all completely fine with it too. So, I decided to just be myself, ears and all. But thank you for checking up on me."

Yang grinned, "I'm your partner, it's my job." She nodded and threw a casual salute, still grinning and eyes sparkling. Blake laughed again and they both got on with their normal activities, Blake's nose in a book and Yang's on her scroll.

The next couple of weeks passed by without much incident, Ruby mentioned Blake's missing bow when all four of them were together, and Blake explained it to them as well, and their reaction was similar to Yang's, happiness at Blake continuing to be herself and not hiding. As for school, their classes were normal, although the amount of schoolwork they had to do was a jolt to their system. They hadn't had to worry about schoolwork or homework for over a year. There was so much to do to try and retain her top spot in class that Weiss almost regretted agreeing to come back. Almost.

They also met the new team that had joined their year. Since CRDL had gone to Shade Academy, one of their teams had decided to come over to Beacon. Team STRM were a group of three humans and one Faunus, led by Salvia Karrim, and they were all pretty well experienced from what little team RWBY knew about them, and whilst their grades weren't close to Weiss' (a point of pride for her that she didn't have anyone to struggle against), their combat scores were very nearly top of the class. They clearly valued combat and fighting over the academic side of school.

On a Saturday morning, a little over a month after it was announced, the first bit of information about Vytal Tournament qualification came out. Qualification to represent Beacon would be decided by a miniature tournament at Beacon taking place after the New Year and Winter break, with the top teams being put forward for selection. However, being selected was also contingent on grades. Even if one team won the mini tournament, they would only be selected if they had good enough grades as well, otherwise their spot would go to the fifth placed team, etc. The team needed to have an average grade in each subject of at least 85%. It was explained that by doing this, you couldn't get through on fighting power and luck in battle alone, you also had to be a knowledgeable student, but by making it based on the team's average score it meant other members could cover for one another. Blake was happy at this, knowing that Yang, despite her best efforts and willingness, would never get anything higher than 70% in Professor Greene's stealth class, but her 97% would almost cover her partner, and Weiss and Ruby could hopefully make up the rest.

Team RWBY sat down in the library after finding out this information and made a list of each class and their grades, to work out if anybody needed to work extra hard and improve so they could compete:

In Combat they were all passing with flying colours, Yang the only one doing better than Weiss. Weapon Crafting and Upkeep was also not a worry "Not with Professor Mulberry's favourite ever student!" Yang grinned with side hug of Ruby, who shrugged it off, slightly embarrassed at the praise. Legends of Remnant was also fine, Ruby's love of stories when she was a child meaning her and Yang had the majority memorised, so Blake's lesser knowledge of them, whilst decent at a grade of 82%, meant that they were still well ahead of the 85% mark needed.

Ruby's time spent helping smaller villages out on her travels to Mistral with the remnants of team JNR meant that her knowledge of Grimm and subsequently Grimm Studies had received a large boost, much to Weiss's surprise and happiness. Ruby's previous view, which was something along the lines of "Eh, I'll kill it when I find it," had always caused Weiss a great deal of annoyance, so they didn't need to stress about that grade either. Yang's Military Strategy grade was below what they all hoped it would be, but Ruby and Weiss' grades in the high 90s compensated for her.

"We're looking good here!" Yang was happy so far. Out of the 8 classes they took, they had checked five and were averaging at least 92% in four, and 89% in the fifth.

"We've covered the subjects that we're best at, we still have Stealth and Security, History, and Plant Sciences to go." Weiss ticked them off on her fingers as she said them. Yang's face fell, she knew those were her three worst subjects, and judging by a similar expression on Ruby's face, they were still hers too.

Checking over the remaining three subjects was much less enjoyable. Ruby and Yang both looked sheepish from the scores. Stealth and Security wasn't too bad, Ruby getting an 82%, but Yang's 67% brought their score below 85% for the first time. "It's ok Yang, I'll work with you to get it up, we only need 2% over the whole team and we'll be there." Blake's words were comforting to Yang for her best subject, but Ruby wasn't sure Weiss would be quite as comforting when seeing her last two grades for History and Plant Sciences.

She was right. Weiss sighed heavily at seeing the 68% for Ruby's history and put her head in her hands at the 65% for Plant Sciences. Whilst Yang's scores were better than Ruby's, at 74% and 73%, they were still below what was needed, and even Weiss' high 90s couldn't salvage the team score in those two subjects, 83% and 81% for each being too low.

Ruby peeked out the corner of her eyes at Weiss, who had sat up straight, breathed deeply, and settled her eyes on the page of writing in front of her. "Ruby."

"Yes Weiss?" Ruby squeaked, she didn't want to look at her partner.

"Until you get your grade up to at least 75% in both History and Plant Sciences, you are going to be spending three nights a week with me in the library studying. You will have a test every week that I will make up and grade myself. Got that? We are NOT missing out on competing in the tournament because your grades are not up to scratch. Do you understand me?" Weiss' voice was calm and steady, but the other three girls had known her long enough to know that she was simmering with barely suppressed anger.

"Yes Weiss." Ruby's voice was quiet as a mouse.

Weiss breathed out. Blake spoke up, "I'll give Yang some help as well, reduce the pressure on you two."

Weiss nodded, "Thank you Blake."

Ruby's head suddenly popped up and tilted to the side slightly. If we're only studying three evenings a week in the library...then that's four nights we're not! Plenty of time to relax...wait, Weiss is not that lax, something's wrong.

Either her thoughts showed in her face, or, as Weiss liked to think, she knew Ruby well enough to know exactly what was going through her leader's head. "You'll also be spending two nights studying for the other subjects. You are not going to goof off and let those drop." Weiss' stern tone had returned and this time she was staring directly at Ruby. Ruby nodded meekly. It seemed that when it came to schoolwork Weiss was still the Ice Queen, determined to be the best.

"So, you're monopolising my cute little sister every night?" Yang reached over and put her arms around Ruby protectively, "I hope you remember that they're school nights, so don't keep her up too late. They are meant to be study sessions you know." She waggled her eyebrows.

"Yang!" Ruby shoved her sister off, her face blushing, "It's not like that at all, it's just a study session so we can compete in the tournament. What about you two huh?" She pointed at Yang and Blake, "You haven't said where you're holding your study sessions."

Yang leaned back on her chair, threw finger guns at Ruby and said, "In bed."

Weiss slapped her forehead, Ruby's mouth dropped, and Blake grabbed the front leg of Yang's chair and pulled upward, throwing Yang backwards onto the floor.

"We'll do the studying in the room, at desks, not in bed." Blake addressed the last comment at Yang, who was still on the floor giggling to herself.

Yang got back up still chuckling and held her hands up as she sat down, "Alright, alright, I couldn't resist, that whole thing was too good of an opportunity to miss."

"Next time, please do." Weiss said stiffly, her hand still covering her face – she wanted to be sure her blush had gone completely. "I'm going to start working on what Ruby needs to learn, so some privacy would be appreciated thank you." She pulled her notebook closer and flipped to a new page.

The other three took the hint and left alone, heading out the room. Yang looked at Blake, "Fancy some sparring?" Blake nodded in return and they looked at Ruby.

"I'm good thanks, if Weiss is going to set me tests each week, I'm going to need prizes!" Ruby grinned at her plan.

"Don't take all the cookies this time ok Ruby?" Ruby laughed and waved off Blake's comments as her two teammates headed off to one of the numerous sparring rooms. Ruby meanwhile headed off to the dining hall, on a search for cookies. Normally she would have jumped at the chance to spar, but she figured if she had prizes for tests going well, it would help her motivation, and make Weiss less likely to snap at her. Her partner might have improved a lot, but her attitude to schoolwork was clearly still the same.

Unbeknownst to Ruby, Weiss' thinking was on a similar train of thought. After giving the others a few minutes to leave, she slipped on a shoulder bag with her purse in and left the academy grounds, headed to Vale. Reaching the outskirts, she jumped on a tram, tapping her card against the reader as she climbed on. Ruby had introduced her to the tram system in Vale, and she loved it.

Virtually nobody cared who she was and, unlike a driven car, not many took notice of those who got on or off at the various stops throughout the city. Finding her way through the streets she stopped outside a small store. The sign was shiny and looked quite new, 'Mr Chip' standing out with light brown writing on a white background. Weiss pushed the door open, a bell tinkling above her head.

A small man scuttled out from the back of the shop to stand behind the glass counter, various shapes on display. The man wore a dark brown apron over a white checked shirt rolled up and over his elbows, his brown eyes sparkling.

"Ah Miss Schnee! Welcome welcome! It is very good to see you again; I hope you're very well. Is your excitable partner Miss Rose with you today?" His voice was incredibly soft and warm, sounding genuinely happy to see her.

Weiss smiled warmly back, "Hello again Mr Chip, it is very good to see you too, and to see your shop survived. Ruby isn't with me today, but there is something you can do for us." Weiss meant it too, the old man was absolutely fantastic, and a lovely person. Plus, he made the best baked goods in the entirety of Vale.

Mr Chip smiled broadly and leaned forward slightly, putting his hands together, "Anything for my favourite huntresses," his voice full of charm and sounding like he meant every word.

"Do you offer gift certificates?"

Mr Chip's eyebrow rose slightly, so Weiss continued, "I'm looking to help give Ruby some…motivation, with certain lessons and studying at the academy, and hopefully she will do as well as I hope, so a reward of some kind would be in order, and naturally there is no better reward for her than one of your magnificent creations." He inclined his head at her obvious flattery, clearly aware she was buttering him up, but happy to let it continue. "Obviously if Ruby doesn't do as well as I hope and she's capable of, I wouldn't want to ruin one of your fantastic products, so I was wondering if you offered gift certificates so when Ruby achieves what she is capable of, she can come here and pick one herself with no chance of spoiling it."

"Isn't that a little…hmm…simplistic for Miss Rose?" His tone was questioning but his eyes were sparkling with laughter.

"Please Mr Chip if I wanted simplistic, I'd go to a normal shop rather than your fine establishment." Weiss dismissed his concerns.

"I'll have to think Miss Schnee, see if it's something I can do."

"I would be very grate…" Weiss tailed off as Mr Chip pulled a rack of various cards and paper vouchers from behind the counter.

"Which design takes your fancy?" Mr Chip was grinning widely. Weiss gave him a look and he laughed, "I do sincerely appreciate the heartfelt compliments though Miss Schnee."

Weiss couldn't stay angry at him for long, another change from Ruby, before meeting her partner she'd have never bothered with the flattery and even if she had, she'd have stormed out in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. This time however she sighed and chuckled, she had meant every bit of flattery, so what if he milked it a little bit?

Walking closer to the counter Weiss ran her eyes over the designs and selected two, a plainer, simple design of brown lines around the edges of a cream card, and a more intricate design of curling lines of vines. She picked six of the first and three of the second. "Could I please get one custom made cookie on each of these, and three customer made cookies on each of these three." Handing over the simplest design ones first, and then the intricate cards afterwards. Ruby had once told her that Mr Chip's cookies were the only ones to have ever come close to being as good as her mum's, and knowing from Yang how much Ruby valued and loved her memory of her mum's cookies meant that that was very high praise indeed.

"Thank you, Miss Schnee, I'll get these made up for you."

Weiss left Mr Chip's with a promise to return soon so Ruby could spend her vouchers, safely hidden in her shoulder bag. Returning to Beacon she slipped back into their dorm having avoided her teammates and got down to making up a plan for the study sessions.

Yang and Blake found a training room that was empty, flicked the lights on and locked the door using the electronic keypad. That kept the door locked and the room private, however it could be unlocked from the outside in an emergency. Tapping their scrolls on the screen next to it they registered themselves as using the room and two screens popped up at the top showing a bar with their auras on, and an image of each of them next to their respective bars. If they dropped below a certain level a guard would check the cameras to make sure they were ok and, if not, be able to open the door and help. So far that had only been needed once in Beacon Academy's history, when someone had knocked themselves out with their own weapon. Blake was fairly certain it wasn't true, as the story became more and more exaggerated each year, but it was a good safety measure to have anyway.

"Usual rules?" Yang looked to Blake who nodded in return, dropping her jacket and weapon in the locker near the door, Yang following suit. The usual rules were three rounds of five points. If Yang got a hit on Blake it was one point, and if Blake could trap both of Yang's arms or get her on the floor it was one point. No weapons allowed, and no starting until stretches were finished for both parties, otherwise it just wasn't fair.

With both of them stripped down to a top and bottoms, Yang in a tank top and shorts, and a short sleeve top with close fitting trousers for Blake, they stretched and got ready. They'd started this after the train fight a couple of years back, Yang had been unable to lay a hand on the small fighter with the umbrella and had been frustrated by it. Blake was the best person Yang knew at evasion, so they'd come up with a plan to help Blake practice her evasion and manoeuvrability to get even better, and for Yang to get better at fighting more agile opponents. Making it a competition helped both of them, Yang being naturally competitive, and in their sparring sessions she always brought Blake's competitiveness to the surface.

Settling into their usual places opposite, they stared at each other's eyes for a few moments, heart beating loudly in Yang's ears. She stared into Blake's amber eyes. Gods I never get tired of looking into those eyes, by now I thought I'd know every aspect of them, but I keep finding new things each time.

Blake suddenly moved forward, dropping low and swiping her leg at Yang's, taking advantage of her partner's distraction. Yang jumped over it, shaking off her thoughts focusing in on the fight. Landing she swung a fist at Blake who flipped backwards in a handstand, the elastic at the bottom of her top stopping it from riding up. Before Blake had righted herself fully, she was on the defensive, slapping a punch away and dodging a few more, backing up until she hit the wall with her back. Yang smirked and threw a final punch, thinking point was secured. Blake moved out the way, spinning Yang with her by her arm, before pushing her against the wall, one hand holding Yang's wrist against the wall above her head, her other hand had pulled Yang's hand down and was trapping it against the wall with Blake's knee. The position they were in meant their faces were inches apart, Yang could feel Blake's breath against her lips, and she knew Blake could feel hers.

"One-nil" Blake whispered as she pushed away and sauntered back to her starting position. Yang loved these sparring sessions and she knew Blake did as well. If Yang won the first point then Blake got competitive, not wanting to lose, and if Blake won the first point then she got just a little bit cocky. Grinning, Yang moved to face Blake again. Settling into a ready pose she looked at her partner and nodded, the second point starting.

Moving towards Blake, Yang made sure to stay focused this time, no getting lost in those gorgeous amber eyes. She kept her punches short and quick, trying not to give any opportunity for Blake to grab her wrists again. After a few punches had been dodged and grapple attempts from Blake dodged, Yang winked at Blake, who jumped backwards. Yang dashed forward, threw a massive punch, but pulled it at the last moment, continuing her momentum to spin and poke Blake in the stomach.

Whilst Blake had said when they first started not to pull the punches too much, as she did want to raise her own strength and endurance, Yang still pulled them quite a bit, as she didn't want to actually hurt her partner and was quite cheeky with how she registered the points at times. Blake rolled her eyes, annoyed with how easily she had fallen for that feint. Yang grinned, she hadn't expected that to work either.

For the next hour they continued sparring, each point taking longer and longer as they both got into their rhythms before tiredness started to set in, and the last point was almost as quick as the first. Yang overextended slightly, Blake sensed an opportunity and stepped forward, ducking a punch before sweeping Yang's leg sending her falling backwards to the floor. Yang's back hit the floor; she'd tried grabbing at Blake's wrists on her way down but had barely missed them. Lying back, she lifted herself up on her elbows and she could see Blake's eyes were sparkling with delight at her win. Blake bent forward and offered her arm, which Yang grasped, and Blake lifted her up so she was standing. Slowly they stretched and cooled down, both knowing from experience no matter how tired or beat up they were that stretching was absolutely necessary. Yang could see the beads of sweat on Blake's forehead, and she knew she was sweating heavily too. She ran a hand through her hair, and it felt absolutely terrible. Noticing Yang's annoyance, Blake grabbed their stuff from the locker and passed it over to her, before they both headed back to the dorm.

They arrived back to find Weiss at her desk making notes in a notebook, clearly still working on Ruby's study schedule. Their leader was nowhere to be seen though.

"Is it alright if I get a shower first?" Yang usually went in the shower first, as unlike Blake she wasn't happy to let her hair be sweaty for any more time than was absolutely necessary, whereas Blake was usually patient enough to wait for the tall blonde to finish. Blake nodded and Yang smiled, dropping her stuff on the floor before going into the bathroom and turning the shower on before coming back out whilst it warmed up. Blake had put her stuff down and sorted it, putting them away where they needed to go and grabbed a towel, draping it around her shoulders and sitting on the floor, not wanting to get sweat on her bed.

Yang stretched out again, feeling her muscles protest slightly but she continued, she loved the burn after a workout. Seeing the steam start to come out of the shower Yang turned to the door and pulled her top and bra off, stretching her arms out, just waiting for the protest from Weiss.

"Oh, for Dust's sake Yang are you still doing that? Just go in the bathroom and get undressed in there already!" The protest from Weiss arrived right on time, with the door to the bathroom, and Yang's bare back, in sight of where she was sitting.

Yang smirked and said over her shoulder "You don't need to fight it Weiss, I know you enjoy the view." She slapped her bum and laughed.

Weiss spluttered in disagreement but by the time she got actual words out, Yang had closed the bathroom door behind her with a kick. "I can't believe she still does that, what if somebody walks in?" Shaking her head Weiss realised that Blake was still staring at the bathroom door, a red glow visible on her cheeks. Weiss stared for a moment before she shrugged and figured Blake was still tired from the obvious sparring session the two had just finished.

Ruby grinned as she walked away from the dining hall, her cookie heist had gone perfectly! 12 cookies wrapped up in napkins, and nobody had noticed! Ok so maybe she'd originally gone for 16 and miiiiiight have eaten a couple during the heist itself, but she still had her loot! She was walking back to the dorm when she slowed and stopped before thinking to herself, If Blake and Yang have gone to spar, they'll be gone about an hour. I've been gone...she grabbed her scroll whilst balancing the napkin wrapped cookies on one arm...less than fifteen minutes. If I go back now Weiss is gonna be really annoyed as I'll just be really bored and trying to find stuff to do. What can I do to not be bored? I don't wanna go to the library and study, that's boring, it'll be difficult to practice or workout with these cookies, what to do?...I could go to the workshop maybe...yeah, I can go to the workshop, I've got that idea I had ages back about a different firing action for Crescent Rose to help with medium range...

She headed off to the Beacon Academy weapons workshops, head filling up with her idea. Getting there, she found it was mostly empty apart from a couple of fourth year students she didn't know, so setting a workstation up in the far corner away from them, she put her loot to one side and brought a screen up. She logged into Professor Mulberry's class, selecting "Personal Projects", and brought up a list of notes, scrolling through them until she found the one she wanted. She expanded it and started tapping at the screen, reminding herself of the details she'd made previously and adding further notes to it, before getting up and heading to the section with the spare parts and then the tools.

Humming to herself as she finished welding the final piece onto her prototype, she put the torch down onto the bench. And jumped out of her skin as a hand touched her shoulder. "AAAAGH!" Ruby looked at the owner of the hand, "Weiss! Don't scare me like that!" Her partner was standing next to her, head slightly tilted. Calming down now she realised it was only Weiss, but still breathing heavily and gripping her chest, she asked "What's up?"

Weiss looked at her partner, hair a mess (more so than usual), face mask lifted up, gloves and a heavy-duty apron over her clothes. She smiled slightly, despite how much she had had to badger and cajole Ruby with studying in their first year, and that she knew she'd have to do this year as well, she'd never once had to badger her about Professor Mulberry's class, and knew she never would. Ruby loved spending time tinkering with weapons, making small prototypes for additional options or different styles, and whilst she rarely ever actually added them to Crescent Rose, she still went further than any student in the class, probably in every year. Most people left it at the drawing board, a few made prototypes, but most had, in their eyes at least, perfected their weapons before coming to Beacon. Ruby was one of the few who was always trying to improve hers, despite the fact that Weiss didn't actually think Crescent Rose could be improved much more, it just fitted Ruby and her style. The fact that none of Ruby's countless ideas made it any further than prototype stage told her that Ruby agreed. The downside to Ruby being such a weapons nut, was that when she went to the workshop, she lost all sense of time.

"We were wondering if you wanted to get some dinner with us?" Ruby blinked at Weiss' request, Dinner? But it's barely even lunchti...oh. Rubyspotted the time in the corner of her screen. She'd been here five hours.

"I did it again, didn't I?" Ruby's voice came out soft and almost a little upset. She'd discovered that she lost track of time when she was working on something and the first few times it happened in their first year it had frightened the others in her team half to death, as she'd vanished for almost 12 hours each time, not leaving until the workshops closed at 10pm. When she saw how worried the rest of her team were, she had felt awful. Yang had joked about it, saying she knew Ruby was alright, but even Ruby could see that she'd worried the three of them each time it happened. She tried to keep track of time or let them know when she was going to be working in the workshop, but the majority of the time it was just when she had an idea, rather than any planned time, so it was usually random, and she often forgot to let them know.

Weiss smiled at Ruby, "It's ok, when you weren't back after two hours, I checked Professor Mulberry's class and saw you were signed in, so we weren't worried."

Ruby blinked in surprise, "Huh?"

Weiss suddenly realised she hadn't mentioned it to Ruby, "Well, when we came back, I remembered your habit of spending so much time in here, so I spoke with Professor Mulberry and asked if he could set up an option on his system so that teammates could see if any of their team was logged into a workstation, and he agreed," Ruby still looked a little confused so Weiss continued, "So, if any of us login, we can see when the others last logged in. This way we can check if you're in here and make sure you're ok and eat something. You skipped lunch, didn't you?"

Ruby opened her mouth to answer but her stomach decided it was the perfect time to gurgle. Loudly. Looking at Weiss they both started giggling. "You dolt, come on, I'll help you put this lot away and then come get some food."

Author's Notes:

So, this was pretty long (for me anyway). I just couldn't find a natural ending point until I'd dealt with each of the four girls and what they had got up to.