Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay between chapters, had some writer's block (this fight scene kicked my ass for about three weeks) and was also taking part in my first ever shipping week! Frosen Steel Week 2020 has 7 prompts, both AU and Non-AU and now the week is over, everything is on my list of works and it would be really great if you could check them out please!
Also, just in case anyone gets worried, this will remain a WhiteRose fic. Frosen Steel is one of my favourite ships, but this fic is a Bumblby and WhiteRose fic.
"Friend Ruby!" Penny jumped in happiness and waved at Ruby happily before greeting the other three girls with similar enthusiasm.
"Ready to get your legs broken?" Nora grinned widely and Jaune sighed.
"You're not breaking anyone's legs Nora, it's a friendly spar." Jaune covered his eyes with one hand and shook his head.
"Spoilsport..." Nora muttered under her breath, but still loud enough for everyone to hear.
"So, what's the plan then Jaune? We're the guests here, so it's your show!" Ruby smiled at him and he nodded.
"It's going to be paired up, but with some different ones. Ren and Blake, you're team Ninja, Nora and Yang, team Powerhouse..."
"Hey! I said we should be called Pink Lemonade!" Nora pouted at Jaune.
"Yes, but it's too long." Jaune rolled his eyes, the argument having clearly started quite a while ago.
"Ice Flower? Flower Power? They're not too long, but Pink Lemonade is?" Nora looked up and tapped her chin, "That's a lot of flowers actually...anyway!" She switched to crossing her arms and staring Jaune down.
"Nora, we've had this discussion." Blake and Yang looked at each other out the corner of their eyes. "Powerhouse flows better, and you two are powerhouses, so it describes you both."
"Tch, fine, but only if Ren makes pancakes for dinner!"
They all looked at Ren who shrugged as if to say, 'Why not?'
"Great. So it's Ninja vs Powerhouse, no weapons or semblances. Then it's Ice Flower vs...Penny we still need a team name for you and me...Winter Knight?" Penny tilted her head, only for Jaune to shake his, "Nah, that doesn't fit, we can work on that later. Anyway...me and Penny versus Ruby and Weiss, weapons allowed, but no semblances or Maiden powers. I've also made the aura limit really high as you four have got a mission tomorrow."
Ruby nodded to accept Jaune's point about the mission, but Weiss raised an eyebrow, "You do realise my entire fighting style is based around my semblance, right? So, I'll pretty much be a dead weight to Ruby and she'll end up having to fight you two on her own."
Jaune looked sheepish, "Okay that's a good point. Erm. You can use your semblance to help with the fighting then, but no summons. Try and keep us all on a relatively even footing."
Everybody nodded then split into their teams, Nora and Yang chuckling and nudging each other's shoulders whilst Blake and Ren discussed strategy. Penny had a serious look on her face as she talked with Jaune, and Ruby and Weiss quickly spoke about the best way forward.
Ren and Blake stood opposite their opponents in a very relaxed stance, Yang shook her limbs out and grinned, "We'll try not to beat you guys too badly."
"You'll need to actually catch us first." Blake deadpanned back.
Nora just smiled widely and crouched down, before charging forwards and swinging her fist towards Ren, who leaned backwards to avoid it before deftly tapping at Nora's wrists as she swung each fist, clearly going for the knockout blow to break his aura as soon as possible. Ren's strategy seemed to be to wear Nora down whilst dodging or deflecting all of her attacks. That's what Yang figured anyway, so to counter that, she also dashed in, going for Ren's legs with a sweep. She only remembered it was a two on two fight about half a second before Blake's fingers jabbed into her kidney, making her stumble and almost career into Nora. Rolling to avoid her teammate and get back to her feet she saw the recognisable smirk on Blake's face.
"And here I thought you'd never forget about me."
Yang felt her heart beat even faster. Why, just WHY, did Blake have to be so damn seductive when she's cocky? Wait...seductive?
"Yang! Less spacing out, more punching!" Nora's voice had a tinge of anger to it, and Yang shook herself, seeing that Nora was starting to take a few hits from Ren in between her own punches. Yang started to fight with Blake, but just like in their previous practice, the two were evenly matched, Blake's evasion just keeping her away from Yang, although she still managed to get quite a few hits in.
Hearing Nora grunt, she managed to put some distance between herself and Blake and flicked her eyes over to Nora, seeing her struggle against Ren. Keeping her eyes on her partner, Yang started to jog towards Ren, Blake just standing there casually, as if she wasn't in the way.
"Nora, switch!" Yang called out, she hadn't wanted to switch just yet, but Nora was clearly struggling against Ren early in the fight. Nora complied immediately, jumping back from Ren and swinging a fist towards Blake's back. Yang apologised to Blake in her head until Blake spun and grabbed Nora's fist, following the ginger girl's momentum and almost throwing her at Yang.
Nora skidded and stood next to Yang, Ren coming up to stand next to Blake. Nora was panting a lot heavier than Ren was, and had lost a lot more aura than he had. Nora clenched her fists and Yang grimaced. Ren was clearly better at the closer combat than Nora who normally relied on her weapon to land heavy hits from a distance and at close combat with weapons, and for Ren to protect her from the more agile enemies who wanted to get in very close and personal. They worked well as a team, but individually...not so much. Guess that's why Jaune had split them all up, to make them better. He's improving as a team leader. Ruby's still better though. Yang smirked and dashed towards Blake, before spinning away and engaging with Ren, making better headway than Nora, as she actually managed to land quite a few hits, switching between fists, and a few leg sweeps, preferring to focus on speed over the power. She just hoped Nora could hold out against Blake long enough that it could be two on one against her partner.
Nora meanwhile, was a lot more cautious against Blake, circling around her whilst the Faunus watched, legs bent slightly and ready to move. Blake stood there like she had against Yang, calm and relaxed. After a few circles and Blake just following her with her eyes, Nora grew tired of waiting for Blake to make the first move. As soon as she was behind Blake she moved in, a bit more cautiously than against Ren, but still a bit recklessly. Ducking under the swung fist she spun and used her momentum to land a punch to Nora's side, following up with a second to the back of Nora's head.
Nora started to stumble, but then spun full circle, a wild punch that would definitely have hurt had it connected. Blake however ducked out the way and then landed three hits to Nora's gut and side, followed by another to the back of Nora's shoulders, knocking her to the floor, sounding the aura limit alarm.
Nora groaned and rolled over, accepting Blake's hand up, although she pouted as she stood up "Aww man, it's over already?"
Blake chuckled before looking back towards Ren and Yang. Ren had landed quite a few hits on Yang, although his own aura was hovering just above the limit Jaune had set. Yang's aura was higher, but Blake's earlier attacks had lowered it somewhat, and Blake reckoned a couple more good hits and Yang would drop below the aura level.
Blake got her chance a few seconds after she'd helped Nora to her feet. As Yang moved forwards, Ren slammed his open palm into Yang's shoulder, making a dent in her aura and knocking her shoulder backwards.
What he hadn't accounted for, was Yang using the force of his hit to spin low, using the momentum from his palm as well as her own strength to sweep his legs from under him. As he was falling, she raised up and smashed her fist into his gut, the klaxon rewarding her efforts.
This was countered almost immediately by Blake's knee connecting with the side of her head, lowering her aura below the level and sounding the alarm once again, the klaxon ringing out as she landed heavily on her side, her vision blurred. She felt the floor vibrate slightly, and a heavily blurred Blake was by her side, kneeling next to her, gently holding her arms out and supporting Yang as she got up to a sitting position. She blinked a few times and shook her head slightly, vision returning to normal, and looked at Blake.
"Really? Couldn't have just punched me in the kidney again?" She smiled whilst saying it, wanting to make sure no ill will was felt.
Blake still averted her eyes though, a little embarrassed. "Sorry, just wanted to take you out quickly."
"Well you know I've got no aversion to you taking me out." Yang's comment was followed by a wink she immediately regretted, gripping her head as a fresh bolt of pain shot through her skull.
"Yes, because flirting when you've just been kneed in the head is always a good idea." Blake's sarcastic response slipped out as she held her arm out to Yang, who gripped it and pulled herself up. She was glad that aura healed things like concussions and knocks to the head quickly like it did with scratches, otherwise she'd have been out for the mission tomorrow. With her aura unbroken it should only take a couple of hours to recover fully, even less as she was fairly certain she'd not got a concussion, just had her brain rattled around a bit.
They went and stood next to Ren and Nora as they watched the rest of the fight between Ruby, Weiss, Jaune, and Penny. Weiss was down, having been taken out before their own fight had finished, although Jaune was only a few hits from dropping himself, whilst Ruby was teetering on the edge. Penny, meanwhile, had barely been touched her aura was that high.
Jaune advanced on Ruby, who was currently defending against Penny, trying to shoot her swords out of the sky. Penny was keeping them out the way though, adjusting every time that Ruby took aim at a different sword so none of them got taken out of the air, although she seemed to be using a few less swords than normal Yang noticed, so maybe Ruby had taken some out beforehand? Either way, it wasn't looking good for her on her own, especially two on one.
Seeming to notice this, Ruby suddenly extended her scythe, jumped up and fired in the opposite direction to Jaune and Penny, sending her flying towards Jaune low to the ground. Her boots connected with the very bottom point of his shield, she'd timed it so that as he walked forwards his shield would be furthest from the ground, giving her just enough room to shoot between his open legs, Jaune off balance from the unexpected attack.
Spinning and jumping in the air, her scythe having shrunk back down to the smaller sniper rifle she could hold in one outstretched arm, she loosed four shots into his relatively unprotected back, each one landing, and before he could turn around to even attempt to block any of them, his aura buzzed and he was out, Penny hovering behind him and turning in mid-air to now face towards Ruby.
Ruby was just about to land when a laser blast from Penny smacked her in the chest, timed so that without her semblance Ruby didn't stand a chance of dodging. A by now familiar klaxon sounded just as Ruby landed heavily on her backside, the blast having knocked her backwards and off balance just enough for her to fall over.
She didn't stay that way for long though, recognising it was over and she'd lost, she clambered to her feet and walked over to Penny congratulating her and immediately offering help on repairing the few swords she had managed to shoot down, just as soon as she was back from their mission. It was only on their way back to their dorms, after they'd split for showers, that Ruby allowed herself to groan and lean against Weiss, who didn't even bother pushing her off.
The four girls, having finished their showers, grabbed a light dinner, returned to their dorm, and sat on their beds wearing pyjamas, paired off into their usual partners. Blake sat against the headboard, feet stretched out lazily behind Yang's back as she sat at the side of the bed, whilst Weiss sat properly and Ruby next to her, both facing the other two.
"Shall we go over the plans now or when we reach Haven tomorrow?" Weiss looked at each of them in turn, starting with Ruby and returning to her after the other two gave a shrug.
Ruby groaned and leaned backwards, head lolling over the far side of Weiss' bed, and her pyjama top riding up enough to show off her stomach. "Haven. I'm exhausted. Penny's lasers really hurt"
"It was definitely tiring sparring against Penny and Jaune." Weiss nodded and, whilst not copying Ruby, she did change position to sit against her headboard, keeping her legs tucked below her, and all the time trying not to stare at Ruby's exposed stomach. Why her eyes felt drawn to it she couldn't say, but she kept stealing glances at it, noticing the curves of her hip bones and the bottom of her abs. Not defined like Yang's or Sun's (although nobody could have abs quite as defined as Sun's, Weiss still swore he used some makeup to enhance how they looked), but still slightly visible.
Realising that whilst Ruby couldn't see her staring, her older sister definitely would be able to, Weiss quickly looked at Yang. She needn't have worried however, the other pair were talking amongst themselves, going over the earlier sparring session. Weiss closed her eyes and ran through all the glyphs she could use, and also recite the uses to herself in her head to distract her. Whilst going through the glyphs she realised that she hadn't used the time dilation glyph in over two years. The dust had been a strange mutation of lightning dust that had come from a single mine in Atlas, and the dust had been mostly useless except in certain high-speed cameras, and for her family's semblance.
After her...disagreement with her father back in first year she'd not tried to get a hold of any, and had only had a single vial of it previously, but maybe now that Winter was at the head of the company, she might be able to get more. Making a note to message her sister in the morning, she leaned over to nudge Ruby gently in the side.
"What's up Weiss?" Her partner sat up immediately and crossed her legs, facing her and giving Weiss her undivided attention.
"I've had an idea, but I wanted to run it by you and discuss it with you first."
"Oooooh that sounds interesting." Ruby's silver eyes lit up and Weiss felt a jolt of happiness at seeing it, "What is it?"
"Well you remember the end of the Checkmate move that Blake and I used on the Paladin back in first year? With the time dilation?"
Ruby thought for a minute then grinned as she remembered, "Yeah! You sped her up so she could slice the rockets in half, that was awesome!"
"Well, I have an idea for a move that you and I could do, using the same dust."
"I thought you didn't have much of the dust at all? Isn't it like a weird mutation of lightning dust or a hybrid or something like that?"
Weiss nodded, "It is yes, and whilst I was loath to put myself at my Father's mercy to request more, now that Winter's at the helm..." She tailed off, giving Ruby an expectant look, which she got immediately.
"Now that your sister's in charge, she'd probably be happy to send you some of the dust!"
"Exactly. Before I ask her though, I want to run it by you first."
Ruby smiled, appreciating Weiss' gesture, "I'm all ears."
"Well, what I think we could do is..."
The four girls had been sat in the aircraft for about two hours when Ruby got up and walked forward to talk to the pilot. "Where are we dropping?"
He leaned back slightly, keeping his hands on the controls and looking forward, but tilted his head so she could hear him better, "I'll slow down just outside the city limits but behind the mountain so you won't be seen., You can drop into the edge of the forest there, then it should only be an hour long hike to reach the main road, then another hour or two until you reach the city. I'll let you know when to get ready in about half an hour."
Ruby nodded and returned to the other three, explaining it to them. Whilst Professor Goodwitch had told them they'd be dropping behind the mountain out sight, it did them all good to have timescales and estimates. Before too long the pilot leaned back and yelled out "Time to drop! You got five minutes!"
One by one the four girls dropped out the airship and landed in the forest, Ruby and Weiss angling their descents to land next to each other in the same clearing. Yang followed a few seconds after Blake, controlling her own drop to the forest to land next to her, a short distance away from the other pair and closer to the road.
"Ruby? We've landed. We'll follow the plan and head to the road and travel slightly ahead of you. Meet you at the hotel." Yang hung up her scroll and looked to Blake who was looking around, her cat ears twitching at every sound that was hidden in the trees. She had Gambol Shroud held loosely in her hands, a sign that Blake couldn't hear any danger. "Ready?"
Blake nodded, and the two started their trek towards the road, following the animal paths and keeping the mountain on their right. The maps and holo recreations they'd studied showed the road curved around the base of the mountain, passing through two gates and outer walls before reaching Haven proper. The clearing they landed in should only be an hour or so's walk from the road, then another two to reach the city.
Weiss and Ruby's path was a little longer, they'd made plans to split up on the road and lessen the chances of any spies noticing them as a foursome, but spotting the clearings from the airship had made it easier to split sooner. Blake and Yang were mostly silent as they walked, Blake out front, her eyes and ears better suited to the task of keeping them on the path towards the road, Yang taking up the rear. Blake had a better chance of hearing something up ahead, and Yang could tank a surprise hit from behind better than Blake could, so it made sense.
The silence wasn't awkward either, the two had long since grown comfortable enough with each other to just be content in the other's presence. Sure, there had been a few weeks after Blake had joined back up with them that it had been awkward at times to just be around one another, but that time had passed. Now they were back to where they had been before, but stronger.
They reached the road and joined a train of people headed for Haven, Blake's eyes flicking across the few guards that were escorting the small group of merchants to Haven. The guard's eyes looked over the two women, three sizing them up if they were bandits or a threat, then returning to the forest and road having seen no threat. The last just openly leered at Yang, before turning his attention to Blake, and twisting his mouth in a grimace at her ears. Blake ignored him, and kept pace with Yang, who has struck up a conversation with one of the merchants, chatting jovially about their last trip to Haven, lying effortlessly about who they were and why they were headed to Haven.
Before long the group had reached the main entrance to the city, and the black and yellow pair split off, heading for a smaller gate and line to get in. Blake's eyes roamed over the guards, as well as one or two people leaning and chatting with one another off to one side. They weren't wearing the usual uniform of the guards, but both had matching bandanas wrapped around their upper forearm with a complicated looking knot. Also, despite holding a conversation with one another, they were totally focused on everyone coming in.
They made it through relatively quickly and without incident, but seeing several other Huntsman and Huntresses leaving through the gates made them feel better about their decision to enter by them. They'd have stood out if they'd arrived by airship from Vale, so they blended in more this way. As they walked towards the hotel for their stay in Haven, they went through the market, killing a small bit of time as they looked around, not having had much time when they'd been in the city before, Blake arriving with the militia from Menagerie, and Yang arriving just before the fight kicked off.
"Blake! Oh Dust, Blake you have to try this, it's delicious!" Yang's voice was slightly muffled from the food in her mouth.
Blake just smiled and shook her head before holding her hand out to Yang. She was grinning and swallowed before holding out a wooden stick with some balls covered in batter that she'd bought from one of the food stalls. Blake leaned down and bit one off the stick, pulling it into her mouth and felt an explosion of taste in her mouth as she closed her teeth into it and spilling the contents onto her tongue.
Closing her eyes to try and hide how much ecstasy the food caused, she slowly chewed, savouring the different spices and textures that was filling her mouth. When she opened her eyes, she could see Yang was looking at her, mouth slightly open. Blake immediately blushed and averted her eyes, "What? It was good food..."
Yang chuckled, "Yeah, I could tell."
Blake refused to look at her directly but smirked and rolled her eyes. She gave Yang's shoulder a gentle shove with her own and walked off, Yang hurrying behind until she matched Blake's pace, the pair weaving through the crowds together.
They reached the hotel and Yang stepped aside for Blake to enter first, which she did, although she waited for Yang to walk in and head up to the desk before she moved further in, deciding to hang back in case the receptionist held similar views to a decent chunk of the city. She'd mostly kept her ears flush to her head, feeling every stare, but trying to keep her head held high. Yang walking by her side, pointing things out on various stalls, drawing more of the attention to herself than to Blake, the soft smile she sent Blake's way at various intervals confirming Blake's suspicions that it was entirely deliberate, and she was very grateful for it. Atlas had had its fair share of racists, but they'd mostly stayed quiet and just avoided her, preferring to pretend she didn't exist apart from the more aggressive idiots. In Haven they just openly stared at her, not even trying to hide the disgust, and she wasn't sure what was worse.
"Don't bother hiding in the dark there dearie, my eyes aren't what they used to be, but I can still see you." The croaky voice came from a tiny woman perched on a stool behind the main desk, reading through an overly large newspaper with a magnifying glass. Blake jumped a little, she hadn't actively tried to hide, just be less noticeable. The woman looked up as they both neared, and Blake noticed that whilst her eyes flicked over both of them, and took in her ears, they paid as much attention to her ears as the rest of her body. Despite this, she still hung back behind Yang a little, preferring to let the more outgoing member of their duo take the lead. "Don't worry, I'm not bothered you're a Faunus. I'm as old as time itself but I'm not that backwards, especially with relationships like yours." She smiled at Blake, who tentatively returned it.
"Yeah, Blake's a really good friend of mine, she's absolutely the best." Yang's beaming smile lit up the whole room as she said it, and Blake had to look away slightly to avoid Yang seeing her cheeks go pink. "The room is booked under the name of Falu." They'd agreed when they booked the rooms not to use their own names, and pay with different cards, just in case the mafia were keeping an eye on new arrivals in hotels as much as they were in the gates and reporting back to Mercury with news of foreign Huntresses booking rooms. It might have been a bit of overkill to use fake names, but they could never be too careful.
The old woman gave a smile to Yang before pulling over a hefty red book and trailing through it with one finger, the other hand holding the magnifying glass up to her eye. "Falu...Falu...Falu...ah ha! Here we are. Ahhhh now, I have to apologise as at the time you booked there was a twin available. However, since then the previous occupants damaged it, so I've had to upgrade you both to one of our nicer double rooms, I'm so sorry for the inconvenience but I hope you two don't mind?"
Yang looked back at Blake, not really meeting her eyes, "That...that's okay right?"
"Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine." Blake nodded, trying and failing not to think about sharing a bed with Yang. It was one thing to sleep next to each other in a tent or on the floor whilst on missions, but in a bed under the same covers? There was just something that was so much more intimate about it.
The woman smiled sweetly at them again and handed over the room key to Yang. "Second floor, door at the end of the hallway." They both nodded and smiled and were about to head up the stairs when the woman spoke again, "I'm surprised you haven't had your ears pierced yet, I'm sure they'd look good with a couple of rings in them dear, don't you think so young lady?"
She indicated the young lady bit was aimed at Yang, who looked at the woman, and then at Blake's ears, "Yeah, you're absolutely right! Your ears would look really good if they were pierced Blake."
"Wait, Yang, you don't..."
"I know of a few Faunus friendly piercers and jewellery shops where you two could go, why your friend could even help pick you out the best pair. She seems to have excellent taste from what I've seen so far." The little lady put an emphasis on the word friend that sneaked past Yang but not Blake, who's cheeks flushed a very violent shade of red.
"You think so? Aww that's so sweet of you to say!"
"Yang!" Blake grabbed at her arm and started to drag her towards the stairs.
"I'll send a few leaflets up I keep on hand with some tea later, let you two talk it over." The woman called up after them as Blake pulled Yang very strongly towards the room, not stopping until they were inside. Yang, who had been mightily confused from the moment Blake had started pulling her, just went with the flow until they got in the room. It was silent for a few minutes, Blake refusing to look at her or say anything before Yang decided to confront the elephant in the room.
"What's wrong Blake?"
She was silent for a moment, trying to figure out the best words and way to explain it in her head before she opened her mouth. "You know you were saying that you think I'd look really good with my ears pierced? Which ears? These ones?" She pointed at her human ears under her hair, "Or these?" She waggled the tips of her cat ears a little, deciding to be cautious and hope that Yang had been on about her human ears.
"Well, I think you'd look great whichever ears you pierce, but I think she meant your cat ears so that's what I meant too. Why? Did I say something offensive? I'm really sorry if I did, I didn't..."
"No! No. You didn't. Umm..." Blake looked away and blushed.
"Blake?"
"You sort of almost...well you...urgh!" Blake knocked her head against the door slightly and Yang just looked bewildered.
"What is it?"
"You just said I'd look really good married to you."
Author's Note 2:
And on that bombshell!
I'll explain it all in the next chapter don't worry! Just thought this idea would be really funny.
Also, points to anyone who comes up with a decent ship name for Penny and Jaune (I'm not going to ship them, but I literally couldn't find a single name).
As usual, thank you to anyone who reads this, sticks with it despite the haphazard update schedule, favourites, follows, or reviews. It means a lot that anyone even reads the thing, so thank you so much for that!