Edited by: Crescent Sunrise

'This was a bad idea...'

May Zedong made a mistake. An easy mistake to make to be certain, and one made with the best of intentions. All she wanted to do was ask the pretty caped team leader on a date. Get to know her better and maybe become something more. And here she is a week later pacing on a roof, completely exposed and way out of her comfort zone. Her usual warm garments abandoned and replaced with a smooth, soft dress in a simple white, the light red streeks running down her sides matching her hair.

That being the primary focus of her discomfort. Her beanie was taken, read stolen, by Dew while getting ready because it 'just didn't fit' with the dress. She barricaded herself in their bathroom until a compromise was reached. No beanie but her bangs held in place by a borrowed clip to cover the part of her face the beanie usually hid away.

The other issue being, of course, just how cold it is. A rooftop in the middle of the night, while romantic, is going to be colder than say a secluded classroom or a spot in the woods on campus. These ideas were shot down for reasons including risk of getting caught out, interrupted, or being too difficult to locate at night. Not helping with the temperature is the usual warm feeling that comes from watching or thinking about the target of her affections seems to have formed itself into a ball of ice cold dread and dropped into the pit of her stomach.

Yes, May Zedong made a mistake. That mistake was listening to one Dew Gayl.

~one week earlier~

"Now what will you do about it?" Dew asks her legs still kicking lazily above her, eyes on May as the besotted girl lifts her upper body back up into a sitting position. With a bit uneasy shifting she moves her rifle to the ground so it's leaning against the side of Nebula's bed instead of laying across her lap.

"I guess I can go talk to her tomorrow? Get to know her a little and see if she wants to do something?" She suggests, radiating uncertainty. She feels relieved when Nebula and Octavia nod smiling with support only for it to be destroyed thoroughly when Dew pouts and shakes her head furiously leaving her bed entirely to get to her feet, fist clenched in dramatic fashion.

"No way! You need to make an impression. Do something to get and hold her attention. If you do it the boring way you'll never keep her interested."

A small distressed sound escapes the sniper as she resists the urge to fall back once more on the bed and curl into a ball. What could she do?! People watching is fine and all for a basic overview of someone or a group but it would take days of observation to learn the details she'll need not to make a fool out of herself then more time to make a plan and execute it.

"Dew that seems needlessly complicated." Nebula points out gently rubbing May's shoulder to give her some small measure of comfort.

"Yeah, what's wrong with just telling Ruby? The worst she can do is turn May down and if she's as nice as May thinks she'll at least try to do it gently." Octavia adds trying to provide additional reason into a plan that might back fire horrifically.

"Nonsense, it's the best way. We'll even help. Tomorrow we'll go info gathering for May and we'll make a plan for helping May get the girl." The excitable romantic replies with a firm nod before three girls plus guest all flinch hard. The rooms' final occupant angrily lifting her head from her pillow to glare balefully.

"Yes, fine, whatever. Gather info, help May. Do whatever you want. But it's already late and I swear if you people don't shut up right now I will make sure you live long enough to regret keeping me awake." Gwen inserts, the most she's said since the sniper entered the room. And with that she lays back down drawing her blanketing up as her head crashes back into her pillow dark grumbling and varied threats trailing slowly off in her wake.

Silence overtakes the room after Gwen finally calms down enough to return to sleep. Everyone left awake a bit too scared to say anything. It isn't until May starts her way towards the door to the room that she recalls being locked out and suppressing a groan as her shoulders slump in distress. She jumps a bit when Octavia's hand falls on her shoulder turning to meet the questioning look she whispers softly.

"I'm locked out of my team's room. My scroll was on the night stand when they pushed me out." She answers her eyes darting to Gwen's bed to make sure the angry girl doesn't wake. Octavia's eyes go wide a moment before nodding and holding up a finger and moving to rummage in her things. Returning with a pair of navy gym shorts with a loose shirt. She hands them over to May before motioning back to her bed.

Taking the hint, May gives her a grateful smile before entering the bathroom to get changed before getting into the bed and looking at the ceiling of the room her stomach squirming with nauseating intensity as she drifts off to sleep. Dreams filled with black, red and silver.

~Next morning~

The night before had been the most confusing and frustrating one May could remember. From dealing with unhelpful teammates, to the knowing looks spread around team NDGO to each other, and ending with the revelation of her newly discovered crush.

'And isn't that last one a fun thought.' May ponders before squeezing her eyes closed tightly. Idly entertaining the idea that maybe if she falls asleep again this time she'll wake up back in her tree perch with it all having been just a dream. She groans a little and sets about trying to accomplish the task before a voice uncomfortably close to her forces her eyes open.

"Good morning May, sleep well?" May's eye alights on the speaker and she blinks rapidly before scrambling backwards and crashing onto the ground. Mind confused for a moment as to why Octavia was in her bed with her before her mind catches up and she groans again letting herself remain on the ground as one hand slides up to her face making sure her beanie is still in place and hiding the left eye.

Octavia's face pops out from the edge of her bed to giggle down her hair framing her face. "Forgot we were sleeping together didn't ya? Well just don't go spreading around the fact you made it into my bed yeah?" She quips with a wink before laughing outright at the blush spreading across the snipers face. "Oh you are too easy."

Grumbling May gets to her feet and looks around the other members of NDGO are waking up with the exception of Gwen who is already gone from the room her bed made leaving the four left to look between each other the sniper picking at the chest of her borrowed shirt. "I'll give the clothes back after I get changed in my room okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, we know Zedong. Now, the important parts, classes for the week start tomorrow so we have today to gather info while you think about how to get her attention. We meet up later and use the information we've gathered to come up with ideas in case we need to make a quick trip out to Vale." Dew inserts before skipping into the bathroom preventing anyone from countering her. "Oh! And get ready quick I want to start gathering information and I'm sure they will be in the cafeteria for breakfast at least!"

May sighs and shakes her head before gathering her clothes under one arm and shouldering her rifle with the other as she heads into the hall and next door to her teams room knocking her elbow into the door a few times before calling out. "Brawnz open up! I need to get a shower and clean clothes, and it's cold out here!" She yells irritated at being locked out.

She's still there tapping her foot when he finally opens the door to look out bleary eyed clearly she woke him up. Unconcerned she pushes past and heads to her bed grabbing her scroll after dropping her dirty laundry in a hamper and grabbing a fresh set of clothing to wear under her jacket and moving towards the bathroom. "Before you ask, yes I talked to them, yes they helped, and no it's not on any of you." She gets out before shutting the bathroom door and locking it.

Letting the hot water run down her skin slowly eases the tension in her body as she finally manages to relax. Her back pressing against the wall of the shower with her eyes closed. Letting heat soak into her flesh for a while before turning it off and slipping out grabbing a towel to dry off. She pauses a moment to look at the mirror before becoming grateful that it's fogged over as she finishes drying out her hair and tending her hygienic needs. Leaving the towel in place to draw more moisture from her locks as she pulls on her clothing before setting it aside, fixing her beanie in place and heading through the door again adding the towel to her hamper of clothes to be cleaned.

"All yours guys," Gesturing to the bathroom. "I'm spending the day with NDGO so don't wait up yeah?" She adds grabbing her rifle and heading out the door without waiting for a reply still annoyed with them for shoving her out the night before.

With Octavia's borrowed clothes she returns and hands them over folded neatly before waiting for the three girls to finish getting ready while feeling really out of place being the only trainee currently holding her weapon. She looks down to at the rifle and considers actually using the rocket-propelled locker she was assigned but shakes her head pulling the cord from her jacket pocket wrapping the ends carefully around her rifle and slinging it across her back to free up her hands.

When they arrive in the cafeteria they take a seat and May carefully looks around while moving from the food line to a table behind her classmates. Sitting between Nebula and Dew she gently taps them both before pointing across the room at the red cloaked girl. Already feeling her face heating up again while watching her smiling face chatting with both her team and another.

"Oh man, is that Pyrrha Nikos? And... Is she sitting next to Weiss Schnee? As in singer slash heiress to the SDC Weiss Schnee? By Oum Zedong, go big or go home huh? Those are some pretty powerful friends." Octavia comments her eyes wide with surprise before looking away again so they won't get caught staring.

"So that's your crush huh? She is cute, gets along with her team... Doesn't look much like a leader though. I'd have to see them in action to really tell." She comments before glancing to her side at a furiously blushing May and a contemplative Dew. The first looking like she wants to sink through the floor while the second nods.

"She seems to really like cookies, we can use that. She sat down with six and they are all gone. I almost didn't notice her grabbing a few of her teammates as well. She eats them so fast I wonder if it's a metabolism thing. Like she needs the calories for her Semblance or something." Dew comments softly before starting in on her breakfast. She then looks down and gives a small smile. "Hey May, want to make a good first impression without being too obvious?"

The sniper gives a little jump before looking over at Dew the question clear on her face as she tries to keep the obvious blush down and loosens her scarf. A frown forming on her face as the warmth in her chest is making her suddenly very uncomfortable under her warm clothing.

"Okay, it's simple. We gather our cookies and you give them to her. Just say we didn't want ours and you noticed she likes them. You're giving her something she enjoys without being too obvious. Good impression without giving your crush away." Dew adds with a nod already sliding her own treat onto May's tray.

Small plan in place May finishes her breakfast quickly and stands nervously. Pausing as Nebula catches her arm. "Calm down, She's just a girl having breakfast. You're just going to give her some cookies. This isn't your confession it's an introduction and there's no need to be nervous. If you want just leave the rest to us and we'll meet you at our room later."

May nods and lets out a deep breath before smiling back a little and making her way over. She pauses behind her caped crush and clears her throat softly getting Ruby's attention only to nearly stumble over herself at the sudden close proximity to those stunning metallic eyes. She feels the blush starting to creep up on her again before she rapidly shakes her head and speaks rushing her words before she loses her nerve. "Hello, I'm May Zedong. My friends and I weren't interested in the dessert and I was wondering if you would like them instead?"

'There, you said it Zedong. And you didn't stumble over your words so excellent job there and by Oum that smile should be illegal… and she's looking right at you. Oh no she's saying something and you're missing it, quick pay attention!' May's inner dialogue comes to a crashing halt as she starts registering words.

"—and please tell your friends I said thank you okay?" Ruby finishes taking the plate with a blinding smile that May can only nod in reply to before hurrying away to stand outside of the cafeteria. Her back planted to the wall outside a slightly giddy smile crosses her face as her thoughts run a bit longer.

'I made her smile. She was smiling at me and I caused it! Even her voice is beautiful.' May thinks to herself before blinking rapidly and gently tapping the back of her head into the wall behind her before pushing off and heading away to look for a tree to hide in. 'Sweet Oum, less than twenty four hours and she's got me completely hooked.'

AN:

Edit: It was all manner of messed up when i first uploaded. thank you AntonSlavik020 for letting me know so quickly!

Okay, So first of all. I'm a dirty liar. I know I told you guys expect something maybe at the end of the week but honestly I was just blown away by how much feed back the story generated in the first 24 hours that I found myself excited about writing more of it. It would have gone up sooner but I finished it kinda late last night and left the proof reading till I got home from work so eh I'm still 5 days ahead of where I said there would be an update.

Another thing I lied about. I thought it would be a two shot at most. but as I was writing the details got ahead of me and dragged out longer than I was expecting. At this point I know where I want the story to end up and what I want to happen in between I just have NO IDEA how many of these chapters will take place in between. I don't expect this story to break 20k words but at the same time I wasn't expecting it to break 5k and I'm almost there already. excluding author notes of course. Let's see how many shots this takes.

That being said i have to fiddle with the summary so i'm not lying to any new readers. I'll do that after this. for now! I want to take a sec to respond to some reviewers!

coffee-is-life: I'm glad you're enjoying t/strongstronghisand yea. I wasn't all that great starting out either but I got into writing for myself back in highschool 8 years ago purely for myself. mostly little original short stories I would throw out later when re-reading them out of shame for how awful they were. Just need motivation and imagination. Also thank you I like the name too.

Guest: I will write this at least until I get to the point I imagined for the ending.

Draven Eclipse: I've never seen another Ruby/May fic. but then again I never looked beyond . And I know i mentioned this in PM's with you I feel the need to address it for anyone else reading. I like the ship name "happy campers" It's witty and makes sense. I just like the name Long Distance more.

Knight7572: I'm not sure what you mean when you say you did something similar. similar to what?

RatedRSuperStar87: Yea, I'm not sure why I chose to do this from May's perspective. I think it just ended up that way as I was writing. I know the other one I bounce back and forth between them but this one started as May and I don't see a reason to change it. maybe it's the wiggle room? I dunno just feels right for this story so that's the way i'll continue. and as I've mentioned. I do plan to continue

Thank you everyone who read this story. I appreciate every follow, favorite, and review immensely but I'm not going to pressure anyone into doing that. The knowledge that people are reading it and (hopefully) enjoying it makes me smile. Till next time!