Blake barged into the meeting room. Her hair was a mess, her tie was loose, and it looked like she had only buttoned every other button in her shirt. There was a moment of silence as the few people inside the room looked at her. Her golden eyes were fixed on the small woman at the other side of the room. They were not happy eyes. The silence was slowly filled by the small sounds nervous people make when they know they are in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Tapping. Scratching. A cough or two.

"If you excuse me, I need to have a word with my Head of Security" Weiss said. There was more tapping, scratching and coughing. "That means leave. Now." A few sighs of relief were heard as the room was emptied.

"Good morning Blake."

"It's half past ten!"

"It was five minutes ago. When the meeting started. You know, the meeting you just very rudely interrupted."

"Why?!" Blake looked furious. And confused. And half asleep. And adorable.

"You're asking me why you interrupted the meeting?"

"I...no! Why are you here?"

"Because I had a meeting? At half past ten? Please try to keep up."

"I mean without me!"

"Oh. Well I don't know, you didn't show up for work today, I figured you were taking a day off after last night's...mission? opperation? what are we calling it again?"

"You didn't wake me!" There it was. Weiss had to fight down the smile. She stood up and started a slow walk towards the faunus.

"No, you overslept. I've fired bodyguards before for less than that, you know." she said, coldly. "I have a lot of responsibilities Blake, but I'm pretty sure waking you up is not one of them."

"I...you...we…"

"Yes Blake?" Weiss had reached the faunus now. As she talked, her hands went to the black tie and started fixing it. She quickly realized Blake had made a mess out of it and decided to untie it and start over.

"I'm sorry I overslept. It will never happen again. But you should not have started the day without me." Blake said. "It's not safe." Weiss rolled her eyes at that.

"So what you're saying is I should have cancelled all my meetings?" She said sternly as she finished tightening the tie. Blake seemed more awake now, and her anger seemed to have given way to panic "Besides" Weiss added, finally unable to contain the smile "I just could not bring myself to wake you! Do you have any idea how cute you are when you sleep?" Blake's eyes widened at that. The look of surprise lasted an instant and was quickly replaced by a glare.

"You."

"Me."

"Are you... messing with me?"

"Maybe."

"You do remember I was originally sent to kill you, don't you?" Blake said, a beautiful smile finally showing up in her face. And that was it, Weiss just couldn't resist anymore. Determined, she took Blake's tie again and pulled her down for a kiss.

"So…" Blake started, slightly out of breath. "I take it you're not mad at me for oversleeping?"

"No, you idiot, I am not. Are you mad at me for letting you?"

"I...feel like I should be. But to be honest, I'm having a hard time staying mad at you right now."

"Ugh. I can't believe you just said that."

"I know, right? So cheesy." Blake said. She suddenly became aware of the whole scene. There was a table. There was Weiss sitting on it. There were Weiss' legs wrapped around her. There was a closed door a few feet behind her and a whole lot of businessmen waiting on the other side. "Um…"

"I know, I know...work."

After taking a minute to make sure they were presentable, Blake opened the door and let everyone in again. Weiss apologized for the interruption and resumed the meeting as if nothing had happened. It didn't take long for Blake to lose track of the conversation. Things were getting complicated, and every single thing she did seemed to complicate it even more. She had to stop and think before doing anything else. Weiss was off limits. It was a pretty obvious implicit rule. If she wanted to keep Weiss alive, she needed to stay focused, alert. What had happened that morning was proof that she could not do that and...whatever it was she was doing. But things couldn't just go back to the way they were, could they? No, the idea of being so close to Weiss, all day, every day...she would have to stop. Maybe she could stay as head of security working from an office at the SDC. She'd find someone good enough to protect Weiss in her stead...a whole team of someones in fact, that would stay with her 24/7. Yes, that would work. Weiss would be protected, and she could still help keep her alive in her own way...through paperwork. God, how she hated paperwork. But she could do other things too...fieldwork, as Ruby would say. Yes, and it didn't mean she would never see Weiss again, she could drop by from time to time for meetings. Meetings in the very room they were in right now. On that very table...no not on the table!

Blake looked down, hoping everyone would be too busy with the meeting to notice the sudden blush on her face. This was bad.

"Blake?" The sound of Weiss' voice made her look up. The room was empty except for the two of them. When had that happened? Weiss gave her a thoughtful look and sighed. "I know what you must be thinking. But it's now or never, and we've worked too hard for this. There is no other option." Blake had no idea what Weiss was talking about. She didn't even know what the meeting had been about. When Weiss realized she wasn't going to answer, she went on, a determined look on her face. "I'm going public with the campaign tomorrow, and there's nothing you can say that will change my mind." Right. That. The campaign. That was still a thing. Because the world didn't really care that her life had turned into one of the cheap romantic novels she liked so much. Blake nodded.

"Of course. I agree. It's time."

"I...huh. Really? You're not just saying that?"

"I've had plenty of time to come to terms with this insane idea of yours to recklessly put your own life in danger." That got a smile out of Weiss. A bright, beautiful smile.

"That's more like it."

"But you can consider this morning your last few hours of freedom. If you're really doing this, then I'm not letting you out of my sight again"

"Really?" Weiss asked, an evil smile on her face "Interesting. Because, you know, I was thinking I could use a nice shower right about now…"

Blake thought it was weird that Weiss wanted a shower at this time of the day.

Then she thought about Weiss naked.

Then she thought that Weiss had probably already taken a shower, since she took one every morning.

Then she thought about Weiss naked again.

Then she wondered why Weiss was telling her about that at that precise moment.

That was when she realized what Weiss was not-so-subtly implying.

And thought about the two of them naked together.

Then she remembered everything she had been thinking during the meeting and realized that she really couldn't be trusted to stay focused around Weiss anymore, as she apparently had no self control whatsoever.

Which made her think about Ruby

Which was really awkward as she had been thinking about naked Weiss just a few moments before.

So she went back to naked Weiss.

Which made her panic as clothed Weiss was standing right in front of her.

That was when Weiss decided to put her out of her misery.

"You're just too easy." She said, barely holding in the laughter "God, you should see your face."

"I...you…EVIL."

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, but I just couldn't help myself. 'I'm not letting you out of my sight again'? You were begging for it!"

"You will pay for this, you know."

"I can't wait." That was it. Blake knew exactly where that conversation was going, and she knew she couldn't let it get there.

"Weiss, we need to talk. We..." She started, but Weiss interrupted her.

"If you say 'we can't do this', you're fired." Blake tried not to react, but Weiss had always been good at reading her when caught off guard "Ugh, I knew it! You're chickening out already!"

"I'm not! It's for your own safety Weiss, I can't be who I need to be to protect you and at the same time do...this! Just look at what happened this morning!"

"Nothing happened this morning! I'm still here, right?"

"No thanks to me! Anything could have happened and I would have just...slept through it! I let my guard down!"

"So what do you want, Blake? Do you want me to fire you? to increase my security? To call off the campaign? Just say the word."

"What? You can't be serious. You can't just..."

"I can do whatever the hell I like Blake. Now tell me, what do you want from me?"

"It's not about what I want! It's about guaranteeing your safety!"

"Ugh! You know what? No. Just...no. I'm not having this conversation right now. I still have work to do, as do you."

"But…"

"I said no. That's an order. We'll talk about it tonight."

It had been one of the busiest days since Blake had started working for Weiss. Everything had to be perfect for the upcoming announcement. When Weiss finally decided it had been enough for the day and headed for her bedroom, Blake gathered the courage to bring up their earlier conversation, but Weiss anticipated her once again.

"Not now Blake."

"You said 'tonight'. Well, it's tonight."

"I wasn't counting on today becoming Conference Call Hell. I need some rest."

Blake was about to protest, but decided that she was also quite exhausted and that, while this was a conversation that needed to happen, it wouldn't hurt to wait for a moment when the two of them weren't so on edge. It could wait until the morning.

It wasn't until they reached the bedroom door that she found the obvious flaw in this new plan. Weiss opened the door, walked in, and turned around to look at her. It was the best poker face Blake had ever seen. There was no trace of what Weiss wanted or expected her to do. Just some mild curiosity. Panic set in. Telling herself that staying in the other room would be the less safe option for Weiss, and that that kind of thing was exactly what she was trying to avoid, she walked in. Weiss closed the door behind her. She didn't slam it, but the tense silence between the two made it seem much louder than it had been.

Blake was now panicking even more than before. They were alone. In Weiss' bedroom. This had become the norm lately, but now things were different. She had no idea of what to do, so she just stood there, frozen, as Weiss locked the door and walked right past her, grabbed her nightgown from her wardrobe and walked into the bathroom to get changed.

"You never fixed your shirt" Weiss' voice came the moment the door was closed between them.

"What?" Blake asked, completely unprepared for the casual tone in Weiss' voice.

"Your shirt. You made a mess out of it this morning, and you never fixed it." Blake looked down and was surprised to find that, indeed, her shirt was so poorly buttoned it was hard to believe it was not intentional.

"Well, that's embarrassing. Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I expect my employees to be able to dress by themselves." There was reproach in Weiss voice, but also some amusement. It was clear to Blake that this was just some harmless teasing. Letting her walk around like that was probably Weiss' idea of a prank. The girl did have a...special sense of humor. But if anything, Blake counted herself lucky she was one of the few people who ever got to see that side of Weiss.

"I'm sorry about this morning. It won't happen again."

"Of course not."

"I'm still not sure what happened."

"You overslept, it happens."

"Not to me."

"That's because what you usually do can barely be called sleeping. You had some proper sleep last night and your body took the chance to make up for the years of half-sleep. You even snored a little."

"I. Do not. Snore." Blake said, mostly to herself, as Weiss opened the door. As usual, barefoot and in her nightgown she looked even smaller than usual.

"Trust me, you do." She said with a small smile. "So try to keep it down, because I really need some sleep." Without waiting for Blake to answer the girl turned off the lights. It was a dark, moonless night, and as Blake waited for her eyes to adapt to the sudden change of light she heard soft steps getting closer.

"Goodnight Blake" Weiss whispered, and Blake saw she was standing right in front of her. Weiss stretched out a hesitant arm, and Blake realized she was searching for her, her human eyes still getting used to the darkness. She stood still as a small hand brushed her cheek. Blake thought about taking a step back, but Weiss smiled and she froze. The short girl stood on her toes and kissed her lightly on the cheek "Do try to get some rest. I promise I won't let you oversleep again." The words were soft, there was no hint of the tension that had built up between them during the day. Without waiting for an answer, Weiss turned around and headed for the bed.

"Thanks Weiss. Goodnight." Blake said as she watched the other girl get in bed. Thinking about how glad she was that Weiss couldn't see her blush, she leaned against the wall and stood there, Gambol Shroud in her hand, ready to keep watch, or at least pretend to do so until she figured out what she was supposed to do in her situation. It didn't take her long to arrive to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to approach the situation in the closest thing she had to a business-as-usual attitude, so she waited until she was sure Weiss was asleep, found her usual spot on the floor, and waited for sleep to come.

But sleep. Wouldn't. Come. And it wasn't like other times. There were no haunting memories, nor paranoid stray thoughts keeping her awake. No, all there was was the fuzzy memory of the previous night. The memory of the scent Weiss' hair and the warmth of her body next to her. Before she knew it, Blake was standing again, pacing back and forth, her eyes stuck on the empty half of the large bed.

It wouldn't hurt, would it? Weiss finding out would probably be bad for the case she was trying to make. Because she was going to stick with it, right? Right. Whatever was happening between the two of them, Blake had to put an end to it. The next day. But until then...if she woke up before Weiss (and she was confident this time she would) then it would be as if she hadn't done anything at all, right? Weiss wouldn't be able to use it against her. Yes, yes, the math checked out.

Slowly, she sat on the bed. Weiss' lack of reaction and her breathing confirmed she was asleep. Blake lied on the empty side of the bed, outside of course, facing her. Then she turned to look at the ceiling. The bed was...soft. Too soft. It wasn't helping. She could feel it. She let out a soft sigh. In less than a second, Weiss moved right next to her with an arm wrapped around her.

"What took you so long?" Weiss mumbled, half-asleep.

"Uh…" Blake managed to answer, once more overly aware of just how bad her judgement had gotten when dealing with Weiss-related decisions. And of course, she was panicking even more than before now, and she had even been slightly startled by Weiss' sudden movement, so there was no way she was going to get any sleep that night.

That was the last thought she had that night.

A.N: So...new chapter. After god knows how long. It probably has something to to with the upcoming midterms. Because brains are funny like that. I hope you liked.

And if you also read my White Rose fic, I did some work on it this week, but I make no promises. Because I'm afraid of commitment and all that.