Blake rubs at her eyes.

The numbers on the spreadsheet are starting to blur. And it's ridiculous because she's had a good night's sleep. She sips at a blend of black tea, a souvenir from Yang's hometown, and goes through the red pockets received from performances again to ensure no money is left inside.

"Hey, you're up already and it's not because of training," comes Yang's voice. Blake doesn't look up and keeps counting, but audibly this time so Yang knows she ought not to be interrupted.

Yang quietly walks around her and the tiny dining table in their small kitchen. After Blake is satisfied that her treasury duties for the kung fu club are completed for now, Blake speaks, "How about you? Why are you up early?"

Yang is about to lean against the counter, with support from her left wrist, but stops and leans against the wall with her shoulder instead. Blake spots the bandage strap around the injured wrist.

"It's getting better," Yang answers Blake's questioning gaze, "I just wrapped it to remind myself to stop putting pressure on it."

Blake nods and stares at Yang, finding the existence of mild curiosity on Yang's face to be illogical. Her phone vibrates and she pulls it out from her pocket to see a preview of Weiss' latest message. Blake then remembers.

"Please don't send another note to the fencing club."

"Send a note? What do you-oh." Genuine surprise turns into understanding. Yang gingerly continues, "Uh, it didn't work?"

"We haven't gotten any new members, so no."

"That's not what I meant. How did you know about the note? And I hung it up on the club room door; I didn't send it."

Blake shrugs at how the method doesn't matter. She pauses and decides to be vague with her answer to the question; it'd be best not to tell Yang that her unannounced plan actually worked until after the coffee date. And Blake has high hopes it will be a good date. She and Weiss have been keeping a text conversation going with no hint of staleness. The last thing she wants is external pressure to not muck up. "One of the instructors came over to tell me. I think she's Ruby's friend?"

"Weiss?"

"Yeah."

"Nothing happened?"

Blake blinks and thinks over her answer carefully. "She came over to tell us about the note and thankfully didn't sue us for defamation."

"No, I meant, wasn't she your type?"

"What type?" Blake parries, but the move isn't going to work. She can feel her furless ears burning. Why do they love to do that?

Yang smirks and Blake fervently wishes she didn't tie up her hair this morning; those ears are hidden when her hair is down. "You know exactly what I mean."

Blake looks away.

"You didn't make a move, did you?" Yang asks, relatively quietly.

Blake shrugs. "How's your coach?"

"What? You mean Winter?"

Blake nods.

Yang seems as if she's going to call out Blake's diversion, but says, "Warming up to her. We talk after class. She's such an adorable nerd, going on about upcoming competitions and bouts. And encouraging me to try watching them."

Blake smiles. "That's nice. Are you gonna watch them?"

"I've watched a few on YouTube. They go pretty quickly."

"Oh? Show?"

"Sure."

As Yang tries to find one of the videos on her phone, Blake sneaks some time on her own phone to read Weiss' message.

"Good morning, Blake. Hope you slept well. I have training this morning with my sister or else I'll be sleeping in. What are your plans for today?"

"Okay, here's one," Yang says.

Blake casually pockets her phone and leans over to look at Yang's. The last thing Blake needs is to be teased on whom she's texting with.

The video presents two masked fencers in white gear. They're standing in the middle of a long, narrow strip where each end is connected via some cable to the closest fencer. The fencers face each other and ready their swords. And off they go at the referee's call.

Blake sees a metallic flurry of action before the fencers suddenly stop. A point is added on the scoreboard, making it display 1-0. The fencers return to their original spot, which seems to be at the middlemost two lines of the strip, and they rush towards each other again.

Blake tries to understand the rules as the bout goes on. All she can safely conclude from watching is that the fencer to first hit the other's person gets a point.

The fencers are light on their feet as they advance and retreat. And the swords look incredibly thin as they flicker to and fro in the air, but they are apparently solid enough to deflect off strikes aimed at their body. The points on the scoreboard continue to increment on either side of a timer that looks to be forever set at three minutes.

When the score is 8-5, both fencers walk off camera and the frozen timer finally counts down. The camera then pans over to the fencer who's consistently in the lead, who's taking off her helmet and is—

Weiss…?!

Blake knows for sure it's her due to the name that's stamped on the back of her jacket. Weiss has her white hair in a bun and looks to be conversing with a taller, older version of herself. Judging from the body language, Weiss is mostly listening to the other woman. It's as if she's being advised.

"Is that your coach?" Blake asks, "Winter?"

"Huh? Yeah, good guess! Or, I guess you figured that's Weiss and well you're smart."

"Are they related?"

The resemblance is uncanny. And she hasn't seen many non-elderly people with natural white hair.

"Yeah, they're sisters."

That explains it, and why Yang is at home but Weiss and her sister are apparently training one on one.

"Weiss is pretty strong, isn't she?" Yang asks.

Blake gives off a deliberately uninterested hum. "Yeah. She's fast and has great reflexes."

"And she's smol."

"Yang," Blake warns.

Yang leans back with one palm up in defence. "Alright, alright. I'll stop."

"I'm going back to my room," Blake announces. When Yang wilters, looking guilty, Blake adds while gesturing at the laptop in her hands, "Sorting out the applications for the competition."

"Oh. You're entering, right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool. Lemme know when it's on so I can come support you."

"Sure. And can you bug Ruby to finish her application by this week?"

"Ruby's joining too?!" Blake nods. "Sure, deal!"

Blake smiles and goes on her way. As soon as she places the laptop on her table, she pulls out her phone again and this time replies to Weiss' message.

"Good morning to you too, Weiss. I had a good sleep. Hope you did too despite not being able to sleep in. When does your training end? Might get coffee today :)"

After that message is sent, Blake plugs in her earphones and searches up "beacon university fencing club" on YouTube. Luckily the club has published the videos to the public, though the comments are understandably disabled as Internet trolls like to frequent the site. Blake goes through the videos that has Weiss in the title and settles down for the next hour.

The treasurer didn't really lie to Yang. The sorting of applications is Velvet's job as secretary. And last Blake heard, Velvet's on it.

"Thank you for waiting, Blake," Weiss says as she takes the last chair at their table for two.

Blake smiles at Weiss' casual clothes and simple small bag; Weiss had included time to go home after her training session before they could meet up. "It's okay. I'm early."

Weiss gestures towards the direction of the counter. "Have you decided on what to order?"

Blake stills. She's been so busy calming her nerves that she hasn't even looked at the menu of this cafe that she has never been to as it's been Weiss' choice. She's ticked off the 'pick a nice table in a quiet spot' but had forgotten to consider this. "Um, no," she says sheepishly.

Weiss, however, seems pleased. "Good. Let me get you a latte I think you'll like."

"Oh. Thanks."

Weiss smiles and gracefully moves out of her seat. Blake watches her join the queue and tries not to stare at her swaying hips too much. She distracts herself by checking her phone, and finds that Ruby has sent her a message.

"Y did u tell Yang I'm entering? D: Now my dad's gonna know too and there's gonna be so much pressure"

"I did say to submit the application soon or something would happen. You'll be fine"

"I'll send it to Velvet today! Don't tell Yang I'm doing sparring form w Pyrrha OK?"

"OK"

Blake looks up when Weiss returns with their table number.

"How was practice?" Blake asks.

"It was okay. It could've been better, but it could've been worse too."

"Ah." When Weiss has settled down in her seat, Blake continues, "Was it just you and your sister today?"

"No, there were a few other people too. There's a sabre competition coming up that we're preparing for."

"Oh, when is it?"

"Middle of April. So it's a month away."

"Oh. I have a competition in April too, for kung fu. It's at the end of it though."

"It sounds like a popular month for competitions. I'm glad they're on different dates though."

"Oh?"

"Can I come see you at your competition?"

Blake blinks and becomes self-conscious. "Ah. Um, sure. I only have one free ticket though…" Blake trails off as she wonders if Ruby wouldn't mind in using her free ticket for Yang instead. Ruby wasn't planning to use up her free ticket for a friend or family member anyway. And Yang could always record Ruby's performances for their dad.

"Oh! It's okay if you've already invited someone else."

"No no. I'll let you know if you can get in for free."

Weiss smiles. "Thanks. I don't mind paying to see though. I'm interested to see how practitioners of your art compete against one another."

Blake can't help but return the smile. "Really? Well, I hope we won't disappoint you."

"I'm sure you'll be fine."

"Heh. Thank you. So how about your competition? What's the entry fee for spectators?"

Weiss perks up. "I can give you my free ticket if you'd like."

Blake's heart hammers against her ribs. It sounds as if they've been dating for more than a week when they've only known each other for a couple of days. "O-oh. Really? Are you sure?"

"Of course. I'm offering it to you, Blake."

"Then … I'll accept. Thanks."

Weiss beams. "I'll message you later the details."

Blake smiles, and consciously knows she's showing her teeth. She hopes there's nothing stuck in-between them. "Okay."

A silence that's almost comfortable.

"So," Blake continues, "what kind of training do you do usually? Like is it isolated footwork or…?"

"That and I go through the possible techniques to counter common attacks," Weiss pauses when the waiter comes over and sets their coffee onto the table. She and Blake thank him and Weiss continues, "Sometimes my sister throws an unorthodox move to test me, to see how I'll deal with it. She threw one today actually. We had a simultaneous attack."

Blake tilts her head at Weiss' last words and repeats them questionably.

"It's when we hit each other at the same time and none of us have priority...actually, how much of foil or sabre fencing do you know?"

"Not much," Blake admits. "It seems you have to hit your opponent before they hit you to get a point."

"Most times that is the case, yes."

"What are the other times?"

"Well if the two fencers hit each other at the same time but one of them has priority, they get the point. It's usually easy to tell who has priority; it's the fencer who first goes for the offence. If the other fencer doesn't move and thus defends, they don't get priority."

Blake nods slowly as she absorbs this.

"There are other rules in receiving priority but I usually don't tell new members about them until a month of regular training later, let alone, well." Weiss fiddles with the rim of her cup of coffee.

"Let alone an instructor of a completely different martial art."

Weiss looks up. Blake meets her eyes and holds the contact. It's when Blake cracks a tiny smile that Weiss replies with something akin to relief, "Yes, exactly." Weiss then takes a sip of her coffee and gives a tiny moan of apparent satisfaction, affecting Blake in ways that she should appropriately ignore right now by focusing on her own coffee.

It's at the right level of sweetness and has a familiar hint of something Blake can't place. She takes another sip; the hint continues to elude her. She tries to sniff at her coffee without looking too obvious about it.

"Is it good?" Weiss asks.

"Very." She gives up. "What is it?"

"Macadamia nut flavoured latte. No sugars as I figured the syrup would be sweet enough."

Blake mentally hurls the hint at the wall. She should've known why it's so familiar. She's told Weiss once that her guilty pleasure snack is macadamia nut cookies, courtesy of Ruby. It's sweet how Weiss has taken her tastes into consideration. "Excellent choice. Thank you."

Weiss beams. "There are other flavours too, like vanilla, hazelnut and even Mistral creme."

Blake's brow rises at the last option. "Mistral creme?"

"Yes. Though I couldn't really taste it much last time I had it. Well, it was also the first time I had it."

Blake smiles at how Weiss seems to be rambling. "And how did you find the vanilla and hazelnut?"

"Good. I'm actually having hazelnut right now."

"Can I try?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Blake takes a slow sip at the hazelnut latte and then looks at Weiss who seems openly interested in her response.

Weiss' expression is too adorable and Blake—

"An indirect kiss. It's good."

—immediately regrets living with Yang for so long.

There are tiny wrinkles near Weiss' widened eyes, and her lips are in a repressed smile, as if she's trying not to laugh. Blake hides behind her arms that are propped up against the table, with Weiss' mug snuggled in-between her joined hands.

"So," Weiss says, disturbing Blake's beginnings of mental self-deprecation, "how long have you been doing kung fu and lion dancing?"

Blake gingerly places the mug down and dares a peek at Weiss' expression. Signs of laughter are gone. "Since I was six."

"What did you start with? Or you started both at the same time?"

"Kung fu first. Lion dancing at 13. My father is the master of my school so you could say I was born into it. He was a bit traditional in the sense that only students who've practised kung fu for several years can start lion dancing."

"Was a bit traditional? You also mean…?" Weiss gestures towards Blake and herself.

Blake laughs. "Well, I guess that too. He's okay with me though. Anyway, he's more lax about people picking up lion dancing from the very start and some of his students now don't know much kung fu at all."

Weiss hums thoughtfully. "How come there was a kung fu prerequisite?"

"Lion heads were much heavier back in my father's day. Strength and a lot of stamina were needed to hold them up properly when dancing. Also …"

Weiss waits for Blake to continue. Blake looks around to see if there's anyone familiar, finds no one but still lowers her voice.

"Some people don't see kung fu as impressive as lion dancing and only want to learn the latter. We didn't have that many students so we had to remove the restriction for the school to thrive."

"Ah."

Blake smiles bitterly. "Yeah, that's the other reason."

Weiss seems to notice. "You'd rather he had kept the restriction?"

"Eh? No. ...It kind of bothers me whenever new students come in after a popular kung fu movie is released, but leave shortly after when they realise how much work had to be put into it."

Weiss laughs. "Oh I know the feeling. It happens for my fencing school too whenever the Olympics are on."

Blake joins in with the laughter. After they've settled down, she asks, "And how about you? When did you start fencing?"

"Seven. My older sister picked it up first and I wanted to join after seeing her bouts for the first time."

"So we both started early."

"It looks like it."

Blake and Weiss continue to chat until they realise it's nearly evening. They pack and stand up to leave, and Weiss suddenly freezes.

Blake, who's right behind her, asks, "What's wrong?"

"My sister," Weiss whispers in a voice that's laced in a mix of humour and surprise, "is having coffee with my friend's sister."

Blake sees where Weiss is looking at, and is staggered by the sight too.

By the door is a table for two. Yang is at that table, but she hasn't seen them. She's busy talking and maintaining constant eye contact with the woman across from her.

Blake quickly looks around and comes to the unsettling conclusion that the cafe only has one exit. Yang is surely going to tease her when she inevitably spots them.

Weiss is already walking towards the door so Blake catches up to stay near her.

"Huh? Blake? Why are you-oh well well well…"

Blake grimaces but stays put beside Weiss. Even when Weiss' sister seems to thoroughly examine her.

"Well well well," Winter starts, and Blake tries not to laugh at how she may have unintentionally sounded alike to Yang. "My little sister is on a date. No wonder she rushed home after practice. A rare sight it was."

Blake glares at Yang in an attempt to silence her before looking at Weiss. And Weiss … is adorably blushing.

Weiss catches Blake's eye before she faces Winter again. "Yes. Sorry if we interrupted your date." She then looks at Yang, and Blake is startled at the intensity of her glare. "And you. You'd better treat my sister right. She deserves the best."

Blake watches Yang wilter for a second before she straightens up and replies in a serious tone that is cancelled out by her actual words, "Aye aye, ma'am."

Winter, meanwhile, is reacting in a way that Blake can only describe as a calm spluttering mess.

"See you two later!" Weiss waves as she opens the door and waits with a beckoning look at Blake. How courteous. Blake shoots Yang a half smirk and leaves the establishment before Weiss. When outside, Weiss promptly grabs Blake's hand and briskly walks away from the cafe.

"Thanks," Blake belatedly says. "For opening the door, I mean."

"And for escaping my sister's interrogation. She's surely going to question you next time she sees you if she's not distracted." Weiss smirks.

Blake chuckles. "I'll prepare for that, then."

"Good."

Blake glances at their joined hands, which makes Weiss say, "I hope you don't mind holding hands? I usually ask before I go for it—"

"It's okay. I don't mind at all."

Weiss breathes out. "Good."

The walk to the closest station is pleasant. Blake turns to Weiss when they've reached the entrance and she takes a deep breath before the words leave her mouth coherently.

"Are you free for coffee tomorrow?"

Weiss beams. "Yes, definitely."

Blake inwardly screams in delight. Weiss giggles, which seems out of place.

"What?" Blake asks.

"You have such a poker face but just then your ears perked up. It's cute."

Blake hopes her poker face hasn't been broken by the flush she can feel across her cheeks. "You're cute too," she says, voice breaking.

Why.

Weiss grins, steps in and kisses Blake on the cheek for a good second. "Thank you. I'll text you later."

"Alright," Blake manages to say.

You've had girls kiss you on the cheek before. And on areas where the sun don't shine. Get ahold of yourself!

Her lips are so soft though.

"See you."

"S-see you."

Blake watches the other girl leave, losing sight of her when she goes around a corner for the train platform that's separate to Blake's. Blake then turns around and tries very hard to not skip all the way home.