Blake Belladonna brushed the floors of the library. She could have brought out the vacuum cleaner, but that can wait until tomorrow. After all, it was still early in the morning (6 AM, and she woke up the hour before that. Yang had also noticed and pointed out how rare that was.) Once she was pleased with her work, she picked up the brush and dustpan and walked over to the storage room, put them there, and locked up the room. Gods, I hate doing this.

Then, she walked over to the front door and flickered over the sign to 'Open'. Once behind the front desk, the wait has begun. Well, Blake thought to herself, maybe the book could make the wait less boring.

Two hours later, the first person to enter the library was Oscar Pine. "Good morning," he greeted once the bell finished its chime.

"Morning," Blake replied.

Oscar walked over to the front desk as he looked left and right at the paintings put up on the walls. Most of them were about 12-by-18 inches large. Several of them were sketch paintings of Vale's buildings—including Beacon in one of them—and there are also colour paintings of landscapes. They reminded him of the days he worked as a farmhand, although he frowned, remembering the farm's fate itself. Trying to distract himself from those thoughts, he turned back to Blake. "Nice bowtie," he added sheepishly.

Blake was silent for a moment, giving him a glare. "Thanks." And then she went back to reading her book. There weren't many books to stamp, anyway.

Now with nothing else to do, Oscar decided to wander into the library. It was still too early to pick things out anyway.

For Blake, she thought that the new office chair was very good. Very great. Truly the best one she had in what, years? It spins very nicely! She purred as she rotated the chair at several angles and back. Purrfect! Then she remembered—the list of books that she was intending to put up for the book fair. Oh, right. Blake turned and pushed the chair towards the desk. They'll have to make way for new arrivals, she lamented. Of course, in the week before the fair, she'll send it to the fair's organisers.

What a perfect morning, she thought as she got to stamping books with the notice 'withdrawn for sale'.

In the next hour, a couple of books were stamped and put in the 'to be put for the upcoming fair' box. She preferred doing things in advance, so she won't have to have to procrastinate at the last minute. That happened to Blake once, and in her own words: It sucked.

Ding! "Hello, Blake!"

Ruby stepped into the library and saw her stamping books. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously.

"Oh," Blake said tiredly, "just putting stuff up for the upcoming book fair."

"Hm? Book fair?"

A nod. "Yes, it's coming up in a month."

"Oh, okay." Ruby grinned devilishly. "Does it include N—"

Blake knew where this is going. "Shut up," she said quietly, while a blush popped up on her face. "If you want to come here to read—or borrow books, then I'm okay with it."

Ruby was silent for a bit. "Sorry, Blake," she apologized quietly as she stepped into the library.

As she was out of her sight, Blake went back to her book stamping— Then she remembered about Oscar. Is he still here? She shrugged. Well, better leave them be, Blake decided.

Meanwhile, Ruby Rose, as she picked out a comic and walked over to where the tables were. She saw Oscar, reading The Man with Two Souls (hardback with leather binding) at one of the tables. Surprised, she walked over there and sat on a chair next to him. "Hi, Oscar," she greeted as she sat down.

Looking up from the book he picked out of curiosity, Oscar quietly replied, "Hi."

Both of them were now speaking quietly, with the books they brought out on the table now.

Ruby eyed the choice of book and lightly grinned.

"What?" He looked at the front cover. "Oh. Yeah, people kept recommending me this book."

She would have pointed out the contents of the book, but instead just shrugged. "Blake said it's quite good."

"Okay." Then he was back to reading. He was still confused—but, better not to spoil the surprise. Ruby briefly giggled at that, before she flickered open the comic.

Later that day…

Blake was spinning in her chair again. She loved how smooth it was compared to the old one. As the chair's momentum slowed down to a halt, she began to feel a bad headache. A really bad one. Blake swung gently in directions as she felt lightheaded—and almost as if her eyes were going to pop out! She groaned, before quickly snapping to the desk once she heard the bell again.

Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie stepped into the library.

Just as she was about to go back to the desk upon seeing Ren, Blake had to look up again to make sure it was only Ren—but no, Nora hopped along, too!

"Morning, Blake!" Nora greeted, smiling daggers.

Blake put up her hand and waved oddly. Looking back at Ren, she raised an eyebrow. Seriously?

As if they were communicating telepathically, Ren lightly nodded as she followed his girlfriend to the front desk. Yes, seriously.

Nora began as she leaned into the front desk. "Do you have, uh…" She looked at her right hand to see what comic she was looking for. "…this manga called… Romance is a Struggle?" As awkward as it sounded, she also gave an attempt to smile cooly, while looking at the librarian's yellow tie.

"They're in the comics section."

"Thanks—" Just as she was about to walk to the section, she stepped back to the front desk. "Wait, comics?"

"Huh?"

Ren stepped into the conversation. "They're technically comics, Nora."

After he had explained, Nora gave the librarian a glare as she walked backwards into where the bookshelves were. Once she had gone to the section, Blake turned back to Ren. "So," she began, "how are you getting along together?"

"Alright, I suppose," Ren replied. "Nora's being Nora, as usual."

She nodded. "That's good." Blake wondered if she should pick up the book she was reading or not. "Wait, was this the first time she stepped here?"

A shrug. "I don't remember."

"…huh." Blake was surprised. "I think I recall her coming here once. Maybe I'm mistaken."

Just as she finished the sentence, Nora came back to the front desk. She placed the book on the desk and noticed Blake's surprised look—raised eyebrows, and the reading glasses being on didn't help either. "What?"

She remained that way for a bit, before blinking and realizing what happened. "Oh, right. How long would you like to borrow it for, if I may ask?"

"About a week, of course!"

Blake gave her a glance as she took the book and opened up the cover to see the 'borrowed-and-returned' date note. There were a couple of them. Perhaps I should change it someday—it's running out of space. She wrote down today's date. "…and your library card?" Ren passed over his library card since Nora did not have one. Sticking it up on the computer, Blake checked the details, including if the picture on the card matched up with the real person. It also showed a borrow-return history. They were mostly slice-of-life manga, although that can be attributed to Nora herself. On the other hand, there were also several books that he, himself borrowed from the library—mainly books about the history of Remnant, et cetera.

Once she added the current book to the record, she removed it from the computer and returned the card to Ren. "Here you go," Blake added as she gave Nora back the book, along with a subtle smile.

Nora took it, and almost immediately—she held it in both hands and raised it up, all while yelling a particularly energetic 'YEEEEEEAH!' in the act.

Lie Ren was, of course, used to things like this. Looking back at Blake, she returned a particularly amused shrug, on top of a stoic expression. Well, it's Nora being Nora, after all, Blake thought as she added a sheepish grin.

Lunchtime…

Blake only got herself a paper cup of tea, neglecting the burrito. She just wasn't feeling like it today. Walking back to the library by the park route, she wondered about Ruby and Oscar again. Of course, Ruby did have some history with Weiss while they were Huntresses, but after they had graduated from Beacon and got their Hunter licences, Weiss went back to the Schnee Manor. Speaking of Weiss: Maybe she was asked by her father to return? Thinking about that only made her feel even more pity for Weiss Schnee even more—all on top of that, Blake was aware that Jacques Schnee was nothing more than a pig. Image and money worthed more to him. She had heard on the news that he was in poor health after suffering a stroke a month ago. She couldn't say for sure what the rest of his family might have thought, but considering that Jacques is currently one of the most hated—or to some, beloved—people on Remnant right now, that would draw a lot of words and comments. But hey, at least his memoirs did rank up on the newspapers' bestseller chart for a couple of weeks! Blake remembered reading an excerpt from it once and having heard of the man's actions behind-the-scenes—from none other than Weiss herself—reading about his—or ghost-writer's—words about running a successful business may have come off as nothing more than hypocrisy to her. But hey, she thought sarcastically, anything to make those shares' price go up!

Now, where was she? Oh, right. She went on a pretty long mental rant about Weiss' father. Then again, he was nothing more than a pretty horrible person.

Looking left and right, and then left again, she crossed the street to the library. A brief walk to the bench, and there she was. Blake wondered if it was a tea break instead of lunch. Whichever works. It wasn't the first time she had passed on solid food for lunch. Blake recalled passing on food about last month, preferring to take hot chocolate, even if it wasn't her niche. But even then, she was feeling rotten at that time. A lot of people tend to have problems during the silly season, and I probably ended up being one of them.

There was no one around to sit next to her. And that was good. Blake thought that she could have some time to unwind.

She closed her eyes, and listened to the city ambience…

"Hey, Blake!"

She snapped up straight, almost spilling the cup's contents. Of all people, it was Yang! "Oh, hi," Blake said, almost sheepishly and reeling from surprise.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" A nod. "Thanks. Ah," Yang uncoiled as she sat down on the wooden bench. "Just thought I might get some stuff for my arm, and poof, what a walk that was!"

"Mm-hm," she replied after taking a sip of the tea. A blush appeared up on her face.

"So, how's the library?"

"Good. Nora and Ren came along to borrow a book."

"Oh, alright…" Yang trailed off on her words. "Wait, wait. Nora?"

Blake nodded. "Yes, Nora came along to borrow a slice-of-life manga earlier today. She promised that she would return it by tomorrow."

She appeared almost stunned. I wonder if the bookshops stocked that particular book. "That's good, I suppose."

A shrug. "Well, at least you don't see that every day." In fact, Nora stepping into a quiet place—e.g., a library—was a pretty rare sight. Well, I must be very honoured, then. She checked the cup and the time. The library should be back up again in a few minutes. "Anyways, I should go now."

"Good luck." Yang also added a peck to her girlfriend's left cheek before she stood up, threw the paper cup into the bin, and went back to the library.

Back and hands against the door, Blake Belladonna found herself stuck with even more blush on her face. Walking over to the desk, she quickly opened a drawer and brought out a cloth. Her hands were shaking as she wiped off the yellow lipstick on her cheek.

But, even then, Yang coming along to give her a kiss while on a lunch break wasn't a common sight, either.

It was about 4:55 PM, according to the clock on the computer screen's bottom-right corner. Blake knew that it was her cue to close up shop. She turned it off, stood up and stretched her back. Moving over to the hatstand, she put on the mittens first, then the bridge coat and its buttons. And then, she walked over to where the light switches are. For the electronic chandeliers, they were activated using a simple flicker-switch instead of the… whatever they use nowadays. That would be too long, and too darn complicated to describe in text. The lights are all switched off, and so are the electronics.

Walking back to the front door, Blake flickered the sign from 'open' to 'closed', and left the library. She turned and locked the entrance, twisting the doorknob just to make sure that she didn't forget. Goodnight, she thought to herself. As she walked several steps away from the door, someone suddenly came along and accidentally knocked her to the ground.

Despite her hands being in pain—concrete was pretty harsh on her hands in cases like this—she managed to get up.

And it was… Penny?

"I'm terribly sorry, Blake!" She was apologizing sincerely.

Blake raised her eyebrows. However, inside her mind was mixed with confusion and surprise. It should have been 5 PM, should it not? Expressionless, except for the astonished brows, she looked straight into Penny's eyes, before shrugging. She turned around and proceeded to walk back to her apartment. She just didn't feel like talking, anyway. Blake was tired for that. She just hoped that Penny won't follow her, like she did with Ruby during their first encounter with her. You know, I could probably sleep like a log today. Just… no more different things today… please?