Mina nestled her head into the crook of Blake's neck as the lilting tones of the piano fell into a mellow phrase. She let her eyes settle shut as she just took it all in. As the music drifted into a melancholic tone, Mina couldn't help but finder herself feeling contrary to the music, beautiful though it was. She knew perfectly well that they were seated in a concert hall amidst hundreds of others, but all that Mina allowed herself a sense of was the music and the feeling of Blake seated beside her; she smelled vaguely of lilies.

She'd hummed contentedly when Blake had draped an arm about her shoulders, and when the music had begun, she had reached over to take Blake's other hand in her own. There was just something… right about it; just to be close, to hold Blake's hand, and to feel her other hand resting gently upon her shoulder… Bliss…

Mina took in a calm, deep breath as the first piece wound down into a diminuendo before finishing and whispered into Blake's ear, "Thank you Dearest," she squeezed Blake's hand.

"You like the music?" Blake asked, squeezing Mina's hand in return.

"It will serve," Mina allowed, "Lovely as it is, I am much more interested…" She reached up with her free hand to tug at the sleeve that Blake had draped over her shoulder, "…in having the time to spend with you…"

"Mina…"

"It does surprise me though," Mina continued in whisper as the next piece – a mirthful little piano suite – began, "That you opted for such a… masculine outfit… Were you afraid that I wouldn't like you in a dress?"

"N-no…" Mina could feel Blake tense up a little bit as she leaned closer up against her, "I just… don't own one…"

"And you owned a tuxedo?" Mina smirked, "Do not mistake me Dearest…" she walked her fingers up the lapel of Blake's jacket, "I find it rather attractive but-," Mina raised an eyebrow meaningfully as one of her fingers overstepped the collar of the jacket and pressed against the dress shirt beneath instead, and Blake tensed up even further, "Dearest… Is something wrong?"

Blake freed one of her hands and grabbed Mina's hand away from her chest, "No… Just... please remember that we're in public Mina…"

Despite the whispered nature of Blake's words and the cheerful etude playing from the stage, Mina could sense a slightly troubled note in Blake's words, "Dearest... Have I done something to upset you?" she asked, head tilted to the side; she hadn't been thinking of anything particularly unseemly…

"No! No! You haven't, I promise!" Blake hastily replied in a hushed voice, "This is just kind of… new… for me…"

"As it is for me," Mina nodded, "But nonetheless, I cannot rightly describe to you how much it means to me that you would seek to spend such an evening with me…"

Mina could feel it as Blake actually flinched this time.

"Blake…"

"Mina, I…" Blake sighed, before swallowing the lump in her throat and going on to speak again, "I have a confession to make…"

"Hmm?"

Blake sighed again, feeling guilty, "I… I didn't plan this date… any of it… and the tuxedo wasn't my idea either-, well okay, us going out was my idea… but I wasn't able to come up with anything that we could do together up till yesterday, when Yang bailed me out…"

Mina was silent.

"I'm… sorry Mina… I should have had the courage to tell you that I had no idea what-,"

Mina reached up, taking hold of Blake's chin, and pulled her into a kiss, before smiling in time with a swell in the music, "Dearest, I care little and less what we do on a date so long as we do it together… All this means is that I owe Miss Xiao Long a 'thank you' as well,"

"Mina, I…" Blake shook her head; she should have known better, "Thank you,"

Mina smiled back at her again, "Now may we enjoy the music and each other's company, or have we something else to sort out first?"

Blake shook her head in the negative, "No; sorry I killed the mood,"

Mina chuckled, leaning over anew to rest her head on Blake's chest, "Good, we need not trouble ourselves to-," Mina's assurances halted mid-sentence as her look of sedate contentment morphed into what might not unfairly be described as a lascivious smirk, "No, we needn't trouble ourselves with such unnecessary concerns, not at all…"

Blake felt her face redden, "Y-yeah about that…"

"Were we hoping to enjoy perhaps a bit more than the concert this evening, Dearest?" Mina asked suggestively, although without lifting her head from Blake's chest enjoying the sound of Blake's quickening pulse altogether too much.

"It was Yang's idea…" Blake blurted weakly, at a loss for anything else to say that might allow her to save face…

Mina's smirk broadened, "Then I shall have to thank Miss Xiao Long very much indeed…"

Oh… They're so adorable…

For all the grief and stress that came hand in hand with the name, being a Schnee was not without its perks, such as year-round reservations to box seats at Vale Concert Hall, to name a completely random example… From where she sat overlooking both the stage and audience both, Weiss had a perfect view, not only of Mr. Liszt and his piano, but also of Blake and Mina, seated roughly two thirds of the way from the front. They'd already seated themselves by the time Weiss had arrived, and as she observed they'd gone from sitting side by side to holding hands, and then to cuddling and-

Weiss pinched herself, Focus Schnee! As… absolutely adorable as this is… You're here for a reason-, Oh my gosh Blake's got her fingers in Mina's Hair! Weiss pinched herself again, I am not here to here just to snoop… Not at all! Hmph!

Still, it was a nice thing to think about, having someone on whom you could depend and lean on. It was not something that Weiss could have ever claimed to have possessed, whatever else she had been blessed with.

Whatever their issues… Weiss sighed, I'm happy for them…

A little smile tugged upon her lips as she saw Mina's lips move, whispering something to Blake. Weiss could not read lips, but Mina looked happy, although Blake looked a bit flustered… but perhaps that was just the low lighting over the audience. They seemed happy either way though… things appeared to be going smoothly for-

What the heck was That? A glint of light caught Weiss' eye from the back of the auditorium, That had better not be… IT IS!

"Yaaaang! Lemme see! I wanna use the binoculars too!" Ruby whined in a whispered voice, prodding Yang's shoulder, "I can barely see them from here!"

"Shhhh Sis! You're makin' too much noise!" Yang shot back, not lowering the binoculars.

Originally Yang had acquired two of the tickets, meant to take one last attempt to win Clara over cover. After getting slapped yet again, Yang was left with a pair of tickets to this fancy piano concert that she honestly had lost all desire to attend. When Blake had admitted that she didn't know what to do about her date with Mina, a light bulb lit up in Yang's head. After presenting Blake with the tickets, Yang had discreetly scrambled to acquire two more of the tickets while she sent Ruby to get her hands on Blake's tux; she'd cringed at having to shell out almost twice as much for the second pair of tickets than the first, but she was enjoying this outing way too much to care right now. The music was nice too, she supposed; not really her thing though… Still, it was totally worth it…

She and Ruby had been seated in the middle of the very back row, and were the only ones seated anywhere in the last three rows of the otherwise packed theater, from where, with the aid of the pair of binoculars Yang had brought, they could watch Blake and Mina a couple of dozen rows forward. It was surveillance of course… Or something like that…

Yang's smile broadened as deviously as she saw Mina lean over to rest her head on Blake's chest before she reluctantly handed Ruby the binoculars, "All according to plan…"

"You know Yang… Sometimes I worry that you enjoy this kind of thing too much…" Ruby commented, heedless of the irony as she peered through the binoculars and fought to stifle a squeal of delight.

"My thoughts exactly…"

The retort died on Yang's lips and Ruby dropped the binoculars in her lap, suddenly rigid in her seat, "W-Weiss?"

"What, pray tell, are you two dolts doing here?" Weiss demanded in a hushed voice as she stood behind their seats.

"Uh… Enjoying the concert?" Ruby offered weakly.

"What then, are the binoculars for?"

"… Better view that way?"

Yang's initial shock at being caught in the act relented, and a smirk grew on her face, "Oh come on Princess, you should have expected this from us; I think the more interesting question is, well, what are you doing here?"

This gave the Heiress pause for a moment, but nonetheless the fencer reposted, "I-I came to make sure you two wouldn't pull something like this!"

"Ahuh?" Yang raised an eyebrow, "And the solution you arrived at was to do exactly the same thing?"

"Sh-shut up!"

"Admit it; you wanted to watch their date 'cause they're so friggin cute!"

"Absurd!" Weiss turned up her nose as she declared it, before remembering where she was and lowering her voice again, "I… I've simply invested a great deal into ensuring this date goes smoothly…"

"Mmmm…" Ruby nodded sagely as she raised the binoculars again, "How much was that dress anyway? It's really pretty, but it looks expensive…"

"Nonsense," Weiss shook her head, "It was an excellent value for two hundred Lien-,"

"Two hundred?" Yang demanded, unbelieving, "Does that include the shoes and necklace? Please say that it does…"

"Oh calm down, there's no reason for you to get so apoplectic…" Weiss rolled her eyes, "How much was Blake's tuxedo? It's a nice touch, by the way,"

"It's a fifty Lien rental…" Yang muttered under her breath.

"Hmm…" Weiss seemed to think about it, casually grabbing the binoculars from Ruby, who meekly offered only feeble resistance, "Mina suggested as much for her dress, but I decided that she deserved to own a nice dress; every girl should…"

"Is that an-,"

"No," Weiss cut of the wry remark before smiling at the sight through the binoculars, "Blake certainly seems to appreciate the dress though…"

Ruby reached for the binoculars to see better, but Yang beat her to it, snatching them from Weiss' hands to look again for herself, "Awww…" Blake had leaned over up against Mina, her head resting upon Mina's now, "Isn't that precious? Still… I think Mina might be getting' a bit more outta how we dressed Blake up…"

Weiss shot the brawler a suspicious look, "What did you idiots do?"

"I think it's more an issue of what we didn't…" Ruby admitted, nervously twiddling her thumbs.

Weiss sighed, "Whatever; it doesn't seem to be causing problems, whatever it is… Since you're both here, why don't you both come up to the Schnee box… that way they won't be so likely to spot you when the show's over?"

"No… Way… You have a box?"

"Of course,"

After two and a half hours of music, ranging in tone from loud and bombastic etudes to melancholy sonatas and everything in between, Ludwig Sebastian Liszt stood to bow and greet his applause and depart the stage as the lighting in the auditorium brightened for the attendees to depart. Where she sat though, Blake really wished that they didn't have to. At some point during the music, Blake couldn't honestly remember exactly when, Mina had wrapped her arms about her neck and shoulders, in addition to resting her head on Blake's chest. As… embarrassing as it was, Blake was rather glad that Mina had discovered her wardrobe deficiency earlier in the show rather than later, because after a little fond ribbing, that was the end of it, much to Blake's grateful, if slightly perplexed surprise. If Mina hadn't found out, Blake was sure that she herself would have spent the entire evening worrying about it, but while she was thankful that this had not been the case, between her paradoxical embarrassment and relief, Blake couldn't imagine why Mina had let it go; she'd expected Mina to get more… well, grabby upon fining out, but that hadn't been the case… Blake was almost disappointed… Not that Yang could EVER be allowed to know that… As things stood though, there was nothing for it but to file out of the concert hall, Mina still happily on her arm.

"So…" Blake asked hesitantly, "Did you enjoy that?"

"I did," Mina allowed somewhat vaguely.

"It wasn't too loud, was it?"

Min rolled her eyes, "Dearest, I am not so fragile as all that,"

"I… I know…" Blake admitted guiltily.

"Oh…" Mina raised an eyebrow, "Were you hoping to comfort me?"

"I-, no! That's not-!"

Mina chuckled, "I kid, Blake, rest easy-,"

"Oh my God, Mina? Is that you?"

Mina broke off mid-sentence to turn around in greeting to the person who'd spoken, leaving Blake to fight the impulse to grab her hand and pull her back, "Is that…? Ah, Clara! It is truly a pleasure to meet you here!" Mina enthused, "I take it that this is your… Robert was your name yes?"

Blake turned as well to see who Mina was talking to, and indeed did recognize the brunette waitress with glasses from the Summer Blossom Café, escorted by a handsome young man she hadn't met. He too was wearing a tuxedo, but Clara was in a violet purple evening dress.

"So this is your…" Clara began, finally looking Blake's way, then raised an eyebrow with a grin, "Ah… so that's what you're into…"

Mina laughed, moving back to Blake's side and giving her a hug, "Yes… Is she not adorable?"

"She looks uncomfortable…" Clara's boyfriend commented with concern audible in his voice.

"Where are my manners?" Mina reproached herself, "Clara, Robert, this is Blake; Blake, meet Clara and Robert. I do not believe that you have ever been properly introduced,"

Blake waved hello, "Hi… Blake Belladonna… Nice to meet you,"

Clara smiled knowingly, "It's nice to finally meet you too; I've heard so much about you, although Mina never did get around to specifying that the mysterious Blake Belladonna was her girlfriend…" She smirked, "You were one of the girls who came into the café with that pushy blonde the first time right? That explains why Mina spent so much time by your table…"

Blake scratched the back of her head in embarrassment as she remembered the events of that particular day, and tried to deflect the line of conversation, "Yeah… Yang can be a handful sometimes…"

"Actually, while we are on that subject…" Mina spoke up, a slightly guilty quality to her voice, "I owe you an apology for that; you see, I may have insinuated that you were single at the time… And I may also have neglected to mention that you weren't so inclined…"

Clara burst out laughing, much to Blake's surprise, "Well, I was single at the time…"

"You aren't mad?" Blake asked incredulously.

"Eh," Clara shrugged, "If she's anywhere near as obnoxious with you two as she was pining after me, well… I was happy to help you give her a reality check. And besides, we work in a maid café… we've both dealt with worse; yeah, she was kinda heavy on the corny pick-up lines, and frankly, I was kinda pissed when she stared giving Robert weird looks, but at least she kept her hands to herself…"

Blake looked back over to Mina, "Wait, does that mean that the customers-?"

Mina smiled meaningfully, "Very few are quite so foolish, and it is a mistake that is only ever made once…"

"Damn right," Clara nodded approvingly, "You wouldn't believe how much less customer harassment we've had since Mina came on board,"

Blake shot Mina a raised eyebrow, making a mental not to discuss the subject of disproportionate retribution with Mina later, but for now she did a little bow, "Well, it was nice to meet you both, but Mina and I have an airship to catch; would you excuse us?"

Robert nodded, and Clara did a little curtsey of her own, a smirk on her face, "Of course milady,"

After sufficient pause to let Mina say her own goodbyes, Blake took her hand again, leading her first out of and then away from the concert hall. The crowd thinned dramatically after they managed to exit the building, but semblance or not, Blake wasn't comfortable leaving Mina alone in a crowd where she could be disoriented, and so she didn't let go of Mina's hand until they had walked a fair portion of the distance to the airship station. When Blake finally did let got though, they came to a halt in a town green dominated by a fountain, lit by a few streetlamps and not much else, all the local shops having closed for the evening. When she let go though, Mina had ceased to follow, a skeptical look on her face.

"Mina-,"

"Do not mistake me Dearest; I do rather enjoy it when you assert yourself but…" She paused seeming to search for her words, "Do correct me if I am mistaken, but I could have sworn that our airship does not arrive for almost an hour after the end of the show…"

"Uh…" Busted… "I… I um… I wanted to talk to you privately…"

"I promise Dearest, first time offenders merely receive a stern warning; corporal punishment is reserved for anyone fool enough to try it again," Mina assured.

Blake tilted her head, "Huh?"

"Were you not going to bid me not to go to extremes as regards-,"

Blake shook her head, comprehension setting in, "No-, well, I was going to bring that up later but… Not right now…"

It was Mina's turn to tilt her head in puzzlement, "Oh?"

"Yeah…" Blake nervously tugged at her sleeves, "Um, Mina… have you been feeling okay lately?"

"What?" Mina asked, genuinely flummoxed by the query, "I am not certain that I understand the question Blake… Of course I am fine…"

"It's just that you've been… Um…" Blake could feel the color rising in her cheeks, "Well, since that little… episode over spring break, you've been kind of less…"

Mina blinked a few times in response to the uncompleted statement, before putting two and two together, "Ah…"

"Yeah…"

Mina stepped closer, draping her arms over Blake's shoulders, "This displeases you?"

"Well, no…" Blake replied, hesitant.

""What then?" Mina asked.

Blake swallowed thickly as she felt the press of Mina's chest against her own, "No… It's just that… When I said that I wanted you to use good judgment… not that I wanted to pressure you but…"

"I do not feel pressured Dearest…" Mina cut her off by pressing herself closer to Blake, "But… perhaps guilty…"

"What? No!" Blake shook her head furiously, "You haven't done anything to-,"

"Indeed not… I've done nothing…" Mina arms seemed to slacken on Blake's shoulders, "and it would seem that I have thus allowed you to feel neglected…" Mina looked away.

"Neglected? No! Mina…" Blake shook her head insistently, "I just… well… It's kind of uncomfortable for me…"

"Hmm?" Mina asked, making an effort to Meet Blake's eyes, though she wasn't quite sure precisely where to look, a slightly unconvinced look on her face, "What,… What do you mean?"

"It's just that… Wall… until now I uh… haven't been the one to ask…"

"And that makes you uncomfortable?" Mina asked, dejection changing to concern.

"Like I said… I don't want to pressure you…" It was Blake's turn to look away nervously.

"And like I have said," Mina replied, lowering one hand from Blake's shoulder to reach inside Blake's jacket to gently caress her through her dress shirt, "I aspire to nothing so much as to please you Dearest; you need only tell me your pleasure-, or, if you would be more comfortable, I could resume the role of initiator more often-,"

Blake shook her head, "But that's not fair to you; It wouldn't be right of me to let you be the only one exposed to rejection like that…"

Mina smirked, "Dearest, I believe that I have been quite clear that you may have me anytime, anywhere, and in any manner you wish; even were the roles completely reversed, I will never deny you,, and neither will I hold it against you should you prefer to abstain," Her hand moved to undo one of the buttons of Blake's shirt, "Would you prefer that I stop?"

"No…" Blake said shakily as she felt Mina's fingers on her bare skin, "But… Can I ask you something?"

"Of course,"

"Why the change? I mean… you didn't just… you know… stop asking because I asked you to… I didn't – I mean, I asked you to use good sense but…"

Mina froze, withdrawing her hand and looking away, visibly ashamed of herself, "I… Well Dearest, previously… I had not been so certain that you enjoyed my part in your life… and so I may have been... excessively needy..."

Mina didn't need to finish; instead, Blake threw her arms around Mina, fighting back guilty tears welling up in her eyes, "I'm sorry that I ever let you think that… It was stupid of me. I promise you Mina, I love you, and you never had to earn my affection-,"

"I know," Mina cut in, "You made that clear enough to me after my… blunder at the resort…"

Blake's eyes widened in realization, "…Okay…" She chuckled, "You know something… I think of the two of us, I was the blind one this time…"

Mina returned the little laugh, "You might do to try it sometime; life can be very…" she slid her hand back into Blake's shirt, and reaching up to caress a breast, eliciting a little gasp, "Interesting… when one must needs navigate by touch and sound…"

Blake got a grip on her breathing and made to lean in for a-

"You may kiss the Bride!"

"Gah!" Blake jumped in surprise, stumbling backward and tripping over the edge of the fountain, tumbling in, "Y-Yang?" Blake spluttered when she managed to raise her head above the water again, "What are you-?"

Yang shrugged, holding up her ticket stubs, "Sorry; couldn't resist…"

Mina stepped over to help Blake out of the water before shooting Yang a dirty look, "Miss Xiao Long, I would have cared little if you wanted to watch our evening, but must you really have interrupted?"

"Um…" Yang seemed less confident now, before settling on a response, abruptly stepping back to present her two accomplices, "Ruby and Weiss came too!"

"Unbelievable!" Weiss exploded, "Don't pass this off on me! Following them out of the concert hall was your idea Yang! I just wanted to get back to Beacon before anyone knew that we were gone!"

"So wait a minute," Blake said, shivering and attempting to bush of some of the water dribbling down her outfit, "All three of you shadowed us?"

Ruby nodded meekly, not making eye contact. Weiss and yang were silent.

"Are you mad?"

Blake sighed, defeated, "No… I really should have expected it, shouldn't I?"

"See! That's what I said!" Yang gloated to Weiss.

"What really bothers me is that I never noticed…" Blake continued, regardless of Yang's remark.

"You seemed pre-occupied…" Yang smirked, then inexplicably took off her vest and offered it to Blake, "Although right now… you might want to put this on and zip it up…"

Blake looked down confusedly, but upon seeing the state of her drenched shirt, hurriedly snatched the vest, "Dammit Yang!"

"Just tryin' to help,"

"It's your fault!" Blake exclaimed as she shed the sodden tuxedo jacket and furiously hastened to cover herself again with the offered vest.

"Not that I particularly object," Mina spoke up again, looking in Weiss' direction as Blake and Yang continued to squabble, "But it surprises me that you came along Weiss…"

"Oh it's better than that," Yang's grin grew positively huge as she momentarily turned from her exchange with Blake, "She came by herself; yours truly had nothing to do with it,"

Mina raised an eyebrow.

"Well I… um… I… I just wanted to make sure nothing went wrong! I was sure that these two would be up to something, as indeed they were!" Weiss furiously reddened, madly gesticulating in the sisters' general direction.

Mina chuckled, "Of course…. Now, perhaps we should see about returning to Beacon before Blake catches a cold?"

"Y-yeah…" Weiss nodded, thankful for the out, "Let me just call my charter ship…"

Author's Note: So, I hope you all enjoyed that; I for one was not honestly expecting this chapter to be quite so lengthy, but here it is nonetheless. Please feel free as always to leave me your thoughts in reviews & such; see you next time.