"Alright Mina, chin up, back straight, and go get her," Weiss coached as she ushered Mina out the door of Team RWBY's dorm, "I'm sure you'll knock her off her feet,"

"Do I have to wear these?" Ruby complained regarding the heels that came with her dress, interrupting.

"Yes, Ruby, your boots clash horribly with the rest of the ensemble,"

"You are certain that she is coming?" Mina asked, tugging at her dress, and returning Weiss's focus to the original subject, "This would all be rather wasted if she did not…"

"I'm sure – She asked you, didn't she?"

Mina nodded hesitantly.

"Then she'll be there," Weiss assured, before adding with a wry smile, "and if she stands you up, I'll kill her myself,"

"I'd not go that far…" Mina chuckled.

"A very severe guilt trip then," Weiss reposted, "Now let's go! We're going to be late!"

"Indeed, mustn't keep Mr. Vasilias waiting…"

"Mina, I still have my pride; please don't make me regret helping you out," Weiss frowned, "He… turned me down anyway…"

"My apologies…" Mina sighed, "Old habits die hard, I suppose… Although I am rather surprised that he decline you – the boy must have no taste,"

"Well, money can't buy everything," Weiss sighed, "but in any event, no apologies needed; it's just good to see you back to your old self – quips and all," Weiss assured, leading Mina out of the Dorm building and to the ballroom, "and besides, we can't have you taking fashion advice from that Sun fellow…" the Heiress shook her head, "Utterly without class, honestly…"

"Well at least he is a nice fellow," Mina offered.

"Hmmm… I supposed… although I have to wonder who he asked to the dance instead of Blake…"

"I'm not wearing a tuxedo this time Yang," Blake flatly asserted to her partner, who hadn't actually spoken, but was holding the offending ensemble on a set of hangers, ready to suggest it, "I do have a dress…"

"Aww… but you're so hunky in a tux~"

Blake didn't really know why she was dressing in Team JNPR's dorm again – Weiss had insisted upon it when they'd gone to the concert hall so as to surprise Blake with Mina's dress – but no explanation had been given this time. She supposed it wasn't any different this time, and she hadn't had any real reason to object; after all surprises could be nice sometimes. What she didn't appreciate was Yang's insistence on her wearing a tux again; once Blake had agreed to ease off the hunt and go to the dance, her partner was like night and day – one moment serious and matter-of-fact, the next, squealing with perverse glee at the prospect of dressing up another grown woman.

Blake sighed, "I'm sure Mina will appreciate my dress just fine,"

"I dunno…" Yang stroked her chin in a bald-faced parody of contemplation, "that one doesn't quite flatter your curse as well as it could… and there's nowhere to unbutton the front…"

"Y-Yang!"

"Kidding, kidding!" Yang backed off, "You just look good in a tux…"

"Yang…"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it-,"

"Thanks…"

That threw Yang a bit, given that she'd been expecting a rebuke, but after taking a second for it to sink in, Yang nodded, "Sure thing – although if you screw up like that again, I'm just takin' her to the dance for you~"

Blake sighed, "Well, it was a nice moment…"

In all seriousness though, Blake owed Yang a lot for their little talk, and she knew it. Even now it depressed her to think of it, but she probably would have worked right on through the dance if no one had come along to talk some sense into her. She needed this – all the more so because she hadn't realized precisely how much she'd needed it – but going to Mina and asking her to come was at once the hardest and easiest thing she'd ever done. Hard because, as she had made her way back to the dorm after her talk with Yang, she couldn't help dreading the prospect that Mina might not forgive her for the neglect – there really wasn't a nicer word for it – that Blake had shown her, and easy because when she had pulled Mina aside, it was made abundantly obvious that those particular worries were unfounded.

She'd knocked at the door of their dorm, politely asked Ruby and Weiss to step out, and seated herself on her bed beside Mina. Blake didn't like to think about how much the reserved look of hope in Mina's eyes had hurt – she shouldn't have had to temper her excitement lest she be disappointed again – and she had reached over to take Mina's hand.

"I'm sorry," She'd said, "Can you forgive me?"

Nothing else needed be said; Mina had simply nodded, "Already done-,"

"You don't have to Mina," Blake interrupted, never having been one to accept the simple answer, "I… I haven't been fair to you Mina, and I'm sorry – but if there's some way that you think I should make it up to you then-,"

Blake couldn't honestly quantify her relief when Mina had interrupted and pulled her into a hug, "You are here now; that is all that matters to me…"

It had been that simple – knowing Mina the way she did, Blake realized that all her anxieties about the subject were pointless – of course all was forgiven, By Mina, at any rate… I can't do that to her again…

"Uh… Blake..?"

Blake blinked back to the present, "Wh-, oh, Yang…"

"So… You gonna put that dress on…?" The Brawler raised an eyebrow before proceeding to a wry smile, "Unless you want to wear the tux after all-,"

"Save your breath Yang,"

Mina did her best to be patient as she waited outside the ballroom for Blake, but it was not easy to remain calm. Weiss stood beside her for moral support of course – even had Mr. Vasilias taken her up on her invitation, Weiss promised Mina that she would wait with her for Blake – but she could not help feeling as though her stomach was full of butterflies. Perhaps it was a consequence of the lack of time she had been able to spend with her Dearest of late, but whatever the reason, she was having difficulty getting a handle on her excitement this evening. The dress that Weiss had helped her select this time was a long one, and the Heiress had said that it was a shade of black that matched Mina's hair, and Mina had persuaded her that bare arms and shoulders were permissible, so she could also wear her string of red rosary beads as well, simulating more or less the same asthetic affect as a halter-top. It was a modest garment on face value, but the fact that the neckline was supported only by the elasticity at the top of the dress made for a suggestion that Mina thought Blake might appreciate…

"Here they come," Weis spoke with an audible note of a melancholic smile as she gave Mina a pat on the back, "Go get her,"

Mina nodded, "Thank you for your help…"

"What are friends for?" Weiss shrug to enter the ballroom as Ruby, Blake, and Yang approached, "Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with… a chair… somewhere…"

Mina cast her a sad look as Weiss proceeded inside, "Mr. Vasilias is a fool…"

"Damn Mina…" Yang whistled, "Maybe I was wrong about lettin' Weiss do the decorating…"

Mina raised an eyebrow, turning back to her other teammates, "Oh?"

"She can pick a good dress…" Ruby nodded in slightly befuddled awe.

"And… what do you think, Dearest?"

Blake's answer came without words. She stepped forward, placed a hand on Mina's waist and took hold of Mina's hand with the other, and gave her a soft kiss. Only then did she speak, "Thank you for being my date,"

Mina closed her eyes and returned the gesture with a kiss of her own, "Thank you for having me,"

"Alright, alright, we come here to make goo-goo eyes at each other or did we come here to have a good time? I mean, I'm cool either way, but I ain't got eye candy here…"

Blake rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless, "Right; let's go,"

Mina nodded, "Yes, let's,"

Holding Blake's hand as they went, Mina allowed herself to be led into the ballroom. As the door opened, a vaguely familiar piece by Ludwig Sebastian Liszt lilted out into the cool evening air, and brought a soothing calm over her. Right then, she decided not to use her Semblance, but rather, simply to let Blake lead the way; it felt good just to trust. Beneath the music Mina could hear murmured conversations between friends and the scuffing of shoes on the dance floor as the students from Beacon and abroad alike danced with varying degrees of confidence, which all blended together with the music in a soft wall of background noise, comforting in the way that it conveyed that all was well. True, it dulled the sense of things which she could get through her ears, but that was fine; she had Blake for that now.

"So…" Blake asked tentatively, "Would you like to dance?"

Mina turned to face her, eyebrow raised, "Do you… not?"

"No… It's just… There's a lot of people…"

"Are you embarrassed of me?" Mina's heart sank a bit.

"N-no!" Blake hastily assured, pulling Mina back into a hug, regardless of who was there to see, "No, no, no; I am not embarrassed of you Mina – if anything, I got the better end of this arrangement as far as a date to the dance goes. This is just… well, it's as new for me as it is for you…"

Mina giggled, relieved, "Ah… Well then I suppose that we shall simply have to learn together-,"

"Hello, friend Blake!"

At the sudden interruption, both Blake and Mina turned to greet… "Penny?"

"Hello!"

"I um… honestly wasn't expecting to see you here…" Blake replied, not quite sure how to proceed, "Did you come to the dance by yourself..?" She added, somewhat dubious of the handful of Atlesian soldiers standing guard against the wall a short distance away behind Penny. "Oh no, I have a date!" the peculiar girl answered excitedly, "He's getting punch!"

Blake cocked her head, "Who… is your date…?"

"Yo Penny! I got the…" Sun Wukong's voice caught as he saw who his 'date' was talking to, "Heh… I got the punch…"

"Oh, excellent!" Penny cheerily accepted her cup, seemingly heedless of the sudden awkwardness which had pervaded the atmosphere, "Isn't this evening just lovely?"

Blake shot Sun a raised eyebrow, in response to which the boy scratched the back of his head, "What? she looked kinda lonely – even with all those Atlas creeps followin' her around…"

"Ahuh,"

"A fine evening to you Mr. Wukong," Mina broke the odd tension somewhat with her belated and somewhat reserved greeting as her hand tightened around Blake's just a bit, but she relaxed as she greeted Penny, "Ah, and the same to you as well Miss…?"

"Penny,"

"Miss Penny…" She turned to Blake, "And when did you meet? I must say the two of you seem familiar with each other Dearest,"

"We met her just before the incident on the wharf..." Blake offered delicately, "Sun too, actually…"

"Indeed…"

"Look Mina, I'm sorry, I just didn't know; I promise-,"

"Sun…" Blake jerked her head in Penny's direction, who was presently watching the dance floor enthusiastically, occasionally sipping her punch with perplexing reverence as though it were some rare and expensive wine, "I think we can all call that water under the bridge… unless of course you want to earn the… displeasure of your date as well as mine…"

Sun swallowed, briefly glancing at Penny, who had begun clapping in time to a more contemporary dance tune that had come on since they'd entered; it was plain to look at him that he was remembering what his 'date' had done on the docks, "Right… shutting up…"

"Well chosen, Mr. Wukong," Mina allowed him a close-eyed smile before turning back to Blake, "Now if the gentleman would be so kind as to excuse us, I do believe that we were going to dance…"

"Alright, but…" Blake blushed a bit, "I'm… not quite sure who should lead?"

Mina's head tilted at this, "What do you mean?"

"Well, normally the man leads, but…"

"Ah…" Mina smiled, "It makes no matter; why not take the lead, prince charming?"

"Are you sure? You are taller…" Blake sighed, glancing at Mina's feet, "Even without the heels…"

Mina giggled, "Oh, these? Weiss was rather insistent that the outfit demanded them… she has been training me to walk in these for a week…"

Mina didn't realize as she was saying this that the high heels she'd been wearing made what was normally a generous two inches of difference almost into a scant four and a half, and that she'd effectively been talking to Blake's bow…

Nevertheless, Blake sighed, and put on a little smile as she escorted Mina onto the dance floor, in time for a slow song to start up, "Alright…"

Blake took Mina's left hand in her right, and rested her other gently against the small of her back as notes of the piano and violin sounded throughout the ballroom. She was dimly aware that they were turning a few heads throughout the room, but as she settled into the rhythm of the song with her steps, her heart beating almost as loudly, she couldn't find it within herself to care. So maybe she had to look up just a bit, and maybe neither of them really knew how to dance, as such, but none of that mattered, because she got to look up into those beautiful azure eyes and see the contented smile reflected back at her as though moonlight on the water.

How could I even have thought of missing this?

"This is nice…" Mina said softly, "to simply follow your lead like this, I mean, with nothing greater than a little misstep at stake…"

As the song ended, Blake nodded, "And I like having you with me as I go…" As an upbeat dance number started though, Blake found her wistful expression changing to a grimace of suppressed laughter, "Oh… my… God…"

Mina furrowed her brow, "Have I done something amusing?"

"It's not you Mina…" Blake tried – she really did – to keep the giggles down, "Jaune… Jaune is wearing a dress…"

Mina's eyes widened, "I beg your pardon?"

"Jaune Arc is wearing a dress… I wish you could see it; it's hilarious…" Blake sighed, "And he asked Pyrrha to dance…"

"About time…" Mina smiled, and with a wink she added, "Perhaps you could lead me through their routine so I can get a sense of it? It sounds like fun,"

Blake blanched a bit at this, but had difficulty saying no to that smile, "Alright… I'll give it my best shot…"

Keeping an eye as best she could on what had now become all of Team JNPR's dance routine, Blake tried to pick it up at the point when Jaune and Pyrrha partnered up again. She started feeling better about it when she successfully led Mina through the twirl, and decided, on the spot, that she could in fact keep it going. Mina followed her lead through the next few moves, laughing all the while, and then Blake moved in closer for the dip. Unfortunately, Blake hadn't been paying as close attention as she'd been during the slow dance, and accidentally stepped on Mina's foot, which in turn led to Mina breaking a heel and the both of them tumbling to the floor in a heap.

"Oh my God, Mina, are you okay?" Blake asked in a slight panic as she scrambled to get off of Mina. The Music hadn't stopped, but everyone that side of the ballroom certainly had, gawking as they were at the commotion, "I am so sorry-,"

Mina reached up to place a finger on Blake's lips for silence, "Do not be; accidents happen… Although…"

"Yes?"

"If you wouldn't mind helping me over to a chair…"

"Of course," Blake nodded, helping Mina back to her feet and slinging Mina's arm over her shoulder to assist her off the floor, "So much for dancing, I guess…"

"Mmmm… In retrospect, perhaps I should have invested in the combat stilettos…"

"Wait, that's actually a thing?" Blake asked, unbelieving as she lowered Mina into one of the chairs at the edge of the room.

"Oh yes; 'for the fashion-conscious huntress,' I believe that was How Weiss described them…"

Blake couldn't help cracking up a bit, "Well I for one think that you are fine without the heels,"

Mina slipped off the broken shoe first, and then its partner, "Much as I do appreciate Weiss's help, I'll not disagree…"

Blake seated herself beside Mina, "At least there's still the music, right? I'd get you some punch, but…"

"Actually, if you wouldn't mind…" Mina replied, "Tomato juice is fine, so I see no reason why punch should trouble my stomach; in the worst case, you will simply have a second glass, yes?"

"Yeah, okay-,"

"And perhaps a slightly… quieter place? I do not mean for us to leave, but I… neglected to bring earplugs, and I seem to be developing a headache…"

Blake nodded, "The balcony then; that should be quiet enough; I'll guide you to the steps and then I'll get the punch – unless you'd rather use your Semblance to find your own way-,"

"I could," Mina admitted, "But I would rather you babied me a bit~"

Blake let go of Mina at the foot of the stairs up to the balcony, promising to meet her up there with a glass of punch as requested; in the meantime, that left Mina to feel her way up the steps herself. All the different sources of noise, while none were particularly taxing by themselves, added up though, and the sum did make it somewhat difficult to judge which sounds were reflecting off of the cold stone steps, and thus harder to sort out where to put her feet. She was not going to use her Semblance to compensate though – not tonight. Instead, she placed a hand on the railing and took a deep breath as she took the first step, placing her bare foot on cool granite, smiled faintly, and took the next step. She was probably slower than she needed to be on the stairs, but the smooth stone felt good under her feet, and she was pleasantly surprised to find the outdoor balcony was floored with the same finely hewn granite, albeit slightly more chilled by the evening breeze. With a slow and deliberate appreciation for each polished flagstone she tread upon as she went, Mina made for the edge of the balcony and leaned forward onto the railing. She closed her eyes, and for a moment she idly thought to wonder about what Blake would see from here – what the stars looked like, the city in the distance, or if the moon was really 'broken' as she'd always heard – but such a passing fancy did not occupy her mind for long, and never did. Not as long as she knew that she had Blake…

"I'm back…"

Mina's eyes flickered open again as Blake's footsteps could be heard approaching across the balcony over the dulled sounds of music from inside, "Thank you,"

"For the punch?" Blake asked bemusedly as she handed Mina the glass.

"For coming,"

Blake blinked a couple of times as Mina took her first tentative sip of the drink, but said nothing.

"It's good punch though…" Mina cracked a little smile, "What's in it?"

"Um… Tonic and assorted fruit juices?" Blake offered, somewhat confused, but then she decided to address Mina's remark, "I… I really worried you, didn't I?"

Mina took a long, slow sip before she answered, "…Yes…" She sighed, letting the melancholy ebb away, "..But you are here now,"

"I'm sorry I screwed up our dance…" Blake sighed, "And about that broken heel,"

"Think nothing of it," Mina set her glass down on the railing, "I see no reason why we cannot try again,"

Blake set her own cup down, her smile bespeaking some relief, "But first…" she stepped out of her own shoes, "Now we're even,"

Mina chuckled as she heard Blake kick the shoes aside, "You needn't have done that Dearest,"

"I wanted to. Now, milady…" Blake held out a hand, "May I have this dance?"

"But of course," Mina took the offered hand and came close, wrapping the other about Blake's waist, "If you would but do me the honor of leading one more time,"

The music drifting out from inside the building was a bubbly pop song, wholly unsuited to this kind of dance. Both of them realized it, and neither cared. All that mattered was the way they held each other, swaying to and fro with the breeze, the contentment, and the closeness. It really was the simple things that mattered, Blake reflected, the moments like this which were all too easy to take for granted despite how they occurred not nearly enough. That was an issue which could be examined later though; for now, all Blake needed concern herself with was Mina's head resting gently on her shoulder as they danced.

"I love you,"

"Thank you,"

Author's Note: Okay, so there's my take on the dance, hopefully you all enjoyed that, as it kind of ties up this little mini-arc-ish few chapters in resolving Blake's little obsession from canon. That said, next time, we're going to be stepping away from canon a bit, because I'm not jumping straight into a mission, and for the context of this story at least, I'm not prepared to have Cinder make any moves quite so bold as the… events of episode seven of volume 2 quite yet, all though there will be some of her in the near future~ At any rate, I again hope that you enjoyed, and until next time, have a good one, and feel free to leave any feedback.