Late, late! I'm always late! And despite the fact that I have bits of free time lately, I've just been focused on other projects of mine amidst some nonsense my brain is creating like fanarts for a "ChivalRWBY" AU…

For about the millionth time in the evening, Yang sighed before dwelling a little more on her chair. If only things weren't so complicated !

"No Ruby, I can't 'just flirt as I would do with anyone else'. That's my problem!" She said to her phone, her eyes still vigilantly watching over the small swarm of kids placed under her responsibility.

As every evening, she called her sister for some last-minute advice as to how she was supposed to get the attention of the gorgeous raven-haired girl that came later. And as every evening, her sister was of little to no help… Seriously, suggesting that she'd flirt casually? In any other circumstances she would have done it without even thinking, but her job was at stake! Not to mention that openly flirting with someone that literally asked you to watch over their KID seemed a bit rude to her. Just a bit.

Especially when a pretty, young man with red hair and bull horn was the one to entrust her with the little ball of energy every morning. If anything, that alone was a red flag signalling that Blake was already in a relationship, perhaps even married for what Yang knew of the customers… But despite this red signs… Yang couldn't help but hope. After all, the little Aries never called her "Mom", and none of the three ever implied that they were actually related…

It was probably just a false hope, but Yang couldn't just let it go without even trying… Well actually, she could have. But she didn't want to, and being as stubborn as she was, she kept trying to come up with a way of politely asking if anything was possible. Despite all her might she still couldn't find one though…

"BLAAAAAAAAKE!" the sudden outburst of joy caught her off guard amidst her thoughts, forcing her eyes upward toward the ram-horned redhead bouncing up and down in excitement, and then toward her biggest dilemma that had just entered the daycare.

As much as she wanted to bring out her most beaming smile, she still had a job to attend to, which brought a serious frown on her face before she gently scolded the little girl.

"Aries, what did I say about yelling?"

"Uhh… Not to?" she answered, tip-toeing nervously

"Yup. If you want to show that you're happy, you can bounce all your might – the rug is here for that – but don't yell, okay?" Unable to hold her severe façade in front of the rapids and silent nods, she felt her signature smile creep on her face before she turned to Blake. "Hello Blake! How was your day?"

Dipping her head slightly to the side while awaiting the answer, she managed to keep her nervousness in check. To be completely honest, each time it happened : her nervousness went away, but so did her ideas to ask the girl out… And she would mourn about it later on.

"Quite dull actually… Office work… Nothing new, really." Blake said with one of those discreet smile that made Yang's heart melt. "But how was your day?"

"Oh, the usual." Yang said, casually flipping a lock of blonde hair behind her shoulders. "You know, trying to keep this place from burning, making sure that all of them have fun, preventing an apocalypse…"

"Apocalypse? That much?" Blake said, crossing her arms and raising one eyebrow in doubt

"Yeah, Aries lost against Charles. This girl has one heck of a tantrum." Yang said with a smile as her interlocutor did the same

"She really takes after her father… I hope it wasn't too much of a trouble?"

Before Yang could think it through, she started speaking.

"Nah don't worry, it's my job anyway. Speaking of her father, stop me if I'm being intrusive, but I always wondered why she never calls you 'mom' or 'mother' ?"

A second of silence hanged in the air, Yang silently and mentally slapping herself over and over for not thinking before she spoke. It happened more and more often as she discussed with Blake, but still it wasn't a reason for her to be that rude and…

"Well that's easy to answer," Blake interrupted her thoughts, still casually smiling as if it was nothing. "That's because I'm just Adam's friend. I pick her up because of his busy schedule, but I'm more of an aunt than a mother, truly."

"Couldn't have guessed, you two look really close," Yang replied as casually as possible, all the while trying to keep breathing and to maintain her poise. Which was incredibly hard as her nervousness was back full force. "I'll… go fetch her" she added, voice stammering and heart pounding as she started searching for Aries.

She found the little girl in the other room, playing with a jumping ball and seemingly content to be all by herself.

"Hey Aries, ready to go?"

As she nodded, Yang took her in her arms, but before she could push the door back to the entrance, the ram's little voice raised innocently.

"Say, Yang, are you gonna ask Blake out?"

Taken aback by the youth's frankness, it took Yang a few more seconds to get back her breath. Today was definitely a hectic one…

"Well I'd really like to, but I'm still shy."

"No waaaay!" Aries said, leaning back as to see Yang's – blushing – face. "But you're never shy!"

"Well sometimes it happen." Yang said, shrugging.

"Don't worry! I'll help you!"

She was so cute, all enthusiastic and smiling that Yang didn't have the heart to tell her no. Instead, she nodded, smiled and finally got back to the entrance where she found Blake playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with another of the kids. With a discreet smile, the dragon let go of Aries, having already forgotten the previous conversation.

"Blake! Blake! Blake!" The little girl jumped again, but this time she kept her voice at a reasonable level. Yang was about to leave again, back turned to the entrance, when she caught a glimpse of the conversation between the two.

"Yang wanted to ask you something, but she was too shy to do it directly…" the rest was indistinct, but the blondie knew pretty well what was being said between the two. And it brought quite a huge blush on her cheeks.

"So Yang, hitting on me through Aries?" came Blake's taunting voice.

Without even turning back, she knew that a huge, playful smile was on Blake's lips. And somehow that thought made her forget all of her worries, apprehensions… some might even say she immediately forgot all restraint.

"Well, now that I know it's not inappropriate, I might very well be. Would you happen to be free tomorrow's evening?"

"Y… yeah…"

Seeing the raven haired look at the floor, unable to hide a blush redder than Ruby's cape, Yang suddenly thought that she was the only one making everything complicated, from the start. With a huge smile, she winked toward the happily bouncing Aries, before she started thinking on what tomorrow night could be made of. And as she scrambled for a date idea, she felt her smile drop ever so slightly… She was far from being out of the woods.

So, whaddya all think of this one? I'm pretty satisfied of what I've written, even though I'm less satisfied at the time it took me to write it… Hope you enjoyed nonetheless.

SomeRandoFromTX: Well yeah, I think that's what all writers were talking about… Time flees faster than anything else I've ever seen. Also thanks for your nice comments on "Mansion", I'm glad you liked the way that I wrote it… I thought it would be funnier to do something unexpected. Next one should be Stripes, and I'll be sure to put extra care in it! Though it might mean that it'll take me a little longer to write.

See you all in, I hope, not so long!