31

"You pierced your ears?!" Carmine couldn't help but blurt out the first thing that came to mind as she looked at Blake. Her old teammate looked good, gorgeous even. The golden hoops attached to her feline ears drew the eye as they glinted against the black fur. She had never worn earrings to her recollection but they definitely suited her. This was Blake like she had never seen before and that stunned her. Blake never dressed up and she never wore jewelry either. They had never had the time nor inclination to go out, never the opportunity to get fancy.

She and Yang hadn't/

The thought was like a bucket of ice water on her mind, bringing clarity back to her mental faculties.

"They're clip-ons." Blake reached up to nudge one of the golden hoops, "Mom's are pierced and she wears hoops like this all the time, so I thought it would look good…. Does it?"

"Yep."

One eyebrow went up as Blake looked at her, a coy smile playing at the edge of her lips, "That all you have to say?"

"You can't fish for compliments with me, Blake." She shot back.

The smile on Blake's face grew slightly, "I guess not. But you, on the other hand, look great. I half expected you to come in combat boots."

Carmine cringed, knowing full well she was talking about her younger self there, "In my defense I grew out of that."

"I can see that, and nobody to force you into it, either. What's the occasion? None of the other professors is dressed up."

"Ah." Carmine scratched at her cheek, "Well the headmaster suggested I should enjoy this and everyone was pretty pushy about it."

Blake gave her a long considering look, "Well I'm glad you did. You certainly seem like an adult when you're dressed like this."

What's that supposed to mean?

Sun coughed, reminding them that he was there, "You ladies thirsty? I can go get us all something to drink."

Carmine found herself smirking as Sun dragged his partner off towards the punch bowl, "Sun's a good friend."

"He is?"

"Yeah." She confirmed, "Real ride or die kind of guy. Don't tell me you didn't notice after the docks."

"I did." Blake blushed slightly, "He's not very good at disguising his intentions, though."

"It's not like he has any sleeves to hide them up." She flashed a grin at Blake's chuckle, "And maybe he does have a crush but that doesn't mean he doesn't genuinely want to help too."

She watched as those black cat ears flattened against her skull and she looked around, "It makes me a little self conscious. Like I'm the center of attention."

"I'm not surprised." Carmine teased, "I think a lot of people are jealous of Sun."

"What about you?"

The question caught her by surprise, her eyes widening before she let out a small breath and a rueful smile, "Wouldn't you like to know?"

It seemed like Blake was right, she was drawing attention but it wasn't all of a good kind. More than once she caught the look of disapproval or disgust on someone's face. Most from Atlas Academy but more than she liked were Beacon students. It just went to reinforce why Blake had originally hid her heritage from the public. If she had noticed then Blake most certainly had as well.

An ugly feeling welled up inside of her and she grabbed Blake by the hand, "Let's dance." With a yelp the girl was pulled along and into the throng of the burgeoning crowd that was dancing to the music. Her friend didn't deserve to have a night like this marred by bigotry.

"I don't know how to dance!" Blake complained but it fell on deaf ears.

"All you need is enthusiasm." Carmine grinned at her, placing one hand on her waist and taking the other into her own, "Just follow my lead. You can do that much, right?"

It was with great pleasure that she saw the indignant glare from those amber eyes. Unlike with Weiss, having Blake in her arms felt… different. Right. Her breath caught in her throat and she viciously stomped the feelings down.

"You can dance?" Blake asked, seemingly in disbelief.

"What?" Carmine fell into a teasing tone, "Jealous?"

"More like I can't imagine you putting effort into anything that didn't kill Grimm."

She snorted, that was a pretty accurate depiction of her hobbies, "Jaune taught me."

"Jaune?!" Blake's eyebrows threatened to recede into her hairline, "As in Jaune 'Can't take a hint' Arc?"

"Hey." Carmine defended her oldest friend, "Jaune has a lot of surprising skills. Like cooking and sewing."

"But not talking to girls." Blake looked over and she followed her gaze to the man in question. Jaune, young Jaune that was, was busy happily telling Pyrrha some story or other as she hung off of him, her arms draped around his neck and looking for all the world that she was content with her lot in life.

"That's a skill that has to be learned through exposure, unfortunately." She winked at Blake, "He'll get there."

"You must have a lot of experience, then."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," Blake hissed, "You must have a lot of experience to hop into the same bed as a criminal."

Carmine winced, "I can explain." All she got was an unimpressed glare, "No, really I can. Neo and I aren't, like, together. It's just some stress relief. We were sparring and one thing led to another. You know how it is."

"Apparently not. You've sparred with our entire team, should I be worried about Ruby's chastity?"

That made her blanch, "Nope, not like that. Ew, I'm not a narcissist or into my sister."

"I know, but I had to get you back somehow. How do you think I feel walking into that?"

"It's not like I knew she was there either." Carmine whined, "Neo loves chaos, mischief. A bored Neo is a Neo I don't wanna meet."

Blake didn't seem to entirely forgive her, accepting the explanation with a huff and looking away. It wasn't enough to make her friend pull away from her, which she was thankful for, but it was clear she was upset. They fell into a silence for a time, Carmine trying to think of a way to appease her dance partner. That was when she caught a shock of green and slive, her eye instantly locking onto the source.

Emerald and Mercury were dancing together, she hadn't seen them arrive but they couldn't have been there long. Had she been so distracted by Blake that she had missed it? She cursed to herself for being careless. Here she was getting caught up in the past like an idiot when she had a job to do.

Emerald looked slightly bored but hid it well, Mercury smiling like he was enjoying himself. However it was clear to someone who was looking that she didn't even want to be touching him. She was looking around, red eyes scanning a room before they met with her lone silver orb. Having been caught staring she did the only thing she could think of.

She winked.

At least then she would be met with confusion rather than suspicion as she went back to her partner. It wouldn't do to be caught a second time so she would have to trust Ozpin and the rest would have a watchful eye on the duo, not that they expected anything nefarious from them at the dance. After all, they had a cover to maintain.

Instead, her thoughts were taken up by the fact that Cinder was no doubt making her move. That was why Ironwood had placed automatons instead of soldiers at the CCT, there was no point in putting them in danger. If they managed to ward her off this night then she would just find another night to do it. Instead it was the perfect chance to make a move of their own.

-SY-

Carmine was distracted, Blake could tell. It was obvious in the way she was looking around and how her movements had become half hearted at best. She may not have been a dancer but she could read body language well enough to understand that the older woman no longer cared.

Perhaps she had expressed too much disapproval. After all she herself was a criminal, given leniency by the headmaster under the provision that she serve the city as a huntress to pay back her crimes. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't that important. It shouldn't matter who Carmine slept with, because it was none of her business.

That's what she told herself.

"We can stop dancing, if you want."

Carmine looked at her, surprised, as she started to pull away, "What do you mean?"

Blake found herself unable to leave, not because she didn't want to but because to do so would require her yanking her hand away from Carmine's and she was reluctant to do so, "You can go dance with someone else if I'm bothering you."

She felt horrible even saying it aloud, but the feeling of wanting Carmine to know how much she hated the idea of her with someone else- with someone like Neo, wouldn't go away.

"Bother..?"

Unable to look her in the eye, she simply turned away and tugged her hand free, "Don't mind me, Professor."

Blake felt childish, like she wanted to go back to her bed and curl up under the blanket. She hated the feeling that was welling up inside of her even as much as she recognized it.

She was jealous.

Adam had always been the possessive one in their past relationship, her ex stuck to her like glue and had always made sure that she knew his world revolved around her. She had thought it romantic at the time. Concerning, she now knew. That didn't mean she hadn't seen her then boyfriend talking to other women, had felt the twinge of jealousy when they had flirted with him, even if he had never reciprocated.

And now that same emotion was rearing its ugly head once again but to a woman nine years her elder, a woman from the future and just so happened to be her team leader, and a woman who would never look at her as anything but a friend. Blake had seen the look in Carmine's eye when she had slipped up about her feelings towards the other Blake. That was the issue.

How was she supposed to compare to her older self?

Now here she was, caught up in her own ugly feelings and making a mess of everything, it would have been better if she just hadn't come. She tugged her hand out of Carmine's preparing to walk away, head back to the dorm, and try to forget everything.

She didn't get more than a few steps before a hand snapped out to wrap around her wrist, halting her in her tracks.

"Woah there, Blake." Carmine pulled her back, "I think you're misinterpreting something. Come here."

Without even pausing, the older woman dragged her off the dancefloor, towards the set of stairs and wide double doors that led to the balcony. The cool night air hit her skin and made her shiver, Vale was so much colder than Menagerie. Though, thankfully, not the hostile cold of Atlas. Instead she activated her aura, feeling the protective energy wash over and through her, enabling her to ignore the cold. Sure, it was a waste of aura, but she wasn't planning on getting into a fight anytime soon so it was okay.

"Alright spill." Carmine said once they were alone, it wasn't late enough for many people to have grown tired of dancing yet, "Bad tuna?"

"No!" She replied automatically before flushing slightly, "It's not something I ate."

Damn her, she made a joke out of everything but was always serious when it counted.

"Then tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing's wrong." Blake grit her teeth and tried to shoulder past Carmine, "Leave me alone."

"No." Carmine spun her around by her shoulder to face her, face firm but etched with worry, "If something's wrong, I want to know. Maybe I can help."

She blinked, surprised but felt a surge of irritation and something coming loose, "Fine!" She hissed, "You want to know what's wrong?" She poked Carmine in the sternum, "You! You're what's wrong with me. You come here with all this knowledge and things I can't unlearn. You change my worldview with that damned smirk of yours and not a single apology! How am I supposed to cope with the supposed fact that you fell in love with me? A different me?

"How am I supposed to take it when you compare me to her?" She felt her eyes sting, "I'm not your Blake, Carmine, you've made that abundantly clear, but I am the one that's here. You have to get used to that. You tell me you had feelings for Blake but all I see is a bitter woman who's disappointed I'm not her."

"Wait, what?" Carmine looked stunned and Blake wanted nothing more than to wipe the expression off of her face.

She was too much of a mess, she shouldn't be angry. Shouldn't accuse Carmine but she couldn't help it. She felt inadequate next to this mythical version of her that the older woman seemed to have. It was like being compared to an older sibling but so much worse because you were competing with yourself.

She took a deep breath and turned away. It was a bad idea to snap and she regretted it. Now she wanted to climb into her bed even more. Blake only got a dozen steps before a red blur of petals filled her vision, Carmine solidifying in front of her. The woman stumbled, her heels rolling sideways from the speed and she gripped Blake's shoulders to stabilize herself.

"Look." She took a deep breath, "I'm sorry. You know me Blake. I've never been very good at words. I may have had more practice but I'm just not cut out for it. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to compare you to her. I just didn't want there to be any confusion."

"What do you mean by that?" Blake crossed her arms.

"I didn't want to be confused. You already know how I felt and I didn't want to risk that falling on you."

I wouldn't mind if you did.

The thought surprised her, enough so that her anger was quickl;y forgotten as another realization sunk in.

"It's okay." Blake lied, "I'm just going to head back inside to talk to Sun some more. I need to cool off."

She was lucky that Carmine seemed to accept that as she headed back inside and down the steps.

-SY-

Yang was actually a good dancer. It really should not have surprised Weiss as much as it did but it was clear she had put some work into learning how. Since they were a team it was a mystery as to when she did find the time to practice, or with who. Regardless, she was impressed.

"Well, Xiao-Long, you certainly have learned how to properly dance."

Yang smiled with the confidence of the sun, "I told you I could do it, Weiss-cream."

It was a sign of how hopeless she was that she didn't even hate the nickname anymore. Instead she focused on the feeling of Yang's calloused hands holding hers as they danced, the music picking up pace with the next song and the edges of their dresses flying upwards as they spun around. It was an energetic song and Weiss marveled at how Yang shone.

Her father wouldn't approve. He wouldn't have approved of anything in her current situation. A Schnee did not follow. Weiss was not the leader of her team and she was not leading the dance. A Schnee did not fall for someone much less someone boisterous a crass.

But Yang was so much more than all of that. From the way that she cared about her sister and her friends to the infallible good cheer she showed to her team. Yang was their rock, the one who emotionally anchored them and Weiss loved her for that. She loved the way that confident smile made her feel, like she could just trust her everything to her.

And she was spiraling, both literally and figuratively as Yang held her hand up for her to pirouette. They closed once again to clash together, the blonde's arms wrapping around her as she held their bodies against one another. She felt her heart race as the song ended and she couldn't help but feel drawn to Yang's glossy lips.

It was with a heated flush that she reluctantly drew away, "Well you've certainly won our little bet, Yang." It was hard to look her in the eyes, "It's a little warm in her, how about a break? I could use some fresh air."

"Can't handle my dancing, eh?" Yang smirked, "I'll grab us some drinks and meet you on the balcony."

It's not your dancing I can't handle. She thought to herself but slipped away to the stairs and was surprised to see Blake coming down.

"Blake?" Something didn't look right and she got a halfhearted smile from the girl, "Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, just needed to clear my head a bit. How was your dance?"

Weiss didn't miss the change in subject but decided to let it go for now, "It was fun. We're taking a break ourselves."

"I'm glad you're having fun." And then Blake continued back into the venue leaving Weiss perturbed as she ascended to the balcony.

Carmine was already there, leaning on the banister and gazing up at the waxing moon. It was a strange sight and Weiss began to connect the dots in her mind. The older woman certainly didn't look to be having a good time either.

"Carmine." She strode up to her, leaning on the railing next to her, "What did you do."

She caught the slight flinch, "What are you talking about? I do lots of things, Weiss, you're gonna have to narrow it down."

"Don't play dumb with me, Ruby." She snapped, eyes like chips of ice, "You think I can't tell when you've upset my teammate? What did you say to Blake?"

"I already apologized!" Carmine whined, "Look I said some stupid things but I've apologized."

"And those things were?"

"Just the whole thing about comparing her to the Blake from my time."

Weiss cringed, that wasn't good, "Well at least you know now."

Carmine whimpered, head down on her forearms, "I'm sorry if I did that to you as well, Weiss."

It made her pause for a moment, Carmine hadn't really compared her to the other Weiss. At most she had simply alluded to events or people she might know but had never made her feel like she couldn't measure up to her future self. In fact, now that she thought about it,it reminded her of the night with the Paladin or the docks.

"I… think you've only done that with Blake." Weiss couldn't make sense of it, "Why Blake?"

"I think I know why." Yang walked up, two plastic flutes full of punch in her hand. She offered one to Weiss, who accepted and took a sip of the sweet liquid, "Sorry, I overheard."

"What do you mean you know?" Weiss asked.

"Yang-" Carmine tried to growl but was too late.

"Bis sis over here was in love with Blake in her time."

"Yang!"

It shocked Weiss as the pieces clicked together, "And Blake knows."

"Yup."

Carmine was reduced to a pathetic groan, "Does everyone know?!"

"Nah." Yang gave her sister a reassuring smile, "Just me, Weiss, and Blake. Could you imagine the existential crisis that would giveRuby?"

"I didn't want to interfere too least not with everyone's relationship." The one eyed huntress explained before staring at Weiss, "But it seems I fucked that up royally."

"What do you mean?" Yang asked while Weiss blushed.

"Just that me being here is throwing things up into the air." She smoothly covered, "Don't mind me, though."

"Looks, sis…" Yang seemed to flounder for words for a few moments, searching for the right thing to say, "... I think you're trying too hard to fix things. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you keeping us out of the fire and all but… what about you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You spend all this time worrying about yourself, I think you need to spare some for yourself as well. We all worry about you, you know?"

"Yang's right." Weiss added, "If you think you aren't a part of this time then you are sorely mistaken. You should also think about your own happiness."

"Ny happiness?" Carmine laughed bitterly, "I'll be happy when you all are."

"And you tink you can do that by taking a step back?" She asked, getting a nod. Weiss rolled her eyes, "Who do you think Blake got dressed up for, dolt?"

It was with a grim satisfaction that she watched her point sink into Carmine, her eye widening slowly, "I gotta go."

Both she and Yang watched as Carmine rushed down the steps, hopefully to follow Blake. She spared a glance to Yang who had a bemused expression on her face.

"Your sister is going to be the reason I have a heart attack."

Yang laughed, turning to her, "She's cute though. Think it'll work out?"

"I hope so. We have a mission in two days."

Her smile grew to a teasing one, "That's not the only reason. You want them to be happy too."

She'd never admit it, but yes. Not just Blake but Carmine as well. From what she knew, her past was tragic. A little bit of joy could go a long way for her.

"You're okay with her and Blake…?" Try as she might she couldn't get Carmine's words during their dance out of her head.

"Getting together?" Yang filled in, "I mean sure. If it works it works. Kind of up to them isn't it? But if it's what makes them happy, then yeah I'm cool with it."

"How do you feel about Blake?" Weiss asked, unable to keep the fluttering in her stomach at bay.

Yang leaned back against the banister, her elbows on the railing as she gazed up at the sky, "Hmmm, she's a good partner. Witty, got this wicked sense of humor. I love talking with her. Really needs to come out of her shell though."

"That's all?"

"All?" Her head tilted down to look at Weiss from the corner of her eyes, "I mean I could probably come up with more but I don't think that's what you're asking."

"Not quite." Weiss bit her lip, fingers fidgeting as she held the plastic punch flute. She glanced up at the moon, its various piece nearly whole in its current phase, it hung bright in the dark sky. As a young girl she used to love looking at the moon, feeling like it had matched her loneliness. Now, however, she was surrounded by people that she loved, as mush as they sometimes aggravated her.

Ruby, her sweet little leader that only had the best of intentions for them all. As much as she hated the idea a few months ago, she really did care about all of them and would make a good leader. She knew it in her soul.

Blake was more complicated. She cared about her, considered her a friend, but the revelation of her past had shook her to her core. She'd been afraid to go near her, to touch her. Had flinched when they'd brushed hands. It all seemed so pointless now.

Carmine was even counted among her friends, the strange woman from the future who acted crass but was capable enough that none could look down their nose at her. It was a testament to Ruby's potential but beyond that she was a good could feel it. As much as she may have appeared to have changed, she was still a Ruby Rose.

And then there was Yang. The bright girl who made her heart flutter with a smile. How did she feel about Yang? Like she'd told Carmine, she was in love, whatever that meant. She wanted to see where things ended up, wherever that lay.

"The truth is Yang," She felt her hands become clammy as he heart threatened to tap dance outside of her chest, "I like you as more than just a friend and would like to pursue a relationship."

When she looked back at Yang it was to see her staring at her with those beautiful lilac eyes, mouth hanging open. She would have laughed if she wasn't sure it would turn hysterical. Instead she bit her tongue and waited for her response.

Yang stood straight, in shock, "You… you do?" Weiss nodded and the blond gulped as she fell into thought, eyes still wide. As the silence stretched on she felt her heart sink, believing the answer would be negative.

"Okay." Was the answer that she received instead, and it made her heart soar.