"That, Ruby declared adamantly, "is NOT how you eat string cheese."

Pyrrha paused after having bit off the end of her cheese stick. "Er… pardon?"

"Fluffy fox, I'm shocked," the brunette said with mock sternness. "Shocked, I say, at your disregard for culture. Tell her, Weiss!"

Her platinum-haired partner sighed as she handed out plates from the picnic basket. "I am not getting involved in this," she replied steadily.

"What?" Yang protested, grabbing hold of her girlfriend's wrists. "Babe, how can you not feel strongly about this? There's a right way, and there's a wrong way!"

"It. Is. Cheese," Weiss gritted out levelly. "In the shape of a stick."

"String cheese!" Ruby corrected as her redhead and raven-haired girlfriends shared a bemused look. "And this is important! C'mon, Nora, back me up here!"

"Yeah, sorry, I gotta agree with Yang and Ruby," the orange-haired girl giggled from where she lay, knees up in the air and head resting in her boyfriend's lap. "You are all uncultured swine."

"I fail to see the severity of this situation," Ren murmured over Weiss' indignant squawk.

"Renny," Nora stated solemnly, staring up with her turquoise eyes shining. "I love you, so I'll let this go. You get one pass on the subject of string cheese, I advise you not to push your luck."

The raven-haired boy smiled softly. "Yes, Nora," he replied, bending down and giving her a sweet kiss.

"Alright, little rose," Pyrrha said loudly over the beginnings of an all-out argument amongst teams RWBY and JNPR. "Pray tell, how do you properly eat string cheese?"

The brunette sprang to her feet. "Allow me to demonstrate," she smirked. Cheese stick held aloft, she slowly peeled off a corner until a smaller string of the original was left, which she promptly popped into her mouth. "Voila!"

"And… this is the cultured way to do it?" Blake asked, her bow twitching in amusement.

"Of course!"

The raven-haired girl laughed lightly, draping an arm across Pyrrha's shoulder. "Well, I suppose it wouldn't do for us to appear as savages, would it?"

"Goodness, no," the redhead giggled, adopting the 'proper' way of eating her pre-lunch snack.

"Now that we have that settled…" Ruby began, only to be cut off by a still-irate Weiss.

"I fail to see how a different way to eat a stick of cheese- Mmf!"

Once Yang had her girlfriend properly distracted, by virtue of a rather smoldering kiss, Ruby cleared her throat.

"As I was saying, now that we have that settled, we can dig into our goodies!"

The eight of them were gathered on a set of four blankets, laid together into a large square, on the outskirts of Forever Fall forest. The temperature was cooling quickly, and the group of friends decided to take advantage of the pleasant weather while they still could with a picnic lunch.

"Jaune, did you make cookies?" Ruby squealed excitedly as she began to remove items from the basket nearest her.

"Yes I did, Ruby," her friend replied with a grin. "And, because I know you, there's a large bag with your name on it."

The brunette shot him a huge, ear-splitting grin. "Best. Friend. Ever."

"Yeah, you've come a long way, vomit-boy," Yang snickered as she passed out sandwiches.

"Really, Yang?" the blond boy deadpanned.

"Hey, first impressions stick with ya."

"Joy."

Yang gave him a cheeky wink as she tossed him a cellophane-wrapped ham sandwich. Pulling out a tuna one next, she sent it over towards her raven-haired partner.

"Heads up, kitten!"

Blake caught it adroitly without even looking up. "Thank you, Yang. And don't call me kitten."

"You bet, kitten!" Yang grinned at their familiar byplay.

The Cat Faunus just smiled slightly and shook her head. Some things never change. I suppose Yang was really the first to truly embrace my heritage, even if she does it in her normal teasing fashion. Her heart is as big as her sister's.

"So, speaking of being a best friend," Ruby mentioned casually after swallowing her bite of turkey and swiss. "Jaune, how's it going with Emerald?"

"Uhhh… heheh, yeah it's going," Jaune replied, rubbing the back of his neck ruefully.

"Uh-huh," Nora chimed in skeptically. "Are we talking about when she poured her slushy drink down the front of your pants?"

"Or when she gave you her number, but it turned out to be that rejection hotline?" Ren added quietly.

"Or maybe the ice cream cone she upended on your head?" Pyrrha stated with a sympathetic look.

"Ouch," Yang murmured. "Tough one, huh? Please tell me you didn't try singing to her…"

"Nope, no singing," Jaune declared. "And hey, it's progress. The last time she just rolled her eyes and walked away. I think I'm wearing her down."

"Pretty optimistic there, Jaune," Ruby remarked with a small amount of skepticism.

"I think he might actually be on the right track," Blake murmured. "I was there for the last time, she was muttering something about persistence as she walked off. And I could have sworn I saw a very subtle smile."

"Really?" Jaune asked excitedly, bouncing up and down from his seated position. "Oh my Oum, really? Oh I could kiss you, can I kiss you?"

"No." The quiet declaration came from three voices at once, and Ruby, Blake, and Pyrrha shared a quick grin with each other afterwards.

"Fine, I was kidding... " Jaune chuckled. "Seriously, though, I need to think of something new to try to ask her out to, maybe just drinks? Or lunch, something less involved than a dinner or a move?"

"Well, you could have asked her to the carnival still in town," Weiss stated with a roll of her eyes.

"Hey, none of that was any of our faults!" Nora declared, brandishing her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, drops of strawberry jelly splattering about.

The platinum-haired girl sighed, putting her plate down and brushing her skirt off demurely before ticking points off of her fingers. "Nora, you demolished a game with your hammer."

"They were cheating!" the orange-haired girl argued.

"Ruby, Blake, and Pyrrha all were removed from the Tunnel of Love…"

The brunette chuckled abashedly, sharing a blush with her girlfriends. "Yeah, we might'a taken the Love portion a bit too far…"

"It was a dark tunnel," Pyrrha protested weakly.

"And a slow ride," Blake added, looking down at her lap bashfully.

Weiss rolled her eyes, murmuring something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like "degenerates" but not loud enough for Blake to call her out on it. Don't think I don't know what you and Yang were doing up on the ferris wheel…

"And hey, that guy totally deserved to get his fingers broken," Yang interjected cheerfully.

"And why was that, again?" Pyrrha asked with a smirk.

"He was groping Weiss!"

"Mmhmm."

"W- Well, what about you?" the white-haired girl stammered.

"What about me?" the redhead replied smugly.

"Pyrrha, you disassembled that other man's scroll and force-fed it to him."

"But only the smaller pieces," Ren deadpanned.

"Yeah, and he was taking pictures up our skirts!" Ruby defended heatedly. "Totally justified!"

"Huh, I wonder why we all got kicked out of the carnival?" Jaune asked sarcastically.

"I know, right? So unfair!"

o o o

"Well, that was nice," Pyrrha sighed as they entered their shared dorm room. She stretched languidly with her arms over her head. "I'm a bit tired now, though. Perhaps we could take a nap?"

"Oh, I like that idea," Ruby giggled, kicking her shoes off and bouncing onto their bed. "Always up for cuddly naps!"

"Mmm," Blake agreed softly, slipping her boots off and crawling over to her girlfriends. Pyrrha lay on her back, arm wrapped around their brunette lover as she snuggled up into her side. The Cat Faunus lowered herself down, tucking her head into the redhead's shoulder after giving her a kiss on the cheek. She reached across and clasped hands with Ruby against Pyrrha's stomach.

Pyrrha ran her hands through her girlfriends' hair, eliciting a happy little hum from Ruby and a contented purr from Blake.

"I love you both," the leggy redhead sighed softly.

"Love you guys," Ruby agreed sleepily.

"Very much," Blake murmured, closing her eyes. She reflected idly on how, when they had first admitted their love for one another, it had been so important to say it directly to each of them by name. They were considerably more relaxed now, seeing how each of them knew how the others felt about them, particularly through their Mark. There was no longer the need to repeat their affection individually, but of course that didn't make their affection any less.

If anything, in the past few months their love for one another had soared to heights that none of them had thought even remotely possible.

The Faunus girl sighed softly as she enjoyed the closeness and warmth of her girlfriends, allowing their feelings to wash over her through their bond.

Gods how I truly do love these two girls.

A/N: Fun picnictimes ends in fluffy snuggles. D'aww… And yes, it is very important how you eat string cheese. And Twix.

So, yep, we broke 150k hits on this not-so-little-anymore fluffy crack ship. Hence, the new chapter for A Thorny Bind, hope the fluffy smut was enjoyable. In addition, over the past three and a half months, 70 chapters in, and this is still getting an average of a thousand hits a day. 473 followers and 874 reviews. You are all magnificent people.

Speaking of reviews, much love for my latest batch: Nicodemus Cain, l OmegaInfinity l, DeamonHunter, Jack Inqu, Boombox94, kaiju62, Guest, Marauderby, THB4, DandyHandy, eltiochips, and Gorsouul. Love all of you fabulous folk!

Stay shiny!