Ruby's skin glistened in the late afternoon sunlight as she went through her paces with Crescent Rose, clad only in a sports bra and biker shorts due to the unseasonably warm weather. She didn't let a minor thing like the heat hold her back, she never did. This was how she excelled with her sweetheart, after all, unrelenting practice drills. Every day, without fail unless she were too injured to risk it. She ran through her drills religiously until she could feel it, right down to her bones.

Until she became one with her weapon.

Right foot back slightly in the grass while her toes dug in for purchase, left hand extended, her scythe also held slightly back, she quickly switched positions with her feet. Crescent Rose flew around her torso with blistering speed, whirling twice about her body until it was held upright in an overhand pose, ready to strike down. Then she shifted once more, sliding her bare foot back again as her grip reversed into a defensive stance, the pike end presented forward to block a blow.

She blew the sweaty strands of red-tipped hair out of her eyes absent-mindedly, wholly focused on the intricate moves as her body performed flawlessly in conjunction with the massive death-dealing weapon. Taut muscles bunched under the skin of her slender limbs, not an ounce of fat showing on her arms or thighs despite the prodigious amounts of sugar she partook of on a regular basis.

With a quick flip, she leapt over her scythe as it whirled around once more in a strike that would easily decapitate a person or smaller Grimm such as a Beowolf, before landing nimbly on her toes, crouched and ready for the follow-up strike. She swung Crescent Rose once more, using her torso as the fulcrum until it was reversed again, slashing it out with blinding speed, a veritable red tornado of death.

Finally she settled into a resting position, her scythe resting across her shoulders and behind her neck with the blade pointed down into the ground, as she sucked in great lungfuls of air. The sheen of sweat on her skin ran in rivulets down her lean torso.

It was then that she noticed she had company.

No surprise that it took the brunette this long, really, as she became so focused on her form during her drills, but she let an eager grin slip across her face as she noticed who it was.

And then, when she got a closer look at Blake and Pyrrha, sitting with their hands entwined on the grass far enough away they weren't in any danger of evisceration, her grin widened considerably.

Both girls were panting lightly, their eyes dilated and transfixed on Ruby's lean, muscular body. Pyrrha was licking her lips almost neurotically, while Blake seemed to be keeping her unoccupied hand clasped around a fistful of her vest, as if preventing it from roaming anywhere indecent in public.

The sight made the petite brunette very, very pleased.

She shifted her stance slightly to present herself in profile, the scythe still hanging off her powerfully-muscled shoulders negligently.

"See anything you like?" she murmured coyly.

"Oum, yes," Pyrrha gasped, quickly slapping a hand over her mouth to prevent further embarrassing outbursts.

Blake barked out a sharp laugh, shaking her head slowly while her Faunus ears twitched under her bow. "Ruby… I have so very many things I could say right now…"

"Oh, yeah?" she grinned salaciously, breaking Crescent Rose down into its compact form before sauntering over. The brunette made sure to put a little extra sway into her steps. "Like what?"

She got to just within arm's reach when Blake's hand shot out with prenatural speed, grabbing her by the front of her sports bra. Ruby let out a startled eep as the raven-haired girl brought her down to eye level.

"Like you're good enough to eat right now," the Cat Faunus murmured, her amber eyes shining bright in the setting sun.

Pyrrha sucked in a quick breath next to them. "My thinking precisely," the redhead groaned quietly.

"Now, now, kitty and fox can't play like that in public," Ruby snickered, though her own breaths were still rapid, and not just from the workout. "That'd be indecent."

"Fuck indecent," Blake growled softly before bringing Ruby down and into a rough, passionate kiss. Ruby collapsed onto her lap as she dropped the scythe to the side, wrapping her limbs around her girlfriend and uncaring as to how sweaty she got her. And then she felt Pyrrha, decorous and publicly timid Pyrrha, as she moved in, pressing up against her and licking the sweat off of her arm and shoulders.

The brunette squirmed and moaned, her pleased sounds muffled as they were swallowed by Blake. Gods, she loved the feeling of Blake's tongue against hers, of Pyrrha's quick, nimble fingers, both of her girlfriend's warm bodies encircling her, especially with her being so scantily clad…

"Is this a bad time?" a humorous, high-pitched voice called out.

The three of them broke apart gasping, quickly trying to reassemble their skewed clothing. For Ruby it required a quick adjustment to the sports bra that she'd been awfully close to slipping out of.

"O- Oh, hey there, Weiss!" the brunette stammered breathlessly. "Um… how long were you standing there?"

The heiress stood with her arms crossed and a smirk on her regal face. "Not too long. But I thought I'd step in before things got out of hand and you were brought up on charges of public indecency."

All three of them were blushing a bright red at being caught, not just making out heavily, but right out on the training fields no less.

"Right," Blake murmured, clearing her throat. "Sorry about that."

Weiss waved a small hand about airily. "Oh, no worries. You had some amateur filmmakers on site, but I froze their scrolls solid." She smiled slightly at her partner's appreciative snicker. "So, shall we?"

"Um, yeah, I need to grab a shower first, okay?" Ruby interjected, scrambling to her feet.

"I… should get one as well now," Blake admitted bashfully as she also regained her footing, helped up by both Pyrrha and Ruby.

The redhead was still blushing furiously. "Me too," she squeaked.

"Well," the brunette smirked. "It'd go faster if we all took one together."

"Ruby!" Pyrrha admonished, while Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose, laughing quietly.

Blake, though, shot Ruby a smoldering look. "Not that much faster," she murmured, just loud enough to be heard.

Now it was Ruby's turn to blush again. "Yes, well… I suppose not… Anyway! Let's get back so we can get started, okay? I'll run ahead and get mine first, then meet you in the library, Weiss!"

"Sounds good," the heiress waved her off amicably.

Ruby darted in to give Blake and Pyrrha quick kisses before she flew off in a burst of rose petals, Crescent Rose in hand.

o o o

"I do appreciate you inviting me for this," Weiss murmured from her side of the study table in the library. It was the week before finals, and the following evening the library would be locked down, the rules strictly enforced to allow for the massive amounts of cramming required for the final exams at Beacon. For now, though, the noise regulations were considerably relaxed.

As was Weiss, come to think of it, Ruby mused. Ever since she'd begun sharing a bed with her big sister (and she had a sneaking suspicion they were doing quite a bit more than just sleeping) the white-haired girl was so stress-free she almost seemed to be a different person.

Granted, she still studied and worked like a girl possessed when needed but she was far, far more relaxed in going about it.

Out loud, however, Ruby gave a chuckle. "You say that now, but are you truly prepared to face my wrath?"

"Oh, bring it, dolt," Weiss laughed lightly. "I'm dating your sister, nothing scares me anymore."

The other three at the table let out delighted laughs of their own. "Oh my Oum, Weiss!" Ruby giggled excitedly. "You're making jokes!"

"I think Yang has managed to tame the Ice Princess," Blake deadpanned, though her amber eyes twinkled with humor.

"Indeed," Pyrrha smiled. "It would seem your relationship is… fulfilling?"

Weiss blushed brightly, immediately confirming Ruby's suspicions as she coughed lightly into her fist. "Yes, well… isn't it your turn, Ruby?"

"Right…" Ruby peered at her cards intently. "Very well, then… Atlas, prepare for battle!"

"Come at me, Vale scum!" Weiss retorted.

"Oh I shall, I shall indeed… I launch a naval attack against your shores!" Ruby slapped down a series of cards. "With aerial support and an elite battalion of troops! Let the invasion begin!"

"Well, that certainly does sound intimidating," the heiress replied, gazing across the board game as Ruby pushed her forces across. "Fortunately, though, I only need to delay you. I play Winter Storm, you lose your actions for the rest of this turn."

"What?" Ruby barked out incredulously. "What do you mean, delay?"

"Well, my dear partner," Weiss grinned, her ice-blue eyes twinkling, "I do believe it is my secret ally's turn next."

"Ally?" Ruby's wide silver orbs turned to regard her traitorous redheaded girlfriend. "Pyrrha, you didn't…"

"Sorry, little rose," Pyrrha murmured unabashedly. "This is war, after all. For the glory of Mistral, I attack your naval fleet with my flock of baby Nevermores to engage your air forces, and my own fleet. Regrettably, your elite battalion is still being transported and cannot participate."

"But they can sink with the ships!" Ruby wailed in horror as the full ramifications of this disaster crashed down upon her. "Blake, help!"

"Sorry, sweetie," Blake murmured, gazing intently at her cards. "Vacuo is still reeling from your last attack. Besides that, I do believe the majority of my population wishes for nothing than for Vale to burn to the ground."

"Noooo my precious fleet!" Ruby moaned as Pyrrha's forces picked her's apart with ease. "It was well-fought, my valiant heroes… you will be avenged…"

Once Pyrrha's backstabbing was complete and Vale was left woefully undefended, it was Vacuo's turn to take the field. Instead of performing any offensive moves, Blake simply discarded some of her hand and drew new cards.

"Blake, you can't just sit there behind your borders," Weiss chided gently.

"Watch me," the Cat Faunus murmured, her amber eyes dancing between her cards and the board.

Atlas was up once more, and Weiss took a certain amount of delight in sending her forces crashing against the now-weakened Vale military. Ruby struggled valiantly, but eventually towards the end of the turn she was left with only a couple of militia units and a single hunter team.

"You can't kill the hunter team!" the brunette pleaded, cupping her hand over the figure protectively. "It's us, Team Ruby! You wouldn't kill us, would you?"

The glint in the heiress' eyes would have made lesser beings scurry for cover as she plopped one last card down. "Deathstalker," she announced triumphantly.

Ruby recoiled from the offending card, holding her hands to her cheeks in dismay. "You monster!" she declared.

Somehow, though, the tattered remains of Vale managed to defeat the last opponent, at the expense of both militia units. Ruby was left with one, final, solitary unit. "My precious," she hissed, glaring at her partner as she once again cupped her hand over the playing piece. "We will stand defiant!"

"Stand all you want," Weiss declared smugly, turning to her ally. "She's all yours, Pyrrha."

The redhead gazed at the board idly before looking back up at Weiss, her emerald eyes dancing with malicious glee.

"Oh, no," Weiss breathed.

"Oh, yes," Pyrrha smirked.

"You wouldn't."

"Wouldn't I?"

"But… we were allies!"

"'Were' being the operative word here."

"Pyrrha…"

The leggy woman placed her cards upon the table with a heavy gesture. The topmost one made the other three gasp.

"Grimm Invasion," Pyrrha declared, spelling out the form that the Atlesian military's doom would take.

"Noooo…." Weiss wailed inconsolably as Pyrrha proceeded to sweep away all of the remaining Atlas forces remaining at home, only to replace them with several Mistral-colored Grimm units.

"Serves you right," Ruby chuckled darkly, giving her redheaded girlfriend a high-five.

"At least I still have my invasion force," the heiress mumbled, her head lying on its side atop her crossed arms on the table. "They can reclaim my lands…"

"About those…" Pyrrha smirked as she slid the Grimm Invasion card aside, revealing the underlying pair. "Supply Chain Raid and Insurgents. Your forces only have one turn to do so before they expire."

Weiss shot upright, her face stricken. "You shall pay dearly for these crimes against Atlas," she whispered brokenly.

Pyrrha raised an eyebrow in a manner much like Blake. "You… and what army?"

"Ohhh, nice burn, Pyrrha!" Ruby chuckled, greatly enjoying the ire of her partner. "My turn, right?"

The others nodded as Ruby shifted through her cards. "Hmm… okay, then… well…" She sighed inconsolably. "Yeah, I only got one thing I can do… sorry Blakey…"

She shifted her hunter piece, which was closer to the Vacuo border than anything, towards Blake's side of the board. It was joined by a pair of Beowolves in the Vale colors as Ruby placed down a solitary reinforcement card.

"Sooo if I win this one battle, I get to claim the border territory," Ruby said, chewing on her lip pensively. "It's all my forces, but… if the Atlesian military dies off… then I can head back and reclaim Vale! Okay, so, who ya gonna send against me, Blake?"

The Cat Faunus pursed her lips thoughtfully before sliding a single card, face-down, over to her petite girlfriend. With a certain amount of trepidation, Ruby slowly flipped it over to reveal…

"Massive Propaganda?" Ruby gasped, shocked. "But- But- But that means…."

"Every enemy unit in my territory becomes mine," Blake smiled smugly. "Don't worry though, little rose, at least Team Ruby will survive."

"Yeah, as Team Traitors," Ruby grumbled, tossing her remaining cards over to the raven-haired girl. "Whelp, you got the last of my pieces, you get my hand."

On her own turn, Blake simply repositioned some of her forces, quite inexplicably in the eyes of the other players. She kept her now-increased hand intact and passed the turn over to Weiss.

The Atlesian military, unfortunately, had a rough time of it, and was unable to reclaim Atlas itself. At the end of the turn Weiss was forced to remove almost all of her remaining pieces off of the board. A pair of hunter teams were left in the northern reaches of the country, and given enough time (and no enemy reinforcements) they stood a decent chance at defeating the leftover Grimm, as they had a bonus against such units.

Weiss drew new cards, grumbling the whole while. "Well, that would have been helpful this turn. Oh, and look, that would have saved me two turns ago. The card gods are against me, I swear…"

Once it was her turn, Pyrrha ignored the struggling Atlas remnants and instead began moving her now-massive military forces to the west, the ranks of mechs and hunters and the like approaching the land of Vacuo with an air of implacability.

Skipping over the morose and army-less brunette, Blake regarded her hand thoughtfully, eyeing the encroaching forces. "Weiss," she began conversationally. "How would you like to help the cause?"

"What do you mean?" the heiress asked skeptically, before her eyes widened at the card Blake placed on the board. "Recruitment?"

"Up to three units from any one military," the Cat Faunus agreed levelly. She swapped the two Atlesian hunter teams for ones in her colors. "Your cards, please?"

Pyrrha looked on in horror as Blake's hand now swelled with cards, and the merry twinkle on those amber orbs did nothing to reassure her. "Blake, sweetie?" she began meekly. "Just remember how much I love you, okay?"

"And I love you too, my fluffy little fox," Blake smirked. "But… I'm afraid Mistral is going down."

"Wait… you cannot possibly have…"

"A certain combination of cards?" Blake's smirk widened knowingly. "Why yes, yes I do."

She emptied most of her hand down on the board. In rapid succession, the entirety of Pyrrha's Grimm forces switched sides, her aerial forces were all destroyed, naval units sabotaged so as to be at half strength and unable to resist the boosted and furious onslaught of Vacuo's navy, which while small consisted of higher technology, and any Mistralian unit in a desert region was swallowed up, never to be seen again.

Weiss and Ruby gazed at what was left on the board with a not-inconsiderable amount of reverence. "Wow, kitty cat," the brunette breathed. "That was… majestic…"

"Like a finely orchestrated ballet," Weiss added, awed and humbled. "You, Miss Belladonna, are a master strategist."

"Why, thank you both," the Cat Faunus smiled, glancing up at her redheaded girlfriend.

Pyrrha was still in shock at how quickly her entire military had been so effortlessly dismantled. "I don't know what to say…" she whispered.

"Hey, guys!" Yang said cheerfully as she strode up, freshly showered from her own workout. "How's it… oh, wow. Who's Vacuo?"

Three sets of fingers pointed at Blake, who was sitting back with her arms crossed and the kind of smug look on her face reserved for a cat having finished up the last of the cream.

"Damn, kitten, nice job on routing the others!"

"Thank you, Yang," she grinned.

The blonde looked over at her in shock. "What, no protest about using 'kitten'?"

Blake shrugged. "The conqueror is in a generous mood."

"She's just excited to win our wager," Ruby snickered.

"What's that now?" Yang asked with a grin of her own, seeing the blush creep across Blake's cheeks.

"Winner gets to be in the middle," Ruby replied in a stage whisper.

"Wait, what if I were to win?" Weiss retorted.

"Eh, then we'd just rotate like usual," the brunette waved off her concern. "So, do you concede the fight, Mistral?"

Pyrrha glumly looked between the few beleaguered forces left inside her starting area and her hand, before placing her cards face-down on the table. "The valiant forces of Mistral admit to defeat," she sighed morosely.

"Whelp, that's our cue to leave, then," Yang snickered, pulling gently on Weiss' arm. "C'mon, babe, let's go get some dinner in town and give them their privacy."

"And we get the room later tonight, correct?" Weiss demanded as she let Yang pull her to her feet. "After dinner?"

"Yep, yours from eight to ten," Ruby nodded. "That's what the schedule said, right?"

"It did, thank you, Ruby," her partner smiled. "And thank you all for a fun afternoon."

"Have a good time!" Pyrrha waved to them as they left.

"So…" Blake murmured, her amber eyes shining with anticipation. "Can we pack up and get back to the room, already?"

No sooner had she finished speaking then there was a flurry of rose petals drifting down onto the now-empty table. The game was boxed up and in Ruby's hands while she stood by the door, grinning widely.

"Well, come on, then!" the brunette giggled, racing out the door.

With quick shared grins of their own, Pyrrha and Blake leapt to their feet and ran after their girlfriend.

A/N: Woof, another slightly longer one, but I didn't want to just stick Ruby's drills out on their own. I thought it worked better as a lead-in to the World of Remnant game. Always wanted to put that in a story, too. Really would be nice to have a physical game to play irl… Anyways, I'm just really pleased with how this chapter came out all around. I had sooo much fun writing it.

So, we hit 300 followers on this little crack ship last night! In celebration, I posted up another chapter of A Thorny Bind, the fluffy smut companion to this story! Enjoy!

TheShadeOps: Thanks! And I expect that's why I never bookmarked it!

THB4: Never fear, Pyrrha won't be kept lonely since she'd stick to them closely. But yeah I can imagine her getting sick next, or perhaps she simply has a better constitution to fend it off. Take it as you will.

Demonic Angel C: I've written a couple chapters already for Patch, it's gonna be fun. And while I think I might just do Jaune x Fox (need to think of a ship name) I cannot put Cardin in. He's too much of a douche for me to write him any other way. And at this point I'm sure he's giving RWBY/JNPR a wide berth.

Boarador: It still floors me that it's become so popular. But I'll keep writing it as long as the creative juices keep flowing!

ILikeHotDogs: Gotta agree with you there, cuddles are the best thing ever.

kaiju62: Thanks! Yeah I don't think Pyrrha's had much experience with being the nurturing type. I'm not planning on her having any siblings, and she's been pretty independent up till now.

Commando2341: I do really like Playboy Bunny, but we already got Crosshare!

Jack Inqu: Oh, shit - Jaune x Neo?! Dammit, that actually sounds… damn. I am so very tempted. But she's a bad guy. No, no plot, resist the pull.. Dammit dammit dammit…. But it's like the ultimate crack ship! Arrggghhhhh! Sigh. I likely couldn't do her justice anyway. And this has got to be the most convoluted review answer I've ever done. Congrats. You broke what little sanity I had left.

TheDemonAngel935: Sorry, no - two-PARTER, not partner, epilogue. But I am very pleased to have passed muster from the plot police.

growlscout: Heh, true I imagine Weiss would have been a bit vocal about both sick Ruby and sick Blake sleeping over her head. Likely she's just as happy staying on the healthy side of the room. I could see that alternate ending, though, with Yang taking care of the three of them and Weiss lecturing them on the perils of affection when you're sick.

DandyHandy: Heh, yeah sometimes I feel that overdramatic too when I'm sick, like 'god can my life just end in misery now, nobody loves me anymore…' Glad to see you regained your identity! ;-)

Skiptrace: Truthfully, when I started this out, the very same thought crossed my mine. "What am I thinking?" It's been a blast to write, though, and I'm happy to have you aboard the crack ship!

Guest21: Welcome back! Glad you caught up and are still enjoying the ride!

Stay shiny!