Chapter 13 – Setup: Mechanical Machinations

Soundtrack: Highway Star – Deep Purple

7th of September, 1890.

While planning and supply-hunting went unhindered above them, Blake and Ruby made their way into the well-appointed garage/workshop in the basement. Almost immediately, Ruby was struck dumb as she took in just how loaded the space was.

The hydraulic lift was five square meters of one-foot thick diamond-plate steel, welded onto a pair of crossbeams of the same material. These in turn were attached to a quartet of automatic winches controlled by a lever perched on the far wall. The aperture these led to was open, but that wasn't obvious when the gate was closed and the lift was in the "up" position – which it was at present.

The wall opposite the entrance was lined with every single tool one could want in a workshop – regardless of the specialisation – hanging from designated nails and hooks with labels painted on the wall. From the simple hammers, wrenches and nails to the complex Dust injectors and soldering equipment, every base was truly covered.

In front of said wall were a pair of L-shaped workbenches, not dissimilar to a pair of kitchen counters. Each harboured a sink in the corner, along with safety goggles, aprons and welding gloves. A door that lay ajar behind the tool wall revealed a smaller room with a few sanding belts and a large forge that ran on a combination of azure and crimson Dust.

At the center of the room, between the winches and the workbenches, there was a seven-feet deep pit with a couple of treadles spanning the gap. As Blake and Ruby quickly surmised, this was designed for maintaining and/or upgrading personal vehicles of any kind. Clearly, Grünwald was set to use it to help install the sidecars onto Blake and Yang's motorcycles.

In short, the garage was a modern blacksmith's paradise. As was the case for all circumstances involving mechanical things, Ruby's decorum was swiftly abandoned as the power of speech returned to her.

"OHMYGODTHISISSOAMAZING!"

Blake winced as her ears, nominally safe under her normal bow, were pierced by Ruby's excited squeals.

"I'm glad you approve," Blake said with a hint of shakiness to her voice. Ruby, fortunately for Blake's sensitive hearing, got the hint and calmed down a notch.

"OK, this is great! I'm confident we can do everything in-house, rather than outsource the work."

Blake nodded. "That's good to hear. Now, I take it you know the needs of everyone asides from me and Weiss?"

"Sure thing. Got a pen and paper at the ready?", Ruby asked.

Blake blinked, then fetched her notebook and fountain pen.

"Ready."

"Okay," Ruby replied. "Write the following things down for reference."

"So if I may draw back on this," Blake said five minutes and two reminders for Ruby to calm down later, "Yang uses 12-gauge shotgun rounds, you use .50 caliber elephant gun rounds, Pyrrha uses raw crimson Dust crystals, while Nora and Ren use compressed Dust canisters filled with fuchsia and verdant Dust respectively."

"And Nora also uses her custom-designed fuchsia Dust grenades," Ruby added. "According to Nora, the explosion has a bigger blast radius, but loses a quarter of it's stopping power due to the mixture of ivory and crimson Dust in salt water."

"Interesting," Blake replied, writing that addendum down for future reference. "Thanks for that, Ruby. All we need to do is wait until Yang and Nora come back from this Neptune fellow and we can start working on the munitions – before then, we can maintain the weapons."

"Sounds good to me," Ruby averred, then giggled slightly.

"What's so funny?", Blake enquired in confusion.

"I just remembered that Yang's sweet on Neptune, even though she'd never admit it. Things could get pretty hilarious."

Blake smirked. "With Bloody Nora around, anything can be interesting."

Ruby laughed loudly as Blake took her leave, ascending the staircases.

Despite the vigilant efforts of Ren and Pyrrha, and both Yang and Ruby that same evening, nothing unusual was spotted along the two roads the safe house allowed them to monitor. To make matters worse, Dr. Verhart revealed that he'd got a birthday dinner within his family to attend, and left post-haste after dropping off Blake's motorcycle at five, promising to come tomorrow just before noon.

However, the preparations were still underway. The Ruritanian automatist had also delivered the sidecars – both the colour of steel – and consequently gave Ruby a dossier of information about their workings and use. Given that she was the engineering expert on the team, it made some sense for Ruby to learn about them. To save time, Ruby had volunteered to unite the two pairs of vehicles that evening, so Dr. Verhart could simply have the motorcycles fueled in the background while he worked on the remaining munitions tomorrow afternoon.

Additionally, Blake and Ruby had sharpened and polished every single blade possessed by the group, and Nora and Ren now had fifteen canisters each of their chosen compressed Dust type, and Nora had 20 fuchsia grenades at the ready for liberal use on the ground. Pyrrha, by contrast, was given 30 crimson Dust crystals, which she stored in the pockets of her safari outfit's great coat. As for Weiss, she was given five vials each of her favoured types of powdered Dust – crimson, verdant, cobalt, azure, violet, and ivory – and had them placed within her combat outfit's coat as well.

But before the red huntress could start attaching the sidecars to the motorcycles, there was a far more pressing matter for the owners of said motorcycles to attend to. Namely, painting the sidecars to match their vehicles.

"I must say," Yang started as she donned her apron and safety mask, "I never took you for a motorcyclist."

Blake looked bemused as she fastened her glasses. "How come?", she enquired dryly.

Yang shrugged. "I couldn't shake off the thought that someone in your position wouldn't be concerned with driving one's own vehicles."

Blake sniggered in response as she loaded canisters of purple, black, yellow and brown paint into the sprayers Dr. Verhart had brought down at her request. "While that may be true of my employers, my Ninja's quick and efficient with travelling – and that's paramount when it comes to gathering information. I can't exactly have one of the Schnee grooms take me to back alleys and rough-and-tumble pubs whenever I need to scope them out."

She then turned to smirk at Yang as she primed the paint sprayers on a handy sheet of plywood. "And heaven forbid the idea of Weiss driving me anywhere, of course."

Yang chuckled. "Is she really that bad at driving?"

Blake's smirk grew more pronounced. "I have to drive her cars whenever we're alone; otherwise, it's a bumpy ride when she's at the wheel and no one's around to judge her abilities."

Yang smirked back, to Blake's confusion.

"Well, I'd have thought you'd enjoy bumpy rides with Weiss."

It took Blake a second to get the joke, but her resultant expression of fright was enough to stop Yang's laughter dead, and her expression went blank in realisation.

"... you actually are involved with one another, aren't you?"

"Please don't tell anyone about us!", Blake whispered in a panic.

"Easy, Blake," Yang said soothingly while holding her hands out in a peaceful gesture. "I'll be sure to keep things between you and Weiss a secret."

Blake looked at Yang in wondrous amazement. "You don't object to us being sapphic with one another?"

Yang sighed, and looked earnestly at her colleague. "Given that I'm an acknowledged bastard of a wealthy member of the gentry, I have no right to judge any form of love – especially when it's deemed shameful by society."

Blake smiled as relief flooded her soul, and Yang relaxed as the Faunus stopped panicking and the pair put on surgical masks.

Twenty minutes later, the pair of motorcyclists had finished their work, with a handy pair of old bedsheets soaking up the excess paint that dripped off of the sidecars. After all, Weiss had promised to the both of them that the sidecars were part of their earnings for the mission – machine guns notwithstanding, of course. That didn't stop Blake and Yang from painting those as well, of course.

As the paint began to dry, Blake and Yang placed the spray paint guns down and shed their safety gear before leaving the back window ajar and walking out. Due to the paint fumes in the room, Ruby and the others wouldn't have been able to tinker with the Dust safely, so those munitions were consequently finished before Yang and Blake started painting.

After a pleasant roast dinner cooked by Ren, Yang and Ruby took the watch, promising to hold on until Weiss and Blake's turn that night. Jaune and Pyrrha took one of the bedrooms in the basement, and Nora took a second one while Ren cleaned up the kitchen and dining table and Weiss decided to read The Times.

Blake, meanwhile, had a weekly ritual to see to. One that held her true nature at bay. Noting that Ruby and Yang had claimed a third bedroom and Ren would have the fourth, Blake walked into the largest of the bedrooms, locking the door behind her. She removed her bow, allowing her ears to move freely while she took off her shoes and sat cross-legged on the rug by an electric heater. Blake cleared her mind as she was taught to do by Adam when she last visited Ellesmere Island, and allowed her mind to repair itself.

It was late when Blake finished meditating, well past ten in the evening. A perfunctory look around the basement floor told Blake that everyone save for Weiss had retired for the night. Time to go start my watch, she silently resolved while ascending the stairs. Upon arriving at the top floor, Blake remained silent as she saw her paramour gazing east. The expression on Blake's face turned mournful and melancholic as she noted Weiss's state of mind.

The magnate's back was ramrod straight, her eyes were fiercely determined but strained through a lack of sleep, and her mouth was set in a predatory glower. To Blake, this combination of body language meant one thing; Weiss was stressed. It couldn't be anger, because Weiss never needed anger to convey contempt for someone – the reputation of her surname and her inherent skill at veiled insults were enough to cover it. It couldn't be sadness, because Weiss would become unresponsive and unusually passive whenever that emotion coursed through her mind.

Blake softly pulled up a chair and placed her right arm around her beloved. She relaxed as Weiss leant into the Faunus's body, head resting atop Blake's bosom as sleep finally overrode her determination. Within seconds, Weiss yawned and closed her eyes, her breathing slowing down from the brisk pace it held moments before.

Blake silently vowed to keep watch as Weiss caught up on sleep for the pending fight the next day, her pantherine gaze never leaving the window for hours to come as shadows waxed and waned against the moonlight and street lamps. And yet, part of Blake wished to never stop cuddling Weiss, forever embraced in silent and unyielding love.

Hours later, the clock chimed two-thirty. Knowing that Jaune and Nora would be struggling to stir for a few minutes, Blake took an opportunity that she'd never dared indulge before. She gently placed one arm beneath Weiss's knees, and the other in the small of her back. Lifting her paramour off the chair, Blake slowly minced down the staircase, taking painstaking care to avoid whacking Weiss's head on the bannisters as they descended to the basement.

Avoiding scrutiny by mere seconds, Blake kicked the bedroom door shut behind her and placed Weiss gently on the bed. After locking the door, Blake quickly disrobed and threw on her nightgown before clambering into bed with Weiss.

Once inside, Blake threw the sheets over her and her beloved, and proceeded to lay her arm over Weiss protectively. As sleep finally caught up with Blake, she began to dream of a verdant field, with Weiss standing unclothed within it. Her hair was loose, reaching the small of her back and covering her chest at the front. As Blake looked down within her dream, she realised that she was also unclothed. But no erotic thoughts followed. Instead, she and Weiss simply held hands and walked through the fields, enjoying a simple and peaceful life that neither could wish to have. Still, Blake enjoyed her impossible dreams, for they re-affirmed her love for Weiss.

A/N: More Monochrome cuddle scenes to give you guys the fuzzies.

Next Friday, it's the calm before the storm.