Weiss was kissing her, and so was Winter, at the same time. This was not normal. What was even going on? She couldn't focus three feet in front of her… and her legs were swaying… maybe now was a good time for a nap.

When the delicate and ice cold fingers ran down the small of her back, Ruby jerked awake with a furious blush on her face and eyes wide with shock and surprise. She didn't even see who had startled her awake before she fell off of her bunk bed and onto the floor. With a loud thud she hit the floor and groaned - this wasn't the first time she'd fallen out of her bed by accident. But was it an accident? Someone had scared her, and she fell out of bed. Rolling over with another groan, she looked up with blurry vision and spotted a head of white hair.

A giggling head of white hair. Giggling at Ruby's own misfortune.

"Augh… Weiss, what happened?" she groaned, rubbing her forehead and sitting up. Ruby would be lying if she said she wasn't slightly dizzy at all. It wasn't a particularly pleasant starting your day by nearly knocking yourself out.

"Hahaha! Ahah… Haa... Oh, Ruby you lovable little dolt," Weiss managed to compose herself, "You never told me you were so sensitive to touches. I'm sorry - heh - I really am… I swear…"

With an uncharacteristically sheepish grin, Weiss rubbed the back of her head and helped Ruby up with one hand, placing a quick kiss on her forehead. "Oh yeah - you were blushing. Ruby, why in the name of Remnant were you blushing?" Weiss was now interrogating the young girl, and this was territory that the heiress was definitely not allowed in. She had to protect her secret at all costs.

"I... Uh, no reason? Like at all. Nah, I was just surprised that you were in my… Bed? Besides, why were you in my bed, Weiss?" Now Ruby was genuinely intrigued and worried. Weiss seemed to quickly brush it off saying "What, you won't allow me, your girlfriend, in your own bed? I'm hurt. I feel so, so-"

Weiss smirked as this fake hurt did the trick.

"No! No, Weiss, I didn't mean anything like that! O-of course you're allowed to uh, be in my bed and stuff! I never said you couldn't… Did I? You're allowed in m-my bed whenever, if you want to, I mean, like I won't force you to go in there or anything…"

Listening as Ruby trailed off, Weiss couldn't help but grin at the whirlwind state of the younger girl's mind as she desperately tried to right all the wrongs she never did. Gosh. That kindness would get her killed one day. She was now somewhat wide-eyed and looked sad, as if this one off-hand comment had completely ruined all semblances of relationship between the two partners. Getting up and off the bed, the full clothed Weiss stroked the side of the still-in-bedwear Ruby's face gently. "Shh, shh, it's okay, I was only joking, Ruby."

This seemed to calm her down considerably.

"Ah... Uh... Okay then… Sorr-"

"Ab-up-bup-bup! I don't want to hear it, you did nothing wrong. Come on then, get your messy self dressed, because we need to get out of this stinking dorm room before the food court stops serving breakfast."

A simultaneous rumble of their stomachs reminded both girls that neither had eaten yet. This encouraged Ruby to go and get changed, finally. Wanting to eat rather quickly, the young girl omitted changing in the bathroom as simply turning away from Weiss was easier and quicker. Of course, Ruby still had a dignity to maintain, and maintain it she intended to. Taking her pajama top off - making sure that Weiss wasn't looking - Ruby put it on the floor. She still had a bra on, as she'd probably flopped into bed without taking it off yesterday and just fell asleep with it on. What she didn't expect to see was a finger poking at her abdomen.

"Wow. You never told me you had a bit of muscle going on here! It's like, a whole six pack, or whatever you call them!"

The sudden attention by the supposedly dignified Weiss had send Ruby into full on flustered mode as she whipped her body away from the girl and said, "They're hardly proper abs, they're just sort of there…"

Ruby wasn't wrong - she had never undergone any particular training regimes to get the slightly defined stomach she had, and it had in fact just appeared over time whilst using the heavy Crescent Rose, which wasn't even that heavy. Well, not to her. It wasn't all that impressive really, yet Weiss managed to make a fuss about it. Ruby then remembered another white-haired girl asking her about her abs recently. What is it with these girls that they love abs so much? Quickly jumping into her black top, and putting on her combat skirt successfully managing to get Weiss to not interfere, it was then that the longest and most annoying part came - the all-important black and red corset.

"Weiss… Would you mind helping me with my corset? It, uh, takes forever to put on, and since you're my… Y'know, girlfriend and stuff... You wouldn't mind, right?"

Ruby seemed very hesitant. Weiss was almost certain that this was probably the girl's first relationship with anyone beyond a friendship or family level, and definitely the only one with intimacy. She didn't mind in the slightest helping the younger girl put her corset on, she just wasn't sure why Ruby was so hesitant. Sure, it made sense considering how, again, this was likely her first relationship, but surely she'd be just a little bit more forward than she was being now?

Weiss shook the thoughts out of her head and replaced them with new ones as she attempted to help Ruby with her corset.

How do you even tie these things up? Does she do this alone every morning? Now it makes sense why she takes so long. Her hair smells nice, at least.

After the little corset fiasco, which did happen to involve a little bit of staring off into space, wandering of the mind and most definitely gushing over girlfriends, the two finally headed over to the food court like they did every day to meet up with Blake and Yang. If it was a weekend, then they would usually go about doing their own thing, and meeting up in the food court once or twice maybe. Yang and Blake were currently sat on their regular table, next to team JNPR's, and for the first time sandwiched between another.

The new intruding table happened to be seating none other than Taiyang Xiao Long, sat across from Winter Schnee and Mrs Schnee. Taiyang seemed to be inhaling his breakfast, whilst Mrs Schnee watched on with muted horror and Winter was complaining about something as per the usual. Yang was giggling about something, and Blake was reading her book. I wonder what it's even about, anyway. She was blushing slightly, so Ruby bet it was probably a cheesy romance novel of some sort. Her breakfast of… tuna sandwiches, lay untouched.

Oh god, Blake thought, p-people tie each other up like that? She then looked a bit towards Yang and smirked while deep in thought. For no good reason, I smirked only because she's always so happy.

After both getting their breakfast, Ruby a healthy helping of pancakes and Weiss with a wheaty cereal of some kind, they both sat at the table opposite them where Yang was the first to greet them. Blake hummed and nodded, completely absorbed by her book. Plopping herself down on the chair, Weiss said, "Thank you for ditching us this morning. We really appreciate it."

While there was no real malice behind Weiss' words, Yang (apparently) took them to heart, slapping her chest and gasping. "I'm hurt! Offended! You know we are such good friends!" Yang's massive shit-eating grin told Weiss otherwise. Instead of trying to argue on, however, she just settled on eating her cereal and just listened in to the various conversations going on around her.

Ruby was chatting with Blake, but all she caught were some overly-excited portrayals and descriptions of various hunter weapons, and a few uninterested hums here and there. It wasn't exactly chatting, per se, in that sense then. Unless it was Yang, literally nobody could hold a proper conversation with the black haired enigma. Not even Weiss, with her top-of-the-class grades.

Yang poked her waffles and didn't seem particularly hungry, and not in the "I'm going to act all sad and not tell anybody why," way. The blonde looked rather excited for the day ahead, considering that it was the second round of the tournaments and most of the boring below-par fighters had been eliminated, with nary a few of them remaining. It was perfectly understandable to be so excited, and Weiss would be lying if she said she wasn't too. Even Blake must have felt even the slightest twinge of interest at these fights - they hadn't even really been properly announced yet, so she could in fact be fighting.

Deciding that the cereal was now soggy and too disgusting to eat, Weiss went to throw away her food. Blake politely asked if she could take hers too, and she obliged. Yang still wasn't finished and it didn't even look like Ruby had started. If she knew the little speedster well - which she did - she would be finished with the pancakes by the time she came back. She was almost as fast as Nora, who had devoured an entire plate of the things in less than, what, fifteen, twenty seconds? It was quite a spectacle to behold, Ruby cheering on, Ren desperately trying to get Nora to stop… Nora complaining for at least two hours afterwards. It was all in a day's work for the hunters and huntresses in training.

She then wondered if their families were excited for the next few rounds, which when she gave it a second thought, was a completely absurd question. Of course they would be - there'd be no reason for them to be here, otherwise. Especially not Winter, who enjoyed nothing more than complaining about anything slightly below a Schnee's standards. There was nothing in Beacon that could possibly appeal to the sixteen year old on that basis, then.

Weiss realised she had taken the long way to get back around to her table with the others, which obviously explained how she had so much time to think. Not like her teammates would care, though, as by now Blake would carry on reading and the sisters would try to one-up each other in ridiculous food-related tomfoolery. Taiyang probably shared much the same habits as Yang, so no doubt he'd be doing something stupid too. Winter would be complaining and her mother would probably be telling Winter to calm down. She always loved her mother more than her father, Weiss did.

Something Weiss didn't expect Winter to be doing - or to have done - was to have moved over to hers and Ruby's side of the table, and scooch over towards the reaper sitting right next to her.

Winter was getting awfully cosy with her girlfriend. She was pushing her limits and overstepping her boundaries. Weiss wasn't going to take this laying down, of course, but she had to be tactful. Nobody wanted a screaming competition this early in the morning. Passive aggression would work. Glare at her from afar, hope that it made her uncomfortable and leave maybe. Or just lay on a thick and firm tone, that quite clearly said, "get out," but not one that advertised itself to the world.

Thinking about out, Weiss was going overboard with her own thoughts.

Standing behind her younger sister, Weiss faked a cough as Winter looked up behind her. With a sickeningly sweet and, 'innocent', smile, Winter politely asked, "Hello, Weiss. Is there a problem?"

"Yes. You're sat next to my girlfriend, now move your self entitled ass," is what she wanted to say, but Weiss just ended up mumbling something along the lines of, "You took my seat." Proclaiming hers and Ruby's relationship to the world was not ideal, since she didn't think her father would be particularly supportive of said idea. Weiss still had no idea why Winter even moved there in the first place.

"And what's the problem?"

"The problem is that I was sat here before-"

"Ladies! Ladies! P-Put down your handbags! We can sort this out," interrupted Ruby, ever the diplomat. Weiss rolled her eyes and Winter huffed in indignation. "Okay... How about, I move left by one seat, and Weiss can sit on my right whilst Winter sits on my left? Does that sound good, guys?" Please say yes, please say yes, by Dust.

Weiss and Winter were now much more annoyed than before. They had bickered like small children and forgot to realise that there was an extra space and that they could literally sit either side of Ruby. Weiss then waited for Ruby to move so that she could be in between the Schnee sisters. Whew. Dodged that bullet for now.

Weiss was watching Ruby with one eye. She seemed to be nervous and Weiss just couldn't see why. Did Winter's presence make Ruby uncomfortable? Was she unable to contain herself for the tournament? Does she want nothing more than to pin me to the floor and - stopping herself then and there, Weiss had to remember that Ruby was fifteen years old and probably more interested in her damn scythe than she was in her or, Dust forbid, Winter. That was funny, considering she was now talking to the girl herself. Weiss also noticed a victorious grin on Winter's face as the two sisters' eyes glanced at each other for a brief moment. Weiss didn't know what to make of this. She better not be trying something with my Ruby. Or is it Ruby that's trying something with Winter? It can't be, though. Ruby's way too shy to ask something like that, if our earlier talk was any indication. Or is she putting up a show for me? To say Weiss was conflicted was putting it mildly.

Choosing not to dwell on this, Weiss continued to stare into nothing simply to pass the time. It would be a while before Ruby would even be done eating, with a good three-quarter full plate of pancakes still lying before her, though she was now eating the food rather than letting it sit there. Yang decided to take point and said, "So, fearless leader, what're our plans for today? Got any ideas?"

Beginning to babble something along the lines of "mff-ghghh-awmghgh," before quickly blushing, swallowing the pancake and apologising, Ruby said, "ahem - I was thinking we could go and watch round two of the tournaments today, of course. One of us will probably be fighting, if not two. Man, imagine if we had to fight each other…"

"That'd suck," Yang replied. It'd suck to fight any girl from team RWBY - they were easily one of the best teams in the first year, if not among the top teams in the whole school.

"Yeah. I don't know, let's finish our breakfast and then we can figure out what we want to do."

Ruby failed to spot the problem with this statement, which left Blake giggling behind her book, Weiss rolling her eyes and Yang snorting.

"Sis?"

"Yeah?" Innocent grey eyes looked up towards deep lilac ones.

"You're the only one still eating."

"Oh." Duh.

Taking Yang's empty plate and piling it onto her own - wait, where did that pancake go? Weiss could only wonder at this point. She took her plate piled below Yang's and practically teleported to where she was supposed to put them, and again used her semblance to dash back. Was she trying to impress someone? Maybe my mother? Weiss wasn't quite sure, as the epic battle they had a few days ago would do more than just dispel any doubts about the young girl's skill.

It also didn't help that the little red reaper had been told, multiple times, Weiss might add, to not use her semblance inside the buildings of the site. Not only was it exceptionally dangerous, in case she hit something or lost control - both possibilities which Ruby vehemently denied - but it also left rose petals scattered on the ground, and they could take hours to be blown away by the wind or to just disappear.

As soon as the girl sat back down at the table, Weiss began her lecture.

"Ruby."

"Yes, Weiss?" The firm tone and steely gaze that Weiss was giving to Ruby made her somewhat frightened, but she knew this was just one of her daily lectures on 'not being hyperactive', and definitely not the fact that she might have found out about her double relationship between her and Winter. Nope. At least, Ruby hoped not. It probably wasn't likely as Winter was just chatting to her mother, and not shouting at the cloaked girl.

"I'm fairly certain that both Mrs Goodwitch and Headmaster Ozpin have told you not to use your semblance inside, right?"

"Pfft," Ruby waved it off, "It's not breaking the rules if they don't catch me!"

"And if they do?", Weiss questioned.

"Well… Uh, I just run away using my semblance again normally."

Brilliant. "Brilliant." Weiss' facial expression matched that of a sour candy or sweet - sure, Weiss was cute as heck, but her angriness and bitterness was completely unmatched in literally the whole academy. Besides, she didn't mean to be mean, she was just being mean because she didn't want any of the team to get into trouble. That was Ruby's analogy, at least.

"Look, Weiss, I'm, uh, sorry about that. I won't do it again - promise!"

After giving it a couple moments of thought, Weiss accepted the apology, and then quickly moved on to ask, "And what are we doing today, anyway?"

"I thought I already explained."

"Yes, but you didn't tell us when or where."

"Oh. That'd probably help. Uh, I don't know, we could go now if you want? Is that good, team?"

The response of the bumblebee members of team RWBY was quite varied for two people - one nodded and continued to read whilst the other got up and was already going. Taiyang evidently had no qualms with the current proposition, and too was getting up and ready to go. Winter was chatting with her mother as the woman finished reading the newspaper that had appeared from seemingly nowhere. Their little troop was ready to go, mostly, and so they all set out from the food court to walk around the site for a while as the training rooms began to open up. It was still early, and Beacon did not want people holding spars at seven o'clock on the morning, and so they opened up at nine. The time being around eight-thirty gave the team an opportune moment to just walk around and enjoy the somewhat brisk weather. Just because it was summer did not mean it was very warm all day.

The students milling about the site with their parents was rather nice. Whilst most just had their mothers and/or fathers, some had grandparents, friends, distant relatives, Weiss swore she even saw a couple of kids running around, aged no older than maybe nine or ten. She wondered if Ruby could probably relate to them, being incredibly hyperactive and constantly on a sugar rush of some kind.

Of course, then again, they didn't wield a seven foot sniper rifle scythe combination and spend their free time being the girlfriend of the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. That was a pretty impressive record for the girl, Weiss thought.

Yet, she found it odd that the girl was perfectly comfortable near her and perfectly fine around Winter, but very fidgety and somewhat agitated when near both at the same time. Maybe she was just nervous. Maybe Weiss was explaining the situation using that word 'nervous' too much.

Approaching the combat arena at a somewhat moderate pace, Mrs. Schnee took the time to admire the beautiful architecture of the large structure, as well as that of all the other buildings in the Beacon site. It was as if the gods heard humanity's pleas for help, and so sent them this divine academy of fascinating curves and mysterious hideaways with soaring heights to train them against the darkness. The main tower's spire, in particular, was absolutely brilliant with a shining green gem located directly in the middle. This didn't downplay the other structures, though, as they too were made out of the same breathtaking white stone and marble construction as was the spire.

The gardens were very well kept. Mrs Schnee imagined that the students probably spent a lot of their time in these lush verdant spaces. She definitely wouldn't be surprised - this place almost outclassed the Schnee manor's vast gardens in both tranquility and spaciousness, if not for the fair number of students constantly roaming around the place and the seemingly intermittent buildings obstructing the path of the gardens. It was an academy, after all, and they had to place function first no matter how much they may enjoy the form.

Stepping into the combat theatre itself was also rather pleasant, Mrs Schnee found. It certainly didn't stink, which was one of her biggest gripes with most public buildings, and most of the area was very well kept, akin to the gardens. The small hallway guided them to the area where most of the arenas themselves could be found, but they entered the main theatre as they knew this would be where the matchups were announced for round two of the tournaments. The veritable mass of people didn't exactly appeal to the Schnees, but she forced it into her own head - Mrs Schnee - that these were all highly respectful warriors, and not just children.

Much as though they may have wanted to be. Evident in Ruby's case.

Having zoned out somewhat for most of the trip to and into the combat theatres, Blake was rather startled when Yang bounded over to her after some fairly unimportant sounding announcements and wrapped her arm around her shoulder, shouting;

"You're up, Blake!"

Blake was inwardly relieved at the prospect of her finally getting to fight someone in the tournament. She couldn't stand the tension between Weiss, Winter and Ruby sat in the audience above, and so this was a nice escape. She'd noticed it before and yet it was especially prominent now.

Heading down to the combat stage, which was apparently hosting her fight, she double checked that everything was in place. Gambol Shroud was attached to her back, the ribbon of the weapon was wrapped all up her arm, her bow was taut and her clothes were in their best condition. She was ready.

"And it appears Ms. Belladonna's challenger will be…"

A couple of people waited with bated breath. Specifically team RWBY. Blake was an incredibly good fighter. Fighting her would be a death sentence for any of the girls, one that they'd have to fight tooth and nail to survive.

"...Mr. Winchester."

Team RWBY burst into sighs of relief, safe from the sights of the cat faunus for another day.

Her challenger, Cardin Winchester, made his way up to the stage. The tall young man was the resident bully, but could fight fairly well. The large mace of his was not to be trifled with - a couple hits from the thing and you'd be down and out. Having watched his spar with Jaune a few weeks back gave Blake a couple of ideas. Speed would be her friend - Cardin seemed to lack mobility.

"Are we in position, Ms. Belladonna? Mr. Winchester?"

Blake stoically nodded at Mrs. Goodwitch's words. Cardin nodded with a characteristic smirk.

"Good. In three, two, one, begin!"

Mrs. Goodwitch's words rang out throughout the sparring arena, as Cardin began his charge. He had his black mace in a solid two handed grip, ready for a rib-shattering strike of the flanks. Blake also charged forward, and met his quickly approaching mace to her left with her own cleaver. Taking a quick step back, Cardin brought his mace up, and swung down with a heavy blow. A deft and practiced backflip was all it took for Blake to avoid the simply attack, and when she had focused on Cardin again, he was running.

He doesn't seem to use strategy, but he's strong regardless.

Unsheathing Gambol Shroud into its dual sword form, Blake lashed out at the somewhat unprepared boy with a vicious kick to his side, giving her the momentary advantage she needed and putting her in place to pull off her next move. The flurry of blows from both sword and sharp sheath that Cardin received reduced his aura levels significantly. This put Blake ahead, and having backed off, she decided on her next move.

From the stands, a few rows up, Ruby and Yang were on their feet and waving and cheering, though she couldn't make out what they were saying from the distance. The huge toothy grin on the blonde's face and the way the smaller girl's eyes twinkled told her all she needed to know. Weiss was also rather interested at the battle unfolding before her eyes. Winter watched with mild interest, as did Mrs. Schnee. Blake would bet that the woman was examining her every move, looking to pick out any faults she could.

Luckily, Blake was a nearly flawless fighter.

This became more apparent as Cardin took his opportunity, swinging the huge mace of his in a diagonal strike, but the strong steel of the weapon simply passed through Blake altogether. Confusion was evident on his face, but even more so was the momentum he was still carrying backwards, and the same momentum that had just toppled him over. Blake had reappeared by his side, and several midsection strikes with her sheath pushed the boy's reserves of aura lower and lower.

The striking leg extruding from the grounded fighter had caught Blake off guard, and she was put into the air for barely a second as superhuman faunus reflexes kicked in and she performed an elegant backflip, straight onto her feet and ready to attack once again. It seemed that the copper-haired brute was still not done, despite his aura levels inching on the red zone, and Blake had to give it to him, he definitely didn't give up easily.

Meeting at the centre of the stage, cleaver met mace in a quick deflection from Blake though Cardin seemed intent on absolutely pummelling her with his sheer power. Whilst he wasn't fast enough to strike her with the mace directly, a hard kick to Blake's stomach made her stumble fairly badly, and the boy used the opportunity to deliver a crushing blow to her stomach once again.

Yang gasped in horror, and fearfully looked upwards. She knew that the blow definitely wasn't enough alone to take out the skilled ninja, but somewhere deep inside her, she was terrified that this was the case. It wasn't, as she'd initially suspected, but Blake had been knocked all the way from green into the yellow levels of aura. Ruby was already cheering Blake on again, shouting "Get up, Blake! You can do this! Nothin' can stop ya now!"

Blake's chest seared with pain for all but a moment after the mace had impacted, and without even looking at her aura bar she knew she was way down. Recovering quickly, though, Blake began a new dash towards Cardin. Her opponent was moving much slower than she, for reasons ranging from a larger weapon to heavier armour and including the amount of damage he'd taken. Predicting a swift slash from the black sword of hers, Cardin made sure his mace was in a firm sideways grip like he had started with that could easily double as a tool to block the oncoming blow.

Said oncoming blow never came though, as he heard a gunshot and the cat faunus was gone. Literally - he looked all around him, yet the ninja was nowhere to be seen, except for -

Tugging the wedged sword out of the roof, attached to the ribbon, she fired the gun again as it made contact with the floor and planted itself firmly into the ground. Already falling, Blake tugged herself with the rope to reach blurring speeds as she hurtled towards the ground. Cardin, not having any of this trickery, swung his mace up into the air in a wild attempt to hit the falling girl.

And once again, he hit nothing but the ethereal clone and his mace swung straight through it. He knew his mistake, and he knew that he had lost, and he also knew that he was simply too slow to make any attempt to defend himself from the coming strike.

The decisive strike was delivered when Blake, already having retrieved the sword out of the ground, fired the gun once again and watched as the ribbon wrapped itself around the weary brute. Pulling the taut ribbon, Blake flew towards her opponent and in one, deft and elegant spinning attack, plunged the boy's aura levels to the doomed red state.

A whistle sounded, and the match was over, the lights of the stadium slowly rising back to their previous brightness.

"And the winner of this match is Miss Belladonna! Congratulations, Blake," said Goodwitch as she eyed the girl over. The ribbon wrapped around her right arm was a little loose from the heavy use of the thing in the latter part of the battle, and her hair didn't seem to have fared much better splayed everywhere like the limbs of a morning Ruby, but overall she looked well enough. Save for the somewhat deep breaths she was taking.

Goodwitch couldn't help but be pleased with the raven-haired student. While it was no secret she was an excellent fighter, she was particularly docile when it came to combat class, and opted to fight as little as was possible for her. She was always far more interested in that large notebook of hers, sometimes even falling asleep. Having worried about the possibility of her losing badly in the tournament, Goodwitch was glad that she had made a large step of progress today, making it out of the spar with only a single hit to her aura (even if it was a rather considerable one).