"Thanks for driving me Neptune"

"Not a problem," That stupidly confident grin he perpetually wore growing a bit wider, "After all, if I didn't there is no way you would ever have actually gone on this blind date that I worked so hard to set up for you."

"I would too!" Ilia protested, sounding more like a child than she would have liked.

It was not a complete lie. She probably, possibly might have not chickened out again. Sure, it had been a while since she had gotten a date, and she had never really been in a relationship, but that didn't mean she would run at the first opportunity instead of making a fool of herself in front of an attractive woman. Definitely not.

"Sure you would Ils," His smile had only grown more.

Okay, yeah, fine I probably wouldn't have. But you'll never get to know that.

Though sometimes he made her not want to admit it, Ilia was very grateful to have a friend like Neptune. He had backed off immediately after learning he was barking up the wrong tree on their first meeting. And despite Ilia's initial misgivings, after talking they hit it off better than anyone had expected and became fast friends.

Neptune quickly took it upon himself to become the wingman of the very clearly in distress chameleon girl. His success was somewhat limited. But he counted it as a win when ever he even got Ilia to just talk to a girl in a night, even if it rarely when anywhere further. Never went any further. . .

Just those small things really did help Ilia though. It had been hard getting over Blake after having that crush for so long, though she was very happy for her friend having found that fiery blonde that made her happy. Ilia knew it had also helped her self confidence, and although it still left much to be desired, it was a whole lot higher than the exactly zero it was before.

Talking to hot women was still an issue though.

So this was probably going to be as well.

"Alright, we're here." Neptune announced, pulling Ilia from her internal fears to face very external ones.

Ilia took a breath, "This is it," She said just barely not quietly enough to herself.

Neptune looked to his passenger, "Ilia, you are going to do fine. You're a great person, you're kind and smart. Not to mention pretty attractive. So, anyone would be lucky to date you," And with a trademark wink, "If you weren't gay I know I would."

His reassurance always helped at least a little. Even his joking flirts, now standard banter between them, were quite welcome.

"That's not a very high bar Neptune. You would date a table if it had nice legs."

They shared a laugh before Ilia was once again quickly just about overcome by her worry. She looked down at the burgundy dress she was wearing.

Will they even think I'm attractive? Probably not, I-

Neptune put a hand on her shoulder and unlocked the car door, "Knock 'em dead Ms. Rainbow. I'll be around to pick you up, depending on how well the date goes." He gave her another wink as she full-body blushed as usual.

"Thanks again." Ilia said as she stepped out of the neon blue mustang. A car that would be outrageous for anyone but Neptune.

"You can thank me after your date." Neptune yelled as he pulled away.

Ilia turned towards the restaurant, now realizing she was so wrapped up in her own head she hadn't even looked at it before. It was dark inside, not that it quite looked closed, but that the entire thing was even darker than it would have been with mood lighting. And there were only a few cars in the parking lot. It was a bit odd, she had been to The Ice Snake before and it had never been like this.

She slowly made her way towards the main entrance. Her anxiety building with every single step. Ilia took a deep breath as she opened the door.

And it only skyrocketed when she saw that no one else was in the restaurant. Literally every single table and chair was empty. No waiters were running about, and no one there to seat her.

But it still didn't look closed. The furniture and accouterments weren't put away and she could see two rooms that were better lit, one she knew to be the kitchen. The other, a back room she had always assumed was exclusively for very special (and very expensive) occasions.

Ilia inched towards that back room, more anxiety building along the way. From its direction she heard an odd sound. If she had to guess, it was much like trying to kick open a door with a boot. A sound she was familiar with considering her previous career path. It really didn't concern her though.

The prospect of meeting her date and all the horrible situations she could make a fool of herself continued to run rampant in her mind.

And she was half way there before she broke.

I don't need a date, I have enough in my life as it is.

The faunus hurried back to the glass doors she had just come through.

I'll just tell Neptune they were a no show! I don't live that far away, six miles isn't too bad.

When she got there she pushed against the door, but it wouldn't budge. Ilia looked down at the mechanism and saw that it had been locked.

Why is it locked from the outside?!

She looked up, only to see Neptune on the other side of the glass. He shook his head and pointed towards the back room, clearly having foresaw this eventuality and having stayed to prevent it.

Ilia sighed and did as she was told, seeing no other option. She tried to stay confident as she once again approached the back room.

How bad could it be?

She got closer.

Like who could it be that would be that bad?

She got closer.

It's not like she's going to be incredibly gorgeous.

She got closer still.

Or I already know her or anything,

She was just able to look inside when:

It's not like she's. . . Holy Shit!

Sitting in that back room, at a fully set table clearly only meant for two, was someone whom she knew. Who she had worked with before. Someone who she could almost count as a friend. And someone who she thought was exceptionally out of her league.

It was Winter Schnee.

The dashing, graceful, gorgeous Winter Schnee.

Ilia had heard people, notably Ruby's uncle, describe Winter as cold. But Ilia believed that she was exactly the opposite.

She was wearing a beautiful gradient blue dress, a slit up at least one side showing legs that made it hard for Ilia to think. Well, pretty much everything about Winter made it hard for Ilia to think. It was a good thing the dress had a shallow neckline.

Winter was staring at her scroll, apparently annoyed and sending a text. She hadn't seen Ilia yet. She was wearing boots.

So the chameleon girl bolted to a side entrance, hoping that maybe Neptune wasn't at that one. And of course, she found it locked too.

Only when she looked up this time, it was Sun.

Sun, like his partner, was something of a nearly full time wingman. Though his responsibility was sorting out the mess that was team RWBY. You'd think that having an ancient immortal wizard play matchmaker would have made things easier.

Like Neptune before, he shook his head and pointed to the back room. Ilia surmised he was probably here to do the same job for Winter as Neptune was for her. She put her hands together and bagged silently through the glass, but to no avail. Ilia guessed that only worked on him when you had cute cat ears to fold back.

Again she sighed and went back to the room.

Ilia stole a glance at the other side entrance, to see if maybe with only the two of them it was unguarded. But even in the twilight she could see a blazing gold mane watching from outside.

I guess they gotten Yang to help.

For a moment she gazed at the skylight, wondering if that was a possible escape route, only to see she thought might be a silhouette. It would have to be a very tall woman with a ponytail.

There really was no way out of this.

For what would definitely be the last time, Ilia approached the doorway and took a breath.

You can do this. You can do this. And no matter what, Winter's nice so it won't be bad.

She walked in.

"Ilia?" Winter asked, clearly somewhat surprised by who her date was as well.

"H-hey Winter," Ilia tried to keep the nervousness out of her voice as she stood stupidly, unsure of what action to take next.

"Uh- Please sit Ilia," Winter said gesturing to the other end of the candle lit table, fearful that Ilia's actions were due to her greeting being rude. "I have to say I wasn't expecting you. Though I don't know what I was expecting."

"Completely blind date for you too then?" Ilia asked

Winter sighed, "Yes. My sister and her team finally convinced me to go on a date. They set all of this up, they must have rented out the whole restaurant for the night."

"Neptune did it on my end. I saw Sun here too," Ilia commented, "Did you know they locked us in here?" She continues, a millisecond later realizing that the only way she would have known that was by trying to leave. Her blush was thankfully less noticeable in candle light.

Winter nervously laughed and cleared her throat "Ahem, Yes I did." She glanced to the rear of the room, where there was another exit. With a boot print still clearly visible. This time the Schnee blushed, her alabaster skin clearly going pink "I guess they rightfully trusted neither one of us."

They both laughed a bit, but then was a bit of an awkward silence.

Ilia thought of something to say, scrounge up as much courage as she could muster to spit it out. "W-well, I'm not unhappy about who my turned out to be. You look great by the way" Then came the fear waiting for the response.

Winter softly smiled, blushed a bit deeper, and only a little less nervously said, "T-tank you. I'm not either. You also beautiful tonight Ilia." She caused a similar reddening of her date.

"So. . ." Ilia picked up the menu in front of her "Do you know what you're having?"

"Well I'm certainly not going to have the pork." Winter stated, with what might have been a small amount of disgust.

"That's my favorite!" Ilia exclaimed, "May I ask why?" She then questioned.

"Just promise not to laugh at me," Ilia nodded, so Winter smiled and continued, "You see, the last mission I was on was mostly hunting Boarbatusks. . ."

The food had been great, if a little different than they remembered. And the service was excellent, even if somehow the waiter always kept them from getting a good look at him.

It was a few hours of talking, joking, and enjoying each other's company before the pair left the restaurant, hand in hand and laughing.

All this without any alcohol too, as Winter didn't drink considering how well that had gone before in her family.

"I had a lovely time tonight Ilia." Winter said as they stood outside the main doors.

"I did too." Came Ilia's honest reply.

They both now looked somewhere other than the woman in front of them and started at the same time;

"I-"

"We-"

Now both were too nervous to say anything more after that false start. After a few seconds that felt like minutes they both looked up. Grey met blue, and despite each of their fears, they then realized in that moment they both wanted the same thing.

Ilia and Winter drew closer, feeling the other's breath on their skin.

They pulled each other into a kiss, not too long nor deep, it being their first after all. But enough that each was glowing afterwards.

"That was nice."

"We should do this again"

For a very brief they softly looked to each other, before being rather suddenly interrupted.

"Oh Yeah!"

"We did it!"

"Not so useless anymore!"

The pair looked to see Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Neptune, and Sun come out of the darkness from different guard positions around the building. All were clearly elated at their plan's success.

They heard a noise behind them, and looked to see Nora, Scarlet, and Sage come out from the restaurant, all looking like they had been in the kitchen the entire time. Ren came out close behind, and by how her was dressed, had apparently been their waiter. Then they saw Pyrrha and Jaune jump down from their perch on the roof beside the other members of JNPR. They all seemed to share their comrades' joy.

Winter and Ilia both blushed. It really had taken all these people to do this. But it worked.

Hope y'all liked it! I think these two could be really cute together, and I hope to see more other people ship them in the future!

I hope my attempt as a date scene did some justice. :)