"Watcha ya reading?"

Inquisitive silver eyes stared up at Blake, boring deep into her soul, causing the words to fumble haphazardly out of her mouth as she awkwardly tried to nonchalantly conceal the book in her lap.

"A book?"

Ruby rolled her eyes, "Well, duh! What's it about?"

Blake hesitated out of concern.

It wasn't concern about Ruby being too immature for the content – quite the contrary, in fact; Ruby is far more mature than most people think… if she wasn't then we would most likely not be together. Indeed, she'd be able to understand immediately what it was. So that was not the reason she was withholding the title of her book or its contents. Rather, to the untrained eye, this particular book series might seem particularly low-brow, perhaps even vulgar if one couldn't understand the genius of it… and Blake didn't want to do the coin flip and have the chance that Ruby might not take too kindly to her favourite book series.

Or the fact that she did not want to have her girlfriend catch her reading smut. Either or, really.

"Blake?" Time was quickly evaporating – the longer she took to say something, say anything, the more curious it was going to make Ruby on why her girlfriend didn't just give a straight answer right away.

"It's about…" Amber eyes darted before finally settling on the rest of her literary collection. "…romance."

Ruby's head tilted ever so slightly. "Like book you were reading when we first met? Um, the Man with Two Souls?"

"I guess I was reading that the night before initiation," Blake mumbled after doing the mental calculation for when she had read that particular book – wait, how does Ruby know that's a romance novel? Questions for another time. "…Y-yeah. Kind of like that one."

"Oh. Neat!" Ruby seemingly took it at face value, as Blake gave an internal sigh of relief. "Can I borrow it after you're done?"

"Uh…" Blake started to fidget nervously, her hands over the open book, pressing it harder into her lap, as if trying to push it out of existence. "You could…"

The Faunus could feel the excitement emanating off Ruby droop down as her expression mirrored it, becoming a frown. It was an expression that made Blake feel guilty for being more than a little standoffish. "I just don't think you would enjoy it much."

"Why's that?"

"Well… it's embarrassing…" and it is smut…

For some reason, Blake had trouble imagining Ruby enjoying that kind of fiction – she always likes stories with action and heroes and heroines – I don't think she'd like the heroes and heroines having action with each other. Naturally, an opposing thought surfaced to the forefront of Blake's mind, maybe I'm wrong, maybe she would like that sort of thing. With that thought a rush of heat swelled in Blake as her face became bright red.

There is only one way to find out, amber eyes looked up only to find Ruby equally red face, her silver eyes focused solely on the floor between them. "Don't worry, Blake. I understand why it'd be embarrassing," the younger teen murmured.

"Y-you do?" Blake asked after she finished gaping in shock, how does she know about it?! I thought I was careful!

"Yeah, I'll read something else instead… is the Man with Two Souls II still between the beds?"

A relieved smile stretched Blake's lips; I'd rather deal with accidentally toppling the bunkbeds any day than explain what Ninjas of Love is about to Ruby!

Of course, the natural conclusion popped into her head from that thought – it was a notion that made her ears droop; Ruby already knows what I'm reading…

Somehow, that was more mortifying to Blake than explaining would have been.

Ruby knew the second that Blake's face had turned redder than her cloak what that book really was about – why Blake was being so hesitant about letting her read it.

A romance plot, the huge blush on Blake's face, the happy smile that was on her lips when Ruby had walked into the room, the hesitation… a thought had popped into the younger teen's head, one that explained everything with a clear logic.

What if the book is about two girls… and one of them is a ninja who likes tuna and the other has a big red cloak…

The black and red design of the cover only reinforced that particular assessment, plus, Ruby could easily see how it could be embarrassing – it'd be like reading about us! Just thinking about all the times they'd done stuff together, or cuddled, brought a huge blush and a dopey smile to her own face, much like how Blake had looked. It made perfect sense!

Now if I could just find where I left Blake's book… Ruby had made a quick trip to grab some snacks to munch on while reading but couldn't for the life of herself remember where she'd left it. Did I put it back in the bookshelf? Ruby started to dig through the numerous books, accidentally knocking off a few of the ones lying on top of the shelf over. "Crapbaskets!"

If there was one thing that Blake liked more than tuna, it was her books. Consequently, she always treated them with care, like the treasured possessions that they were. Gingerly picking up the few that had fallen and checking for damages was her first reaction, naturally. Relief flooded her when she found none.

However, Ruby couldn't help and stop stare when a three page fold-out of some fantasy ninja holding the best, most beautiful katana that she had ever seen in her life unfurled from the middle of one of the books. She couldn't help it when her eyes started to wander to where the image met the pages of the book…

Nor could she help it when her silver eyes read a word. And then another word. Then another. And then some more.

Bashfully, she glanced at the title of the book. "Ninjas, eh?" Ruby glanced around, still unable to find the book she had been reading before looking back down at her cookies which were becoming cold, and her milk which was becoming lukewarm.

"I guess...it wouldn't hurt to read it a little bit, just until I find the other book."

AU: I finally got off my lazy butt and did a chapter, yay!

I really don't have much else to say today… life has been busy. I could say the typical "I PROMISE TO WRITE MORE CHAPTERS THIS MONTH" but I realistically know I won't. I know I'll get at least a chapter out per month, maybe two. Anymore is just a surprise at this point :P

Thank you for reading, I hope everyone has a wonderful day! :D