Blake was feeling happy.

It was weird to even think that, all things considered. Weird that considering how sad she'd been just a few days ago, she was happy now.

For nearly two weeks Ruby had been acting… strange. She'd been a whole lot busier and Blake had barely seen her some days except in class. At first Blake had thought she'd said something wrong to Ruby, had in some way offended her. Blake had played back everything she'd said or done for a good week and came up empty. It wasn't until Ruby started to make excuses that Blake realized what was really happening.

Ruby was running away. Blake had spent a lot of her life running, she knew the signs to be sure, avoiding the problem, ignoring it or pretending it didn't exist. All traits that Ruby was exhibiting towards Blake.

For a few days, Blake had tried to give Ruby space to see if it helped. Perhaps we've just been hanging out too much recently? When that didn't work, she opted for a more direct approach. That worked. That worked very well. In fact the direct approach was the reason Blake was so happy. Turned out that the reason Ruby was running was because she'd accidently told team JNPR about Blake's ears.

While Blake knew she might have appreciated it a bit more if Ruby had told her immediately or even if she got a chance to tell JNPR herself, she was just happy that Ruby was back to how she had been. That Blake had her friend back. I suppose her telling JNPR saves me the trouble at least? Well th-

"Yang Xiao Long prepare you're kingdom for battle!"

"Bring it on sis!" Blake's partner shouted, despite them being in the quiet confines of the library.

"I deploy the Atlesian Air Fleet!" Ruby enthusiastically slapped a card on the table. "Looks like I get to fly right over your Ursai and attack your walls directly!"

The resulting dice rolls spelled the imminent defeat for the younger sister. Over the sounds of Ruby despairing, it was now Weiss' turn, who, like Blake, had about as much a chance of understanding what was going on as Ruby did winning at this point. I think?

Luckily for Blake the instructions for the game were sitting untouched near her.

It can't be that hard to learn, can it?

The end was nigh, Atlas had fallen, Vacuo was being cut to shreds by the approaching armies and masterful tactician of Mistral, Ruby could do naught to stop the on slaughter.

While Vacuo's rather… dictatorial leader had done some odd maneuvers –Weiss literally attacked her own navy two turns ago- but now Vacuo had fallen, their army being destroyed by cunning trap that Mistral had sprung on them. The only hope left, laid in the inexperienced forces of Vale, the last free force left in Remnant to resist against the mighty power of Mistral. Maybe Blake can avenge us! Ruby sullenly thought as she and Weiss sat out in defeat.

"Alright Blake, you're up!" The devious tactician smugly noted as she leaned back in her chair, certain in the outcome; victory. A victory that Ruby too, felt was inevitable, Blake is only slightly better then Weiss, but that's not saying muc-

"…" Her silence was making Ruby think that Blake might have been more on the scale of skill of Weiss and less of Yang.

Yang glanced at Ruby and Weiss before back at Blake, clearly taking the silence as a sign of confusion. "You're playing the kingdom of Vale, remember? Do you need… need…" Blake held up a card silently at Yang, causing the blonde to stop, her mouth forming a big 'O' of surprise. Surprise soon melted into a mischievous smirk. "You do know this means war?" What card is she even holding up? Ruby couldn't make it out from across the table as Blake set it down before picking up another card.

"Good thing I prepared." This time making Yang's shoulders shag, the despair on the tactician's face clear from across the table as Weiss and Ruby looked at each other in wonder, the same question clearly etched into Weiss' face echoed on her own, what is Blake doing?!

"That's a good start Blakey hehe, buuuuuuuut you just activated my trap card!" The vicious smile on Yang's face made it clear that the despair had all been a ploy to lure in the last free kingdom of Remnant into conflict! "Fatal Nevermore! If I rol-"

"No, you just activated my trap card." The biggest smirk that Ruby have ever seen grace Blake's lips as she laid down the card. "Fortuitous meteor."

Ruby's breath sucked in, that was one of the craziest cards in the game, most likely to rebound on you… but if it worked, the effects were great! "Ohoho, playing dangerous I see." A dangerous glint shined in lilac eyes as Yang was unfazed. "But if you roll a 10 or lower, the meteor will hit your kingdom and I will win!"

"Conversely if I roll an 11 or 12, the meteor will rebound your own trap onto you and Mistral won't be able to draw anymore cards for four turns."

One could cut the tension with a knife as the pair of six sided dices bounced off the table before finally clattering to a stop.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!" Yang's arms reached out towards the heavens as her pieces were flattened by the successful ploy. The treacherous tactician had fallen! While Yang's dramatic wails of lament for an easy victory, what grabbed Ruby's attention was Blake.

A small, but present goofy smile stretched across her lips, her amber eyes twinkling with mirth, her normally rigid posture relaxed. It was a far cry from how she'd been in the library a few weeks ago. Blake was genuinely happy. It was a happiness that made Ruby eternally grateful she'd come clean to Blake about telling JNPR.

I just wish I could be the one making her that happy.

AU: Someday Ruby, someday. Lucky me that I know what day that is! :P

Huzzah! This chapter finally posted! I've been trying to figure out how to cover the board game and the faunus reveal to JNPR since… November actually. That's partly why this slowed down so much. That and liiiiiiife.

Okay, so, status update on my stories; Acceptance's chapter 19 was a complete flop. I mean the idea REALLY didn't pan out. To be fair, it was one that was done on a lark and its integration into the larger story was what caused the issue, so moving back to the old schedule of chapters means I'm starting anew for it… so expect it in about a month give or take? Probably on the one year anniversary of the story's start.

Dilation will be getting more chapters seeing as I FINALLY GOT PAST THE PART I WAS STUCK ON SINCE THIS VOLUME BEGAN. I might even put out two more chapters between now and Saturday!

Spoon Equality will just chug along as per usual.

Thank you for reading everyone and have a great day! :D

P.S. Did anyone get the chapter title reference? :P