33

"Can I ask you for a favor?" Weiss walked next to Ruby after the classes ended.

"Ehm, sure. But if it's about any upgrades it might have to wait a bit. I'm running low on materials right now." Ruby sheepishly answered. She may have gone a bit overboard with Pyrrha's armor and what little thought she put into Blake's upgrade already looked like it would need a lot of dust.

Weiss waved her off. "You really don't think about anything else, do you? No, it's not about weapons. And even if it was, I would provide all the necessary equipment and materials myself!" Her pride wouldn't allow anything else. She would also prefer if whatever Ruby ended up making wasn't full of illegally acquired parts. "Although I wouldn't mind sharing some ideas later. I have something different in mind…" It was a bit difficult to ask and she double-checked that nobody was in the earshot. "I… want you to teach me how to do massages." She whispered.

Ruby tilted her head in confusion. "Sure, why not." She really didn't understand why Weiss was so weird about asking that.

/

"I still don't understand how or why exactly you are going to do this." Ivory spoke up in boredom after watching Ruby instruct Weiss through an exercise with her fingers. Apparently it was really important when it came to applying the right amount of pressure in the right place.

Shut up! I'm just… you saw how happy Yang was when Ruby gave her one. I want to do that too. At least she had a lot of practice with the motions due to the glyphs requiring a lot of precise movements. Same went for her rapier.

"I suppose." She could agree with that logic. "How exactly do you want her to teach you though?"

Maybe I can convince Yang to help?

Ivory stayed silent for some time before giving her opinion. "Actually, let's make it a surprise for her. I think we can find other, more eager help. Let me take over."

I'm going to regret it, don't I?

"I doubt it, if anything we should be able to deal with a few headaches and even be thanked for doing it."

If anything goes wrong, you are dealing with it yourself.

"Do you think Pyrrha would be alright if we practiced on her?" Ivory idly asked Ruby. "She was a bit on edge recently, maybe we could help her relax."

"Well, we would need to ask her." Light then appeared in her eyes. "Actually, I promised I'd give her one some time ago!"

-BBW-

I'm going to kill that spoiled prissy bra- ahr, don't stop! Pyrrha was squirming on the floor as Ruby sat on top of her and was showing Weiss how to do massage properly.

On one hand she wanted to turn her down but on the other hand, this was a perfect opportunity to keep her away from Blake and the suggestion came from both her and Weiss. It was just a help with training.

Ruby was slowly going over different groups of muscles, what kind of exercising would strain them the most and what is the best way to remove said strain. She also completely ignored the way Pyrrha was shuddering every time she would get to work. Or how Weiss and Ivory were constantly switching, one paying attention and even occasionally taking notes while the other was giving a cheshire smile, Pyrrha's whimpering a great music to her ears.

/

"What." Pyrrha spoke between ragged breaths. "Is." Oh brothers… that was sooo wrong. "Your game?"

Ruby had run off to do something else and now only the two partners were left in the room. Pyrrha was sprawled on the floor on top of a blanket with Weiss sitting behind the desk, reviewing her lesson. She was pretty sure that Pyrrha was even more on edge now, especially after she joined Ruby and tried her own hand in the matter. But even after causing her partner such pleasurable torment she still had the audacity to smirk at her.

"Isn't it a partner's duty to help one another?" She replied with a smile on her face. "Also, keep it a secret from Yang if you would, I want to surprise her."

"And you expect me to believe that's all of your reasons?" Pyrrha looked up skeptically.

"Of course not, but look at it this way. If you and Ruby get together, nobody would be left out, we would only need to establish some rules when it comes to barging into the dorms and the like."

I think I liked her more when she was a perfectionist fangirl… "Why does everyone keep saying that I have a thing for her?!" She shot up from the floor and glared at Weiss. "She is a friend and an admirable person but it's not like that!"

Weiss took a look at her and slightly giggled. "Your behavior and the mess trickling down your legs would beg to differ." She almost burst out laughing when Pyrrha regained all the shades of red she lost in the last few calm minutes. "What's your problem anyway? I admit, it took me some time to figure it out myself." Which was a complete bull, it was her prude of a sister that was tiptoeing around it for too long. "But when I finally got to it, I had a great time with Yang and it ended almost like I would have wanted." Accursed small body with no tolerance… "And now we are trying to make it work properly."

"So it's official, huh?" Pyrrha momentarily forgot about her own situation. At least she had finally received an explanation. "How is that supposed to help me?"

Weiss rolled her eyes at her. "Just ask her out. Don't even call it a date, just spend some time, have fun and things like that. Don't get drunk though. Yang would definitely kill you in that case." She explained while waving her hand to emphasize her words. "Or the invincible girl is scared of a sixteen year old girl?" She smirked and decided not to bring up that said little girl had the same amount of weaponry as an Atlasian battleship.

-BBW-

Something was really wrong. When Blake and Pyrrha locked eyes for the first time that day, Pyrrha gave her the most self satisfied smirk she could manage but refused to elaborate what it was about.

"...-elling you that this is a very important part of skin care!" Her ear twitched. Never a boring day with them as neighbors… She knocked on their door and called out. "Hey, keep it down at least for one day!" She playfully admonished them.

What she didn't expect was for the door to open and be dragged inside by Weiss. "Good you are here! I need a second opinion to convince the dunce!"

She didn't have any time to voice her objections before she was dragged to the center of their dorm. On the bed was a line-up of lotions, balsams and who knows what else. Ruby was sitting next to it and was giving her an awkward and slightly apologetic smile.

"Can I at least get an explanation?" Blake asked after taking a good look around and still not understanding what was Weiss' problem.

"She doesn't understand how important skin care is. I'm trying to correct it."

"I think you are exaggerating." While she would prefer to stick with Ruby and prove Weiss wrong, this was an issue she knew nothing about and would rather not make a fool of herself by accident. There was also a nice book waiting for her to come back to. "I'm not using any of it and everything is fine."

To her bewilderment, Weiss only scoffed and rolled up her sleeve. Then she only again grabbed her arm and did the same for her.

"Okay Ruby, now you can just compare and see the difference for yourself!" She held out her arm and motioned for Blake to do the same.

Ruby, seeing that Weiss wouldn't leave her be without obliging, traced her fingers across the presented skin.

"Wow! Yours is really smooth!" She exclaimed.

"Now, can you tell me why exactly you are doing this?" Blake asked, feeling slightly insulted over the fact that Weiss had smoother skin. "Or did you want to gloat and I was the unfortunate sod who was close by?"

Weiss waved her off. "I asked Ruby to teach me messages. And if I'm doing it, I'll be doing it properly without skipping important steps." She looked back at Ruby. "Do you see my point now?"

"Fine..." She relented with an eye roll. "So… Do you want to get Pyrrha so you could try it out or what?"

Blake's suspicion grew. "How did Pyrrha get involved?" She tried to ask inconspicuously.

"Oh, well, we needed somebody for practice and Pyrrha agreed to help." Ruby nonchalantly replied. "Actually," She turned to Weiss. "Pyrrha went to the gym with Yang, so we will probably have to wait for them to come back."

Weiss was silently watching Blake, wondering whether or not she would take the opportunity or not. She herself didn't care in particular but Ivory wanted for the two girls to get going and deal with the farce they started before it blew into everyone's faces. Besides, if it was Blake, then they would be able to simply kick them out and have the dorm for themselves.

Blake was internally seething. She tried to be nice and Pyrrha threw it into her face and now she was taking initiative! Worse, the Schnee made it look like an innocent friendly favor. But she wasn't here right now…

"Well, I've got some time and my shoulders feel a bit stiff… " She may have been only fourth in the combat ranking but damn, she was working her ass off to stay there. She was a bit skeptical about Weiss being there but didn't mind it that much. The girl was already taken and their intentions weren't at odds. She would still claw her eyes out if she touched the bow.

-BBW-

"For too long have we been ignored! No longer will we tolerate their hoarding! To arms comrades! We will retake what is rightfully ours!"

"Hurraaaay!"

Pyrrha watched in shock as Nora incited an actual rebellion against the senior students who have been using most of the gym equipment. She even made an improvised hammer out of the bench weights.

"I think we won't get anything done today…" She turned to Yang who was ignoring most of the chaos around and focusing on the few machines she liked to use.

"Yang? I wanted to ask you… a few things." Pyrrha lamely approached her. Yang didn't answer but she was paying attention to her and not the show Nora was putting on.

"Ehm… first off, I'm happy for you and Weiss!" Focus Nikos! You can do it! "Well, I wanted to ask you about… what does Ruby like? I mean how she spent her free time and-" She wanted to continue but Yang interrupted her.

"I'll stop you right here. Why are you asking me this?"

"I just… want to know her better." She gave Yang her professional smile and prayed that it would work.

Unfortunately, it didn't. "Right… and why don't you ask Ruby?"

"I didn't want to distract her from her work…" I really needed to prepare this better.

Yang released a long sign. "Okay, fine. Now, I don't know what is going on in your head but you are being stupid over some imaginary problems." They were skipping the workout so might as well deal with these issues. "First, Ruby, like me, prefers when people are straightforward so nobody has to second-guess every word. The rest is up to you to figure out."

"What?! But you barely gave me anything!"

"Duh. If I told you everything you would be her sister and the position is already," Her eyes momentarily turned red. "taken and I'm not sharing." She took a step back and reverted back to her more laid-back attitude. "It's your battle so figure it out yourself. Besides, there are things I don't know or don't want to know. We grew up on a small island that most people don't even know about so we certainly missed out on a few things."

-BBW-

In hindsight, giving Ruby a full bottle of lotion was probably a bad idea… Ivory though as she shot a quick look around. It was on the bed-sheets, it was on their clothes, on the floor and on the walls. Somehow, Ruby had more lotion on her face and in her hair than Blake had on her back. She didn't even want to know how.

*twitch*

But there was also another surprise, one that overshadowed Ruby's ability to make an enormous mess. She sat on the bed and watched Ruby work Blake's bare back as her bow kept twitching like crazy. She may have jumped the shark a bit when she told Blake to strip. She meant that the lotion wouldn't get on her clothes in that case. Surprisingly, she was more than happy to do so and 'accidentally' flashed Ruby in the process. Her only reaction being a few grumbles about being a late bloomer.

She could relate.

She would also have Blake pay for a new pillow. Initially, they gave her one to rest her head on. Now, there were a few holes in it after Blake had bitten down into it.

It was a better lesson than the previous one, Ruby had figured out how to teach properly so she did get better. She still wanted to shove Blake's foot into her own big mouth for a comment about cold hands, though.

"I think you have made enough of a mess already." She decided to intervene and end the session early. They had a lot to clean, afterall. "Go take a shower before you cover the school in that stuff!" She ordered Ruby, who surprisingly obeyed without any backtalk.

With Ruby gone, Blake broke down and started panting heavily into the saliva-soaked pillow. She didn't even want to think what the blanket under her was soaked with…

"Will you calm down on your own or should I bring a bucket?" She asked Blake, a small smirk on her face.

"You are enjoying this too much…" The now revealed faunus grumbled in reply.

"Of course." She admitted without shame. "I've got a valuable lesson from Ruby and also a quite enjoyable show from you. Also, I want a new pillow."

"Oh, I will give you one! How about I shove it up your ass?"

Is this what they mean, when they say that all cats are evil?

"If you say it, I won't let you take charge for at least a month!"

Are you going to ground me… in our head?

"Just don't make it worse than it already is. I still don't know what you are trying to accomplish. Blake and Pyrrha will probably only fight more now."

"Hmm… No. Even if I was into that, it wouldn't be you doing it." "Of for the love of- you did not just say that?!" Weiss raged at her twin's loose mouth.

"Oh? So who is the unlucky guy who got your interest?" Despite being very tired after the ordeal, she still had plenty of snark to throw around. "Does he still have any blood left or you sucked it all out?"

Two large paws landed next to her shoulders and a low growl went straight into her ears. "Be careful, Belladonna." Her voice was still somewhat playful but the venomous undertones were clear. "I'm all for the friendly remarks but watch what you say. Especially when it concerns people I cherish."

She let the beowolf dissolve into nothing only for Ruby to kick the bathroom door open. "I heard grimm! Are you alright?!" She shouted out, stark naked, gun in hand and giant thorns of compressed petals hanging behind her.

While Blake was enjoying the show, Ivory let Weiss take the wheel before she did something too back to Blake. "How many times do we have to tell you to not bring weapons into shower!?"

Blake chuckled. "Is this a regular occurrence?"

"Ruby pulling out guns at every opportunity or somebody ignoring every rule of modesty?" Weiss asked for clarification.

"...yes?" Blake was unsure she really wanted to know. When it came to her team, Nora took care of both parts, with Magnhild always being somewhere in the dorm no matter how many times they put it out and her walking around the room naked about every other morning. Neither her nor Ilia knew how the hell Ren was able to handle it.

"There are at least three complete guns and one disassembled lying around here somewhere. Yang regularly walks out of bathroom naked because she doesn't use towels-"

"How does-"

"She dries herself with her semblance." Weiss already guessed the question. "Pyrrha has probably the most daring lingerie I have ever seen and she doesn't even bother to hide it. Ruby would probably spend all day in her pajamas if given a chance. So yes, this place is regularly a crime against sanity, especially mine!"

"You really needed to get that out of your system didn't you?" Blake asked, seeing the heiress finish her rant and out of breath.

-BBW-

This will be awesome! Ruby had everything ready for the 'operation friendship'. Both her and Blake's team would spend the day together and in the process they would not only repair Blake's and Pyrrha's friendship, but also strengthen their ties all-together! They would play games, go around the city and anything else they wanted. It was going to be great!

/

"How…can I help you?" Weiss warily asked. She was rather uncomfortable with the way Blake and Pyrrha were glaring at her.

"That's the thing, I didn't want your help. So why the hell did you get involved?"

"Even if it was enjoyable…"

"Shut it you perv-"

"Hypocrite."

"Anyway, didn't you tell me that you were helping me?"

"Please, like she cared about you like that. She just wanted to learn how to pleasure her own darling. You were just a convenient test subject!"

"And yet you actually volunteered!"

This is exactly what I wanted to avoid! Go deal with your problems yourself!

While the two of them were slowly descending into a shouting match, neither noticed Weiss' expression change, her posture becoming more controlled and after a few more seconds of watching the argument she intervened.

"Would you keep it down? Or do you want to get the entire building involved in your non-existent lovelife?" She casually remarked.

Both girls immediately ended their argument and went back to glaring at her.

"Now that you are both listening." She met their angry glares head on. "Frankly, your petty squabbles have been a headache and-"

The door was kicked open and Ruby rushed in, Yang casually walking in after her. Is knocking only used in Atlas?

"Guys! Oh! Hey Blake, you are here, great!" Ruby was extremely jittery and was barely staying in one place. "Okay! Here is the plan. We will all go out, both our teams and we will have a blast!" She announced with a beaming smile. "C'mon, we need to get the rest!"

"Actually… I don't know where Ilia is." Blake replied. Actually, she disappeared the day before right after classes… Didn't even come back for the night. "Ren and Nora are doing their own thing and if Nora is to be believed it is important and we shouldn't disturb them."

"Bummer." That took the wind out of Ruby's sails but she quickly bounced back. "Okay, so it will be my team plus Blake!"

"I wouldn't want to-"

"Well, me and Yang had our own ideas about how to spend this day." Weiss interrupted and flashed Ruby an apologetic smile. She quickly walked up to Yang and tried to hide behind her larger frame.

"What..?" Ruby was completely shaken. Her great plan was falling apart right in front of her.

Yang put her hands on her sister's shoulders. "Relax, I'm sure you will have fun without us slowing you down!" She gave her a small kiss on the forehead. "Look at you, all grown up! Taking care of two other girls." She flashed her a proud grin and left the room along with Weiss at a brisk pace.

Ruby stood rooted in place for a few moments, her mind processing the greatest of betrayals she had ever felt. When it was done, she rushed to the door and yelled across the hallway. "YOU TRAITORS!" before smashing the door closed. "Well screw them! We will have a great time! So great they will be sooo jealous! They will forever regret ditching me!... I mean us!"

Pyrrha and Blake shared an uneasy smile.

-BBW-

"You owe me for this one." Yang whispered to Weiss as they were boarding the flight to the city. She really didn't want her sister to think that she left her. Never, no matter the reason.

"I'm sorry." Weiss squeezed her hand a bit tighter. "But we both agreed to it."

"Yeah…" She took one last look back and saw Ruby lead her two followers towards the landing zone. They wouldn't be flying the same but at least they decided to do something together. "So, what's the plan?"

"Oh! Well, I have two tickets to the opera. Then I was thinking about a nice lunch and a walk through the harbor." Weiss replied with a smile. "Don't worry about the opera, I'm sure you'll like it." Yang read a lot of history books… for whatever reason, so a thematically appropriate show should do fine.

"What do you want to do at the harbor?" Unless it was smuggling of any kind, Yang couldn't think of any reason why Weiss would want to go there.

"The Vytal festival will soon start and I heard that Vale went all out with the decorations. Also, some of the competitors should be arriving so I thought we will give them a proper welcome."

"You want to spy on them don't you?"

"Considering how much you and Ruby don't care about it, I have no other choice. Can you imagine trying to convince her to go there with that kind of reason?"

"Yeah, yeah. Two girls who grew up in the woods, remember? We weren't exactly that much into the fancy tournament stuff." Yang laughed it off.

Weiss rolled her eyes but the smile was still on her lips. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you grew up in the wilderness, chasing grimm as soon as you could walk."

/

/

/

Okay, I may have screwed up the continuity by essentially cutting out about a month of time but this highschool drama was destroying the pacing. Anyway, I'm moving along with the actual plot and some of the side characters will actually become a bit more relevant. At least for a bit.