Author's Note: Hey guys... Wow, it's been a couple months, huh... I was trying to finish this whole chapter for Christmas, but the rest of my time has been taken up for the holidays, so consider this a shitty Christmas gift XD

So, I have a couple of things I'd like to talk about, you can skip this if you don't care. First off, I'd like to apologize for taking a loooooong time to write this. I've been having some trouble getting back into the groove of writing, this story especially, and I'm so so grateful for your patience, it's helped me out a lot.

Secondly, I'd also like to say sorry for the dozens and dozens of errors?! I'm sure a bunch of you have already noticed how little planning really went into this XD I'm still busy correcting them, some of you even came to me with questions because I didn't make certain things clear or didn't include some concepts that could've been way more logical to the RWBY universe. I'm still in the process of correcting an error in the last part of the 3rd chapter lol

So, lastly, thanks for reading this story at all, I know that for some this kind of story is a difficult topic, but I'd like to shed some light on it and maybe even get other authors to write stories like this, because there are writers with way better talent than me that could do gender-related tales like this more justice.

Anyways, enjoy!

"So what's this room?"

Blake was pointing with her clear-painted nails towards a white wooden door decorated with blue and white flowers along the panels, detailed with swirls and vines. The handle was golden and brass, wiped clean of any previous finger prints from a working maid.

"That's the door to the maid's quarters," Weiss clarified. She opened the door, feeling bad for ruining the polished door handle, to show her the short hallway, with the various other doors inside. "It's where a fifth of the maids sleep. They each have their own bedrooms, an elevator, and a communal bathroom. There's a storage closet in the back too filled with cleaning supplies. I use it sometimes when they're all busy," she added.

Blake, for probably the 50th time, dropped her jaw. "You have an entire area on the 3rd floor dedicated for your maids?" she demanded.

"Well, yeah," Weiss replied sheepishly. "I mean, the 1st floor one is nicer, since they have a kitchen and full bathroom with tubs and showers, but they have access to those amenities too if they wish, it's just... farther away."

"We skipped the downstairs maid quarters?!"

It had been like this for the past half hour or so. Blake's impulse to work on their Ursai project had basically vanished by the time they went up from the 1st floor, now exchanged for a sense of uncontrolled curiosity. The "quick tour" that Weiss hadn't even intended to give had gone on for quite a while. So far they had gone around the first floor, visiting the public living room, the private living room, the dining room, the ballroom, and the spacious kitchen, before eventually heading up the stairs to the 2nd floor, in which Blake had begged they'd stop to look around. They had passed the 2nd floor living room, the sunroom, the guest's quarters hallway, and the main bathroom, which Blake had spent several minutes rubbing her bare feet against the heated marbled floor, running her hands over the sleek counters and even hopping briefly in the giant indoor hot tub, admiring the various jets and settings.

As adorable as it had been to see her have so much fun, Weiss couldn't help but feel a little guilty for bringing her to the mansion now. It didn't feel fair. Clearly Blake had never lived in such a big house, and her family's wealth was starting to feel more embarrassing than she'd thought. Compared to Blake's childhood, of moving between different households since she had no parents, Weiss had lived a more privileged, expensive lifestyle. It made her stomach twist uncomfortably at the thought of it.

"So, do you have your own, uh, 'quarters'?" Blake asked inquisitively, the flowery door now behind them. They were now on the 3rd floor, about to pass by her sister Winter's quarters, the communal study, and the family battle arena.

"Er, yeah, I do..." Weiss responded shyly. The idea of Blake in her quarters at all made her heart skip. Not that it wasn't throbbing like an arrow in her rib cage already. "I mean, do you want to start heading up there soon? It's on the fourth floor. Or we could always work in the big study, it's on this floor. We could also go to my sister's private study, she has nicer computers, but she's not home so the door might be locked..."

"Can we check out the big study?" Blake's amber eyes sparkled with excitement. She suddenly shook her head, shutting her eyes as her fingertips went to her temples to push some escaped strands of hair away. "Oh my god, I can't," she laughed. "Can we just check out the rest of this floor? This is just... so amazing!"

With any other person, maybe Weiss would've sighed. Her patience might've already been at its end if this had been with someone else. But with Blake, Weiss just couldn't say no. Moments of seeing Blake acting passionate some days felt rare. Even when they had been seeing each other at the library, Blake had only ever gotten animated whenever talking about something she loved, especially novels or book series. Now, whenever the two had conversation, it was only really about how their day was going, classes they had together, and the project they were working on. It was never about anything remotely interesting. To see her genuinely enjoying herself as they went around the mansion made Weiss want to smile as weirdly wide as she possibly could and wrap her arms around her.

She shrugged. "Why not?" Blake grinned and, as if without thinking, let her hand swoop by and into Weiss', grasping hers. Weiss swore she couldn't hear a heartbeat drumming inside of her for at least 3 seconds. "Lead me," Blake murmured, biting her lip as if to hold down the enthusiasm in her voice.

Weiss could hardly believe it. Blake was in so much awe that she was willing to hold hands with her?! She wondered for an intense second if Blake would suddenly realize what she had done and take it back, slipping her warm palm away from hers. But she just stood there, her fingers laced with hers, waiting expectantly for Weiss to start walking. She couldn't tell if this was just something that Blake regularly did with friends (which it didn't seem to be over the summer), or if this was something purely, maybe, impetuous. It brought her back to yesterday, how when she had brushed some of Blake's bangs away from her face, and the awkward heavy tension that had come with it. Was she possibly trying to make up for it? Sure, what Weiss had done had been a little out of line, but Blake's disappointed reaction was more painful to see.

Trying her hardest not to scream, Weiss shuffled with Blake hand-in-hand (hand-in-hand) down towards the upstairs ballroom, transformed over the years into an indoor mini battle arena where she and Winter used to train together. They looked in for a moment to see the gothic-like style of the room and the gigantic statue that resembled a medieval knight. "Subtle," Blake had said. They had passed through the big study, where Weiss showed her the various desks and drawers filled with office supplies, from construction paper to fountain pens, spare notebooks to dictionaries. They even went into a spare room which Weiss' parents had turned into a place to house their enormous wine bottle collection. Shelves upon shelves upon shelves were crowded with them: Weiss had wished that they had skipped that door, but Blake had wanted to see. She was certain that she thought that her parents were alcoholics now.

After they skimmed by Winter's quarters, Blake let out a slow exhale, as if breathing into the atmosphere. "Wow, well... this has been insane," she giggled. She pivoted on her heels towards Weiss, the light in her eyes seeming less fired up, now calmer. "Should we start working on the project now?"

Weiss nodded in agreement. They should probably get working soon. It was only 4:30PM, and they had a lot of work to do. "Yeah, let's just go up to my rooms," she told her. "I'll have the maids make dinner while we work. Does 6 o'clock work for you?"

Blake's lips curled into a smile. "Uh-huh. That sounds perfect."

Weiss proceeded to lead Blake up the next set of stairs, as somehow their hands were still locked, and up on to the 4th floor, where she brought her directly to the door to her quarters, swayed open from when she had rushed out and down to the 1st floor. "So, this is where I am," Weiss said awkwardly as they padded down the wooden flooring of the hall. Blake, as if sensing the tension, immediately unlaced her fingers from hers, the warmth disappearing like a candle going out. A part of Weiss was disappointed and anxious that she had let go so quickly, but she shoved the notion away.

"Um, I have a bedroom, a bathroom, a study, and a storage room for clothes that I don't wear..." She opened the door to her bedroom and led her inside, clicking the door behind her, hoping the place looked tidy enough. When she turned, she noticed with low-key horror the rejected outfit she'd dismissed lying on her bed, and the black strapless dress left abandoned on the floor. Damn it. She could've at least thrown both of them in her closet.

"Whoa, nice bed," Blake remarked. Thankfully her reaction hadn't been as exuberant compared to the other rooms. She shifted over towards it, where she picked up the gray tank top with a hand, admiring it. "And this is a cute top," she added.

"Th-Thanks," Weiss stuttered. "Sorry, I left some clothes out." She rushed over to the dress on the carpet and opened the door of her closet, tossing it inside. Quickly trying to come up with something to say, she thought of how Blake had showed up without a backpack or anything. It struck her as a bit puzzling. "So, did you bring anything?"

"Shit, I was gonna tell you when I came in." Blake's gaze averted to the floor, her eyebrows now furrowed with irritation. "My foster sibling is going out camping tonight and ended up borrowing my school backpack because he couldn't find his, so I didn't have much of a way of bringing all my books here. And the family computer isn't exactly portable, so I copied all of my notes online in an email sent to myself before I got here. So..." she looked up to Weiss nervously, apologetic. "I was wondering if you had an extra computer you could spare?" she asked.

Weiss blinked. "Oh."

Blake's left, perfectly plucked, eyebrow lifted. "O-Oh?"

"Why didn't you say so?" Weiss headed over to her desk and opened up one of the lower drawers. After a bit of digging around, blowing dust on the old devices, she latched her fingers onto one in particular and produced a gray, 11.6 inch Apple MacBook Air, an other hand holding its charging cord. "I get a bunch of computers from relatives for my birthday," she explained. "It's a lazy gift, you know? Usually only $1,000 or $2,000, only the ones that care bother to get something wild go up by 5 times."

Instead of gasping like how Weiss had expected her to, Blake just put her hands to her face and moaned softly. "Your family is crazy," she declared.

"I agree," Weiss replied. She held out the laptop to her. "So does this work for you?"

Blake smiled, taking it out of her hands. "Absolutely."

So that was it! Yeah, this one's kinda short and probably not as good as the other chapters, but I'm attempting to build up to a bigger moment soon XD

I can't make any promises about when the next one will come, because if I did make one, I probably wouldn't be able to keep it... But all I can say is: I'm working on getting it finished, I'm still in the process of finding my old writing style again (since it was a lot better), and I would've taken longer on writing this particular chapter, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting even longer than you already have...

P.S. The wine bottle room will be important :D

Anyways, leave me a review to tell me if you liked it or hated it! I could really use the feedback and advice, it'll help me out loads :) Thanks for reading, and merry holidays! lmao