"Blake."

Trying to ignore your partner is pretty hard, don't you think?

"Blake."

Especially when they're someone like Yang.

"Blake. Blake. Blake."

It doesn't help that we're in class and I'm trying to listen to Professor Port's lecture.

"BLAKE!"

I don't understand how he hasn't kicked her out of the class yet.

"BlakeBlakeBlakeBlakeBlake."

Seriously, kick her out already. I'll do all her work for the class. Just let me pay attention. I probably know all this stuff already anyway.

"Blake, stop ignoring me."

I slowly turned to look at her, and was about to open my mouth to shush her when a certain moustachioed teacher cleared his throat.

"Miss Belladonna, am I boring you?"

I just shook my head. He grunted and went back to his lecture. Thank you Yang. Thank you so very much. Well, at least she stopped bothering me. Now I might be able to get something out of this class.

"Blaaaaake."

Father God, forgive me, for I am about to commit murder.

Bless you, Nora Valkyrie.

It is because of that unbelievably loud and obnoxious girl that I can get a moment of silence at lunchtime. Please don't misunderstand. There was by no means actual legitimate silence, or even peace. There was more noise than usual, but absolutely none of it was directed towards me.

Nora was going off on some inane tangent about battling something that I don't think was ever a real thing. I wasn't really paying attention, but Yang sure was. She was completely engrossed in the tale. I was taking full advantage of the lucky break and spending some time reading a book.

For those of you who are wondering, no I'm not reading Ninjas Of Love. We're in the lunchroom and everyone is here. I only read that one when I'm alone, and I'd probably have to commit Seppuku if anyone ever found it. Why am I telling you about this?

All good things must come to an end, of course. When Yang suddenly elbowed me, the book flew out of my hands. I didn't even get to check what page I was on. Curse you, Yang. Guilo was about to foil Gordon Mayer's attempt to sway the votes. Now I have to wait to find out who wins the vote. What do you want, Yang?

She just stared at me, looking like she expected that I had been paying attention to Nora. "Don't you think that was great? I never knew you could do that with donuts!"

I picked my book up off the seat beside me and smoothed out the wrinkled pages, glaring at Yang in the process. "It's amazing how you can pay more attention to Nora at lunchtime than to any of the professors in the actual classes."

Yang snorted at me. "What's wrong with you today? First you're getting in trouble in class and now you're snapping at me for I don't even know what."

"You're the one who got me into trouble in class, and I was enjoying the peace and quiet until you disturbed me."

Yang gestured to the room around us. "Peace and quiet? No such thing here."

"There was until you started talking." I reopened my book and began flipping through the pages looking for the place I had left off.

Without any sort of warning, the book disappeared from my hands. I looked up to find it being held above me by my partner. At least she had her thumb holding it open to the right spot.

Yang stared at me for a moment, her mouth gaping. It was undoubtedly the calm before the storm, because I think I may have said something she didn't like. She found some words eventually. "Are you saying I talk too much?"

"Ruby talks more than you. You're just really loud. Can I have my book back?"

"So you're saying I have an annoying voice, then."

"No, that's Weiss. You're just really loud." That's probably going to come back to-

"Did she just say that I have an annoying voice?"

Baka.

Time for damage control. "Everyone's annoying in their own special way. The trick is to tolerate as many as you can."

All conversation at the table seemed to stop at this point. Yes, I think I know where I screwed up. Maybe I'm not as good at damage control as I thought I was. Or maybe people just don't like to hear that their annoying.

Pyrrha was the one who tried to talk first. "I find it hard to believe you actually think that's true. It's an awfully pessimistic viewpo-"

But of course Nora interrupted. "I bet I talk too much!"

Everyone looked at me expectantly. What do you want? I'm not digging this hole any deeper. I'll break through the crust and into the mantle.

Ren pulled me out of the spotlight. "Actually, if I had any complaint about you, Nora, that wouldn't be it."

Nora sighed and sat back down. "Darn. I'd rather know what people don't like about me. If that's not it, then I'm clueless."

Yang shook her head. "There's nothing not to like, Nora. You're awesome. Some people just have difficulty seeing that." She glared down at me as she said that last bit. This really needs to stop before it goes any further.

"Sorry I said anything. I didn't really mean any of that, I just... want to read my book in peace. Can I please have it back?" I held out my hand, hoping Yang would be kind enough to return my property.

She shook the book in my face. "Alright, but we're talking about this later."

I took the book. "Sure." Later isn't now, so I'll deal with it when the time comes. She grunted, sounding unsatisfied, but sat down and turned away from me.

I flipped through the pages until I found where I had left off. Everyone else slowly went back to their conversations. I got a few more lines into the story, when I was interrupted in the most heinous way conceivable. This time, Yang wasn't even the perpetrator. No, it was far worse than that.

Cardin Winchester patted me on the head. He said some block-headed pseudo-compliment intended to possibly distract me from the unwanted physical contact. Okay, so I don't know what he was trying to accomplish, but I do know his hand lingered to long tracing the outline of my bow.

Seeing as he likely doesn't have many fans that will be reading this, I think it's okay if I tell you that Cardin hit the floor a second later. I hope I dislocated his jaw. It would only be justice after his jaw broke the spine of my book.

"You're gonna pay for that one." He stood up. I let him stand up, and that was my mistake. It wasn't hard to notice that his team was all present. That's okay, I've got a team of my own...

When I looked behind me, only Ruby had stood up. She was quickly pulled back into her seat by Yang, who added a comment. "Don't look to us. We're just a bunch of annoying people."

Yang... don't make me cut off your ahoge.

Well, thankfully, Yang can't stop Nora. No one can stop Nora. She bounded over the table, and Yang's head, with her hammer in her hands. I was not aware that we were allowed to bring our weapons into the lunchroom, but seeing as it's Nora... it might really not be allowed.

"Geronimo!"

The boys scattered, and I again commend Nora for saving me a lot of trouble because that gave us enough time for someone else to step in. I mean, it should have. It didn't, so we ended up running for our lives. Just me and Nora, running through the halls of Beacon, being chased by four angry bird-brains.

We lost them at some point, but I really don't know how long we kept running afterwards. All I know is that when we stopped, Nora was laughing like... well... Nora, and we only stopped because I ran into someone.

Or rather, I tripped over someone. They were lying face down on the ground. I flipped them over onto their back, and recognized her as Velvet Scarlatina. We've never really talked, but I've seen Cardin picking on her. That guy is really a jerk in every way. Anyway, I wonder what she's doing in the middle of the hallway like this.

She opened her eyes slowly and stared up at me, eventually smiling weakly. I don't think I've ever seen her smile. Strange... She reached up and brushed her fingers across my face, which felt sorta weird, so I pulled back a bit. She seemed really out of it, so I started to check her for injuries. She wasn't bleeding anywhere, and she wasn't showing any signs of broken bones. I'm pretty sure she was in perfect health.

She reached up and lightly swatted at the top of my head, so I back further away. I'd rather she didn't get too close to my bow. There's a very good reason I wear it and... and I'm not saying anything else about that to you or anyone else.

Beside me, I heard Nora stop laughing for a moment. "Oh, wow..."

I looked up at her. "What?"

"Oh, nothing..." She went back to laughing.

Then I felt Velvet's hand gently grab onto... where my bow should have been, and she let out a quiet giggle. "I thought they were real."

...

Baka.

Author's Notes: So... what is this? We'll find out in the coming days. This story because... Blake is adorable. Velvet is also adorable. And Blake needs more love. Yang's getting all of Blake's well-deserved love. It's not right. This is all for Blake.