So I don't often preface stuff, well, I try not to, but today is a bit special.

TRIPLE UPDATE DAY! :D

However, that's not why I'm prefacing this particular chapter. Rather it's a bit of a story that I'd like to share before you read.

Initially I wrote chapter 82 and sent it to a good friend of mine to see if Nora and Weiss were in-character because its been a time and a half since I last wrote them… and somehow (which involved surprisingly no coercion) he wrote a much better version of the chapter.

At that point I was going to just post his as a guest chapter, but it was suggested to me to post both; I already did the leg work on one of them, so why the heck not?

The first chapter will be mine and the second will be Super Saiyan Cyndaquil's version.

Please leave a comment on which you think is better :P

It could be said that Weiss was… thoroughly enjoying her date.

In fact, she might just have started to regret every time she turned Yang down when she went to the academy's gym.

Admittedly, that had mostly to do with watching the woman in front of her – no, her girlfriend, the phrase still somewhat foreign to the atlesian's mind – slowly go through her weight training. Which in turn had a lot, A LOT to do with the bulging, well defined muscles that Nora seemed to unconsciously find the best possible way to show off with every motion.

On a subconscious level, Weiss knew that Nora was strong; the girl could bench press a literal ton – and that was without her using her semblance. Yet it had never sunk into Weiss that the rather small girl had abs that might as well have been the chiseled from granite, which seemed to draw her light blue eyes to without fail. In fact-

"Weiss?" Bright turquoise eyes stared imploringly at her clearly waiting for an answer that the girl had not the faintest clue about as Weiss tried to act as if she hadn't been ogling her date's muscles.

"Could you repeat that?" Inwardly, Weiss was kicking herself as the words leapt unbidden from her lips. A stupid phrase that all but pointed out she hadn't been paying the best attention.

Nora didn't seem to be perturbed in the slightest, however. "Wanna spot for me?"

"Naturally."

Nora's lips lit up in a smile. "How heavy can you do?"

"How much do you usually bench?"

"Well, usually when Pyrrha's with me we do at least five hundred, sometimes a thousand!" Nora's excitement dimmed. "But we don't have to do that much if you don't want to…"

In Weiss' mind an instant battle took place; Nora wants to do more than I can lift – do I say a safe, if embarrassing amount I can actually lift, or just hope that she doesn't drop it? Moreover, do I admit that I can't do it? It was a decision done in an instant as Weiss picked the less… intelligent of the two options.

"Go as heavy as you want." Weiss flashed her a confident smile. "I can handle it." Go big or go home as the saying went.

"Really?" Nora blinked in surprise. "Are you sure that you can handle it?"

"Of course I can." Weiss replied, almost wounded that her girlfriend didn't believe in her – admittedly she had every reason not to trust in Weiss' word given the white haired girl was sure she could maybe bench her own weight in weights and that was it. Even that was a big, big maybe.

"…44…" The bench creaked unsteadily as Nora lifted the weight again, Weiss hovering next to her to catch it in case it was too much.

Not that Weiss had much to worry, as Nora worked like a tireless machine, not wavering in the slightest. It was because of that, that Weiss' attention strayed once more.

This close to Nora, Weiss started to pick out little details on her. Like how her tongue hung out a bit as she concentrated, or how she was truly doing the kind of form that a gym trainer would applaud. Or how her hair was parted, the way her bangs curled. Or how her eyes shone…

"Are you not having fun?"

For a moment Weiss didn't realize that the words came from Nora, as they were quite unlike anything she heard from the girl; calm, almost collected. Resigned. Or the fact that she kept on bench pressing away.

"I'm… enjoying myself." Weiss stated diplomatically after a moment.

"You don't look like you are." Nora's words held a neutral tone, yet Weiss couldn't help but feel a hint of something accusatory to it. "We could do something el-"

"I really am enjoying myself." The white haired girl protested, more than a little indignant at the accusation.

"Do you want to have a go at it?" Nora shot back almost instantly, her eyes darting sideways, avoiding Weiss'.

"No, I'm quite fine at the moment." Weiss retorted a tad too fast – my arms would break if I tried to lift THAT. A single white eyebrow rose, "is something the matter…?"

Nora's lips compressed into a frown. "You keep zoning out…"

"Oh." Heat started to tinge the back of Weiss' neck, the contrast deep against her normally pale skin and pastel workout clothes. "Sorry." Embarrassment and apologizing – things that Weiss would normally never show, very much admit out loud. "I was… distracted."

"Distracted?" Nora's brow furrowed. "By my abs?"

Shit.

"They have a certain… appealing quality to them." Weiss didn't think her face could get any redder. "They're very attractive, to say the least."

Weiss got to see the heat mirrored on Nora's face for a moment, a happy smile crossing out the frown…

…only for Nora to lose focus, the half a ton weight dropping like lead into Weiss' hands.

"Weiss are you okay?!"

That was my version. I couldn't actually figure out how to do a last line so I just sorta decided to abstain and hope that the final line was a good enough punch line.

Now on to Super Saiyan Cyndaquil's version!

Weiss hated everything.

It was just some things she hated a little less than others.

Working out was one of those things that topped her list of most hated activities she could possibly be spent doing. It was why she turned down Yang's every offer to go to Beacon Academy's world renowned gym.

Having said that, one thing Weiss hated a little less than most was her girlfriend Nora, whose presence she tolerated just often enough to go on the occasional odd date. Today's venue being the gym she would ordinarily never be caught dead in.

"Okay, Weiss! Today is biceps!" Nora skipped gleefully over to a bench with a long bar positioned over it. "How about we start with some basic barbell reps?" She pat the long bar like it was an old-time friend and not an inanimate object whose purpose was to either choke or crush you. "So… how much do you think you can bench?"

Weiss' nose crinkled as Nora's turquoise eyes gazed at her with the intense curiosity. The question she asked carried numerous undertones. Optimistically speaking, Nora was asking to help choose which weight would be appropriate for Weiss to get the best possible gains. Weiss, however, was not an optimist.

Instead, she saw Nora's question for all the smug intentions that it truly held hidden beneath the surface. No matter what number Weiss gave, her girlfriend would surely be able to bench more. Without knowing what that number was, however, Weiss had no idea of knowing what would be considered a remotely acceptable figure. She needed more information.

"You're the expert here." Weiss folded her arms and rolled both eyes in a display to show she was onto Nora's nefarious shenanigans. "How much is it you usually do?"

"Hmm…" Nora adorably placed an index finger on her chin and mulled the question. "Depends, I suppose. If I'm not going for a set, I can bench about a 1000 lbs, but when I come with Pyrrha I only do about 500 because I'm worried she's not going to be able to properly spot me if I do more than that."

A t-thousand!?

Weiss had to bite her tongue, lest she shout out loud. Instead, she kept her internal thoughts to herself. "O-oh…" She nodded as if it was common sense. "You're obviously talking with the use of your Semblance."

Nora giggled. "Oh no. That's without it silly."

"Are you a goddamned monster!"

Oops. She shouted that out loud.

"Don't worry, Weissy-micey!" Nora completely ignored her outburst, for better or worse, and proceeded to use that horrid nickname she had come up for her just last week. What part of Mice were supposed to be endearing? "I brought something just your level, cause I thought you might not be able to handle anything the gym had."

"Say what!?" Weiss gave an indignant cry, but Nora ignored that too. The enthusiastic bomber girl was digging through the duffle bag she brought with her.

"Ta dah!" With a triumphant shout and dazzling smile, Nora produced two fluffy pink teddy bears.

"..." Weiss' eye twitched. "What. Are. Those?"

"They're your weights!" Nora squeezed one of the bear's and it gave the most kawaii ugly "Kyun!" Weiss had ever heard. Her heart only skipped a beat because the sound was akin to nails on chalkboard. No other reason. None.

Nora skipped around the bar, sticking a bear on both ends, each time the bear making another hideous noise as it was squeezed against the bar. Then her girlfriend stood behind the bar and pat it enthusiastically. "Come on! This should be no problem for you!"

Weiss almost refused out of instinct. It was humiliating. She would be the laughing stock of the gym if everyone saw her lifting… those. Then she had another thought: Was Nora was insinuating that this was the most she could do?

That was even more unacceptable than any kind of social stigma she could acquire by being seen benching a couple teddy bears. She would show her. She was about to bench the shit out of those bears.

"Let's just get this over with." Weiss laid down on the bench, looking straight up. While laying down, she definitely didn't stop and take a second to appreciate the angle of Nora's cleavage the position gave her. She didn't. Okay? It didn't happen.

"I'm ready to spot you any time. Just let me know if you need help. Let's go for ten full reps." Nora took Weiss's hand and placed them in the proper position on the bar.

"Hmm, I can do a hundred." Weiss slipped the bar off the notches holding it above her head.

And immediately lost the ability to breathe.

The bar fell straight down, Weiss' arms not slowing it in the slightest. It now pushed down with all the weight of a Goliath on her trachea.

Ah. So this is how I die.

Done in by my girlfriend.

Here lies Weiss. Choked by two Teddy Bears in a gym.

"Oh my gosh, Weiss-micey, are you okay?" The bar was lifted off her not a moment later. Nora easily lifting it and placing it back on the notches.

Like Hell I am! Weiss tried to shout that. What she actually ended up saying was something more along the lines of "Grghlt, pimendrflsng!"

It took her several seconds to regain her breath enough to actually speak in words that could be considered human. "How much is this freaking bar!?" It was most certainly the bar's fault. The bears couldn't have been the problem.

"It's only like twenty lbs…" Nora rubbed her chin, looking just as clueless as Weiss felt. "I don't understand what happened. I only loaded the bears with like 100 lbs of lead each. I thought for sure you could handle that."

"..."

"..."

"...I hate you."

"Aww… shucks, Weissy. I hate you too." Nora blushed bashfully and leaned forward, lips puckered.

"No, I mean I actually-" You know what? Forget it. Weiss couldn't say no when Nora made that face. And she had kind of saved her life.

She was just going to have to forget that her girlfriend was the one that nearly killed her in the first place.

AU: Personally I like Super Saiyan Cyndaquil's far better than my own. I would love to see what people think, however!

Dilation should be up next, if all goes according to plan. I've noticed the site has been dropping my email notifications and if that's the case I might hold off. Alternatively, this will be the first time I'll be posting via mobile as I'll be away from the desktop. So either of those could result in Dilation or Acceptance being held off until later in the day.

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