Weiss took a few deep breaths and set her left foot forward. Her light blue eyes were locked onto a human shaped ragdoll gliding back and forth across the opposite side of the training area, but her mind was elsewhere.

"You look pretty."

Weiss tightened her grip on Myrtenaster as images of Ruby flowed through her mind. From her cute smile to her constantly saying things like "me and Yang" as opposed to "Yang and I", Ruby had managed to poison Weiss' mind.

Weiss took a deep breath and tried to steady her blade as the target began to drift into a desirable striking position.

'Now,' Weiss glided forward rapidly, Myrtenaster aimed toward the center of her target's chest.

"Uh oh," Ruby muttered through a mouth full of popcorn, somehow managing to look even more like an adorable, yet spastic, dunce than ever.

Myrtenaster wavered slightly before piercing into the dummy.

The ragdoll emitted long drawn out creaks as it came to a stop. Weiss was almost afraid to open her eyes and see exactly where she had struck the target.

Her breathing grew sporadic and heavy as she slowly lifted her eyelids.

She had struck her target in the shoulder. She wasn't even close. Weiss' hands trembled a bit as she pulled her rapier out of the target and gave it a quick slash across the chest.

Weiss clenched her teeth and lowered Myrtenaster until its tip was lightly brushing against the stone floor.

'You need to get over her.' Weiss thought almost bitterly as she walked back across the large empty training hall. 'She gave you a chance and she's not interested.' Weiss took a deep breath and ran her sleeve over her eyes before pressing a button on her Scroll and moving back into position to strike at the target again.

Weiss took a deep breath; her rapier stretched outward, "I need to move on." Weiss whispered to herself, her miserable and hollow voice barely audible in her own ears.

"Hiya Weiss,"

Lightning ran through Weiss as Ruby's unforgettable cheerful, but somewhat nervous, voice called from the doorway. Weiss cleared her throat and paid a small glance over towards the silver eyes that were watching her. "Hello Ruby,"

Awkward silence filled the air for a few seconds as it became dense and unreasonably heavy in Weiss' chest. It was like someone had replaced the oxygen in the room with liquid cement, or at least that's what it felt like as Weiss' chest lifted and fell.

"So, how's your training going." Ruby asked nervously as she rubbed the back of her head.

"It's going well." Weiss muttered as she lowered her gaze to the floor.

Silence filled the air again as Weiss waited for some sort of reply.

"So… Can I join you?"

Weiss stiffened and darted her eyes back to Ruby. Her eyes narrowed a bit as she watched the girl with curiosity. 'Why?' Weiss thought, the silence outside of her mind accompanied by the whining creaks emanating from the dummy gliding around on the opposite side of the room.

Weiss wasn't able to produce any sort of reasonable explanation though. Why would Ruby be acting so eager to train with her?

'Perhaps…'

"… Alright, there are some foils in that closet over there. Go over and grab us a pair."

Ruby blinked a few times. "Uh, Weiss, I don't know how to fence. Can't I just use Crescent Rose or…" Ruby began to trail off near the end as Weiss turned to her and glared with a single raised eyebrow. There was a brief pause, "I'll go get the foils."

"Mhmm," Weiss chimed as she pulled out her Scroll and reprogrammed the dummy to stop drifting aimlessly in the background and return to a human-sized opening in the wall. "So, who told you I was down here."

A loud clatter filled the air as Ruby rummaged around in the weapons closet. "Yang did. Blake told me you and Yang were studying in the library, but when I got there she said you went off to go and get some training in before dinner."

'So, she's been looking for me. Maybe my hunch was right.'

"Yang looked like she was happy; are you two getting along again?" Ruby asked as she stumbled out of the closet with a foil in each hand.

"Yes, I gave her a proper apology and to make up for my behavior I've been helping her study for a few classes. Toss me a foil."

"Is this going to be safe? I don't have one of those masks or-"

"You'll be fine," Weiss stated with complete confidence as she received her foil in her left hand and rolled her wrist a few times. "Just use your aura whenever I hit you."

Ruby blinked a couple of times with concern as Weiss approached her with her foil held low. She quickly swept her foil straight into the air and folded her elbow against herself tightly. A look of impatience quickly grew upon her face as Ruby just stared at her blankly.

'For the love of Dust,'

"Raise your foil." Weiss said with a hint of irritation noticeable in her voice.

"Oh, sorry," Ruby said in confusion as she followed Weiss' lead.

"Now turn around and take five steps away from me." Weiss slowly turned and took her five paces. Weiss closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Now turn,"

Weiss pivoted quickly, her blade extended outward, her right hand held out to the side for balance, and her feet placed wide; while Ruby held the worst stance Weiss had ever seen in all of her years of training. Weiss didn't even know where to start, her foot placement was horrid, her right hand was folded behind her back and even at a ten pace distance Weiss could tell she was gripping her foil too tight.

Weiss gave a heavy sigh and shook her head.

"Hey it's my first time, don't shake your head like that?" Ruby whined, loosening her posture as she complained to Weiss.

"You were the one who wanted to train with me." Weiss replied with an almost snarky tone.

"Well," Ruby stammered for a few seconds to form a reply. "Whatever, let's just start."

'Maybe I'm being too harsh.'

"Alright, en garde," Weiss called out as she began to advance towards Ruby. Ruby slowly took a couple steps forward, but before she knew it Weiss had given a quick snap of her wrist and jabbed her foil into Ruby's chest. Weiss gave a small smirk as she stared at a somewhat shocked Ruby. "The point goes to me." Weiss held the foil against her chest its blade pointed straight into the air. "Alright let's go again." Weiss said with a warm smile as she waited for Ruby to lift her foil into the air.

Ruby gave a brief grimace, lifted her foil and quickly turned, almost instantaneously washing Weiss' smile away.

Weiss slowly turned and began to take her five paces. "Learning to fence was one of my first forms of practice, Ruby. It's only natural that I'm better than you." Weiss paused for a moment as a bit of shame washed through her. "I'm sorry if I came across a little too… jaunty, I was just having fun." Another pause, "If you'd like I'll tone it down a bit."

The room fell silent as Weiss waited for some kind of response.

"En garde!"

Weiss turned quickly to see Ruby holding her same atrocious stance and looking at her with a wide, ecstatic smile. Weiss gave a small giggle and slowly advanced until Ruby's blade and her own crossed, emitting a light metallic scraping noise as they put force against their weapons.

Suddenly Ruby struck at Weiss' foil hard and made to jab at her chest. Weiss quickly back stepped, avoiding her strike. Weiss bounded forward and slapped her foil across the top of Ruby's wrist as she prepared to strike again then delivered a final, decisive jab into Ruby's stomach.

Ruby staggered backwards clutching her wrist against herself, "I thought you said you were going to go easy on me."

Weiss lowered her foil and placed a hand on her hip, "Hmm yes, I do remember saying I'd tone it down, but I never said anything about letting you win." Weiss mocked Ruby with a gleeful smile.

Ruby's discomfort began to quickly drain away as Weiss' infectious happiness spread over to her. "Well, just a couple more rounds like this and soon I'll know all your weak spots." Ruby boasted as she took up her position in front of Weiss.

"I highly doubt that." Weiss turned once again in preparation for their next bout. It had been months since she had had this much fun and Ruby was always the one who knew exactly what to do or say to make her smile. That is of course when she wasn't being a complete and utter dunce, then she would just roll her eyes.

Weiss took her five paces and Ruby did the same, the pair of them wearing broad, confident smiles.

"En garde," Weiss called.

Ruby and Weiss advanced towards each other and clashed their blades with a loud metallic snap. Weiss ultimately decided to just aimlessly bash her foil against Ruby's this round and let her have a little fun as she undertook the impossible task of trying to beat Weiss. Weiss chuckled a little as Ruby bounced back and forth trying to secure a winning blow against the heiress, her short dark hair bouncing around wonderfully as they played their childish games.

"Ah ha," Ruby shouted in glee as she managed to hit Weiss on the very edge of her shoulder. "I told you I'd get you." Ruby laughed as she bounced around.

"I don't recall you saying anything along those lines." Weiss replied with a smirk.

Ruby gave a chuckle, "Don't worry Weiss, it probably just slipped past you, just like my strike."

'Alright, that's earned her another slap across the wrist.'

"Hey Weiss," Ruby said with a very noticeable change in tone. "So I was thinking that- well, since we're having fun, well I'm assuming you're having fun, but figured maybe we could, maybe, hang-out again. Maybe this weekend and do stuff…" Ruby tentatively asked with a nervous smile while Weiss watched her with wide eyes.

Weiss paused for a few moments as she carefully considered Ruby's sudden offer. Weiss took a deep breath and stood straight. "Ruby, I want to know why you would like to spend time with me again."

Ruby stared at Weiss, her expression soft, but at the same time noticeably unsettled. She turned to a certain patch of the floor and stared at it inquisitively.

"Well I… I like the way I feel around you. I just feel kind of-" Ruby made a few gestures with her hands which would have been impossible for almost anyone to interpret, but Weiss caught the gist of what she was getting at. Ruby began to roll back-and-forth on the balls of her feet. "-and things have been kind of weird lately, but it's kind of like a… good weird. And I feel bad that I messed up our first date and… well I kind of want… a second chance, because I-" Ruby gave a heavy sigh, " I don't know I just-"

"-Ruby," Weiss interrupted, catching the young girl off-guard.

"Yes," she replied in a small voice.

Weiss took a good long look at Ruby before she came to her conclusion.

"Alright," she casually replied in her usually temperamental tone.

A smile began to grow upon Ruby's face, but it was washed away as Weiss held up a single finger indicating that she wasn't done.

"Let me make this clear, if either one of us don't enjoy this… date, then I think things should go back to being… normal. Understood,"

Ruby hesitated for a moment, "Um okay,"

Ruby and Weiss eyes were filled with a mixture of misery and content as they stood motionless in the silence.

Weiss gave a heavy sigh, "And of course, since I chose our plans last time, you will be choosing this time. So please take more than five minutes of consideration to choose what we will be doing."

"Hey I know-"

"-catch," Weiss interjected as she tossed her foil to Ruby. "Would you please return those to the closet while I retrieve Myrtenaster?"

Ruby gave a groan and shuffled over to the closet mumbling something under her breath while Weiss internally relished the fact that in a few days Ruby and her would be going on their second date.

"Ah!" Ruby screamed as a mountain of training equipment fell out of the closet on top op of Ruby. "Weiss help me! The closet's trying to eat me!" Ruby called out as she squirmed around helplessly.

Weiss gave a heavy sigh and trudged across the training floor towards her idiot. "You're unbelievable!"

*Starts playing Back In Black* But seriously I am really sorry this took me so long. I'm not going to make excuses, but I'm glad to be back and I'm sorry for keeping all of you waiting. Now as usual I want to give a big thank you to my editor and fellow writer NinjaSlayer4x. If you haven't already be sure to check out his story "Crossing Swords". In other news I've made a new story! It's called "The (Un)Forgettable Team TAPE", it follows an OC team that I've created and I have a lot of fun with it, so please if you haven't already go over and give it a try. Now if you haven't Followed, Favored or left a review yet go ahead and do so if you please. I love to hear feedback and I'm open to criticism.Now until next time, which I guarantee you will not be months, Peace out.

-CS

P.S. Please refrain from leaving any comments or questions regarding the passing of Monty Oum on this story. I have made a separate story to address my feelings on that subject. Monty shall be missed. Also please read Team TAPE... Please.