A/N: Hey all! It seems like it might be a good time for a nice distraction from the world in the form of a longer than usual chapter! Really hoping you guys are doing all right out there. Stay strong, stay safe, eat every vegetable within reach, and hang in there!

We're starting to catch up with ourselves again, so you might not see us next week, but either way we'll be thinking about you all.

HUGS,
D

Weiss pored over her blue spiral bound school planner one more time as she mounted the stairs that led to Goodwitch's office. Classes, Blake, watching out for a would-be murderer, Blake, training with Yang and Pyrrha, extra training with her Professor. Had she listed Blake? Regardless, the workload necessitated a rigid schedule and she silently congratulated herself on the veritable masterpiece of a schedule she had worked out. She'd even planned a time to revise her last attempt at communicating her feelings toward Blake. After all, 'I love you' really wasn't very specific. It was a good start, but it needed some clarification. She could do better, and she would, tomorrow in the fifteen minutes she had between Dust Theory and practice with Yang, who had seemed amenable to a semi-set routine for the foreseeable future.

The hallway to the professors' offices was always a little dark due to lack of windows- a side effect of having rooms along both sides of the corridor. Hardwood floors, that regal stone the school used for construction, no doubt shipped in from some quarry out in the Emerald Forest- the materials had thus far stood the test of time, which meant no plans to remodel and let any natural light into the professors' hall, unfortunately. Though the Dust lamps along the corridor did a passable job, they did little to dispel the general feeling of being in some sort of underground passageway.

Weiss slipped the notebook back into her bag and checked her scroll as she neared her destination. Blake had had to leave dinner early- some request of Professor Peach's. Weiss hadn't, though, and she'd needed to put the finish touches on her schedule, so here she was. Right on time. Plans firmly in place. No sign of Neo. Only slight sleep deprivation from the night before. She paused outside Goodwitch's door, running her thumb along Myrtenaster's grip, considering whether her sword was fair play in the usual awareness/reflex exercises the professor favored at the start of their sessions. Probably not.

She readied a glyph instead, knocking on the heavy wood door lightly with her free hand.

As usual, the door slowly opened of its own accord, the professor herself nowhere in sight within the darkened office.

Weiss stood still, clearing the rest of her mind to wait for... well, she wasn't sure how to describe it exactly. Just, a sense, like a prickle at the back of her neck, but not necessarily that. A feeling in the air, like a little bit of electricity. Best case it was her first inklings of actual aura detection- worst case she was riding some form of blind luck. Either way, it was far too indistinct for her liking.

Without warning, something quick and fluttering rushed towards Weiss's back.

With a high pitched metallic ring, a blue repel glyph sprang into existence at Weiss's back to block whatever it was as she half-crouched to take advantage of her sigil's cover.

A hefty dictionary exploded against the glyph, its scattering pages masking the sound of what looked like an entire library of books springing forth from the depths of Goodwitch's office, snaking towards their half-crouched target at alarming speeds.

Weiss, still on the threshold of Goodwitch's office, blanched at the sight of the full set of the Encyclopedia Mistrallia hurtling at her face. Without thinking, she made a hasty sweep of her arm to summon a second glyph just behind the heavy open door to slam it shut, scrambling sideways to get clear of the doorway in case the sturdy door couldn't withstand the oncoming barrage.

Luckily the door held fast, but even the cacophony of literature being denied their target couldn't eclipse the surprise ear-splitting screech of wood against stone flooring as an entire book case burst out of the nearest office and careened towards Weiss from down the hall, clearly determined to succeed where the books had failed.

Shutting a door in the face of a hail of hardbacks was one thing, but unceremoniously fleeing down a hallway chased by a piece of furniture was another, especially after all her retreating this weekend. She took a step back, finding firm footing amidst the destroyed and fluttering pages of the dictionary, and gripped Myrtenaster, the sword's barrel spinning so its cartridge of red Dust clicked into place.

Just inside the nearby office from which the killer bookcase originated, Goodwitch leaned against the door frame's edge, mid-conversation with professor Oobleck. "You know as well as I do how strenuous this kind of training is, and I think you'll find that for a first-year she is-" an actual explosion drowned out the rest of her sentence - the flickering light of flyby bits of burning bookcase reflecting in professor Oobleck's glasses.

Oobleck took a short, pointed sip from his thermos, "... unaware of the price of a satisfactory set of cedar shelves, it seems."

Down the corridor, Weiss stood in her fighting stance, edging backwards as she waited for another attack. At the same time, she tried to keep an eye on the smoldering pages of the... was it a dictionary?... under her feet and the flames flickering on the remnants of the bookcase scattered down the length of the hall. She may have overdone it with the indoor Dust usage, but the walls were only slightly scorched.

Goodwitch stepped into the hall to survey the damage.

She officially owed professor Oobleck a new bookcase. Arching a single brow, Goodwitch side-eyed Weiss. "Well, I see you are already in the right mindset for today's lesson," her lips quirked in amusement but it was so quick it might have been a trick of the firelight quickly coalescing before her as her semblance called the tatters of her ill-fated weaponry into a smoldering ball.

"Of course," Weiss said, taking the compliment for what it was worth and preparing another glyph to ward off the fireball she fully expected to be hurled at her. It was her own fault for blowing things up indoors.

In a surprise deviation from her usual MO of relentless onslaught, professor Goodwitch simply allowed the ball of debris to fizzle out and kept it floating nearby as she motioned for Weiss to follow her. "You can leave your bag in my office. Bring your weapon." Before heading down the hall, she turned one last time to professor Oobleck. "I will let you know how things go."

The gangly professor stood with his white shirt halfway untucked, gesturing lightly with his thermos.

"My lien is on you, so to speak." Oobleck nodded to Weiss on her way past, "Miss Schnee. Best of luck."

"Thank you," Weiss's brow furrowed as she gripped Myrtenaster, picking up her pace to catch up with Goodwitch after dropping her things off. The fireball going out had seemed like a good sign, but now she was wary. "Where are we going?"

"Forever Fall," the professor answered once Weiss caught up to her. She cast a sideways glance down at her student. "Originally, I planned on your first test being another two weeks from now, but considering the newest threat it felt prudent to move that date up a bit."

"We're going now?" Weiss frowned. She could handle a test. Probably. But Forever Fall at night? "Won't Grimm be hard to see?"

The door that led to the school grounds currently swinging open for them paused for a moment as Goodwitch also paused to blink at Weiss. "This will be a test of your ability to sense aura."

Weiss stopped dead as it clicked for the first time that her professor had not simply been hurling office supplies and furniture at her all this time, but had in fact been using her semblance to do so. A semblance was the manifestation of one's aura. She was learning to sense aura. She was an idiot for thinking this test would involve Grimm, which had no aura to speak of. Just, what else would it involve? She backpedaled to cover her mistake. "Well they. There are Grimm in Forever Fall. Won't they interfere with...?"

"...They might," the professor continued outside, but made sure to look back and offer a small smile made borderline ominous by the complete lack of light other than the lone beam stretching out from the open door. Clouds completely covered the shattered moon. "I do plan to keep any stragglers at bay, but if one should slip by I trust you'll be able to handle it."

"Yes, professor." Weiss looked towards the lights of the landing dock at the edge of the cliffs, where they were doubtless headed unless they wanted to hike across the rolling fields bordering the school and over the neighboring mountains. She wanted more information about this test but couldn't risk asking another stupid question. Besides, tests were her forte. Technically written tests, but she never shied away from performance-based exams. Either way, her professor seemed confident in her abilities. Not that that necessarily meant Weiss wouldn't be coming out of whatever this was black and blue. She tried to watch Goodwitch's expression for a hint of how bad this was going to be.

Unfortunately for Weiss, Goodwitch maintained her poker face all the way to the small airship waiting for them at the dock, throughout the short ride and landing, and all the way up to the forest's edge, where she finally stopped and looked to Weiss.

Weiss stopped too. Was she supposed to do something? Take off running into the woods? With clouds covering the moon, Forever Fall's year round red foliage appeared colorless and foreboding. The forest beyond the first line of trees was black as pitch. All was quiet except the sigh of the frigid wind through the leaves and the soft tick of the airship's engines cooling behind them.

"The test is fairly straightforward," Goodwitch broke the silence after a few moments more. "Walk one mile into the forest... and come back out alive."

Weiss stood another half second, uncertainty crossing her features as she waited for more directions. None seemed to be forthcoming, however.

"Alright," she said half under her breath as she turned her attention to the darkness between the trees. There was no question of there being something out in these woods. Someone, rather, unless her professor was having her sense wildlife. Animals did have auras. Maybe she was going to ask a question when she got back, like how many nesting birds she'd passed or something. Being instructed to 'come back out alive' definitely made it sound a little more involved than that, though.

In any case, a mile wasn't that far. She kept a hand on Myrtenaster as she took a cautious step forward through the low brush growing between the trees at the edge of the forest.

Goodwitch watched her go as far as her relatively poor eyesight would allow, arms crossed against the chill in the air.

A small hawk-sized Nevermore circled down from the treetops to land on Glynda's shoulder, peering up at her with beady red eyes. "You really think that little Schnee of yours is going to come back in one piece?"

"What do you think?" Goodwitch turned the question back on her friend with an unreadable smile.

Professor Peach cocked her head to the side. "You know, Goody-two-shoes, you get weirdly excited for stuff like this."

Routinely ignoring the nickname, Goodwitch side-eyed professor Peach, "No moreso than you."

Peach's feathers ruffled, but instead of bothering with a retort, she simply turned her head almost completely backwards and nestled into her own down for a nap.

"I'm not just going to stand here, you know." Riding crop in hand, Goodwitch was already halfway through placing one of her purple sigils on the ground.

"I can sleep anywhere," came Peach's muffled reply.

Feeling very much like a dollar store pirate, Goodwitch let slip a small sigh of resignation and set out along the forest's border.

Deep among the dark tree trunks, Weiss stumbled through another brier bush, hissing as the sharp thorns raked her aura. She stopped and got out her scroll to check her position.

100 yards in. Terrific. She'd set the border of the forest as her starting point and had the device's screen set to a low glow, which was not helping her avoid random bushes. Was that what this test was? Plants were technically alive, so maybe they had some sort of aura signature she should be sensing?

"Ow!" Weiss jerked back, flailing her arm at the spidery end of the low hanging tree branch she'd just walked into. Seriously, Forever Fall never seemed this overgrown in the day.

Since walking practically blind wasn't helpful, and since between crunching leaves underfoot and grumbling under her breath every time her sleeves and combat skirt got caught on things she might as well be the loudest person on Remnant, Weiss decided a little more light couldn't hurt. She stashed her scroll and spun Myrtenaster's cylinder, locking her ice Dust into place and activating the chamber, causing a pale blue glow to suffuse the length of the blade- not as bright as day, but certainly enough to illuminate her path.

"Much better," she glanced around the sphere of light she now stood at the center of. Not exactly inconspicuous, but unless whoever was in here with her was stone deaf she wouldn't be giving up much advantage. Probably it was her professor. She looked warily at a few large stones that jutted up from the forest floor. Those would /not/ be fun to get hit by.

The leaves high overhead stirred in the faint breeze as Weiss made her way further into the woods, her pace much improved.

Something far more solid than a breeze stalked through the treetops after her, moving only in time with the rustling of the wind, watching and waiting for the perfect angle, the perfect moment to strike.

Weiss proceeded carefully, expecting any of the multitude of trees to get torn up and thrown at her at any given second. The light was helpful, but some knee-high undergrowth she thought didn't look too prickly turned out to have hooked thorns and low-growing runners that were difficult to maneuver through without getting hung up.

Just as she was contemplating trying to hack through the irritating patch of brush with her rapier, something shot out of the canopy towards her. Her body reacted before she even registered the movement- one split second she was attempting to de-tangle herself with minimal damage to her combat skirt and the next she was crashing on her side in the thicket having narrowly avoided the attack from above. Scrambling to get her sword up, she levered herself up out of the thorn bushes to face her opponent.

Only a few feet away Blake stood at the ready, Faunus ears standing tall on full alert, both her sword and bladed sheath in hand. Her eyes seemed to glow, reflecting the light from Myrtenaster's blade, but she still somehow managed to look torn between offering a helping hand up out of the thorn bush and launching a second attack.

"Blake?" Weiss half lowered her sword in surprise before she registered her girlfriend's stance and the way her pupils were dilated. Her woodcraft might need work, but her logic was just fine: it seemed she wasn't the only one getting tested tonight. She kept her grip firm and straightened up, ignoring the thorny twigs stuck in her hair for the moment as she surmised, "You're here for Professor Peach."

Blake squinted as though she was trying very hard to focus. She shook her head, recognition flickering across her features after a few pronounced blinks. A slow lovestruck smile crept across her face, and she waved. "...Hi."

Then she attacked.

That smile. Weiss jerked free of the thorns at the cost of seriously scraping her aura, bringing Myrtenaster up to ward off Blake's lunge.

The sharp ring of metal on metal sent birds scattering from where they'd roosted in the trees and sent Blake staggering back a step, the catnip in her system mucking up the grace with which she normally followed through on attacks. Not one to waste movement though, Blake took the opportunity to tumble out of Weiss's circle of blue light, ducking back into the cover of darkness.

Immediately, Weiss bolted. Whatever Blake's objective might be, all she needed to do to pass this test was get in to the mile mark and make it back out. No fighting required.

Running through Forever Fall in the dark was easier said than done, however. She summoned a scattered string of white glyphs that circled bright in the darkness, giving her enough visibility to not completely wipe out as she leapt to clear a fallen tree trunk.

The compact form of Gambol Shroud's bladed pistol flashed across Weiss's path and lodged into one of the fallen tree's branches, leaving a taut black ribbon in its wake.

It caught her right across the shins, and all the light from her glyphs went out as she hit the dirt. The impact knocked the breath out of her, and she spat leaves, trying to get back on her feet.

Blake launched forward, her sheath at the ready to follow up with an attack, but her skewed sense of distance sent her bowling straight into Weiss instead, which, technically, still counted as an attack.

Getting full-on body checked in the dark sent Weiss sprawling in one direction and Myrtenaster tumbling into the leaves in another. Idiot, idiot, idiot, was all the time she had to berate herself with as she summoned the fastest, brightest white glyph she could as close to Blake's dilated, hopefully-unadjusted eyes as she could manage.

The light was utterly blinding, tearing a surprised yelp from Blake as she stumbled up off of Weiss and several steps away, pressing an arm across her eyes.

Weiss felt like she'd stabbed an icicle into her own chest- this was basically sparring but Blake sounded like she was really hurt. White as a sheet, Weiss still dove for her weapon, rapidly reevaluating her plan to just run for the goal.

Her hand closed on Myrtenaster's hilt and she activated her Dust again, dropping the shape of the bright glyph so the light went dim and blue. Blake is fine. Blake is fine. Blake is fine, she told herself, edging back from her more light-sensitive girlfriend as she tried to tell if she was in fact fine. She's drugged out of her mind but fine.

Could she fight her like this? Was it even fair? Clearly she was going to have a hard time outrunning her in the forest in the dark. If only she could see and there weren't a hundred tree branches and bushes in her way.

Shaking her head wasn't making the white dots spotting her vision go away any faster, but Blake could still make out the shape of her compacted sword jutting out from the branch, reflecting Myrtenaster's light. She needed her sword, but going through Weiss was officially a Bad Idea, so Blake shot upwards into the darkness and forward over Weiss's head, leaving behind two clones in quick succession.

Blake was drugged, but she was fast. Weiss stumbled back, confused by the odd way she knew Blake wasn't jumping right at her. She still brought her sword up to parry the clones she left behind, but she still tracked Blake. The real Blake, who was going for her weapon lodged in that fallen tree. Not that she could do anything about that as in her surprise she forgot Blake's clones were capable of making minor contact. The second one dropped an elbow between her shoulder blades- it wasn't a substantial impact, just enough to knock her off balance before the clone dissipated, and she spun, trying to relocate actual Blake.

Armed with both her sword and sheath, Blake crouched atop the fallen tree's trunk, motionless but ready to spring, as if she was waiting to see what move Weiss would make.

Weiss stood still in the dim light of her sword, taking a slow, deep breath as she tried to look less with her eyes and more with her... just... whatever it was she used to sense auras. Did you sense aura with your own aura? She hadn't exactly worried about the particulars when getting pelted with office supplies in Goodwitch's office.

She was some mix of 50 to 70% sure Blake was there, just at the edge of the ring of light, on that fallen tree. Gripping Myrtenaster's hilt a touch harder, she hazarded, "Hey, what's the pass condition for your test?"

It was the exact moment Blake was looking for, and she darted backwards as silently as she was able, leaving behind a clone of her crouching and letting the sound of Weiss's question cover the sound of her circling wide through the trees, making a beeline for Weiss's side.

Weiss's certainty that Blake was there dropped when she didn't respond. She took a step forward to extend the ring of Myrtenaster's pale light towards where she could just make out her outline. As Weiss held her sword forward, she unconsciously angled herself slightly away, towards the dark woods to her side... for no reason?

A dual-wielding very good reason shot out of those darkened woods, gunning straight for Weiss with two quick strikes in rapid succession. When Blake's initial swipe with her sheath came up short, she made sure to reach a bit extra when following up with her katana.

In her surprise, Weiss didn't get her sword up fast enough to deflect Blake's blade. She couldn't quite evade the strike either, and the katana sliced across her shoulder, leaving Weiss to hiss as she maneuvered sideways to get out of Blake's range again, her aura burning cold at the point of contact.

This time it was Blake's turn to hesitate - the sound of Weiss in pain nearly shorting out her drive to attack entirely. If Weiss was hurt, then she needed attention. Hugs...

Catnip is strong stuff.

The memory of Peach's gruff voice stopped her in her tracks.

Catnip makes you friendly. Touchy, feely, slow - even with people you despise. Gets you killed in a fight. Luckily, it also makes you want to play. Channel that energy into your close combat.

The more detailed memory had long since blurred together in the warm haze of catnip, but her professor's catnip-proof summary stuck with Blake like glue. No hug, only attack. A tall order when Weiss was involved, but even with a full dose of catnip under her belt Blake knew how angry Weiss would be if she held back.

So, she didn't.

In a bid to keep her from gaining too much distance, Blake shifted her katana back to its pistol form and whipped it towards Weiss to bind her legs.

Weiss kicked back into an impromptu handspring to avoid that particular move, risking any uneven ground hidden in the leaves and summoning a holding glyph to try to catch Blake instead, since apparently this wasn't a stop-and-talk kind of game they were playing.

Blake knew the sound of that glyph anywhere and realized immediately that the ground was no longer safe, so she launched herself upwards and into the safety of the trees, leaving a clone trapped in the glyph meant for her. From her perch, she unleashed a volley of shots from her pistol.

Leaves tore and fell from the bushes as Weiss dove for cover behind the nearest tree trunk.

She had to think. Obviously running wasn't going to work. Not when she couldn't go full-speed. Well, not with trees in the way. Briefly, she glanced at the canopy, considering a bit of a vertical shift of the playing field. With her glyphs, she could probably just skip the treetops all the way to her goal. Getting back would be a stretch- like sprinting for two straight miles. Besides, this was supposed to be an aura sensing test, and she had already decided that she'd had enough of running, as tactically sound as the strategy might be.

Blake had a clear advantage with her night vision, and the terrain was in her favor as well. Weiss took a couple short breaths, memorizing the location of another suitable cover tree before withdrawing her aura from Myrtenaster. The pale blue light faded to nothing.

With the spots from that glyph earlier finally clearing from her vision, it took very little for Blake to track the blinding white of Weiss's combat attire ducking behind a tree. A small smile pulled at the edge of her lips and she ducked back into the shadows herself, matching stealth for stealth.

Weiss didn't have a prayer of being stealthy in the woods, or fast in the dark, so she waited, her back to the tree and her sword's blade almost vertical. With the clouds covering the moon, the forest before her was pitch dark. She used her lack of sight as a way to sort of tune in to her other senses. Taking a deep breath, she listened, waiting for Blake to get close enough for her to sense.

A biting cold breeze swept through the tops of the trees, laden with an earthy scent that promised rain. Leaves rustled and branches creaked, but for a long while, almost too long, the forest remained otherwise still.

That is, until an errant acorn dropped from the branches high above Weiss, scoring a bulls-eye on the crown of her head.

"Ow!" Weiss ducked belatedly, free hand going to the top of her head as she turned to glare up at the tree.

She looked just in time to see a dark vaguely Blake-sized shape dropping towards her very quickly.

In a reaction born both from training and the confused, split-second thought the motion was a Grimm- because it didn't seem quite like Blake, and yet it did- Weiss thrust upwards with her sword skewering a very human- Faunus- body. The clone dissipated before it fell on her, but Weiss still dropped back, sitting down hard in the leaves with her heart going a thousand miles an hour because she partway thought she'd stabbed her intoxicated girlfriend.

Blake was using clones. She had to be able to use her aura. Weiss took another few breaths in the pitch dark to try and calm down to listen again. It was fine. This was fine.

All around Weiss at the farthest edges of her ability to see in the dark, figures began to appear, one by one, stopping and waiting as the next arrived.

The clouds overhead shifted just slightly, letting a few stray beams of moonlight through to the forest below, revealing an entire gang of Blakes, all of them smiling, all of them staring silently at Weiss.

For a second, she sat there frozen. Since when could Blake make so many clones? Why were they all just... smiling at her? Then she saw one of the dozen or so clones making the heart-hands symbol at her, and she colored, gripping her sword and shouting, "Blake, this is not funny!"

A poorly stifled giggle from somewhere off to Weiss's side revealed Blake's disagreement.

Pale blue light flared as Weiss set her teeth and whipped Myrtenaster in that direction, ice forming in angled spikes in a semicircle with her in its center.

The ice cut Blake's giggles short as two stabbing points raked across her aura, one of the lower spikes searing right across where she'd been recently stabbed in the leg, forcing her to reel backwards a step and bite back a hiss of pain. With her aura stretched as thin as it was thanks to all those clones she'd left lying around, the hits stung something fierce, but somehow it still felt worth it. The look on Weiss's face.

Vaguely aware that she needed to counter quickly, Blake decided to use the gleaming spikes as a jumping point, which turned out to be not as brilliant an idea as she'd initially thought. She slipped on the ice in her effort to leap over the frozen wall, nearly tumbling headfirst into Weiss before she darted up and over her, leaving yet another clone to take the fall for her.

Not one to fall for the same trick multiple times in a row, Weiss sidestepped the clone, pivoting to catch Blake with a black holding glyph before the blue light fully faded from the Dust-born ice.

Blake heard it coming, but with how off-balance she was from her awkward landing, her best option was to spin out of the way. Rather than regaining her balance though, Blake lost half of her weaponry, her sheath unceremoniously torn from her grip, trapped in the glyph's slowly circling clutches.

Weiss lunged to take the sheath and attach it one-handed to the sword belt at her waist. Myrtenaster gave off a pale blue glow once more, illuminating the brush and tree trunks in her immediate surroundings but not much more. She kept her sword between herself and where she thought Blake was.

She was mostly correct, Blake darting in from a little more to her left with as quick a strike as she could manage.

Their blades sparked as Weiss deflected the blow. It was an easy pivot, in the direction of her dominant hand, no less. Blake must have been seriously under the influence- or else Weiss was getting better at this aura sensing thing. She brought her right hand up in another holding glyph, again trying to catch Blake rather than fully engage.

Blake dropped back practically on instinct, a shadow of herself vanishing in the grip of the fully formed glyph as she vaulted upwards, gripping her ribbon and swinging her sword-turned-bladed-pistol in an overhead arc.

Weiss meant to give ground to get out of range because she still had no idea how to handle a gun/blade on a /string/, but her heel caught on a root and she flailed her free arm, dropping her glyph as she crashed backwards into the leaf litter. She'd hardly hit the ground before she was springing out of the fall, scrambling to get her sword up and keep her distance from Blake.

But Blake was already on her - literally - launching herself out of the darkness to lock Weiss in an impossibly tight hug, pinning Weiss's arms to her sides in the process. Looking mildly surprised herself, Blake blinked at Weiss, her face mere inches away.

Weiss gaped at her, bent halfway backwards and being fully supported by her arms. It was like getting dipped in the middle of a dance, except she had a sword and they were in the woods, fighting, and Blake was drugged.

Surprise eased into that same lovesick smile from earlier as Blake hyperfocused on Weiss, drifting ever closer - precariously close, barely a hair's breadth away.

Weiss froze up- this was an unanticipated turn of events in the middle of a sparring session. Worse, she couldn't look away from Blake's mouth and that infuriating smile as she leaned in closer, close enough to-

Her main plan had been to somehow subdue Blake without hurting her, but her instinct was to use a glyph to escape, and the two wires got crossed or something. A black holding glyph bloomed into existence on the ground right below her own center of gravity.

Blake blinked and pulled back just slightly, her trance broken by the sharp ring of the glyph's appearance and the sudden strange sensation of heaviness - like she weighed an extra thousand pounds. After a split second look of confusion and a glance down at the spinning black sigil holding them hostage, Blake seemed to remember her surroundings all at once. Even though she looked to be holding her position, Blake's edges blurred, shedding dark shadows of aura as she tried and failed to dart away in any and every direction. Her original plan of leaving a clone holding Weiss in her place was no longer an option... so, not letting go seemed to be the best option at the moment... probably? At a temporary loss, Blake locked eyes with Weiss once more.

Weiss was clinging to Blake's combat shirt/vest thing and trying to keep her head tucked instead of bending further backwards under the influence of her own glyph. Maybe this wasn't the best plan, but also she'd caught Blake. So a fifty percent success. Maybe they could work something out. She gritted her teeth and held on, hazarding, "Temporary truce?"

They would probably be stuck in this stalemate for a while otherwise, so Blake nodded.

"Just temporary," Weiss dropped her glyph and the extra gravity dissipated.

A beat passed, Blake keeping her catnip-dulled senses on as high of an alert as they could be as she waited for any potential trickery. When nothing happened, she smiled at Weiss. "Thanks." With a parting kiss, Blake released her, darted back, and vanished into the trees.

Weiss fell back on her elbows in the leaves and lay stunned for a split second before scrambling for the sheath that was no longer at her belt.

"This is entirely unfair," she grumbled, getting back to her feet and glancing at her scroll before resuming her trek to the mile mark. She kept the blue light going, but this time focused less on what she saw and more of what she felt. Felt in an aura sensing way, anyway. Not a 'my girlfriend just kissed me and used it as a distraction to get her weapon back' way. A low tactic. A dirty trick. (She wished she'd thought of it first, or that she and Blake could have had a slightly longer temporary truce.) Had Blake even meant it that way, though? Probably not. She was drugged. Weiss could taste the minty catnip flavor which wasn't distracting at all.

It wasn't long before she sensed a flicker of something. She took her stance, sword up, waiting, but nothing broke the cover of the darkness.

When the forest remained quiet and still, Weiss edged forward, Myrtenaster still at the ready. Her sword's light glinted off of something in the leaves. Still sensing no one, Weiss circled closer, wary of any surprises.

It looked like... her missing hair piece?

Weiss's brow furrowed and she stayed on high alert, but there was no sound other than the wind in the leaves overhead.

Wind swept Blake's hair from her face as she cut through what she hoped was the last of the many smiling clones she'd left behind. Her aura already felt far less over-extended from her little stunt. All the while she kept at least one ear trained on the distinct sound of Weiss tromping through the underbrush. When those steps paused, she paused as well, glancing back towards the blue light marking Weiss's position.

The light was a ways off. Weiss was loud, but did set a brisk pace, as was her usual. She seemed to have stopped for the moment though, and the light likewise remained where it was, just visible through the leaves and tree trunks for another handful of seconds. Then it vanished.

Curious, Blake perked up, both Faunus ears swiveling to catch any sound of her target. Was Weiss trying to lose her? Blake couldn't have that, and she was pretty much done with her cleanup anyway, so she took to the treetops once more, setting off for where she'd last seen her favorite blue beacon.

She didn't get far before she spotted something unusual. Well, not too unusual, as she was trying to find her- as in Weiss. However Weiss was now perched up in the tree branches, using the low light of what was probably her scroll to... well, it was hard to tell through the foliage. She looked stuck, maybe?

Blake's lips quirked in a crooked smile. Weiss really was trying to lose her, in such a creative way no less. If she hadn't taken to the trees herself, Blake never would have thought to look for her here. As she crept closer, she realized just how high up they were, and how few branches lined the base of this tree.

The absurd image of Weiss scaling the tree like a bear branded itself in Blake's brain, completely erasing the far more probable explanation that Weiss had used a glyph to jump up here, and she found herself compelled to tell her girlfriend how impressive of a climb it was, in a skirt and platform boots no less! So, Blake hopped down to join Weiss on her branch, perching right next to her.

"Good climb," was all she managed.

The sound of her voice appeared to startle Weiss, who lost her balance and fell delicately against Blake, clinging to her shirt for support.

Even with her dulled reflexes Blake readily caught her in her arms, throwing Peach's No Hugs Only Attack rule to the wind with wanton abandon. Surely hugs were fine as long as she remembered to attack later. "Careful," she nuzzled Weiss's temple, catching the pleasant scent of forest and trees and a hint of something acrid, almost like cigar smoke. Maybe gravity Dust?

Weiss pulled back just enough to search Blake's expression with her blue, blue eyes in the scant light of the stars that made it through the tree canopy. Then she half smiled and shook her hair back, letting the cascade of white fall back across her shoulder. As she did so, she slid her arms up around Blake's neck and leaned in, tilting her head just right and her intentions crystal clear.

Blake blinked in momentary surprise, but her smile quickly returned. Even if they were in the middle of sparring, she saw no reason to pull away. Sure it was a little unusual - Weiss normally prefaced every kiss with either a direct request or some kind of coy back and forth, but maybe she was still trying to be stealthy? The rich blue of Weiss's eyes also seemed a shade or two darker than usual, but Blake vaguely remembered reading books where people's eyes would darken with desire or something like that...

All the coyness was in the kiss itself. It was slow at the start, but quickly turned into something else. Something direct and purposeful. Possessive, maybe. Searing... definitely. Without breaking the kiss, Weiss trailed one hand down Blake's back, wandering to her own belt where she silently produced- as if from thin air- a set of narrow cuffs ringed in black.

Then from somewhere off in the dark a voice called out, "Blake?"

Amber eyes drifted open as one of Blake's ears twisted towards the sound. Strangely, the voice registered in Blake's head as sounding incredibly like Weiss, which... had to be impossible because Weiss was currently kissing her senseless and showing zero signs of slowing down any time soon.

Had she been sober, Blake might have welcomed the ramping intensity, but as she was in fact the exact opposite of sober, Blake took it upon herself to break the kiss, ducking to nuzzle the base of Weiss's neck in a bid to catch her breath and also check out her surroundings, maybe try to locate whoever had called to her.

'Weiss' paused at the sound. Smirking, she twirled the cuffs in her one hand and vanished them away again. Before Blake could turn or pull away, she took advantage of her closeness to kiss her neck, hands straying to her waist. Then she bit down hard. Hard enough to leave a mark, if Blake's aura wasn't up.

Unfortunately for Blake, she had dropped her aura the second she'd been kissed, and for a second all she could register was the sensation of teeth, followed by heat, pressure, and definitely a little pain. She didn't pull away, but she did make an incomprehensible noise of astonishment and she wasn't sure what else, to the extent that when she tried to say something the most she could manage was a strangled, "Weiss?"

And then Blake was falling, pitching off the sturdy tree branch as Weiss, who had her hands on Blake's hips, slipped from the circle of her arms and tipped the Faunus backwards past her point of balance into open space.