This is for Moongarm - in more ways than one! (You'll see)

Recently, I felt like I couldn't write, like my super power had been taken away! So...I thought...what if Yang lost her super power? Well, this was the result. This'll just be a short little 3 parter - enjoy!

"Please tell me you're already on your way."

"I'm on my way! Jeez, do you really think I'd be late to my own sister's birthday party?"

"You were late last year."

"That was an accident!" she immediately replied - her long standing excuse for last year's late arrival at the tip of her tongue. "I ran into someone I knew and -"

"Couldn't get away, I know. We've all heard that excuse a million times."

Grinning into the phone, she sent a wink at a cute girl passing her by on the sidewalk, grinning even wider at the soft blush the simple gesture elicited.

"So you'll be here soon, right?" the voice on the other end of the line pressed.

"Absolutely - just need to pick something up and I'll be right there."

"...you still haven't gotten her a gift, have you."

She let out a laugh at the comment, practically able to hear a set of pearly white teeth clenching through the airwaves.

"Relax, Weiss. I know exactly what I'm getting her - just need to pick it up and I'll be on my way."

"Oh really? What are you getting her?"

She flinched at the question - her sister's girlfriend having once again caught her in the midst of a little fib. She actually had no clue what she was going to get Ruby, but she'd rather die than let Weiss catch her in another lie.

"Uhh...I dunno Weiss...I don't wanna ruin the surprise…" she said slowly, stalling for time while her eyes swept the store names of the crowded shopping area in search of any brilliant ideas.

She was great at operating under pressure - she could do this, no problem.

"You can't very well ruin a surprise of nothing," the girl replied curtly, once again assuming she was right.

Suddenly, a thought popped into her mind as her eyes landed upon a nearby store awning.

"A book!" she shouted, a little too excitedly, into the phone.

"A book…" Weiss replied, disbelief oozing from the girl's voice.

"Yeah, a book about weapons - you know how she likes that kinda stuff. It's really cool too, has all these diagrams and pictures and such."

Her feet were now guiding her towards the small bookstore she'd just discovered on the opposite side of the street, wedged in between a 24 hour fitness center and a smoothie bar. Kind of a weird location for a bookstore, but she was in no position to complain.

"That's actually...a really good idea…"

"Oh, hold up Weiss," she said quickly, reaching down to scoop up the small, plastic ID card that had just fallen from the purse of a girl walking in front of her.

"Hey!" she called out, her shout catching the girl's attention as she jogged a few steps to catch up. "I think you dropped this."

The girl looked to her hand, eyes widening in surprise as she accepted the card.

"Thank you so much!" the girl said, giving her a big smile for her efforts. "My day would have been totally ruined if I'd lost this!"

"Well, that'd be no good," she immediately replied in a low voice, throwing in a smile as she leaned a little closer. "Wouldn't want someone so gorgeous to have her day ruined, now would we?"

As expected, a blush instantly appeared on the girl's cheeks while she attempted to stammer out a response, not succeeding in forming anything close to words.

Ah...a shy one. Cute.

"Hey, I have an idea..." she interrupted, opting to help this one out in the interest of saving time. "Maybe we could grab lunch sometime and discuss how it should be illegal for someone to steal my heart so quickly."

A few seconds later, she was walking away with a grin as she shoved the slip of paper containing a phone number into her back pocket. Raising the phone back to her ear, she was surprised to find that Weiss had held on the line the entire time.

"Enjoy the show?" she teased while resuming her trek towards the bookstore.

"Do you have any plans of calling that one?" the girl asked, voice containing a hint of both annoyance and amusement.

Even though Weiss couldn't see her, she shrugged her shoulders.

"I dunno - depends on how I feel. She was pretty cute though - all stuttery and stuff."

But the dates were always much less satisfying than the initial meeting...so she rarely went on those. Something about getting a stranger to agree to give her their number was exhilarating, while spending an evening 'getting to know each other' was not.

"I'm so glad Ruby only inherited a fraction of your flirty behavior..."

She had to laugh at the comment as she opened the door to the store and stepped through, immediately lowering her voice as she walked into the overwhelming silence inside.

"I had to teach her what little flirting she's capable of!" she whispered, glancing around the unfamiliar store she'd just entered. "Alright, gotta go Weiss. Need to find this book."

"Yang Xiao Long in a bookstore...I'd love to see that. Try not to get lost."

"Ha ha," she replied dryly. "I'll see you in a bit."

Ending the call, she stuck her phone back in her pocket and turned her undivided attention to the shelves surrounding her.

'Pages,' the store was called - and there certainly were plenty of those in here. Every inch of wall was covered in floor to ceiling bookcases stuffed with books. The middle of the store was packed with freestanding bookshelves, also piled high with books.

And books, and books, and books...there were so many of them - covering every nook and cranny, stacked on every imaginable surface.

Suddenly, Weiss' 'try not to get lost' comment seemed a little less absurd.

"Ok, books on weapons...where might you be…" she muttered to herself, walking up to the end of the first bookshelf and reading the legend attached to the side.

'Non-fiction: A-F'

It would be in the non-fiction section, right? Weapons were real things, after all...so maybe she needed to find the 'Non-fiction: W' section.

'W' for 'weapons.'

Yeah, that should be right.

The right section was the next aisle over, so she walked the space between the shelves slowly, eyes scanning the spines of hundreds of books in search of anything that screamed 'I'd be perfect for Ruby!' at her. But none of these books seemed to have anything to do with weapons...in fact, their titles didn't seem to fall into the 'W' category at all!

Glancing at her watch, she realized she was going to need a little expert help in order to have a prayer of making it to Ruby's surprise party on time. Even though Ruby wouldn't care if she was a little late, Weiss might literally kill her if she didn't make it there before Ruby got home.

Heading towards where she thought the checkout counter would be, she found it was currently occupied by a girl her age.

A very pretty girl her age.

She grinned as she continued her approach.

Yes, she would be needing help, indeed.

The girl had dark, raven-colored hair that fell in waves behind her shoulders. Her eyes were currently glued to the book resting open on the counter in front of her, but those eyes turned upward when she sensed an added presence nearby.

Gold - she had gold eyes.

Beautiful - absolutely stunning - mesmerizing.

Now this - this was a girl she would be taking out to dinner.

Walking right up to the counter, she rested both hands on its flat surface as the girl calmly placed a single finger down on the page to mark her spot.

"Hello," she said first, giving the girl a wide, charming smile in greeting.

"Hello," came the soft response, accompanied with a small upward twitch of those alluring lips.

"I -"

As the girl looked on, her words suddenly stopped, cut off mid sentence without so much as a warning.

She...what? What was she going to say next?

Her eyes widened in surprise when words refused to appear in her mind - everything seeming just out of her grasp as the girl across the counter looked at her curiously, tilting her head to the side while waiting patiently for the rest of her sentence.

But what could she say?

Words. She needed words.

"Can I...help you with something?"

If she could have made any sound, she would have groaned at the question - she was not starting this conversation out on the best foot, at all.

But, she could recover. She always recovered.

"Uh, y-yeah," she stammered, words finally coming out in a rush. "I'm uh…"

Dammit, what was she even doing in this store to begin with?

She'd been on the phone with Weiss, Weiss had been scolding her about something, as usual...oh! Ruby's birthday present!

"I'm uh...my little sister really likes weapons."

The girl blinked in confusion, leaning back in her chair as if trying to put a little more distance between them.

"Oh...uh...that's nice…"

What the hell, Yang. What are you doing? 'My little sister likes weapons?'

Ok, time to play it cool - take a deep breath, start over, smile and form sentences.

"My uh...sister...i-it's her birthday - well not technically today, but she uh, there's a party and...you know, she likes weapons and stuff…"

Honestly, her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears, she had absolutely no idea what she'd just said.

But the girl was at least nodding in understanding as she placed a bookmark between the pages she'd been reading and closed it with a soft snap, an amused smile tugging at her lips all the while.

And it was just so adorable. Her smile was adorable.

"You're looking for a book on weapons for your sister's birthday," the girl stated as if having found the answer to a complicated riddle.

Nodding her head, she responded with a big smile. Now was the perfect time to inject a witty remark…

"U-uh, yes -"

Yup, real witty, Yang. An award for setting the bar in wittiness is coming your way.

This time she really did groan out loud, covering her face with one hand while wondering what the hell was going on.

But then something amazing happened...something even more adorable than the smile.

The girl giggled - the sound instantly bringing her eyes upward as she was blessed with the vision of utmost beauty sitting in front of her. She could do nothing but stare as the girl stood and walked out from behind the counter - their suddenly close proximity scrambling what was left of her thoughts.

"I can show you where we keep those books. Hopefully, you'll be able to pick one out."

"I'm great at picking things," she replied with a scoff, immediately shaking her head when she heard how that sounded out loud.

Dammit, Yang...think before you speak.

On the plus side, the girl laughed again at her complete ineptitude to function like a normal human being, while gesturing to follow her through the shelves of the store.

The girl was just so pretty. Everything about her seemed too good to be true...from those sparkling golden eyes to that petite frame to the wavy black hair that reached all the way down her back…

"S-so, uh...you work here?" she asked, sighing when she realized she'd just asked the dumbest question in the history of mankind.

"Nope, they just let me sit behind the counter and take people's money."

For an instant, she completely believed those words, until the girl turned around and gave her a playful grin.

Of course, that accomplished nothing but to make her even more nervous.

What was wrong with her? Basically the only thing she was exceptional at was flirting with pretty girls - and this girl was the very definition of pretty. So why were her abilities failing her now, when she needed them the most?

"Ok, here's all the books we have on weapons -" the girl paused to gesture towards a small section of the shelf in front of them. "Do you know what types of weapons she likes?"

"I...don't know...like, swords and stuff?"

The girl chuckled at the response before pulling a few of the books from the shelf and passing them over to her.

"These might be good - they're more general and will cover a lot of different weapons."

"Do they have pictures?"

The girl suddenly stopped, appearing more than a little confused by the question.

"Oh, I'm sorry - I guess I didn't ask how old your sister was. Is she not reading yet?"

"O-oh! No! I mean, yeah, she can read - I don't think very often though, she just - likes pictures."

The girl was nodding slowly at her, as if pretending that she had any ounce of idea what Yang was trying to say.

This had just gone from bad, to really bad, to un-freaking-believably terrible.

"Uh, these are great. I'll take all of them," she finally said, holding up the stack of books in her arms and praying she could get the hell out of there without making more of an absolute fool of herself.

"Oh, that's great! Then I can ring you up up front," the girl replied with a smile, seeming genuinely happy to have been helpful.

Ring you up...there was a pick-up line in there somewhere. Something about phones and ringing...why couldn't she find it?

As they made their way back to the checkout counter, she decided there were two things she would leave this store with - her gift to Ruby and this girl's name. That's it. Not even a phone number, just a name would do.

She was setting the bar quite low today.

"Thank you...for the help," she said as the girl began scanning the backs of the books into the computer.

"You're welcome. Although it is kinda my job," the girl replied with a smile.

"W-well yeah, but you didn't have to be so…"

Shit...why was 'pretty' the only word she could think of right now?

Would that work? Was that a good line? Would that be flirty or too over the top?

Too late, the moment had already passed and she just looked like an idiot who couldn't complete her sentences again.

"Anyway...your total is $45.50. How would you like to pay?"

"Uh...my card," she replied, pulling the piece of plastic from her pocket and handing it across the counter.

After swiping it and tearing off the receipt that printed up seconds later, the girl placed everything in a plastic bag for her and handed it to her.

"Here you go. I hope your sister really likes them."

"Me too," she replied, slowly taking the items and turning towards the exit.

Her name, Yang - you need her name. If you leave here without her name, you are an utter disgrace to flirters everywhere.

"H-hey, maybe you could help me with something else?" she asked, turning hesitantly back to the counter.

The question piqued the girl's interest, one eyebrow raising in curiosity.

"Sure, I'll help if I can."

"Ok...ok, I was just wondering...if you had a name?"

Wow, that was unbelievably hard to ask.

"I do have a name, yes," the girl responded with a grin.

She waited for a few more seconds before realizing that that was all the girl was going to give her.

"Oh - I meant, you know, could I have it?" she rephrased.

"I'd probably prefer to keep my name...didn't your parents give you one of your own?"

Ok, it was a little bit difficult to do this when the girl was being so playful with her!

"Would you...tell me what it is?" she tried, one last time.

The girl laughed, seeming incredibly pleased that she'd finally been able to ask the right question. If she didn't know any better, she would say that the girl was enjoying this immensely. Hell, if this was happening to anyone but her right now, she'd be in hysterics watching it unfold.

"It's Blake," came her answer, accompanied by another amused smile.

Blake...that was a great name.

"Cool," she replied with a nod, feeling tremendously accomplished with that tiny bit of information. "Blake - that's a cool name."

Inching her way backwards towards the exit, she still hopelessly tried to salvage whatever shred of dignity she had left.

"So, Blake, maybe I'll see you again sometime, you know, like around town or something."

The girl stifled her giggles when she bumped into the side of the door, having been too preoccupied walking backward to look where she was going.

"It was nice to meet you…?" Blake called out to her as she finally found the door handle and opened the door.

"Y-yeah, you too!" she hastily called back, making a beeline outside, hearing the door shut behind her.

She was already across the street when she realized the girl had been asking for her name in return.

"Oh god dammit…" she cursed under her breath as she rushed towards the train line that would take her to Ruby and Weiss' place. Hopping aboard right as the doors slid shut, she fell into an empty seat with a huff, setting the heavy bag of books on the floor between her feet.

Well, that really couldn't have gone any worse.

When she glanced up, she caught the eye of the girl sitting across the aisle from her - giving her a small smile. For her own sanity, she decided to test something out, leaning forward and putting her elbows on her knees so she wouldn't have to yell over the sound of the train rattling down the tracks.

"Hey, I just wanted to say thank you for sitting there - because until a few seconds ago, I couldn't have imagined someone so jaw droppingly beautiful in my life."

As the girl flushed and murmured polite denials of the compliment, she leaned back in her seat, filled with more confusion than anything else.

This was normally where she would use another line to get a phone number, but this time she just let it slide, allowing her eyes to drift out of the window to signal that their conversation was over.

Complete stranger...attractive...her age…and flirting was easy - almost easier than breathing.

So why hadn't she been able to do it with Blake?

Instead, she'd been like a fish out of water - stuttering, blubbering, out of breath…

One thing was for certain - she would be going back to Pages again.