"At least the view is nice." You mutter to yourself as you continue to unpack the remainder of your books onto the shelves in front of you.

Having recently moved to Vale, you have had some issues adjusting to your new life here. All alone. With literally no friends or family.

Your company works with the university here to help fund their studies. And when an opportunity opened up, you all but jumped at the chance to leave Patch. Unfortunately, your personal life had begun to cripple your professional life and a change had to be made.

At your going away party Yang and Ruby had gone on and on about how much you were going to love Vale. But you had only been there for two days prior to your move. And even that was just to find an apartment. Retreating right back to Patch, where you'd lived since starting university.

The city is a pretty interesting and modern place. There's a decent bit of nightlife, and it's a fairly artsy city as well. Plenty of things that would keep any normal person occupied.

And here you are, alone in your new place. Sitting on the couch with nothing to do. You reach in the box one last time, lifting the final book from within. Without care, you flip it open to a random page and start reading.

"I can live alone, if self-respect, and circumstances require me so to do. I need not sell my soul to buy bliss. I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all extraneous delights should be withheld, or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give."

Quickly, you snap the book shut and slide it into an empty space on the shelf.

"How ironic. Maybe it would do me some good to wander out and find something new to read."

You take one last look out of your apartment window, admiring the scene before you. A river runs gracefully through a sea of skyscrapers as they line the horizon. Snatching your keys and umbrella up from their place on the cabinet near your front door, you head out into the chilly, rainy afternoon cityscape below.

—

After completing a brief search on your phone, you found a coffee shop that looked reputable enough to get a tea from. While you wait your turn at the edge of the counter, you continue your online search for the nearest and most appealing bookstore.

Beacon Books. Something about the store front photo just sells it for you. There's an antique looking flare, but at the same time it has a modern decorative touch. They also belong to the same membership club that your old bookstore used to keep track of your purchases. Which is just an added bonus.

Folding up your umbrella, you shake it quickly under the overhang in the doorway before opening the door and stepping inside of the shop. You don't want to make the ground wet and cause anyone to fall.

You can't help but notice how amazing it smells. A mixture of warm vanilla and old book pages.

Carefully, you prop the umbrella up by the door and make your way towards one of the aisles towards the back wall. You didn't really have anything in mind to buy, so you were hoping something would jump out and interest you.

Eventually, you find yourself in the poetry section with your tea in your left hand as you pick up various books with your right, flipping them over to admire the cover or read the back. Occasionally you would read the first few pages, if the cover piqued your interest enough.

Taking a sip from your tea, you grab another book. Admiring the cover, it's black with a matte finish. And it's adorned with a shiny gold constellation pattern. It looks to be about 150 pages. Decent size for a poetry collection.

"That's a pretty good one." Looking up, you meet eyes with a woman with silvery white hair that's braided over her right shoulder. "Kind of dark and moody, if you're into that sort of thing."

She places a book back into place on the shelf and turns to walk back down the aisle.

"If you need help finding something, just let me know." Catching yourself staring, and forgetting your manners, you shake your mind free.

"Oh, yeah, thank you so much." The woman gives you a curt little wave and disappears beyond the end of the aisle.

Quickly, you internally shame yourself for your behavior.

Way to go dumbass. See a pretty girl and suddenly, you forget how to speak.

Rolling your eyes at yourself one more time, you take a sip from your tea and wander off to find the nonfiction section. Still holding the poetry book in your free hand.

Immediately you find the book about behavioral psychology and its impact on social interactions written by a very well known psychologist in the field that you've been interested in reading. You grab a copy and add it to the now small stack of books in your hand.

As you round the corner, you see the same woman from before leaning with her elbow against the checkout countertop as she reads a book of her own.

There are a few other customers in the store, but they appear to be immersed in whatever it is they are doing or reading.

Nonchalantly, you clear your throat when you're about ten feet from the counter so that you can… politely disturb her? Is there such a thing as politely disturbing someone? Doubtful.

"Oh, sorry. I should be paying more attention." She quickly slides a bookmark into the center of her book to mark the page before pushing it to the side to hide it from view.

"No, it's totally fine. No big deal. Jane Eyre is worth getting distracted with." Sliding the two books across the counter, you rock back on your heels slightly. "Do you happen to have a trash bin?"

The woman behind the counter looks up, confused by your question. So you give a small shake to the empty tea cup in your hand.

"Oh." She rolls her eyes to herself and reaches out for the cup. "Of course." She looks back down in front of her. "This is an interesting coupling of books." She says as she scans each book and places it in a bag.

"I uh, I really like poetry, it's kinda my favorite. And the other one is just some work related leisure reading." Shrugging your shoulder as you try not to get caught up staring at the woman a second time.

"Is that a real thing? Work related leisure reading?" The quirked eyebrow and skeptical smirk across her face lets you know that you sound like a total nerd.

"Yeah, um, I guess that made me sound super boring, didn't it?" Continuing to rock back and forth on your heels, you can feel the flush of embarrassment creep across your face.

"Oh no. No, no. Not at all." The girl says sarcastically as she purses her lips and shakes her head, the braid brushing lightly on her shoulder.

"It's totally okay if you laugh. I mean, I probably would." You shrug.

As soon as you admit it, the woman begins to audibly giggle behind her hand. You can't help but smile as you hand her your credit card to pay for your books.

It feels good to make someone smile. It feels like it's been forever.

"Well, thank you for the laugh. And you have a great evening, Miss Belladonna." Slightly taken aback, you look at her suspiciously. How does she know your name?

But then it dawns on you.

"Ah, my name is on my credit card. Gotcha." Wait. Did you just give her the finger guns? Lord help you.

She mimics you, shooting them right back. "Nothing gets by you, huh?"

"If only that were remotely true." You say, in complete honesty, taking your bag of books from her. "Thank you for all your help." Turning, you take a step towards the door and grab your umbrella from the holder.

You're still completely embarrassed from basically everything that has happened since you entered into Beacon Books, but you decide not to let it stop you from trying to be somewhat human. So you turn back around.

"It's Weiss."

"Huh?" Now you're confused.

"My name, it's Weiss."

"Oh, duh of course. I'm-"

"Blake."

"You can't keep beating me to everything. You have to let me say at least something and pretend you didn't already know it."

She crosses her arms over her chest before answering. "Okay, go for it."

"Well, I was going to say it was nice to meet you, Weiss. But now I'm not so sure." Now it's your turn to give her a sarcastic smirk as she stares back at you, mouth slightly open in disbelief. "Have a good evening."

You feel a smile tug at the side of your mouth before heading out the door of Beacon Books and back out into the rain.