A/N: I'm really, really sorry about all the delays. I have a day job now so it's hard to squeeze time for writing. I promise Chapter 8 is underway.

As always, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 7: Much, Much Ado

"Are you sure this is what you want to do?" said Yang as she packed her books and stationary.

"For the third time, yes!" said her dark-haired partner.

Their classmates milled out of the classroom in small groups, producing the unintelligible murmur universal to all classrooms in the multiverse. For the class that had just come to an end (it was a Thursday afternoon, so it was 'The Sinister Creatures of Grimm and Where to Find Them' by Professor Port himself), the black and yellow duo had given up their usual place in the front row beside their teammates in favour of the far back corner to get a little more privacy for their discussion. They needed that, because the subjects of their discussion were also in the classroom; and B & Y really, really didn't want them to get even the slightest hint of what was to befall them.

"But you always seem too… detached for this kind of thing," said Yang, "The Blake I know doesn't, well, 'poke her nose into other people's affairs', as you put it so quaintly about myself. Why are you taking an interest in love - and other people's love at that - all of a sudden?"

"First of all," said Blake, turning to face Yang. "I do care about people around me; I just have the courtesy of not letting my curiosity drive me to meddle, unlike some people."

"Auch!" said Yang with mock pain.

"And second," Blake continued. "I'm not doing this to them. I just want to protect them from some of the things you may do to them."

"Why, thanks a lot for your vote of confidence," said Yang. "Why don't you just stop me then?"

"I've decided long ago that trying to stop you from having what you call 'fun' will just be more trouble than it's worth," Blake said. "I figured that the best I can do is to just watch over you and make sure you don't have too much 'fun' at the expense of our friends."

"Oh! So now you care about Vomit Boy and Cereal Box enough to take all the trouble to protect them. How heartwarming! Or is it your…" Yang made V-signs with her hands and put them on top of her head, mimicking rabbit ears. "New best friend?"

"Of course Jaune and Pyrrha are important friends to me," said Blake, with the slightest hint of defensiveness. "And I think it is only natural to care about someone who… has shared ancestry with me." Blake was still apprehensive at mentioning her heritage, and Yang had the good sense to let it pass.

"Come check out Blake, Secret Protector of Friends!" Yang act-presented Blake to an audience that was not there. "The pride I feel for you is almost enough to mitigate the pain of being seen by my partner as someone to protect against."

"As if you care," Blake's lips curled into a smirk.

"Fair point." A grin.

"Alright," said Blake, standing up. "Let's get this over with."

Yang found Jaune and Pyrrha on the way back to their dorm building after the last lecture. Luck seemed to be with her that day as only the pair was there, with the other half of Team JNPR nowhere to be seen. Probably Nora had dragged Ren to catch some butterflies or something like that.

"Hey!" Yang called out when she was five feet behind the duo. "On your way back to the dorm? That's nice, because I'm too! Why don't we walk together?" Her smile was as bright as the scorching afternoon sun.

"Er… sure, why not?" said Jaune, taken aback by this display of unusual cordialness. "Where is everyone else?"

"Ruby has gone sparring with Weiss, and Blake is in the library re-reading Emma or whatever boring thing she reads." Yang shoved herself in between the duo, and held one of their shoulders in each arm, squeezing the two closer to herself. "I've got something great for you, wanna hear about it?" said Yang in a low, conspiratorial tone.

Jaune and Pyrrha were alarmed. Whenever Yang mentioned something "great", somebody was going to be very embarrassed. And you could never tell whether it was you before it actually happened.

"Do go on," said Pyrrha, always the nice girl.

"You know, next Tuesday is Ruby's birthday," said Yang. "Blake, Weiss and I are going to throw her a surprise party - well, that's not the only thing I have in mind to throw at her, but that's not important right now. Point is, we are going to shop for gifts this coming Saturday in Vale Town, and I really want you to join, you guys in?"

Jaune breathed a sigh of relief. That's it? "Of course we're in," he said. "Why are you acting so spooky and all?"

"Because here comes the important part," Yang's arms drew them closer. "It is supposed to be a surprise party. Not your overdone why-is-the-room-so-dark-and-where-is-everybody-oh-happy-birthday! surprise. But, like, super, enormous, huge surprise, got it?

"Sure…" said Juane. A flair for the dramatic, you had to give Yang that.

"And for that surprise to work," Yang continued. "We need to be super-duper secret about it. Don't tell anyone about it. Don't talk to anyone about it. Don't even think about it with anyone except me. Not even Ren and Nora, OK?"

"I don't see any harm coming out of telling our teammates," said Pyrrha. "Won't they be invited too?"

"Of… Of course they will," stuttered Yang. Why haven't I thought this through? Stupid stupid stupid. "You know, erm, it's cos' of, erm, you know, that. Yeah, Nora! You know, she gets excited terribly easily and I'm afraid she's not the best person for keeping a secret. And you know Ren is really close to her and I'm worried that he might accidentally spill the beans. Yeah, of course. Blake and I will, erm, bring them in at the last moment, just before the party itself."

"So where exactly are we going shopping?" asked Jaune.

"There is this really nice shopping arcade just off the central plaze. A new place called 'Flowering Night". Walk along Primrose Path and you can't miss it. We'll meet there eleven sharp this Saturday."

"Alright," said Jaune.

Just as suddenly as she had grabbed her friends in her arms, Yang let go of her captives. They now reached the doors of their dorm rooms. As soon as Pyrrha and Jaune were turning to say good bye, Yang snapped around in an abrupt motion, and said in an overdramatic, hushed tone – "Just remember: don't tell anyone, promise?"

Seeing the wry twinkles of light reflecting from Yang's eyes, Jaune turned and looked at Pyrrha, who shared his doubtful expression. She's got to be up to something, they both thought.

"Promise," they said simultaneously.

"Perfect." With this word, Yang disappeared behind the door.

Jaune and Pyrrha shared a glance, and shook their heads, smiling awkwardly.

It was only when Blake was looking for Velvet's slender figure when she realized that for all their instant friendship and general fraternizing yesterday, she had neglected to ask which room Velvet lived in – or for that matter, whether she went straight back to the dorms after class at all.

Without a better option, Blake settled on sitting on a bench facing the dorm block that she did not live in, her reasoning being that she did not remember seeing a Faunus in her own block, so Velvet must live in the other.

To pass the time – not to mention to look less suspicious - she took out the book she just borrowed from the school library. It was a classic novel about a girl's adventures in the intricate land of matchmaking, and the dangers thereof. Blake wondered if her improbably pertinent choice of literature was mere serendipity – whatever that word means – or if she subconsciously chose a book apropos of her current situation. Either way, she had always meant to read it but had never got round to, so Blake figured that it was as good a time as any to start.

Reading requires concentration; so does watching a footpath for a particular person. Trying to read and watching the path for a particular person effectively at the same time is nigh-impossible for a non-schizophrenic person, as Blake now discovered. She just ended up struggling – but never quite managing – to work through the winding sentences of the novel, while agonizing over every murky shape that walked into the periphery of her field of vision. After five minutes, she gave up and adopted the tried and true method of the library stalker: read for five seconds, then dart up her eyes to steal a glance as inconspicuously as possible, and then dart back to the book. It was as tiring as it sounds.

Ten minutes of not-quite-reading and not-quite-watching rewarded Blake with the sight of two long, white ears on the head of a solitary figure walking towards the dorm block. Blake congratulated herself on her good luck and put down her book.

"Hi Velvet," Blake said in what she hoped was not too high a volume. "I didn't know you live here." Technically she was not lying.

"Hi Blake," said the rabbit Faunus girl. "What are you doing here?"

"Just reading and enjoying the afternoon sunshine," said Blake in perhaps too fast a pace, as if she had prepared the answer beforehand. Years as a terrorist and I still suck at lying, thought Blake dismally.

"This bench does offer a good view," agreed Velvet.

Blake could just nod in agreement, unable to find a topic to go on.

"..."

"..."

Silence hung in the air, daring any passing tumbleweed to punctuate it.

Good at small talk, our two Faunus interlocutors were not.

At long last Blake remembered her mission. "So, we are going to do gift shopping for Ruby's birthday in Vale Town this Saturday. Will you be available?"

"Who are going?" said Velvet sheepishly.

"Just my team and the guys from JNPR, nothing special."

"O…Ok, I'll go. Where do we meet?"

"You know the new shopping arcade called 'Flowering Night"? It's on Primrose Path."

"I've heard of it."

"We meet at the main entrance at eleven o'clock."

"Alright."

"Don't tell anyone, OK? We want to give Ruby a surprise."

"Sure."

"See you there, then."

"See you."

They parted way awkwardly, as if embarrassed about having spoken at all. Total duration of conversation: 45 seconds.

Having triumphantly completed half of her mission, Yang spent the majority of Friday looking for a way to corner Nora and Ren. Her chance came when she was shopping in the school grocery store, and heard the unmistakable rambling of a certain pancake fiend down the pastry aisle across the cereal shelves.

"I can't believe there are still brands of pancakes that I've never tried! Look at this box! It says it is a Beacon special version. What is Beacon special version, Ren? Does it mean it is Beacon-flovoured? What is the taste of Beacon? Like the bitter taste of the burnt crunchy bits of barbeque meat that were too close to the charcoal? Or did it want to say 'Bacon' but misspelled the word? I do it sometimes. Wow! 'Bacon Academy' sounds like a really awesome place! Bacon is delicious! Almost as good as pancakes!"

Yang rounded the corner and saw Nora and Ren standing in front of rows of pancake batter boxes. Held in Nora's outstretched hand was, indeed, a 'Beacon Special' branded box- what niche the marketers thought they would occupy eluded Yang, but she left that for gazillionaires like Weiss to figure out. Ren still sported his trademarked impassive face, focusing on coaxing some order out of the chaos that his childhood friend created in the wire trolley.

"I can go bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon, baked beans, sausage, bacon, and bacon everyday! Too bad the teachers in middle school said bacons are unhealthy, and have too many calories. But I think it's OK because Yang said my calories go to all the right places. Where exactly are the right places, Ren?"

Ren sighed silently at his predicament. Not that he was a prude or anything; but did he want to be the one to tell Nora what constitutes right places to grow flesh? Not at all.

At precisely this moment Ren lifted his head and saw Yang, the Corruptor of the Innocent, at the far end of the aisle, grinning like a cat looking at a downed bird.

"Helloooo, guys," Yang waved exaggeratedly. "I see you are having fun. What's the deal?"

"Hi, Yang!" Nora closed the distance between Yang and herself to less than a foot. "Where are the right places for calories to go? Calorie pouches?"

Yang opened her mouth to give an appropriately naughty but euphemistic answer, but paused upon seeing Ren's raised right eyebrow.

"You're absolutely right. You are a genius, Nora," said Yang. "You guys got anything to do this Saturday?"

"Ren and I are going to the Town to watch Jabberwocky VS Karate Monkey 2! Then we'll try that restaurant where they serve those huuuuge hamburgers."

"I've heard of the place," said Yang. "Sounds like good fun. It also sounds like you're having a… date?"

Yang's eyes narrowed teasingly.

Nora blushed luminously and said - "It's not like that we are just friends and we've been together for a long time – but not together-together - so it's OK for us to go out together and it's not a date. At all."

Normally, Yang would like nothing more than to press on and watch Nora dig herself deeper, but she had a mission today; and incurring Ren's wrath was not conductive to accomplishing that.

Instead, she said - "Ok, point taken," Yang put up her hands. "Do tell me if the movie or the restaurant is any good. Anyway I just want to tell you that Ruby's birthday is coming up and we want to give her a surprise party. We'll be shopping for gifts this Saturday. Just to save you the trouble of thinking up a gift that Ruby likes, let me give you a tip. There is a shop that sells wooly dolls in the Town called 'Epic Yarn'. They sell this big, cuddly wolf doll that Ruby has always wanted to buy. Maybe you guys can get her one of those. I'm sure Ruby will love that. The shop is on Penny Lane, really close to the hamburger joint."

And more importantly, half a town away from Flowering Night. Obstacle to ingenious plan: cleared.

"Thank you for your advice," Ren said at long last. "Now, don't you have shopping to do? We don't want to intrude upon your time any longer"

"Just one more thing: it's supposed to be a secret, so don't tell anyone, not even Jaune and Pyrrha, OK?" A rapid string of nods and a short, curt nod. "Alright. Bye, Nora; bye, Mr Sociable!"

Nora jumped up and down towards Ren, talking enthusiastically about buying Ruby a wooly wolf, and a wooly sloth for Ren.

As Yang pushed her trolley past Ren, she took a glance at Nora's chest, jiggling with her every jump. She then mouthed the words Calorie Pouches and winked at Ren.

Ren rolled his eyes; but not before stealing a glance.

Flowering Night turned out to be one of those modern shopping arcades that brand themselves as "chic". Two rows of shops, restaurants and cafes lined a pedestrians-only street. A ceiling screen that spanned the width and length of the street covered the whole area, displaying animation of roses, iris, lilies and other assorted flowers blooming against a pastel coloured background. Soft, mellow music created a romantic ambiance. Some hidden contraptions even blew artificial rose petals around the street.

Jaune and Pyrrha were visibly uncomfortable standing at one end of the street besides a perfume shop. Jaune couldn't decide which made him the most uncomfortable: was it the fluffy atmosphere; the fact that he was alone with a girl; or that as far as eyes could see, there were couples displaying various degrees of intimacy, from walking-arm-in-arm to please-get-a-room-it's-indecent levels. Jaune decided that the answer was not important, as long as somebody, anybody showed up to break up this awkward atmosphere.

Pyrrha's mind went down more or less the same path. She, too, felt awkward in this lovey-dovey environment with a boy. The boy. Keeping Jaune at just the right distance, Pyrrha tried not to look too intimate, while preserving the appearance that she and the blond boy next to her might look like a couple from the right angles, in the faint hope that somebody would mistake them for one. Such was the plight of having a crush.

The time display on her Scroll flipped to 11:05, five minutes past the appointed time. Just when Pyrrha was wondering where in the world everybody was, she appeared.

She. Nemesis. That Faunus Girl. Thief of His Attention. Or to everyone else, Velvet (I know we haven't talked for a few chapters, Mr Narrator. Wanna know my newest project? Trying to shooting through the fourth wall! Keep this up and you may get to be the first one to experience it.).

The girl who was known in Pyrrha's mind as nothing other then a friendly, if a little shy, Faunus girl called Velvet, who was absolutely not a rivel for Jaune's affection, in no way at all made Pyrrha's heart sink. Pyrrha proceeded to not scowl at her so hard Velvet almost did not feel a chill down her spine.

Velvet was just as surprised as the duo. "…Hello, Jaune. Hi, Pyrrha…" she averted the non-scowl of Pyrrha.

"Are you here for Ruby's birthday?" asked Jaune, oblivious of the drama that was not going on.

"Y…Yes."

"Now we just have to wait for everybody el-"

Pyrrha's Scroll rang shrilly. There was a message from Yang. Jaune and Velvet leaned in to read it.

"Glynda sent Blake and me on an errand. It's a pain in the arse but I'm sorry we really can't get away before noon. Do go on without us.

PS Have fun. ;P

PPS Flowering Night is so nice and romantic, ain't it?"

Pyrrha bit her lips. How convenient, Yang.

Velvet stared vacantly at the message. The implication was not lost to her either.

"Looks like we'll have to get a move on, then," Jaune broke the silence. "Let's check out that CD shop first!"

Pyrrha and Velvet took a look at each other, each narrowed her eyes slightly.

The fight was on.

A/N: Jabberwocky vs Karate Monkey is an actual Google search suggestion. Turns out it's about mountain bikes. What's with mountain bikes and their names...

I don't know why this chapter ends up being filled with so many references. Maybe it's the Dan Simmons I've been reading?

Until next time!