Standard Disclaimer: All rights belong to those whose rights they belong to, primarily the glorious minds at Rooster Teeth, though quite namely not me. Don't own a thing.

Beacon Academy
Monday Morning

The students' opinions on the early hour for their sparring class were as varied as their semblances. Many believed it to be a special form of torture to have to face such brutality first thing in the day. Some faced the ordeal with a certain amount of resignation, others with resolute fortitude as they strove to keep their skills and grades at an acceptable level.

Others, like Ruby Rose, actively looked forward to it.

"This is gonna be a great week!" the diminutive leader of team RWBY proclaimed excitedly to her friends as they took their usual seats in the bleachers. "I've been working on a new trigger mechanism for Crescent Rose, and I can't wait to try it out!"

Blake offered her girlfriend an indulgent smile before she attempted to cover up a yawn behind her hand. Her eyes were twinkling as she watched the little redhead bounce up and down excitedly in her seat.

"Who you gonna try it out on, sis?" Yang asked as she leaned back into Nora's knees, the pinkette sitting behind her. Nora decided to court disaster and started to play with the blonde's hair idly. Truthfully, she was the only person who could possibly get away with the act, though the others sitting nearby reflexively leaned away from the couple.

Ruby looked around the seating thoughtfully. "Hmm… Who else is long-ranged here?"

Before anyone else could offer an opinion, Glynda Goodwitch stepped into the middle of the arena and cleared her throat.

"Good morning, students," she began, her voice easily carrying throughout due to the acoustics of the tall room. "I have something special planned for this week, an activity that will stress the need for huntsmen to be able to adapt to new situations."

"Pfft, we're as adaptable as they come!" Yang boasted quietly.

"Yeah, bring it!" Ruby chirped confidently, but just as softly as her sister. "Team RWBY's accepting all comers!"

"This week we will be mixing things up a bit, and randomly assigning combat partners to everyone in the class."

A pin could have been heard to drop in the silence that followed.

"Is she serious?" Weiss finally murmured in shock. "She can't be serious, right?"

Blake looked askance at her redheaded girlfriend. Ruby had ceased her bouncing and was instead reduced to a trembling ball of nervousness.

Glynda stepped back and tapped a few keys on her scroll, the screen behind her lighting up. A pair of boxes began to rapidly scroll through student portraits.

"Oh my Oum, she's actually serious," Weiss moaned.

"I'm afraid so, sweetie," Pyrrha sighed, tightening her arm reassuringly around the platinum-haired girl.

"Our first combat partnership will be…. Pyrrha Nikos… and Dove Bronzewing."

The combined teams of RWBY and JNPR swiveled their heads as one to stare at the tall redheaded huntress-in-training.

"Oh, honey," Weiss breathed tearfully. "I'm so, so sorry…"

"It will be fine, I'm sure," Pyrrha stated somewhat halfheartedly. "We can be professional about this."

"Pyrrha, the entirety of those Cardinal assholes have done nothing but throw ridicule at us all semester," Blake responded with considerable ire.

"Well, yes…"

"And they bullied Jaune."

"But they've left me alone since, you know," the team leader of JNPR interjected. "Since I stood up to them."

"Yes, but recently they've resorted to insulting our, ahem… partnerships." Blake threw a glare across the room at team CRDL who were smirking widely back.

"Partnerships?" Weiss asked.

"I think she means they've been making fun of our all having girlfriends," Yang huffed, her lilac eyes bordered with a faint ring of red. She ignored the next announcement of forced class partners to shoot her own partner a curious look. "And how have you been able to overhear…? Oh."

Blake had simply given her bow a subtle wiggle in the middle of Yang's sentence, conveying what she needed to without words.

"But why didn't you tell us about it before, Blake?" Weiss interjected.

The raven-haired girl shrugged, turning her attention back to her petite girlfriend. "It wasn't a big deal, and it gave them something else to focus on besides harassing our Faunus classmates. Ruby, are you okay?"

Ruby didn't reply, just stared at the screen apprehensively and giving no indication she'd been following the conversation. As each rolling box stopped on a portrait, she'd flinch slightly and then let out a soft sigh of relief.

Blake sidled over and wrapped an arm around her. "Hey, talk to me, Little Gem."

"Oh, sorry Blakey," the redhead finally responded with a forced smile. "Did you say something?"

Yang leaned forward, knowing her sister all too well. "Ru, if you get paired with someone you can't stand, it's not the end of the world. It's only for a week, yeah?"

"But… but what if I get stuck with someone like… like Cardin? This could be bad, this could be really, really bad..." Her silver eyes were wide and frightened, causing Blake to squeeze her tighter.

"We'll get through it," the Faunus murmured. "Besides, all of Cardinal already got assigned partners."

"Yeah, Ren got stuck with Sky," Nora snickered. "Ten lien says he actually gets Ren to lose his temper."

"No bet," Yang laughed, giving the chagrined boy a friendly pat on the knee.

Just then Ruby gave a small eep and jumped in her seat, jostling Blake aside with the sudden movement.

"The next combat partnership will be Ruby Rose… and…"

"Oh please oh please oh please," Ruby muttered anxiously. "I'll give up cookies for a week, just please…"

The second box finally settled on another portrait, a rather familiar orange-haired girl.

"Nora Valkyrie."

There was another shocked silence even more absolute than the first, though it was once again broken by Weiss.

"What… have… you… done?" the heiress slowly uttered, staring at Glynda in abject horror.

Ruby and Nora were looking intently at each other, slow and predatory smiles beginning to creep across their faces.

"I don't know if Beacon has enough insurance for this," Pyrrha commented, her eyes twinkling in amusement.

"This is gonna be awesome," Nora stated, slowly rising to her feet. "Think of the possibilities, the terror we could unleash…"

"An unstoppable force of justice," Ruby grinned, standing as well to look her friend in the eyes.

"The unrivalled power of the sugar-fueled avengers…"

"Power to the little people!" Ruby cheered, drawing stares from the rest of the class.

"Legs will be broken!" Nora shouted triumphantly.

The two diminutive girls leaned in and shared a high-five. "Banzai!" they chorused.

"We're doomed," Weiss facepalmed.

"Alright, class, settle down," Glynda stated loudly. "I know some of you are disappointed, but consider this an opportunity to broaden your horizons and skillset. Now then, we will have our first match immediately. Any brave souls care to volunteer?"

Ruby and Nora shared a quick glance, their lips pulled back in a mirrored feral grin. As one they stood back up again. "We'll go!" they both shouted.

"Very good, Miss Rose, Miss Valkyrie. Any takers to oppose them?"

From the faces of the students, it was more likely they'd have volunteered to face a flock of Nevermores with nothing but a butter knife.

"Very well, then… Mister Bann and Mister Cerule, you are up. Each team will have five minutes in the locker room to prepare."

Blake eyed the pair of girls as they skipped off excitedly. "I'm actually interested to see what they can pull off," she murmured.

"With those overpowered weapons of theirs?" Yang laughed merrily, relaxing now that she was no longer worried about facing the daunting duo. "It's gonna be a slaughter."

The five minutes went by quickly, and before long Ruby and Nora were standing confidently at one end of the arena, the redhead with Crescent Rose unlimbered and by her side while the pinkette held Magnhild over her shoulder negligently. Across from them were two rather nervous boys, one with a pair of curved swords and the other with a broad-bladed axe. Their team was cheering them on encouragingly.

"Hey, aren't those two already on a team together?" Weiss asked, her brow furrowed.

"Yeah, sometimes random isn't always," Yang replied sagely. Weiss opened her mouth to issue an irritable retort, but then closed it, deeming the effort futile.

"Most likely that's why Professor Goodwitch picked them," Blake commented. "Gives them a fair chance."

Yang snorted derisively. "Against Nora and Rubes? Ha!"

"Alright, then," Glynda announced. "Prepare yourselves… Three… two… one… Fight!"

The pair of boys must have found their courage somehow, and each one hurtled themselves forward with fierce yells.

The rest of the class, expecting a fierce clash of weaponry in the center of the room, were rendered mostly speechless by the resulting one-sided battle.

Nora whipped her hammer around, quickly turning it into a grenade launcher and sending a pair of explosive projectiles at the approaching student's feet. The unprepared boys were sent flying upwards, where Ruby calmly picked them apart with her oversized sniper rifle, completely decimating what was left of their auras.

Neither girl had taken a step from their original position. The entire fight was over in a matter of seconds.

"That was… unexpected," Blake mentioned wryly.

"Well," Yang breathed wondrously, unable to take her eyes off of the pair of girls as they solicitously helped their opponents to their feet. "I'm a little bit shocked and a little amazed and more than a little turned on by that, though the last bit is particularly disturbing since my sister was part of it as well…"

"Really, Yang?" Weiss protested, blinking herself out of her stunned stupor. "Was that really necessary?"

"Usually, yeah," the blonde smirked.

Monday Evening

"Ugh," Weiss moaned over the dinner table. "I can't believe the moron I was saddled with. I don't even remember him being in class before."

"He is," Pyrrha reassured her. "His fights have just been… unmemorable."

"Unremarkable, more like," Weiss muttered, stabbing her food violently. "I had to save his hide so often that I was unable to adequately go on the offensive."

"It did last quite a while," her redheaded girlfriend smiled. "And I think you performed brilliantly as always, Snowflake."

"Aww, thanks, sweetie," Weiss returned the smile softly and leaned in for a quick kiss. "You always know how to make me feel better."

"So," Jaune commented, having finished explaining the morning's excitement to team CVFY, all four of whom were wiping tears of mirth from their eyes. "Any ideas on how we're going to handle… that?"

The blonde boy indicated with his fork the other end of the table. Ruby and Nora were sitting across from each other, their heads together and plotting their next bout with a certain degree of fiendishness. Each girl was speaking so rapidly they were talking over one another, however the petite pair seemed to be following their conversation effortlessly.

Normally their girlfriends would be perched at their shoulders, however tonight there was an empty seat between them and both Yang and Blake, seated across from each other as well. The longtime partners were eyeing the other two somewhat warily.

"I'm more than a little disturbed by how well they're clicking together," Yang confided to Blake quietly. "They never really seemed to be best buds before."

"Well, it should be fine," Blake replied with weak assurance. "Once this random double week is over, things should return to normal… right?"

No response was forthcoming, though the next sound was a loud cackling from both diminutive girls who glanced over at the others, their eyes lit up with manic glee.

"Yep," Weiss sighed again. "We're doomed."

"Ren, can't you do something?" Jaune asked querulously. The rest of the table turned to eye the quiet magenta-eyed boy.

Nora's childhood friend shrugged his thin shoulders. "I wash my hands of it," he quietly proclaimed.

Yang snorted humorously. "Coward."

"Not at all," Ren disagreed politely. "I consider myself to be a pragmatist and merely intend to make sure I'm not in the front row of the fallout."

At that both Blake and Yang cautiously leaned away from the crazed duo of red and pink, putting even more distance in between them.

Thursday Morning

Overall most of the fights had been rather anticlimactic, as the strongest individual fighters seemed to shine without being able to fall back on their teamwork. Some surprising matches were entertaining enough, but today's bouts were anticipated with a mix of morbid curiosity and dread by the students.

Weiss sighed from the bleachers, watching Pyrrha stand next to Dove at one end of the arena. The tall boy was widely smirking and obviously verbally assaulting the amazonian warrior with lecherous suggestions by the rising ire in her face.

"Uh-oh," the heiress murmured with a small smile.

"What's up, Princess?" Yang asked jovially. "You're not worried about Pyrrha, are you?"

Weiss shook her head in amusement, eyeing the opposing pair of boys, Dove's teammate Russel and another student by the name of Tyrian. "Not at all," she replied levelly. "This will not, however, end well."

The others watched closely as Pyrrha's stony expression darkened further until it was replaced by a very small, very dangerous smirk of her own.

"Oh, yeah," Nora giggled. "This is gonna be good."

Glynda began her countdown to fight, and the combatants readied their weapons. All except for Pyrrha, who calmly slipped Akouo onto her back once more and sheathed Milo at her side.

Once the fight commenced, Dove made as if to launch onto the attack, but found himself unable to move.

"What the-" The tall blonde boy looked down in perplexion to see that his armor was glowing darkly. Before he could comment further, he was sailing across the arena.

Pyrrha, her arms crossed and not moving a muscle, used her semblance to manipulate the hapless Dove as both a shield and club. His body battered down the defences of both Russel and Tyrian, the latter rather quickly as he had a particularly low amount of aura available for defense.

Russel tried vainly to get away and throw himself at the stoic amazonian warrior, but she would twirl Dove back into his path time and time again. It wasn't too long before both Russel and Dove had their aura's dip into the red, and a highly amused Glynda called the match.

Though the buzzer couldn't be easily heard over the raucous laughter of the observing students.

Once the jovial outbursts had dwindled down to amused murmurings, Glynda slowly strode over to the calmly waiting Pyrrha.

"Well done, Miss Nikos, if a tad unorthodox," the professor stated, loudly enough to carry throughout the classroom.

"But… she can't do that!" Dove tried to protest weakly from where he lay in a crumpled heap on top of his teammate.

"Really, Mister Bronzewing, while the team work was, ahem, below our usual standards, it was perfectly within the rules," the blonde woman replied archly. A faint hint of a smirk appeared for a fleeting second. "And perhaps the next time you might consider not insulting your partner and their sexual preferences."

Both teams RWBY and JNPR were still recovering from their howls of laughter. Yang was gleefully reviewing the video capture on her scroll before uploading it to everyone she knew.

Weiss, for her part, sat back with a highly satisfied smirk. "That's my girlfriend," she stated proudly.

The next bout was as immensely anticipated as the previous one, featuring Ruby and Nora once more against Cardin and an unfortunate boy by the name of Rajah. The latter was an immigrant from Vacuo, and seemed rather cowed by his current partner.

"I feel kinda bad for the kid," Yang commented, inclining her head towards the slender boy gripping a spear determinedly. "Cardin isn't known for being the best of team players."

"Or for being a good sport about losing," Blake added. "While part of me really wants to see Cardin suffer, the rest of me wants them to get this over with quickly."

"Think they'll use the same strategy?" Pyrrha asked idly, still with a pleased smirk on her face from her previous bout. Weiss was sitting by her side, unabashedly holding her hand and with a smug grin on her face as well.

"With those two, expect the unexpected," Ren stated ominously.

Yang chuckled as the countdown started. "Guess we're about to see…"

As the bout began, Cardin gave his temporary partner a helpful shove from behind to propel him forward, using him as a shield as he readied his massive mace. It seemed obvious they were expecting another long-range attack, but as Ren predicted, the pair of petite girls weren't about to slip into complacency.

In a flurry of rose petals, Ruby was off across the arena in a flash, circling around to the far side with her scythe held out to her side. Cardin whipped his head around to keep track of her, which proved to be his undoing.

With a gleeful shout Nora leapt into the air and brought her massive hammer slamming into the ground, sending a shockwave out that caused poor Rajah to bowl over into Cardin. The pair of them stumbled backwards, straight into Ruby's well-timed attack.

Another whirl of rose petals was the only warning as Crescent Rose swept by, knocking the feet out from under their opponents. The attack did negligible damage, but served to disorient them, as well as distract them from the main attack.

As both Cardin and Rajah staggered back to their feet, they were met by a smirking orange-haired hammer-wielder. Nora took one step forward and swung Magnhild at the both of them, smacking into their midsections and sending the pair of them flying at the wall with an audible splat before they sunk into a boneless pile on the floor

The buzzer quickly sounded to indicate the match was over.

The crowd of students erupted into thunderous applause, led by teams RWBY and JNPR as they voiced their enthusiastic cheer.

Yang, however, was staring at her orange-haired girlfriend as she and Ruby jumped up and down while giving each other excited hugs.

As the cheering died down, she finally found her voice. "I am so gonna marry that girl," Yang murmured wonderingly.

Blake, of course, picked up on the comment and gave her an amused look, which caused the blonde to blush furiously.

"Not a word," she scowled, wagging a finger at her partner.

"Wouldn't dream of it," the Faunus smirked.

Yang's blush intensified, and she scooted over to press up against the raven-haired girl. "I'm serious, Blakey. You gotta partner-pinky-promise me."

"I have to what, now?"

The blonde bruiser wordlessly extended her pinky with fierce determination.

Blake sighed and rolled her eyes. "Very well, I am sworn to secrecy," she said solemnly while linking fingers, though she spoiled it with another smirk. "Won't stop me from teasing you about it."

"Yeah, well," Yang sighed back. "I suppose I have that coming to me."

Friday Evening

By the end of the week things had returned to normal, as much as they ever did at a huntsman academy such as Beacon. The teams were once again seated at the dining tables in their usual arrangements and discussing the plans for the weekend. By unspoken agreement, both Blake and Yang decided that they should pursue different activities.

"So, I think the saying goes, all's well that ends well, yes?" Pyrrha asked amusedly. "I suppose it could have been worse."

"True enough," Jaune replied thoughtfully. "But did we really learn anything?"

"Yeah, that we're better off with our own teams," Yang grinned.

"Well, I don't know about that," Ruby mused, a glint in her eyes. "I think perhaps we need to coordinate more inter-team exercises. What do you think, Jaune?"

"Uh…" The blonde looked around the table helplessly, but he was unable to register the frantic shaking of heads, instead pinned to his seat by two pairs of puppy-dog eyes, one set silver and the other turquoise.

"Y- Yeah, I suppose that'd be great!" he finally said with false cheer, unable to resist the powerful assault upon his willpower.

From several seats away, Ruby and Nora turned and gave each other a knowing and victorious wink, sending tendrils of dread throughout the rest of their teams.

Weiss' forehead hit the table with a soft thunk. "We are so doomed…"

A/N: After watching S3 Ch9, we are in dire need of some fluff. Perhaps with a little action on the side, but fluff nonetheless. Is this still fluff? Yeah, I'm gonna say so. Behold the fluff, for it is fluffy.

Now, my original idea for this was a standalone story, unrelated to the Lemonade series, that paired Ruby and Nora together. It has been noted before I'm a big fan of unusual pairings. However, every idea I had for the actual story itself seemed to result in a maelstrom of destruction followed by a sugar-induced coma. Plus Nora would be far too aggressive in relationships, imho, to be a good match for Ruby. Then it occurred to me how I could still make them work as a partnership, and voila.

That original idea, by the by, came about from a conversation with my eldest daughter, Live to anger the World, about how auras power semblances, except for Ruby and Nora who are powered by sugar, and then this most excellent of pairings were conceived in my head; which then turned into a womance (which from what I understand is the female equivalent to a bromance), if you will. My head is a weird place to be most days.

Whelp, much love for my readers, favoriters, followers, and reviewers of my little Lemonade stories, of which this is now the fifteenth (!) in the series. I have one more story planned for this series before I start in on another, multi-chapter story that's unrelated. Not sure which one I'm doing first, we'll see...

AntonSlavik020: Yepper, they would definitely wait til after graduation. Might get engaged beforehand, imo, or they could just be happy with the knowledge that they're going to be together no matter what. Ruby doth protest a bit too much about being a romantic, true enough, and Yang does rock the team-big-sister role rather well. She's got a big heart under all that sarcasm.

Here's the full listing to date of the Lemonade series for the curious, in order:

Pink Lemonade
Just A Little Ladybug
North Pole Weather
Snow Angel
Sweet, Sweet Lemonade
Ladybug Trails
Trifecta
Yuletide Lemonade
Eros
Lotus Song
Strawberry Lemonade
Ladybug Stitches
North Pole Mirror
Fallen Ladybug
Sugar Rush
North Pole Faith

Stay shiny!