- but hasn't got a hope of containing it. 

The star passes, still burning deep red.

... well that just happened.

I am really, really glad that didn't happen during weapons training.

Seconded. Yeesh.

Girls, we are still standing around naked in our dorm room. Get your act together.

Right yes okay date. 

She puts on the sky-blue dress because she feels contrary, and steps out into the hall again.

And she finds Sable leaning against a wall, wearing a pleated black skirt that stops just above her knees, her tail poking through a hole in the back, and a dark blue blouse, and a pair of black boots with a low heel. Her ears twitch at the sound of the door opening and she looks up with a smile.

Oh no she's hot.

Lilian clears her throat and smiles. "Sorry I was slow, I had another one of those things while I was changing. Nothing new gained, just..." 

She trails off. 

"Look, it seems pretty clear this is going to keep happening, so for right now I'd rather we just got on with our previous plan."

"Only thing to learn from it happening then is that it happened while you were changing clothes instead of training, and even then it's only one more datapoint. Onward to Vale."

She offers Lilian her hand.

She takes it. 

... She might be smiling just a little. It's not like her to care like this but Sable makes it so easy. 

She looks away. 

It's not usual that she feels she wants to be indirect but Sable knows what she wants anyway. She's already made it clear. 

So what is this? 

She guesses this is her finding out what she's in for. 

She squeezes Sable's hand. 

"Let's go," she says, meeting her gaze again. "You lead and I'll follow."

Sable leads the way to the airship docks, and they take an afternoon airship down to Vale. "This'll let us out about a fifteen minute walk from the Botanical Gardens, and it's good weather for it. There are a few restaurants in walking distance from there. What kind of food do you feel like?"

"Seafood's a good bet for me, if you know anywhere that does it."

"Valean or Mistrali?¹ There are both close-by."

¹Valean cuisine resembles both French and Italian cuisine on Earth, while MIstrali is more like East Asian or Greek (depending on where in Mistral you mean).

"Mistrali, please."

"Then I have a restaurant picked out."

That determines which exit she should guide their meandering to in the garden as well, for the easiest walk to the restaurant.

"Sounds good."

Lilian gets that small smile again. "Violet's been teasing me a little about my sudden decision, but, well... December already decided to try, and you just keep being good and helping us become more the people we want to be. Ruby was good to us on your behalf, and meeting everyone, seeing Ozpin together... All those days in the hospital... This new body, all the clothes you got us..." 

She lays her head back against the wall of the airship. "I'm not used to thinking with my heart. But it's saying something loud and clear right now. I want to know you."

If you know what I mean. 

Oh shush, Violet. 

She smiles warmly. "I'm glad. I'm really really glad. I... I do a lot of different things to help people in different ways, but what I'm about at the end of the day is seeing people blossom into who their souls cry out to be. Every time I see that happen I feel better, like the world around me is a little bit less broken. At the start, when I first agreed to treat you, that was why I did it and why I pushed to do that transition. As for what came after?"

She shrugs, still smiling.

"I'd gotten a pretty close look at who you three were trying to become, at that point, and I knew I wanted — and still want — to see that happen first-hand."

Lilian nods. "That makes a lot of sense. No-one could ever accuse you of caring too little." 

She looks out the window of the airship. "I'll do my best to give you sometning worth seeing."

If you know what I -

Shush, Violet.

She lifts Lilian's hand to her lips and kisses the knuckles lightly. "I have every faith you'll manage that handily."

A little pinkness rises to her cheeks. 

"... Thank you," she says, for a lack of anything better to say.

Victory.

"I will confess," she adds as an afterthought, "that the Mistrali seafood place is Eastern Mistrali, not Western,^* if you happened to be hoping for the latter."

^*Eastern Mistrali culture more closely resembles Earth's East Asian cultures, while Western more closely resembles Greek and Lebanese.