One-sided Adam/Blake.

I'm going to leave the option open for continuing it at a later time.

Bloodless Revolution

The flap of the tent fluttered and Adam turned his head. Something weighty filled the dark, shadowed enclosure. The part of Adam's expression not covered by the mask remained a smooth line. The shifts going in him were all internal and all easily hidden from view. "I always said you would come back to me." Adam smiled. His teeth were bright in the darkness. "I just didn't think it would be so soon. What's wrong? Finally decide to start back again where you left off?

Adam drew Wilt. The red gleam shifted along the length of the blade. Adam parried Blake's strike with ease. Her muscles tightened as she pushed hard against Wilt. It didn't give an inch. Blake fled backward, landing with grace in a corner. Adam lowered his blade a fraction before sliding it back into its sheath.

"Monster," Blake said. Her eyes full of glow even in the midnight infused tent. "What you did to Yang was unforgivable." The accusation glanced off Adam. He didn't dignify it with a response. The curve of Blake's mouth tightened into a line. "Was this our dream? To get equality by dragging everyone else down in the mud?"

Adam went toward her, standing above her in a few fluid strides. "Why did you come back?" He asked. His palms grasping his knees as he crouched beside her.

Blake adjusted herself and looked at him. The bare tendril of skin on her abdomen was like a bright strip of moonlight. "I didn't want anyone else to get hurt because of me." Blake said and tears crowded her eyes. "To many people have gotten hurt."

Adam remembered the girl with yellow hair.

"Those other students at the academy weren't really your friends. Hunters and Huntresses only care about enforcing the law, however outdated it may be. They wouldn't protect any of us. They never do." Adam said. His fingers delved into her hair. He let the strands fall little by little through his fingers. "Blake... We belong together and that's why you came back." The words were more satisfying than the truth, better. He wanted her to say them.

Blake turned her head, pulling the rest of the strands out of his reach. They dropped along the swan curve of her neck and shoulder. "I love my friends." She said and her voice was stony. "I want to protect them."

He slapped her across the face. The harsh blunt sound of his open palm against her white cheek.

Blake's eyes widened. She sucked in air until her chest fully contracted. "I'm here. I came back! You won. Stop treating me like some kind of traitor. You were the one who went against everything we fought for." Her gaze was glinting amber stone. Their resolute gold depths fixed him with a glare that reminded Adam why he loved her in the first place.

"I never stopped fighting." Adam said and stood. Blake followed him with her gaze.

"Hurting people wasn't ever my dream."

"We aren't children anymore. If you want to get the world's attention, you have to force it to look." Adam crossed his arms as he paced, tight lines against his chest. Maps were tacked on every wall of the tent. Newspaper clippings with battles. Every triumph, every victory, looking back at him in black-and-white print. "There are no bloodless revolutions. Not for us."

Blake exhaled, the sound lodging in her throat.

It was a argument that wasn't over. It would never be over. All the could have beens and should have beens between them were still festering, infected wounds. Adam didn't think he would ever be done nursing the scars left by Blake Belladona. Once he would have done anything to keep her from looking at him that way. As if she were more alone in a room with him than in a room by herself.

"That girl, Yang," Adam said, tone cool, flippant, "must really matter to you."

All the fight drained from Blake. Her hands curled into desperate clumps on the tent floor. On her knees, she looked broken. "Don't," she said. "I'll stay here. We can work together to get equality for the Faunus. I won't leave this time. Please."

The more she insisted, the more Adam's hatred cemented for the girl with the yellow hair. "Of course you'll be staying my love. I'm not letting you leave again." He said. Adam paused at the entrance of the tent. The stars burned brightly outside, thousands of them twinkling down at him. "Get some rest. We move out at daybreak. The White Fang are in high demand these days."

"Wait." Blake said and stood. She approached him. Her heels surprisingly light against the nylon fabric of the tent.

"About those humans you've grown so fond of," Adam began, and paused. He reached out to brush his thumb against Blake's cheek and she neither grimaced or leaned away, she stood, frozen, breathless. "I won't let them come between us. Even if I have to destroy everything you love, my dear, we'll be together. I promise." Adam brushed the pad of his thumb over the sharp line of her jaw.

Blake shivered. Her shoulders huddled, seized, before she looked away. The spot on her cheek would be swollen tomorrow. The feminine purple of a bruise just starting to emerge.

"Get some rest." Adam said. He turned and walked into the starry, black night. Not glancing back to see the moment when Blade collapsed onto her knees. The soldiers outside of his tent fluttered to attention. They glanced from Adam to Blake to each other.

"She doesn't leave." Adam said. The loose breeze dragged his black collar askew. The red underneath peaked.

Texts hit his Scroll the moment he turned it on. Cinder sending him coordinates to an ammunition warehouse. Adam smiled, it dashed across his face before disappearing totally. He would deal with Blake later. She couldn't be trusted yet. At least now he could begin to build the world he promised her a lifetime ago. Equality was a nice judicious word, easy to say and ignore. What he was doing, ushering a revolution, was so much harder.

But he would do it, for her.

You have reached the end!

Thanks for reading.