It had been a long time since the failed attack on Haven Academy by Salem's faction. It had been a long time since the people of Menagerie, carrying simple weapons but forming a proper people's army, had crossed the oceans to the mainland in the hopes that they could protect the people of Mistral. In the hopes that they could defeat the rogue White Fang before they could risk making things worse for the faunus. Before the world could further fall apart at the cracks, though they hadn't realized it at the time.

But life had driven her apart from the others she'd fought with, Blake had found quickly. While she was being whisked off on her own world-saving adventures with her teammates, she had to leave a lot of people behind- friends and family alike. Many of whom she wouldn't see until years later. That didn't mean that she never tried to keep in contact- it was just difficult when the world didn't have a way to maintain regular communication between the continents anymore.

She missed the people that she'd left behind though. Blake missed her mother and father, who had decided that they were going to take the cause of restoring the White Fang to heart. She missed the people that had become her friends while they sailed across the ocean to Anima when there had been nobody to talk to and no way to entertain themselves but to spend time together on the boat.

Blake missed them all.

But if there was one that she missed than the others, it was Ilia.

Ilia, who had been there at her side when they'd been confused girls. Ilia, who like her had walked to the brink of what was good and just and had managed to fight her way back with tooth and nail. Ilia, who had loved her at a time when Blake never could have even noticed that she was being looked at that way by anyone other than Adam.

Which brought her to that day. It brought her back to Menagerie, back to Kuo Kuana, where the home that she had once fought Ilia in had been rebuilt, the ash brushed away and all that was left of the original home being a column that was charred and burned, but had never been painted over. When Blake had gotten home, her mother had explained that it was meant to be a symbol of regrowth. Of making things out of nothing, like they intended to do for the faunus, of rebuilding and restarting.

Blake sat for tea with her parents, anxiously awaiting the time where she would finally get to meet with her old friend.

At ten minutes to midnight, Ilia came into her family's old home through the front door, and Blake was absolutely struck.

The years had been rather good to Ilia, who was walking with her head high like she had never been hurt or manipulated. Ilia, who walked in the open without any fear.

The two of them caught a glance at each other. Ilia seemed to freeze in her tracks, and Blake herself didn't know what to do. It had been so long, and after the things that she had done and seen and experienced, she hadn't thought that this would ever be able to happen.

And yet they were there.

"Oh." Ilia started, blinking and standing up a bit taller. "Blake."

"Hi." Blake said. She got up from the seat that she had decided to occupy and hugged herself, feeling a sort of nervous tingling which tore its way down her spine as a reminder that this was happening. And that she and Ilia were going to have a lot to talk about, after having spent so many years apart as they had.

Ilia's expression changed, and Blake realized that her eyes were watering.

Before she got a chance to really brace herself, Ilia was rushing towards her, and Blake barely got her arms open in time to catch Ilia as she was accosted with a hug. It, more than anything else, was the ultimate sign that things could be okay. For them both.

"You're home." Ilia said into Blake's ear.

"Yeah." Blake replied, her voice quiet. "I know."

"I have missed you so much." Ilia whispered, letting out a little nervous laugh in the process. "What brings you back to Menagerie?"

"I wanted to... reconnect with some people." Blake hesitated. It was true, but the situation was much more complicated than that. "See how things were here."

Ilia nodded and hesitated, and Blake felt that guilt again. She gestured to the space beside her. "Would you like to join me?" She asked, keeping her voice down and giving Ilia plenty of space to leave if she wanted to. Blake refused to make herself seem to forceful in what she hoped would be a casual engagement.

"I don't think that I would get into any trouble if I did." Ilia said as she approached the table. She knelt down on the other side across from Blake, while Blake shifted and moved because the least that she could do was offer Ilia something to eat.

"You're concerned about getting into trouble?" Blake asked as she removed a small cake from the plate in the middle of the table and set it on a napkin. When they'd been young, Ilia had always liked jams and fruit based sweets. Blake didn't think that would have changed, but she wasn't so sure.

Ilia shrugged, taking the treat with a slight smile. "I was meaning to put in a report on the combat school today."

"The combat school?" Blake asked, because somehow she hadn't seen that coming. She'd figured that Ilia had still been involved in the political battles, not... teaching. Or whatever it was that she was doing.

"Yes." Ilia shrugged. "I was always good at fighting, and it puts me in a position where I can prepare people for what will come. Menagerie will always need its protectors."

"And the Fang?" Blake asked. She was aware that most of the nastier past of the White Fang was far behind them, but that didn't mean that it wasn't worth discussing.

"I can prepare young faunus for the ways of peaceful protest while also teaching them to defend themselves and their homes." Ilia explained with a slight shrug. "I... think that I like it, really. A lot of them have these traits and no idea how to use them. I don't mind helping to act as a guide in that."

Blake nods, but there's something about it that still feels... off. Maybe it's because she remembers how things used to be a little too well. She remembers when Corsac and Fennec had played a similar role, back when they were young. That was probably why they'd been so good at recruiting in the first place.

In that way, it made sense that Ilia would follow after them but for a different cause.

"It sounds like you're happy." Blake says, as thought that alone will be able to make up for the amount of lost time between the two of them. As though that is able to gap the distance that has formed. "I'm glad."

Ilia shrugs, and she glances away from Blake. For just a second, Blake could have sworn that she'd seen Ilia's face changing, the light rise of pink in the spots that rested on her expression like overly large freckles. Blake felt a little bit of guilt for it, because this isn't the way that things were meant to be. It felt too much like something from a time past.

But if Ilia noticed her saying anything, Blake can't tell, because she just takes a sip of her drink. "I like being here in Menagerie. I think that after having seen more than half the world, this is the place that feels the most like home."

Blake pauses, because that's a sentiment that she hasn't exactly allowed herself to stick with. She's seen things that most people couldn't imagine. She's seen every kingdom, and Menagerie, and some places that the rest of Remnant had left behind entirely. The idea of home had stopped being on her mind years ago, pushed away in place of the people that she was surrounded with. She couldn't just think about home when she couldn't guarantee that she would be in one place from week to week.

At the end of the day, Menagerie was probably home because that was where her family was. Aside from that, Blake didn't know. Ilia was lucky to be able to still feel such a loyalty to it.

"Well," Blake says, drinking from her own cup. "I'm glad that you're doing well here either way. Menagerie needed people that could be strong for it after what happened with the White Fang. I find it hard to believe that it could end up in better hands."

"It's mostly been in your father's hands." Ilia says with a shrug, her eyes still averted away from Blake in that soft, gentle way of hers. It was hard to imagine that years before the two of them had clashed in battle, and the stakes had been so high that the building they were now sitting in had nearly burned to the ground. The last time the two of them had been in this room together, it had been in battle.

"My father can't take care of everything on Menagerie." Blake says, blinking and smiling across at Ilia. "He needs good people to look after other things."

"And that is where I come in." Ilia laughs. She smiles and for the first time in a little bit she lets her expression raise just enough so that the two of them can let their eyes meet. "You know," Ilia says quietly. "It almost feels like it did back when we were younger."

"What do you mean?"

"Sitting here, sharing tea, and talking like there was nothing wrong with the world." Ilia sets her drink back down on the table and leans back, bracing herself against the floor with an outstretched arm as she makes herself comfortable. "I guess that after everything I stopped thinking that it was something I'd be able to have."

"Me too." Blake admits, and she feels sad for it. Sad because this was a life that she'd left behind chasing some sort of emotion, and then getting lost, and then finding home again only to have to leave just as quickly because the world needed people willing to fight for it. She was too used to campfires and rations, and the rare furnished table usually only came when she and the others had gotten a chance to brush shoulders with a headmaster for a few days. "I think that I've just forgotten what it's like to just... do normal things."

Ilia nods, and she gets up, like she's suddenly decided that the seat that she took isn't good enough. She walks around the table and drops down into the space beside Blake. As for Blake, she can't be bothered to move. "The world always needs people willing to fight for it." Ilia says to her. "And I'm glad that it was you."

"Why?"

"Because nobody was ever more driven than you were."

Ilia says it like it's the single most simple, obvious thing that she could have said. Like there was nothing else in the world that made sense and Blake didn't know how she was meant to feel towards it. It was true that she'd been driven, but at the same time-

Blake doesn't know that it's entirely why she decided to leave Menagerie. It's more complicated than that. The same way that her choosing to return home to Menagerie was complicated.

"I just needed to do what I could." Blake said, "That's all that there really is to it."

"Right." Ilia sighs, shaking her head. "So what's your plan now that you're here again? Somehow I doubt that you're just here because you just want to catch up."

"I don't know." Blake sighs. "I haven't really figured it out yet. If I can I want to be able to play a role in helping the people of Menagerie. In the end, I think that's all I ever really wanted. For the faunus to have more than we had."

Ilia looked almost sad for her, and Blake frowned. "But we're already doing better."

Blake shrugs, because that's true. And things still aren't anywhere near as simple as she'd like. If the world were perfect, then there wouldn't have even been a need for them to share this conversation. That is something that Blake is more than confident in. She's sure that Ilia probably feels roughly the same way as she does about it too.

Ilia reaches over and grabs another small cake, ripping it in half and offering it to Blake. "I don't think that we need to act like there's nothing to fight for though."

Blake looked down at the treat and reached out taking the half that had been offered to her. It feels like it means much more than it would have initially seemed. "There is always more to fight for. Things are getting better, but nothing happens overnight."

"I think that Menagerie could use someone strong to speak for us. Maybe what we need is a hero."

"I'm-" Blake wants to protest, but she can't. She is a hero, that's what everyone has been telling her. When she'd went to Beacon part of what she'd wanted was to undo years of hate. She's almost managed that. Almost. "If Menagerie wants me to speak for them, I will."

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the scales on Ilia's face beginning to turn soft, gentle pink. Blake feels her own face getting red, and there was a slight twitch to her ears that she wasn't able to stop. She feels warm, and a lot of it has to to with the fact that Ilia is there. So close.

Ilia sees it, and the pink flush she's wearing deepens, extending further down to the rest of her skin and even up to her eyes. "I wouldn't mind if it were you." She says, her voice a little too low in volume and a little too hoarse. "I mean, seeing as you are a hero and all."

Blake nods and meets Ilia's eyes, unable to think of anything to say. "I appreciate your vote of confidence."

"Blake-" Ilia sighs, and she picks a hand up, letting her fingertips trace idle patterns onto the table's surface. "You know that I've always believed in you, right?"

"Have you?" Blake asks, because she can remember a time where it felt distinctly like that hadn't been the case.

"Of course." Ilia replies, and she looks like she wants to reach over and touch Blake. Blake just reaches over and sets her hand on top of the one that Ilia has rested on top of the table. It shocks Ilia, whose head snaps over towards Blake's with wide, surprised eyes.

Blake smiles softly over at her companion, feeling a familiar warmth and for once feeling willing to allow herself to drown in it. Ilia is there, and she is real, and it sounds like she has let herself wait for Blake. While Blake doesn't want to think about that, what it means, what she should do, she does kind of... like it.

It felt like it could be a chance for her to live a normal life again, far from fighting evil witches or monsters. She could just stay home for some time if she wanted, and be there for Menagerie. For Ilia. With Ilia.

"I always believed in you too." Blake says, smiling softly at Ilia still. "And I am so happy that we're both able to be here now."

Ilia's pink blush intensifies, and Blake feels the light squeeze on her hand. She squeezes back, and for some time she and Ilia just sit there, instead of talking the future deciding to share stories of how their lives had been. Ilia had made quite a living for herself, and there was only so much that Blake was able to share about herself that Ilia hadn't known.

The two of them talked, and talked, and talked. They talked into the early hours of the morning, where the sun was just barely threatening to come up and wake up the rest of Menagerie. Sometime before dawn, Blake and Ilia decided to retire to Blake's bedroom for the night, far from the prying eyes of anyone that could have looked to harm them.

The good thing about Menagerie those days though- with the old influences of the White Fang as it had been with Sienna Khan, or with Adam- it was safe.

A place where someone could build a future without having to fear for what would happen.

In the end, that was all that Blake really wanted. And Ilia was the same way.

She could have a future there. Menagerie had a future. So did Ilia. So did she and Ilia.

It was something to look forward to, that much was for sure. Blake intended to treasure every moment fully.