Author's notes: The lyrics I used as the title are from the song Still Bleeding by Destrophy. (It makes a great angsty Bees song to be honest.)

The Volume 5 finale hit me with all of the feelings, and while I've been a fan of RWBY for some time this is the first time I've ever felt compelled to write something for it. I'm extremely confident the show will address most of the stuff in this story in due time, but I can't wait until Volume 6 for Blake and Yang to finally goddamn talk to each other so here we are :D

I wrote this in a mess of emotions right after the finale so if it seems slightly incoherent that's why, but it has been beta-read (thanks, Victorious!) and I've gone over it many, many times so it's probably the best it's gonna be.

Lastly, I just want to note that I have no personal experience with PTSD, the loss of a limb, abusive relationships, or any of the other horrible things these characters have been put through, so I sincerely apologise if I misrepresent anything. It's not my intention, so please feel free to (politely) let me know if anything's wrong :)

You can also find this story on Archive of Our Own with the same title and author.

Enjoy!

As she knelt on the floor of the Haven Academy's Grand Hall in the embrace of her team, the overwhelming emotion that rose in Blake's chest was relief. After a year of absence she had never expected to ever even see any of them again, and to be quite literally welcomed back with open arms was more than she could have possibly hoped for. She had certainly never envisioned any forgiveness at all from—

Yang.

There was so much she needed to say to her— her what? Her partner? No, she'd lost the right to be Yang's partner the moment she ran. A partner was someone who had your back, who was always there for you when you needed them. How would Yang ever be able to put that trust in her again when she'd already betrayed it once?

And even if Yang could still have faith in her, Blake wasn't sure she had faith in herself. Not when she remembered every word of a conversation in an empty classroom at Beacon, as Yang told her how Raven had abandoned her, how Summer had left on a hunt and never come back. She had known that too many people had left Yang behind, and yet she had still chosen to become one of them. She had wondered how anyone could willingly desert someone so full of warmth and compassion and light, and yet she had done it herself.

She didn't deserve the comforting weight of Yang's arm across her shoulder, or the affection in her gaze, or the tenderness in the way she was smiling at her. Blake averted her eyes, focussing properly on her other two teammates for the first time since they'd been reunited.

Ruby was definitely taller than she remembered, and it was obvious from the tense set of her shoulders that she was carrying the weight of too much responsibility, but Blake was pleased to see that she hadn't lost the youthful optimism in her expression. Her leader had grown up, but appeared to have done a much better job of it than she had herself. Weiss, on the other hand, hadn't gained any extra height - much to her disappointment, Blake imagined - but the lack of rigidity in her posture and the warmth in her face suggested that she had gained some freedom from the name that had haunted her.

Blake thought of the bow she had left floating in the ocean, and realised that perhaps she and Weiss had become more alike than she ever could have anticipated. If Weiss could forgive herself, maybe she could too— but it wasn't the same. Weiss hadn't chosen to leave her friends, she had been forced to. Weiss hadn't earned the guilt she had harboured, she had simply been born into the wrong family. Weiss... had a large hole in the side of her dress, the surrounding fabric stained by what looked like blood.

"Weiss..." Blake finally pulled out of her teammates' arms to gesture at Weiss' side with a shaking hand. "What happened?"

"Oh, that?" Weiss glanced down to where the wound had been. "Apparently I was impaled."

"Cinder," Ruby explained, her face darkening for an instant before her expression morphed back into a smile. "Jaune healed her, though! He finally unlocked his Semblance!"

Blake followed Ruby's gaze to where Team JNR were standing a short way across the room. Jaune gave her a small smile, while Ren simply offered a nod, which Nora was too preoccupied to notice as she rambled excitedly to him in a rapid flurry of words too fast for Blake to discern. She allowed herself a moment to remember the fourth member of their team before turning back to her own with a trembling breath and stinging eyes.

If things had happened differently, she could have been in that position. Weiss might have been gone, no longer there to bribe Ruby into studying with the promise of cookies, or complain that Yang was taking too long in the shower, or protest that she most assuredly had not been borrowing from Blake's secret stash of 'utterly tasteless and indecent' literature. Just contemplating the possibility, Blake felt a wave of immeasurable sympathy for Jaune, Ren, and Nora, as well as a deep admiration for them. They had been brave where she had not, had stood firm rather than fleeing in the face of tragedy. And with each other's support they had made it through, emerging closer and stronger than ever.

Blake knew she needed to be more like them. She had left in an attempt to prevent any more of her friends from being hurt, but they were going to be hurt regardless, and the next time it happened she was going to be there to help.

"Are you ready to get out of here?" Ruby's voice cut through her thoughts and she realised she was being spoken to.

"I am at your command, oh fearless leader." Her deadpan response drew a grin from Ruby and she couldn't help but smile in return. While she was gone she had felt the absence of her teammates like a physical ache, had missed Team RWBY laughing and bickering and fighting together as they worked to make the world a better place, the same way she would miss the stories in her books if she became unable to read.

The four of them clambered to their feet, and while Blake felt drained, she could tell the other three were completely exhausted. She had shown up late to the party, after all, so she was sure her friends had probably done more fighting than she had. She instinctively started to offer Yang a hand to pull herself up, before hesitating and extending it to Weiss instead. Considering Weiss had been impaled, she reasoned, it was only fair. Or maybe, she corrected herself bitterly, she was too afraid of rejection from the teammate who was missing an arm because of her—

Dust. How had she forgotten about Yang's arm?

In the moment she had laid eyes on Yang for the first time in a year, she had been too busy searching for hatred in her expression, and desperately hoping she wouldn't see red when she looked into her eyes, to dwell on the prosthetic that she had then watched Yang deposit in the grasp of an astonished Mercury.

She looked over her shoulder and sure enough, there it was, lying on the ground halfway across the room. Blake felt as though her world was in slow motion as she turned away from her team to walk over to it. It was painted black and yellow exactly like Yang's bike, and Blake wanted more than anything to just fall to her knees and cry. Instead, she held back the tears and bent down to pick it up.

She barely managed to keep her hands from shaking as she carried it back to where her teammates were waiting. She could still see the red of Adam's mask as he loomed over her, could still hear his voice as he swore to destroy everything she'd ever loved, could still feel his blade piercing her flesh.

But none of those memories compared to the moment in which she had understood with horrific clarity that Yang would defend her, and Adam would begin to fulfil his promise. He may have succeeded then, but Blake would willingly die rather than let him take even one more step towards completing his mission.

She finally looked up at Yang, and she could see the same memories reflecting her own pain back at her as she returned her arm to her. Their fingers brushed as Yang took it from her and Blake had to stop her hand from jerking away at the shock of sensation. It had only been the slightest touch, but after a year without even that she was completely unprepared her for the intensity of her former partner's skin grazing her own. Then Yang's arm snapped back into place and Blake snapped back to her senses, the moment gone as quickly as it had arrived.

"I see you brought the rapscallion with you, Blake." Weiss' amused comment served as a helpful reminder that she and Yang were not the only two people in the room, and Blake turned to find Sun waving animatedly at them from the sizeable hole that the battle had left in the wall.

She rolled her eyes but gave him a small wave back. "He may be a total dork with no sense of privacy, but he's been a good friend." She could practically feel the unwavering focus with which Yang regarded her as she talked about Sun, and it made her feel inexplicably self-conscious. Or maybe it wasn't so inexplicable if she was totally truthful with herself. Suddenly desperate to talk about anything else, she blurted the first thing that came to mind. "So, do you guys want to meet my parents?"

"How did you gather so many people to fight with you?" By the time Blake was finished with all the introductions, the army of Faunus she had brought from Menagerie had begun to gather in small groups in the courtyard outside the Grand Hall, and Weiss voiced the question that all her teammates had been thinking.

"Well, you see, my dad's sort of the chief back in Menagerie," Blake began to explain, but Yang held up a hand to stop her before she got any further.

"Wait, so you're saying your family are… aristocats?"

There was a long moment of silence as everyone stared at Yang in shock, too stunned to react, before Weiss facepalmed with a world-weary groan and Blake's parents burst out in raucous laughter.

When they'd finally stopped chuckling Kali leaned over towards Blake. "I like her!" she proclaimed emphatically in a voice more than loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Mum!" Blake was seriously wondering why she had ever thought letting her friends meet her parents had been a good idea.

"I'm glad to see my daughter has people who look out for her," Ghira agreed, and no one missed the way his eyes were drawn to Yang's yellow and black arm.

This time the silence that followed felt heavy and stifling, the mood suddenly far more sombre.

"And you thought you were tall, Yang. Blake's dad's a giant!" Ruby teased, breaking the tension as she elbowed her sister playfully. Yang laughed; it was a small sound, more of a chuckle really, but to Blake it was like rain after a yearlong drought, and she soaked it up greedily. Ilia must have seen the look on her face, because she reached over to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder, and Blake couldn't help but notice the way Yang stared fixedly at Ilia's hand with an unreadable expression on her face.

Her attention was drawn elsewhere when the rest of the group started to file out of the hall, and Ruby grabbed her hand excitedly, dragging her after them. "Come on, let's show you where we've been staying!"

When they arrived at the house Yang disappeared inside without looking back. In fact, she hadn't so much as glanced at Blake since they'd left Haven Academy. Ruby and Weiss followed after sharing a pointed look with each other, and, finding herself momentarily alone, Blake let out a long sigh. If Yang wanted as little to do with her as possible, she would just have to accept it; it would make every moment she spent around her agony, to be so close to her again yet more isolated than ever. But she certainly wouldn't blame Yang for feeling that way, and she refused to run away from her pain a second time, so she would endure whatever she had to. First, though, she had to apologise to Yang. For so long the words she wanted to say had only existed inside her thoughts, but now they were as tangible as the person for whom they were intended, so close to being released she could already almost feel them on her lips. She knew there would be no closure for either of them until she'd given those words to Yang to do with as she wished, even if that meant they were cast aside or returned shattered and broken.

Sun and Ilia stepped up next to her, their presence bolstering her confidence and further solidifying her resolve. Whatever happened between her and Yang, she wouldn't make herself deal with it alone.

"Go talk to her, Blake. We'll be here if you need us." Ilia's unerring support had been invaluable to Blake over the last few days, and she was immensely glad that they had managed to start filling in the cracks in their friendship. She liked Sun and he was a lot of fun, but it could be wearing to be around him for too long, and Ilia's much less excitable approach was sometimes easier for her to cope with. Ilia deserved a little fun in her life after everything she'd been through, though, and Blake wasn't about to call herself an expert in helping people enjoy themselves. Maybe her two friends could learn a few things from each other.

"Yeah, go get her, tiger!" Sun shoved her towards the door with an unnecessarily exaggerated wink, and Blake shot him a glare when she almost stumbled in a most undignified manner. Yeah, she really hoped Ilia could rein him in a little. With one last determined nod to the two of them, she turned and strode into the house.

Once she was inside she promptly realised that she didn't actually know which room belonged to Yang. Or if Yang was even in her room at all. She was considering just searching each part of the house in turn when Weiss emerged from a door further down the entrance hall.

"Weiss, do you know where Yang went?"

"She's in the third room down on the left side of the corridor." Blake was already moving before Weiss had finished speaking, but a surprisingly strong grip on her wrist stopped her before she could take more than a few steps. "But before you talk to her, you and I are going to have a little chat."

As Weiss half-guided, half-dragged her back into the room she had previously come from, Blake felt more nervous than she would ever have admitted. She had fully expected to be called out for running away from her team, but she had always imagined Yang rather than Weiss being the one to do so. Then again, Weiss had been the one who had stood in their dorm room at Beacon and made Blake promise to always come to her teammates with her problems, something she had resoundingly failed to do, so perhaps it wasn't so surprising.

The door clicked shut, and Blake's uneasiness must have shown on her face because Weiss rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder briefly as she passed her to sit on the bed. Weiss patted the spot next to herself in invitation and sighed when Blake hesitated. "It's okay, Blake. I'm not here to yell at you. I'm certain you've punished yourself quite enough already. So come on, sit."

Blake sank down next to her. She knew it was selfish to be relieved that Weiss wasn't furious with her for leaving, but talking to Yang was already going to be the hardest thing she'd ever done, and she didn't know if she could have coped with another one of her friends highlighting her worst mistake.

"I didn't see much of Yang after what happened - my father forced me back to Atlas before I could do anything to help her - but I know that she struggled with it terribly for a very long time. And I know that it would have helped her immensely if her partner had been there when she woke up without an arm."

Blake tensed, feeling her guilt rise to the surface in a toxic current as she bent forward to put her head in her hands.

Weiss placed a steadying hand on her back, an anchor against the regret threatening to overwhelm her. "I'm not telling you this to make you feel worse. I'm telling you so you know how to help her. I know how much you care for her, Blake; I watched as you clung to her hand while she was unconscious and apologised again and again. But since then I've also watched Yang sob over how much she needed you there for her, and I know she didn't truly believe you would come back. You're here now, though, so don't waste your second chance because you think you don't deserve it. If you want to be with Yang, it needs to be all of you, not just the part of you your guilt will allow you to give her. I know what it's like to deny yourself happiness because someone taught you that you weren't worthy of it, Blake, and trust me, it's no way to live."

Blake couldn't hold her tears back any longer, and she turned to hide her face in Weiss' shoulder as her teammate ran a soothing hand across her back. "How— how do I tell her how s-sorry I am, Weiss? How do I l-let go of everything that's h-happened?" She gave up on words when the way her breathing hitched as she cried made speaking too much effort, just letting Weiss' calm, measured voice wash over her and lessen the ache in her heart.

"I believe in you, Blake. It might seem impossible, but you've already taken the first step, and I know you're brave enough to take the next one too. Every one after that will be easier. Yang will help you, if you let her. And you can help her as well."

Blake pulled away from Weiss when her tears had finally stopped, and as she dried her eyes her teammate gave her a final pat on the back before withdrawing her hand.

"But for that to happen, you need to talk to her, so go on before it gets even more difficult to do." Weiss stood and was about to leave the room when a thought occurred to Blake.

"Wait a moment, Weiss. What did you mean by 'if I want to be with Yang'?"

"I think you know. It's good to have you back, Blake." With that, Weiss walked through the door and left Blake to consider what she'd said.

Weiss was right. Blake did know what her teammate had meant. Which would probably make the conversation she was about to have a lot more complicated. But she had stalled long enough already, and she would not let the self-doubt Adam had instilled in her destroy her chance at what she wanted most any longer.

She rose from the bed and headed out into the corridor. Thanks to Weiss' directions it was easy to find the door to Yang's room, and she only wavered for a second before knocking firmly.

The door swung open a few moments later and Blake was suddenly face to face with her former partner. She could have sworn she saw a flash of surprise flit across Yang's features before her expression became neutral once more as she stepped aside to let Blake in.

Several seconds passed where neither of them moved, and it was only when Yang shifted uncertainly on her feet and asked, "Do you wanna do this in the corridor or are you gonna come in?" that Blake became conscious of the fact that she was still frozen in place. At the hesitancy in Yang's voice she hurriedly stepped inside, the door closing behind her with gratifying finality.

Yang moved away into the room, keeping her back to Blake as she took a deep, shuddering breath before eventually turning back to face her. As Blake fully absorbed the sight of her former partner for the first time in over a year, she was struck by the realisation that the person in front of her was not the same one she had left behind in the ruins of Beacon. Yang had always been powerful, both physically and mentally, a combination of having been forced to grow up much too fast much too soon and her Semblance allowing her to return any damage she sustained tenfold. But the woman before her now was more than powerful, she was achingly human, and all the more radiant for it, a capable adult bearing scars and flaws that she always managed to overcome with dedication and perseverance. Yang had willingly taken hits for the rest of them far too many times in the past, and they had let her, too young and carefree to comprehend that even the fighter with the greatest endurance has a limit.

Blake had been so right when she had told Sun that Yang was the embodiment of strength.

Yang's clothes even seemed to have matured with her, the long coat she had been wearing earlier shed to leave an orange crop top that put the exquisite definition of her biceps and the toned muscles of her abdomen on display in a way that Blake was not remotely ready for, and she was quick to fix her eyes on the bed behind her former partner instead in a futile attempt to avoid staring.

Yang was definitely strong in many senses of the word.

Ah, yes— words. Although she used them sparingly, she also generally used them calmly and efficiently; however, the ones she had carefully and painstakingly crafted for this very situation refused to cooperate, instead flooding out of her in a jumbled stream of emotion.

"I'm sorry, Yang, I'm so, so sorry. I was a coward, and I ran away when you needed me, and I should have stayed, but he said he would destroy everything I loved and he started with you and it was all my fault—"

"Blake..." Yang's voice was raw but firm as she interrupted her. It was the first time Yang had said her name in more than three hundred and sixty five days, and it hit her harder than she could ever have anticipated. The tangle of words died in her throat, dropping to curl around her heart, making her feel like it was being squeezed inside her chest as she awaited her former partner's judgement.

"I never blamed you for this." Yang sounded tired as she looked down at her prosthetic, watching the way the sunlight from the window glinted off the metal. "The only thing I ever blamed you for was running. I'm not going to lie, when I found out you were gone it hurt worse than anything I've ever felt before. For a long time, I was so angry with you. Every night I asked myself why you had just left like everyone always does." Yang's voice cracked, and Blake took an involuntary step forward, but she resisted the overpowering urge to reach out and comfort her. She wasn't entirely sure it would be welcome, and she wasn't going to risk making this harder for Yang, even if the quiet resignation in her former partner's tone was tightening the noose around her heart.

"I asked myself why I wasn't enough for you to stay." Yang's left hand had started to tremble, and Blake couldn't stop herself from taking it in her own. To her amazement the shaking lessened until after a few long moments Yang's hand was steady and sure as she let their fingers tangle together and interlock, clasping Blake's hand fully with such incredible gentleness that it made Blake's breath flutter momentarily. Gestures like this never failed to leave Blake in awe of how Yang could be so ferociously aggressive in battle, yet so endlessly tender with the people she cared about.

After what felt like minutes Yang took a deep breath and finally spoke again, looking up into Blake's eyes as though it helped give her the courage she needed to continue. Blake hoped beyond measure that it did.

"I felt worthless, and it was so frustrating having to relearn how to do everything with one arm. I didn't think I was of any use to anyone when I couldn't even get dressed by myself, let alone fight. But eventually I had to accept that it's just a new kind of normal, and my new arm has helped a lot. I finally feel like someday I'll get where I want to be; and, you know, it'll be different to where I was before any of this happened, but it doesn't have to be worse."

Blake's grip on Yang's hand had been slowly tightening as Yang talked, and she forced herself to relax it before it became painful. "Weiss talked to me, made me think about things more clearly. I understand why you ran; you were scared, and you made the wrong decision. But you wouldn't have had to make that decision at all if it wasn't for him. He didn't just take my arm; you'd found a place where you felt safe and he took that too. So I can forgive you for being afraid of what else he might take."

Yang's eyes dropped to the scar half-hidden under Blake's coat, and they flickered red as her free hand tentatively reached out as if to touch it. She hesitated, glancing up at Blake like she was waiting for her to stop her. Instead, Blake lowered her own hand and guided Yang's to rest over the now long-healed wound on her side. The metal of the prosthetic was cool against her skin, but the heat the touch kindled inside of her went far deeper. Blake withdrew her hand, letting Yang's obscure the mark Adam had left, and she couldn't suppress the pleasant shiver that ran up her spine when Yang slowly traced a finger over the scar.

Yang dragged her gaze up to find Blake's eyes again, and the blood-red rage had been replaced by lilac that burned with conviction. "I want you to know that I don't regret what I did. I would give far more than my arm to protect you. I would do anything for you, Blake. So you can stop taking responsibility for the choice I made; I put myself in danger because I loved you then, and I will do it again whenever I have to because I still love you now." Tears welled in Yang's eyes as she took Blake in her arms, her hands warm and solid on Blake's back as she held her as close as physically possible. "You have no idea how happy I am that you're here."

Blake felt the final coil of tension ease inside her chest, and she sank into her partner, burying her face in Yang's neck as she sobbed. These weren't the tears of sorrow she had shed earlier, however; this was a blissful release of the fear she had carried with her for so long - the fear that she would never have Yang's forgiveness, that she had lost her chance at having Yang's love. She had never been more grateful to have been wrong in her life.

Blake couldn't hold herself back any longer, and she pulled away just far enough to kiss Yang with a year's worth of contained longing. Yang's hands left her back to cup her face, and the desperation in the way she returned Blake's kiss obliterated the last sliver of doubt remaining in Blake's mind, along with the rest of her rational thought.

They only separated when their lungs demanded air, and Yang's thumbs skimmed across Blake's cheeks to wipe away the remnants of her tears.

Blake let out a sigh of pure contentment as she returned the favour. "I can't remember the last time I cried this much in one day. I feel like it should be impossible for so much pain to lead to so much joy."

The smile she got in response made her feel like the sun was shining directly on her, burning away the shadows she had surrounded herself with to let her finally feel its warmth. Blake caught Yang's prosthetic hand in her own as it moved away from her face, lifting it to press her lips to the smooth metal, and the depth of affection in Yang's eyes as she watched the gesture left Blake breathless all over again.

"I know the feeling. But maybe let's try for just happy tears from now on, yeah?"

Yang's words shouldn't have been funny, but Blake was too elated to care as she collapsed onto the bed in a fit of laughter. Her joy must have been infectious because seconds later Yang was laughing too as she fell on top of her partner, the two of them ending up in an uncoordinated heap as the bed groaned in protestation of the sudden extra weight. Neither of them cared that it might be about to give way underneath them, though, because getting up would waste valuable time where they could be kissing again instead. It only took them a few moments to discover that kissing is very difficult when you can't seem to stop smiling.

As the laughter from Yang's room trailed off, Weiss walked away from the spot outside where she had paused for a moment on her way past, the sound of her friends' unrestrained happiness lingering in the air behind her as a satisfied smile formed on her face.

Not included (because during the making of this story I discovered that I apparently cannot write fluff): Yang proceeding to freak out over how adorable Blake's ears are now that Blake's no longer wearing her bow. Sorry, but the end-point felt natural so you'll just have to make do with the panel in one of the official mangas where Yang declared that "even Blake's ears are so cute" ;)

Matchmaker Weiss is best Weiss, and I actually kind of really want that to happen in the show. Get on it, Rooster Teeth!

Finally, I cannot take credit for the 'aristocats' pun because I've seen several other people make it already, but it was too good not to use and I think Yang would approve :D