Blake opened her eyes to find that she was alone. There was nothing around her except for stars that seemed to revolve around her. Despite her Faunus heritage, she couldn't see past the veil of the night sky. A low growl sounded behind her. Instincts forced Blake into a low crouch, ears flattened against her head and sword drawn. The growls came again and her eyes darted in every direction. The sounds made her teeth chatter. She sniffed the air and was hit with the acrid scent that reminded her of an Ursa's breath. One of the stars was blotted out by a large form moving past it. The movement made Blake realize that the stars were quickly disappearing, one by one.
She was surrounded.
Weiss rubbed her eyes and forced herself to look at the open book before her. The material was boring and she had probably mastered it well before her third reading of the text, but the young Schnee was nothing if not diligent. However, she would be loath to admit that her studies had only become tiresome after the rest of her team had gone to bed. Even Blake, the one person who usually stayed up late, was lying still under her sheets.
Weiss shook her head and looked at the clock. It was far too late to continue studying, and there was a good chance that none of the material would stay with her if she was so tired. The heiress stood and stretched, glad to finally be out of the wooden chair. She was halfway to her bed when Blake sat up with a start. A pair of wide, amber eyes scanned the room as if the sky was falling and Armageddon had arrived. Then Blake found Weiss, and the black-haired girl stopped her frantic searching.
The silence stretched out. Weiss was halfway into bed and Blake had not said anything. The heiress slowly lowered herself down. She made sure not to break eye contact with the alert Faunus, as if Blake would suddenly attack as soon as Weiss looked away.
The heiress was able to lie down without incident. She could already feel herself teetering on the edge of sleep, but part of her knew that Blake was still staring. Weiss bit her lip, a gesture that she hid by pulling her sheets over the lower half of her face, and kept her eyes on the bottom of Ruby's bed.
Her mind tortured her with the image of Blake staring, head propped up on one hand, that infuriating little smile steadily growing, and those cursed amber eyes glowing. Weiss could feel the pressure growing in her chest and rolled onto her side.
"Weiss," Blake whispered. The heiress swallowed. Blake's voice wasn't her usual monotone. Unless her sleep-deprived mind was playing tricks on her, Weiss could have sworn that Blake was teasing her. There was a strange shift in Blake's voice that made it a higher pitch. Regardless, Weiss decided that it would be best to be annoyed later, after she had gotten some rest. She turned on her side to ignore her teammate, but Blake pressed on. "You're blushing."
The comment made Weiss blush harder, though she hadn't known she had already been flushed. It would explain why the sheets made her feel like she was on fire. As the heiress tried to ignore her beating heart, she couldn't shake how strange it was to hear such a comment from Blake. Sure, the Faunus had night vision, but in order to see any smattering of color on the heiress' face, Blake would have to be close by. A shiver went up Weiss' spine at the idea, but she knew she wouldn't rest if there wasn't some sort of confirmation.
The heiress swallowed and looked over her shoulder. Seeing Blake crouched at the side of her bed, elbows resting on the mattress and hands supporting her head, was almost enough to make Weiss jump out of her skin. Instead, she narrowed her eyes at her black haired teammate and hissed, "What is it?"
Blake's smile was uneasy, but it remained unchanged by Weiss' venom. "Oh nothing. Just missing you."
The words were spoken so innocently that Weiss felt her irritation drain. Her mind flashed back to the late night conversations the two had held for the past three weeks. They were nice ways to end the day, Weiss had discovered; especially when Blake was the one other member of Team RWBY that wasn't about to explode with energy. However, the way Blake's eyes had dilated gave Weiss the impression that there was another problem.
"How convincing. Well, I'm trying to sleep." Surely any problem could be handled at a more sensible hour and under better circumstances.
"I can hear your heart racing from here." Blake leaned a little closer. "Weren't you the one who wanted me to tell you when something big came up? Well, something did, and I need someone to talk to."
Weiss kept her eyes narrowed. "Right now?"
"Mhm."
"Then what is it?" Weiss groaned and sat up. The night wasn't getting any longer and she wanted to sleep, even though she wouldn't have objected to a normal talk with Blake at any time besides the night before an important test. She figured it would be best if she heard her teammate's plight, but she still believed that she was being mocked, especially since Blake hadn't stopped smiling.
Blake's cat ears twitched. "I had a bad dream."
Weiss bit her tongue, which was almost sharp enough to cut a Nevermore in two. That was why Blake had been staring for so long? She let out a long sigh and said, "Fine. Tell me about your creepy dream."
"I was actually wondering if I could sleep with you tonight."
Weiss, ever proper and graceful, bit back the barking, nervous laugh that threatened to escape. The smile on Blake's face started to look more strained now that Weiss took the time to study it. Maybe Blake had realized how silly her request had sounded. Still, Weiss was bound to help her skittish teammate, as she had vowed to Ruby that she would become the best teammate ever. If she had known what sort of trouble those simple words would get her into, the heiress would have funded a time machine for the express purpose of slapping some sense into herself. Making no effort to hide her eye roll, Weiss moved aside on her bed. Blake's tight smile instantly warmed and she was under the sheets within a heartbeat.
"Thank you, Weiss," Blake said. "I know that this is a little weird."
"Don't ever talk about this again," Weiss said. The heiress wanted to go to sleep. Now that the issue was resolved, she should have had no problem doing so. Yet, despite her overwhelming desire to surrender to her pillow, she felt a pull of curiosity. What sort of dream could possibly unnerve someone like Blake? The heiress heard her new bedmate chuckle. "What is it?"
"Nothing. It's just that you make these really cute faces when you're thinking."
The words would have been awkward in any other context. The words, spoken in bed, with the faces only inches apart, made the silence almost impossible to bear. Weiss could almost hear her heart trying to climb out of her throat. The only reason why Weiss did not immediately kick Blake out of the bed, bad dreams be damned, was because of how shocked the black haired girl looked, as if she could not believe her own mouth had uttered the words. It certainly wasn't because of the lightness in her chest.
"I-I am going to pretend I didn't hear that," Weiss huffed.
"I didn't say anything," Blake said, flattening her cat ears.
"Exactly."
The silence returned. Weiss couldn't help but feel like those sparkling amber eyes were examining her. In the failing light that filtered through the curtains, she couldn't return the favor. The unfair treatment galled her. "So what was your dream about?" she asked.
Blake shifted closer. Weiss swallowed. Why had she agreed to the arrangements? She felt Blake's breath on her lips and the black haired girl said, "It starts out where I'm running. It's really dark and I can't see anything, but I hear a huge Ursa behind me. I don't stop to fight it because I know there are several and I can't see them. I kept telling myself that if I ran just a few more feet, I would find someone who could help me.
Suddenly everything was bright and I walked into a café along a desert highway. The Grimm were gone, so I went to the counter and waited for some service. I didn't see any other customers. Yang walked out of the back and asked if she could get anything for me. She was dressed in some skimpy, pink uniform with a frilly apron, but she looked bored. I asked if she could help me against the Grimm. She told me that I was drunk and started eating all of the pies behind the counter.
"Just then, Ruby burst into the diner. She had on a leather jacket and these really huge sunglasses. She shouted, 'Tunnel Snakes rule!' and started shooting up the place. I got hit a couple of times and when I was bleeding out, I thought I saw you. But instead of trying to help me, you just walked over and started yelling because I got shot. That was when I woke up."
Trying to not sound insensitive but too dumbfounded to think of another response, Weiss asked, "What?"
Blake's ears flattened. "I told you it was weird," she mumbled.
"And that managed to upset you?"
"Yeah, I guess it did." Blake scooted toward the edge of the bed. "Sorry, it's really
stupid. I'll let you get your rest now."
The heiress immediately felt Blake's absence from her side. To both of their surprise, Weiss seized Blake's wrist and kept her from crawling out from under the sheets. "Sorry, I didn't mean to say it like that. That dream was just… really surprising."
Blake settled back on the bed. "I'm still sorry for bothering you with all this."
"It's fine. Though your image of me has much to be desired."
"Sorry." Blake's voice was close to a whisper. Perhaps she was about to go to sleep? Weiss mentally cheered. "I don't really think of you as a nag."
"Excuse me?" Weiss watched her chances of going to bed fly out of the window.
"In my dream. I don't think of any of you like that, but for some reason, just seeing all of you turn on me just… it just really got to me."
Weiss swallowed and let go of Blake's wrist. The black haired girl immediately used her free limb to rub her eyes. The heiress paused. She knew what sort of pain Blake was going through. Her teammate was simply scared of being alone again, and that was something Weiss knew all too well. Before she could think about how strange it would seem, Weiss cupped Blake's cheek with her hand and put on a reassuring smile.
"It's just a dream, Blake. You know that none of that will ever happen. You, me, Ruby, and Yang will never turn on each other." The heiress resisted the urge to bite the inside of her cheek. She had never been one for motivational speeches. The words seemed to have the desired effect, as an easy smile soon spread across Blake's lips.
"Yeah, you're right," she said.
Weiss' eyelids drooped and she fought to keep them open. It was a miracle that she hadn't passed out. "Are you feeling any better?"
Blake bit her lip and shook her head. "Kind of."
"Is there something else you need to say?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow.
Blake cleared her throat and looked over Weiss' shoulder. The heiress could feel the heat coming from her teammate's face. Blake said, "I heard you singing once, and it was really lovely. Do you think, maybe, you could—"
"Give you a lullaby," Weiss deadpanned. Blake lowered her head, which put her cat ears right in Weiss' face. Despite it all, it wasn't the oddest request Blake had made that night. Letting out a sigh, Weiss said, "Do you have any requests?"
Blake raised her head. "N-no, just whatever you're comfortable singing."
The first thought was to sing "Mirror Mirror." The song had been one of the few ways Weiss could express herself when she was younger, and there was never a time where she didn't want to sing it. However, given the situation, would it be good for Blake to hear a song about loneliness? Weiss mentally shrugged. Blake had told her to sing whatever she wanted, after all, though she would have to make sure to keep her voice low. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and began.
She kept her eyes closed through the whole song; mostly because she would have been embarrassed to keep singing with Blake's face so close to hers. When Weiss finished singing, she almost expected Blake to have fallen asleep. Instead, the black haired girl managed to move closer.
In a whisper, Blake asked, "Do you still believe those words?"
The heiress' mind was in shambles due to the proximity of her bedmate. When she finally understood the question, she paused and wondered. Sure, she was no longer the loneliest of all, her current situation proved that, but Weiss knew it was possible to be in the largest crowds and still feel like there was no one around. Yet now, thanks to Beacon, Weiss had been able to find people that cared about her. She looked Blake in the eye and shook her head. "I'm going to have to write a new song now, thanks to you dunces," she said.
Blake offered a warm smile, all tension from her bad dream finally gone. The black haired girl's eyes fluttered and she covered her mouth to yawn. Weiss' breath hitched and she asked, "Are you finally ready to go to bed?"
Blake darted forward and planted a small kiss on Weiss' cheek. Settling back from the heiress, the black haired girl closed her eyes and said, "Now I am."
The heiress felt like her heart was going to explode, and for once, she couldn't think of anything to say. She rolled onto her back and closed her eyes. She tried to throw herself into the rest she had long desired, but all she could think about was Blake and her amber eyes.
AN:
I remember a book I found in a store once. On the first page, it said, "This story is not for you." I shrugged my shoulders and put the book back on the shelf, not sure how to feel about the blunt words. However, as I was writing this story, the words kept coming back to me. Though I appreciate every single person who reads my work, I was almost a little hesitant to put this one up on any site (for the record, I have uploaded every RWBY fanfic I have written to date). The cause of my hesitation was undoubtedly the fluffiness. As I was writing this, I almost felt like this was the most straight up guilty pleasure I have ever indulged in.
So now I'd like to talk a bit about the story. I decided to contribute to the fledgling Monochrome/checkmating ship of the fandom to vent the need for disturbing amounts of fluff. I've already written the White Rose and the Bumblebees, so why not try something new? The time spent on Tumblr looking at Monochrome art/comics has not helped me in any way. Such influences would be properly linked if I was not so gosh darn lazy.
I'd like to end by saying that writing the dream was the most fun part. You know how some authors will put heavy significance on dreams and make them seem like guiding lights for a character? I decided to not do that and instead write whatever came to mind. I amused myself, if nothing else.