AN: Hey guys, due to how excited I am about writing this and how I will have plenty of free time over the holidays, I am going to update this story every 4 days at the least. Thank you for follows & Favs, and feel free to leave a review, it would mean a lot.
Once again thank you to my friend Niko for his help spotting errors and for support.
I hope you enjoy this rather domestic chapter of Convalescence.
Blake was not one to wake up slowly and procrastinate the morning away, unlike her blonde partner, and awoke at 8:00 on the dot, as usual, unassisted by an alarm. Blake had mastered the use of her internal clock during her time on operations with the White fang, when any noise could have meant discovery or even death. The faunus felt no disorientation at waking in a bed that was not her own, but the sight of the usually fierce woman hanging onto Blake like a sleeping child had caused Blake to pause for a moment, warmth filling her heart as she looked at Yang's smooth, relaxed features. Blake was surprised that Yang looked so different to her in that moment before she realised with a sigh that Yang hadn't relaxed in months. These days even when she was smiling there was a tightness around her eyes, everything seemed more strained and whereas Yang's neutral expression used to be a playful smile, sweet and friendly, now she slipped into a slight frown without even realising. Blake lifted her hand and felt her heart beat a little faster as she hesitantly brushed a strand of beautiful golden hair from where it had fallen over her partners sleeping face. Blake lingered a little longer than she had to, enjoying tracing the soft skin of Yang's cheekbone before breaking herself out of her daydream with a shake of her head and quietly slid out of the bunk after gently unbending Yang's fingers from where she had clung onto Blake's yukata in the night. Blake walked over to the curtains, where a small slither of sunlight was shining through into the dark room, and opened them wide. The dark haired girls right ear twitched a little as it registered the sleepy groan that came from Yang as the light streamed through the window. Blake smiled slightly at the sound, just the slightest lifting of the corner of her mouth as she turned and looked at where her partner was sprawled out on half of the bunk they had shared, long golden locks flowing out around her head in a halo. Blake watched as Yang's arm flopped onto the side of the bed where the faunus had been sleeping and was slightly surprised as the blonde grabbed a handful of the sheet as her eyes snapped open, suddenly fully awake.
"Blake!" Yang shouted, her voice hoarse from the nights misuse, her lilac eyes searching wildly until she saw Blake standing near the window with wide eyes.
As soon as Yang saw her, her stiff body relaxed and she hopped out of bed, in a very uncharacteristic show of early morning, pre-coffee energy. Yang opened her mouth to say something as she stood in her shorts and sleeveless T-shirt, before deciding against it and quietly shaking her head, and turning away from Blake to get her clothes out of the wardrobe.
If Yang hadn't turned away she would have seen the concern that was now etched into Blake's usually calm features. Blake had had four years to work on her communication skills with her team and now knew that this was the time she needed to utilise them to try and find out what was going on with Yang, and learn how to make her feel better.
"Yang."
The blonde did not turn, and simply hummed to show she was listening.
Blake sighed and walked over to where yang was pulling on her usual brown denim short shorts, still preferring them to anything else even after all this time. Blake knew that after so long in one room with the girl that they were past being embarrassed by getting changed in close proximity, so when she hesitated in putting her hand on Yang's shoulder, it was not because the sight of Yang's warm, strong yet soft body was distracting her, but because she was worried about startling Yang. Blake convinced herself of this as she gently made contact with Yang's half covered left shoulder. Yang paused in her changing to turn to Blake, shaking off her hand subtly. Yang pulled off her sleeveless shirt and smirked playfully as she stood, completely topless for a moment before putting her bra on. Blake was sure that Yang was doing this on purpose, using distraction tactics to keep Blake away from asking what was wrong. Blake concentrated very hard on keeping her gaze on Yang's face, and was rather proud when she managed to, albeit a little breathily, ask a question.
"Why did you seem so scared this morning? When you said my name." Again, Blake added mentally.
Yang just shrugged before quickly pulling on the white low cut top she had picked up.
"I wasn't scared, just didn't know where you were." she answered evasively, her back again facing Blake as she grabbed her reinforced short sleeved brown leather jacket. "I'm gonna go get us some coffee. You get dressed, I'll help you put your arm on in a minute when I get back." the blonde muttered before swiftly making her way out of the dorm, grabbing her old yellow scarf that she wore in all weather off the door handle as she left the room in her bare feet, shutting the door before Blake could interrogate her further.
The dark haired girl huffed in quiet frustration before going to the wardrobe to retrieve her usual clothing and get dressed quickly, leaving off her long black leather coat for later. As Blake pulled on her tights she idly wondered if Yang would remember how she liked her coffee, seeing as how Blake was almost always up and already drinking her morning coffee before Yang had even started to come around from her heavy sleep. Blake couldn't remember the last time Yang was the one to make the coffee, not that she minded. The quiet girl found a small pleasure in watching the blonde perk up almost as soon as the smell of a cup of liquid energy was held near her by Blake almost every morning.
Blake went back to the window with silent steps and gracefully folded herself onto the sill so she had her feet up and her knees close to her chest.
Blake zoned out for a minute or two, feeling the morning sun beat down gently on her alabaster skin, waiting for her partner to come back. When the blonde knocked at the door needing to be let in, the faunus found that her left hand had wondered to the stump of her right elbow, and that she was absentmindedly running her fingers over the still pink scar tissue. Only sparing herself a split second of sadness, Blake quickly got up and let Yang in, and the girl in question carefully handed Blake the disposable cup of coffee and gave her a small smile, which Blake returned in kind after taking a sip and noticing Yang had got her order perfectly right: milky with two sugars.
Yang sat carefully on Blake's bunk, easing herself down as to not spill any hot liquid. Blake quietly sat beside her, her shoulder brushing against Yang's as the blonde lifted the cup of almost unbearably sweet black coffee to her lips.
They drank in quiet peace, the only sounds the occasional sigh, the rustle of material from the girls slight movements, or a dull thud penetrating the dorm walls from another room.
They both knew they were stalling for time.
In under an hour now, Ruby and Weiss would be back to dismantle their death trap of a bunk-bed, just as Yang and Blake would have to for their side, before packing up every scrap of evidence of their four year long stay in Beacon.
Blake thought that if an outsider were to see them sat quietly together on the bed drinking coffee with sombre faces that the impression they would give would be that of two people who had received bad news that morning and they certainly would not have guessed that in a few hours that the two of them would be graduating from one of the four top fighting academies in all of Remnant.
Yang's quiet huff broke Blake from her reverie as she stood, put her now empty cup on the side and reached under Blake's bed, fumbling for a second before pulling out a long, plain black box about two feet long and half a foot wide. Yang moved to sit on the other side of Blake than she had before, placing the box in between them. It was only once Yang had opened the two metal latches on the side of the box that she looked at Blake again, a question in her lilac eyes, and a soft expression on her face. Blake knew what was coming and put her now empty mug behind her on the bed before taking a deep breath.
Turning her torso slightly to face her partner and looking into Yang's eyes briefly, Blake nodded, just a slight dip of her head to let Yang know that they were okay to continue.
Yang gently lifted the lid of the box to reveal Blake's prosthesis, all sharp lines, matte black, and dust infused aluminium. It was a slightly older model, but it was all Blake could afford, as she had refused to allow Weiss to buy her a ridiculously expensive, top of the line, not yet on the market prototype. She wanted to make her own way as much as she could in life, and anyway, the faunus hated being indebted to anyone. Not that she didn't trust the Schnee Heiress, it's just old habits die hard.
Yang lifted the prosthesis out of the soft lining it sat in and hesitantly lifted it up to Blake's right elbow, being as gentle as possible when she pulled the sleeve of the arm up to Blake's shoulder with one hand whilst holding the metal part with the other, so as to not let it move out of place. As a huntress Blake knew that she would need to fight and move as normal without having to worry about her new "arm" falling off, so when she bought it, she had made sure to buy a heavy duty sort of harness that would hold it in place even during conflict.
The prosthesis itself was solid posable parts up to Blake's elbow, where Blake had to slip her arm into a heavy duty black fabric sleeve at the top of the metal that reached up to her shoulder. The harness was made of black leather straps about an inch wide that ran up from the metal, winding round the fabric sleeve and running across to her other shoulder on her front and back.
"Hold it there, I'm gonna do up the straps." Yang told Blake, her eyes concentrating only on the crisscross of leather and the doing of buckles.
Blake did as she was instructed whilst Yang worked quickly but calmly around her. The dark haired girl watched the dexterous movement of Yang fingers and once again found herself thinking she had been foolish to assume that Yang couldn't be gentle or precise at the start of their time together. Blake was also impressed with how unfazed Yang was whilst doing this, after only having had to every morning for two months, how she didn't let her obvious feelings of guilt upset her whilst she knew there was something she could be doing to help Blake.
Yang was surprised but glad to catch Blake's small smile when she looked up, finished with the straps. Yang knew that this was hard on the faunus, feeling so useless, needing someone to help her do this every morning. The dark haired girl didn't know that Yang admired her every day for the things she did, for how she had mastered the art of dressing herself with one hand almost immediately, hell, Yang was impressed by the fact that Blake had not spent a single day moping since the day she had woken up to find herself without her entire lower dominant arm. She had simply rested until she was free to leave the hospital and gone straight to buy herself her prosthesis with some money she'd saved and then straight back to beacon to start learning how to use it to fight.
Yang's cheeks grew warm when she realised that they had been locked in each other's gaze for a heartbeat longer than the situation required and she looked away, causing Blake to come to the same realisation, and the blonde couldn't help but chuckle lightly when she saw that her own blush was being returned in kind.
Before the peaceful moment could be shatter by either of them, the door burst open and Ruby Rose took that pleasure for herself, with Weiss rolling her eyes as she stepped in after the energetic 19 year old.
As Blake observed the members of her team, she took note of how much had changed in the last four years, and how much more had changed in the two months since they rescued Ruby from Adam and Cinder.
Ruby was taller, much to Weiss's almost constant annoyance, and had grown into a strong and striking looking young woman, having let her hair grow out a few inches longer and having lost the puppy fat around her face, leaving only a soft but strong jawline. The girl had changed her look a while ago, deciding to graduate from her combat skirt to reinforced red Kevlar jeans and a white shirt with a black subtly armoured waistcoat that Blake herself had actually suggested for the younger girl.
By far though, what had changed the most about the young leader were her eyes.
During the time that Ruby was held by Cinder in the White Fangs headquarters, she had undergone extreme torture at the sadistic woman's hands, trying to get the girl to break and tell her all about the inner workings of Beacon so she could plan a surprise attack.
Weiss had confessed to Blake in a moment of quiet weakness, not long after the youngest member of the team had come out of hospital, that Ruby was covered in fresh scars, mostly burn marks, and that she hardly held Weiss anymore, scared that she'd be repulsed by the things Cinder had done to her.
Ruby hated what had happened, she hated that Cinder had taken one of her silver eyes from her, the ones that Weiss told her she loved the colour of so much. The girl would not go into any detail about the torture to anyone, clamming up as soon as the subject was raised, so all anyone knew was that Cinder had burnt out Ruby's left eye, and now in its place sat a new one, made of all sorts of space age materials that Blake could not hope to name or pronounce.
Weiss had spared no expense in getting Ruby a new eye, and had come up with something actually rather amazing.
In Ruby's eye socket sat a pure black ball, which used nanotechnology to show Ruby things that no human could see, such as heat signatures, or how she would need to adjust her shot to account for wind direction and distance when taking out an enemy.
"GOOD MORNING TEAM RWBY!" The red themed girl yelled, blowing on her trademark morning whistle, the same as she had nearly every morning for the past four years. Blake was broken sharply out of her reverie by this piercing sound and her eyes snapped up first to Ruby and then to Yang. Blake was quick to realise what was happening and she shared a look with Yang as they both thought that even though the whistle and Ruby's enthusiastic greeting had gotten a little grating at points over the years, that this was the last time this would happen in this room, with the four of them students of Beacon Academy.
Nearer the doorway of the room, Weiss had also come to this realisation and she knew that as she saw the smile on her girlfriend's face slip a fraction for a split second before she fixed it that Ruby had also understood the significance of that moment.
Yang was not as observant as Weiss, but she knew her younger sister like the back of her hand, and knew exactly how Ruby would be feeling right now.
"Right then team leader, what are the orders for today?" Yang asked in a serious business voice whilst snapping into a mock salute with a silly grin on her face.
The effort to cheer up the youngest member of team RWBY worked like a charm as she saluted back at Yang. Ruby laughed and Yang saw how much her baby sister had grown up when she saw the girl's expression grow soft and nostalgic.
"Today Weiss, Blake, Yang and their fearless leader Ruby face their most intrepid adventure yet. Graduation!"