Chapter 2

"Poor kid," Yang sighed sadly. She was standing outside the guest bedroom looking in at James' sleeping form. He had cried for a while until he eventually fell asleep in her arms.

She turned and looked over at her partner, "So you didn't find anything?"

Blake shook her head; she walked over and peeked in from the other side of the door, "I asked around but nobody seems to have any information on his village, except a few merchants and they said they prefer to keep to themselves," she paused as she observed the boy's chest rise and fall steadily, "the authorities might be able to find a next of kin but they said it was unlikely since their database only consists of Vale citizens."

"So what'll we do if we can't find anyone?"

"We'll have to take him to an orphanage or find him a foster home."

Yang looked at her; Blake shook her head, "Yang, no."

"Come on."

"No."

"Blaaaaake~"

"No."

"But why not?"

"We can't."

Yang crossed her arms, a knowing smile appearing on her face, "Sure we can."

"No. We. Can't," Blake replied, her yellow eyes narrowing slightly, "we have no experience raising kids."

"I practically raised Ruby."

"That's different."

"How is that different?"

"You had your dad to help you."

"And now I have you."

"Ruby is a -girl-, raising a boy is different."

"He's a child, not a baby, I'm sure he knows how everything down there works."

Blake sighed exasperatedly, this was -not- how she wanted this conversation to go.

Yang decided to lay off a bit and took a step toward her partner, "Blake, what other option is there for him?" she asked softly, "I mean he lost his whole village, we can't just drop him off at an orphanage and say 'sayonara'."

Blake looked at her indignantly, "You know that's not what I meant," she said.

"I know," Yang replied, taking her partner's hand, and nodding toward James "but he won't."

A pained expression appeared on Blake's face and she looked down, "I don't think I'm ready for something like that, I mean," she looked into her partner's eyes, "I'm not like you, I don't have experience with kids."

"No time like the present," Yang smiled; she gently squeezed the cat faunus' hand, "look let's just give it a chance at the very least, I mean" the two glanced over at James, "right now we're all he's got."

"Yeah," Blake said, giving Yang's hand a return squeeze, "I guess so, and...if his eyes are really…"

Yang's smile faded, "Yeah," she replied, then a small smirk appeared on her face and she let out a light chuckle, "that'd be pretty hard to explain to a random family."

Blake couldn't help laughing, "Yeah it probably would."

…

"One more thing."

"Hmm?"

"You're not allowed to do that 'lost arm' gag on him."

"Tch ruin my fun why don'tcha."

Blake was feeling very uncomfortable.

You know the saying 'the silence was deafening'? Well that almost perfectly described the current situation.

She was sitting at the dining room table drinking a cup of coffee whilst looking through one of her many books, Yang was currently washing dishes, humming to herself, and finally James was sitting across from her, silently staring at the table; emphasis on the silently.

It had been 3 days since he had woken up; all of the bandages had been removed and revealing small wounds in their final stages of healing. The only one that would likely scar was the one beside his eye.

It was clear to her the physical scars weren't the problem; his eyes seemed dim, signifying the damage on the inside was the real issue here, and the source of the silence that left her feeling...awkward.

She wanted to say something, anything to bring him out of his silent pondering. Anything, to make a connection between them.

I knew this was a bad idea, she thought.

Yang shut off the sink and turned toward the two, drying off her hands with a nearby towel, "Jeez, I've heard of awkward silences before, but never anything -this- bad." Yang Xiao Long everybody.

Blake shot her an annoyed look causing Yang to chuckle. She tossed the towel over her shoulder and grabbed a seat and spun it around, straddling it and placing her arms on the back.

"Trying to burn a hole in the table?" she asked playfully, looking at James. He shook his head, maintaining his silence.

…

"Yang…" Blake started.

"Are you both Huntress'?"

Blake's eyes widened and she looked over at James; he was still looking toward the table but he did steal a glance at Yang then Blake.

"Yup," Yang replied cheerfully, "the most awesomest of awesome Huntress'."

"We trained at Beacon," Blake added, thankful he had finally said something, "Yang and I were assigned to the same team."

"My mom told me about Huntress' and Huntsman," James said, looking up, "that you're the ones that protect us from the Grimm."

Uh oh.

Blake had a feeling she knew where this was heading.

"That's right," Yang said, taking on a more serious tone, "that is what we do. We do our best to protect and help everyone but" she raised up her right arm, "we can't do everything."

James' face fell and he looked back at the table, "Sorry."

Yang stood up and placed a hand on his head, "James, I know it's hard, believe me," she glanced at Blake, "we know what it's like to lose something, someone, precious to you." She crouched down and violet eyes met silver, "I struggled to come to terms with losing a part of me, but it was thanks to Blake," she smiled at her partner, "and all of my friends that I could keep stand up and keep going, and so can you."

…

"How?"

"Well a smile would be a nice start," Yang grinned, ruffling his hair.

James swatted at her hand, a faint smile appearing on his face and causing his eyes to light up a little.

Blake sighed quietly, nice work Yang.

A/N: Aaaaaand there it is, chapter 2, yay! This was surprisingly hard to write, I hope things didn't come off as too rushed or make no sense whatsoever haha. So as far as publishing times I'm gonna do my best to get a chapter out every week but I can't guarantee that since I have classes and work, hopefully those won't become a huge issue.