A/N: Before I say anything else, I'd like to sincerely apologize for the hiatus. It's been a hectic few weeks and now everything's starting to fall back to normal, plus this chapter was not easy to write. Some of you were expecting the Ruby-Weiss convo chapter, but you're going to get this instead. I felt like this was necessary before that all-important convo (next chapter, guys, I promise).

I warn you: Be prepared for what you're about to read. Lots of info and at least some feels will occur. Enjoy! I will update ASAP this time!

Chapter 10: Family

Blake said nothing as she walked back from the infirmary to the dorm room. She hung her head in equal parts frustration and wonder after speaking to Weiss. Her head was filled with one recurring thought:

'What happened to her, exactly? If only I knew…'

Blake had already figured that Weiss was speaking out of emotion rather than of reason, since there were a few holes in the heiress' statements. But that's to be expected; rather, the point was to figure out what had happened in her past to make her feel the way she did. As she walked down the hallway towards her room door, she muttered out the only conclusion she could reach.

"There should be something I could say to make a point, but I'm not sure if there is. This is…"

She stopped as she reached the door.

"…this is different than back home, I guess."

She opened the door, only to find Yang, pacing quickly back and forth, looking either frustrated or anxious, she couldn't tell. Blake also couldn't tell whether or not Yang knew that she had even entered. Blake slowly latched the door behind, not to make a sound, but as she turned to get herself washed up, she realized Yang's pacing was blocking her from getting to the bathroom. Blake let out a soft sigh.

'Guess I can't wait for her to calm down. Why can't this be easier?…'

Blake walked over to the path where Yang was pacing across and grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back over to where they could see eye-to-eye. Blake noticed the tear stains and Yang's tense expression upon first inspection of her face close-up.

"Yang…"

"Back off, okay?!" Yang swatted away Blake's hand off her shoulder.

"Yang-"

"I'm fine, I don't need any help! I'm not the one with all the stupid problems, being all uptight all the time! She's the one who needs the help, she almost got Ruby killed! What the hell kind of teammate is that, abandoning us for her pride or something when she could've said something like a normal person?"

Yang collapsed onto Blake's bed, head sunk into her lap and breathing heavily after her short tirade. She looked up at Blake with a pained expression on her face.

"Who the hell can just…abandon people like that, leave 'em out to dry, huh?"

Blake could've sworn at that moment that her heart skipped a beat, as she remembered what she had done not so long ago. At one point, she had been afraid of what others thought of her when it came to being a Faunus. She was afraid that people would react so poorly as to shun her again, to make her go back to a place where she had no choice but to steal and kill to survive. The downside of all of her activities with the White Fang was a simple one: not every human harbored those sentiments about them, and innocent people would always get caught up, get hurt, or even killed. The White Fang had taken their measures to mitigate the needless casualties, but there would always be a few soldiers that harbored their hatred of humans enough to ignore them. People and Faunus would get hurt, people and Faunus would die, and the hatred would add up, not just from the White Fang's side, but from the families and friends of those humans who were affected. They'd all harbor their angry sentiments and would either hold it in themselves or take it out on the Faunus who didn't affiliate with the White Fang.

Blake knew that it was a path that would lead to self-destruction, which was why she had left in the first place. It was at one point the only path she had even known, and one that she could've possibly gone back to, after hearing the effects of what she and her former comrades had done to a particular heiress…

"Almost twice."

Yang, who had lowered her head since her last question, brought it back up again, with a look of confusion and frustration. She wasn't in the mood for digging for answers.

"What are you talking about? What's 'almost twice' mean? Blake, she abandoned us, and I sure as hell didn't have to bust my ass in getting her-hmph!"

Blake's hand was squarely planted on Yang's mouth, nearly pushing her head back against the wall. Blake's head had also lowered, so Yang couldn't see the guilt and sadness that Blake was feeling. She felt responsible for why Weiss was unhappy and therefore the kind of person most people would want to avoid.

"Yang, you know I 'ran off' too, right? I abandoned you guys, too. You were concerned, not angry. Not like this. Now lay off of Weiss. She's had enough to d-"

Yang ripped of Blake's hand over her mouth, still fuming. Blake jumped back a bit, but made no other motion as Yang rekindled her anger towards Weiss.

"Enough of what? Is it the money? No, it's probably the fame, isn't it? Or maybe she's just a proud, stuck-up bitch who wanted to play damsel in distress! Am I right, Blake? Am I?"

SLAP!

Yang's eyes watered up as the red mark on her cheek began to form. Blake kept a look of disgust on Yang, the former clearly having enough of the latter's pointless rants. Yang got the message. She nodded silently as Blake got her all clear to speak.

"The fact that I never saw this as a possibility at all almost sickens me, because this is just so obvious. Yang, I'm only beginning to understand what Weiss has been through, and…it must've been hard…having nobody who valued her as more than the continuation of an ambition."

"What are you getting at?" Yang mumbled, rubbing her sore, reddened cheek.

"What I'm getting at is that nobody cared about her at all, Yang. She's lived her life the way that others wanted her to, and those 'others' in question happen to be her family, the ones who are supposed to love and take care of you, not forcibly shape you into a mold of something they consider 'ideal'."

Blake turned away from Yang as she continued. "Though now that I think about it, Weiss has to be a pretty resilient girl. Most anyone who would go through all that would probably break pretty early on. If what happened last night was Weiss' breaking point, then I'd be really impressed."

Blake looked back at Yang briefly before turning away, her amber eyes showing their usual fullness and compassion, though the face was still sullen.

"I was close to my point when I left the White Fang. I was a good soldier. I followed everything I was instructed to do, and I did it without hesitation. But at one point, I realized the harm I was doing to others and how destructive and useless it was. My last robbery," She paused to take a deep breath.

"My last robbery was robbing a train. A train full of Dust. Dust from the Schnee Dust Company."

Yang walked over to Blake and held her shoulder. "You feel responsible for her?"

"That's part of it, yes. But even still, before that decision I made to leave, I still had brethren, people I considered my family. You see, the Faunus of the White Fang stayed together all the time. We were pretty distrustful of the outside, so the only ones we had were each other. We all grew together, laughed together, cried and felt pain together…when I left, I felt like I had abandoned my family, no matter how right or how sure I was about why I left. It was still the right thing to do, and even if I wanted to go back, I doubted then and still now that they'd let me back in."

"Blake-"

"I'm not done. Once I came here and met you guys, regardless of how, uh…different you all were and how we worked as a team at initiation without any planning or training, I realized that this…this could work. I could learn to love the new life path I chose. And now I had people to do it with. In other words…I found a new family."

Yang was tearing up again, this time from a slap to her heart instead of her cheek. She had no idea what Blake had ever felt about them (she rarely gave away any signs to indicate such an idea), but she figured out why she cared so much about Weiss. She cared about everyone. She just wanted to belong somewhere. Yang thought about saying that, but she figured Blake didn't need to hear it. She knew it already.

"So even the princess is part of your family, huh? You have a strange taste in that kind of stuff, you know?"

Blake turned around, seeing only a warm smile from the blonde behind her. She loosened up a bit, and Yang hugged her from behind.

"I'm sorry for lashing out at you. I was scared for Ruby. It could've been worse for her, you know, the injury and all."

Yang's smile faded. "I just…don't wanna lose her." Yang's next words were a whisper, but it caught Blake's attention.

"Not like Mom."

Blake's head shot up. "What did you say?"

"…It's probably best if we don't talk about it."

"Are you sure?"

Yang gave it a quick thought.

"I'll say this much: our mother was a Huntress, and one day she, ah…she disappeared. So I had to be there for Ruby. I mean, I would've been anyway, since I'm her sister. But I felt like she really needed someone after that. So I did my best there, and I guess it worked out, right?"

"…Yang, um…how did she find out?"

Yang froze for a few seconds, the question mildly shocking her. Her answer came very flatly and without emotion, which seemed to characterize the pain she felt very vividly.

"I told her."

Blake was yet again at a loss for words, a scary trend given the situation.

"Blake, I'm sorry, but can we not talk about this anymore?"

Blake nodded, breaking her trance, and immediately walked over to Yang and gently embraced her. Yang said nothing and returned the hug. They understood why.

They stayed that way for a few minutes, letting the words, the thoughts from now sink in and being able to comfort one another when it was really needed.

Blake kept her hand on Yang's shoulder as they broke off. "Do you wanna see the rest of your family here?" Yang nodded, and with that, both girls made their way to the door.

Yang exited first and walked down the hall quietly. Blake followed out, but observed Yang from the open doorway as she walked. Blake sighed as she closed the door.

"Pain here is all too real."