Author's Note:

Well, another week, another chapter. This one concludes the intro to this story arc and gets things going for next week, so look forward to that. This is also the half way mark, meaning I've published exactly 50% of the chapters in volume 1. Anyway, enjoy!


Blake woke up in a panic. I have to save Yang! She thought, jumping to her feet in the dark room as her faunus night vision brought her surroundings into focus. A machine gave a loud hiss before returning the room to silence. A bed with a person sleeping soundly was right beside her and she calmed down as she watched her teammate's chest slowly rise and fall in rhythm with her breaths.

Sighing, she sat back into her chair. This was the sixth or seventh time she'd woken that night from the same horrible nightmare that was the memory of the previous night. She sat silently, her hand on her teammate's as some irrational part of her brain told her Yang would disappear if she let go.

"Blake?" Yang whispered, her mouth dry because the doctors had not allowed her to drink anything since she'd woken from surgery.

"Sorry I woke you. Go back to sleep." Blake said. She felt guilty for waking her by accident, but she was happy she was able to hear Yang's voice.

"Not tired anymore." Yang replied after taking a deep breath.

"You should sleep. The more you recharge your aura, the faster you can heal and get out of this place." Blake said her usual argument. Yang just let out a huff and shifted slightly as she turned her head back to look at the ceiling.

"I've been trying to remember something…" Yang said after a minute. The hissing of the machine the only other noise in the small room.

"What is it?" Blake asked, submitting to the fact that they were both completely awake now.

"Well, don't take this the wrong way or anything, I mean, I'm still kind of out of it, but…" She seemed unable to get the question out and quickly ran out of breath. She coughed as she sucked more air in, but Blake squeezed her hand quickly to let her know that she wasn't going anywhere. When Yang still seemed hesitant to continue, Blake decided to give her a push.

"Yang, whatever you have to ask, I'll answer if I can. I'm your teammate and…" She trailed off as her thoughts jumbled momentarily in her sleep deprived brain. "… and that means I'll be here whenever you need me."

"Okay… well, I can't remember what we were doing after we registered for the tournament. All I know for sure is that I got kidnapped at the end of the night and got shot sometime during the rescue." She explained.

"We went out to a new club you wanted to go to." Blake answered shortly.

"Like on a date?" Yang asked and Blake almost fell out of her chair in a fit of coughing as she choked on the air she was breathing.

Once she'd gotten herself back under control, she looked at Yang who was simply staring back. Her face was empty of anything that indicated her previous comment was a joke. Through the silence, Yang seemed to grasp the answer that Blake was thinking, but not brave enough to say.

"Well, that clears that up." She sighed wistfully, sounding like she was trying to put as heavy a hint in the sigh as possible.

Blake smiled slightly as she took the bait. "Just because we weren't on a date doesn't mean we can't go on one next time." Blake had to admit there was a sort of 'forbidden love' feel to the situation; them being teammates, not to mention it wasn't that long ago that the faunus started being recognized as equals to the rest of humanity. And more people than not still saw them as animals.

"Are you sure?" Yang asked hopefully. She was looking through the darkness at where she must have thought Blake was. Blake laughed and leaned forward, bringing her lips to Yang's forehead.

She brushed her lips across Yang's smooth skin and felt the hair of the blonde's bangs tickle her upper lip as she moved back to her seat. "On one condition…" She paused simply to make sure Yang was paying attention. "You get back to sleep so you can get better and get out of here quicker."

Yang moaned in frustration and looked back up to the ceiling. "I'm too awake right now. Help me fall asleep again?"

Blake's smile widened at her teammate's pushy attitude. At least that's back to normal. "Alright, what can I do?"

"Well…" Yang paused. Blake couldn't be sure, but she swore Yang's face took on a blush. She was proved right when Yang continued. "I did feel more relaxed when you kissed my forehead."

"What?!" Blake was more than a little speechless. It was like Yang was playing out one of the scenes in the books she'd bought earlier that week.

"Maybe I'll fall asleep if you aim for my cheek?" The question seemed quite brazen, even considering Yang's forward personality.

Something in Blake softened as she considered the proposition. Yang was off the narcotics, so she was in her right mind, and she was asking Blake to kiss her. Blake leaned over her teammate's cheek. Just before she closed the last inch of space, she whispered just loud enough so Yang could hear. "You know, you're about as blunt as a pickup truck."

Yang turned her head so fast it caught Blake by surprise. The real surprise was just starting for Blake, as Yang pressed her soft warm lips to her teammate's and just as quickly, wrapped her arms around her neck to prevent any escape.

Blake felt a slight prod at her lips and she reacted the way her body wanted her to as her brain was struggling to do anything other than stay frozen. Her lips parted and she felt Yang's tongue slip inside her mouth and felt her tongue start to mirror Yang's movements.

A shiver shot down her spine as her brain slowly worked through the cloud of emotions exploding through her head. She wanted to… she didn't know what, she couldn't hold onto any thoughts except the feeling of Yang. Yang's lips moving against hers. Yang's tongue dancing with hers. Yang's soft but powerful arms around her neck.

Then, new thoughts entered. Warmth, not just from the kiss, but radiating from Yang's whole body. Suddenly, she felt cold and dizzy and light headed. She was getting tired and she felt her eyes droop as she continued to kiss her teammate who certainly didn't care she was a faunus as evidenced by one of Yang's hands reaching up and stroking her cat ear, making a new shiver run down her spine and stop between her legs.

"Mmmm…" Yang moaned into Blake's mouth just as Blake felt her whole body slacken with exhaustion that was probably more due to lack of oxygen than actual tiredness.


Blake opened her eyes to find Yang's arms still wrapped around her. She watched Yang sleep for a minute before her memories caught up to her.

She couldn't remember much from the previous night, but she was fairly certain she hadn't climbed into the bed beside her teammate. Nor was she certain when she had taken her bow off. She shifted out of Yang's grip carefully so as to avoid waking her at the ungodly hour. Once she'd resumed her visitor chair, she noticed the strip of black fabric clutched in one of Yang's hands. It was wrapped around her fingers as if she'd purposely wanted to touch it as much as possible.

Blake smiled as she wondered to herself why she felt so tired, and how Yang had managed to sleep with her pressed against her injury. She jumped a little as she suddenly noticed Yang's eyes open and watching her.

"Tired?" She asked, sleep making her voice raspy.

"How did you know?" Blake responded with a smile at her injured teammate.

"Don't be mad, okay?" Yang said as if she was expecting to be yelled at. When Blake gave her no reaction, she sighed and blurted the rest out as fast as she could. "I used your aura to heal, so I should be better now, and I know I should've asked, but the timing was pretty bad and I didn't want you to misunderstand."

Blake took a minute to absorb what Yang had said to her. "Hold on, what do you mean by that?"

"Have you read the book you got Weiss about advanced aura use?" Blake shook her head in response. "Well, if someone has lowered their mental defenses completely, it's theoretically possible for someone with depleted aura to leech off of that person if they are in contact."

"Oh, so that's why…" Blake was suddenly feeling stupid for hoping Yang actually wanted to…

"Wait! That's why I thought you'd misunderstand!" Yang said quickly, sensing her teammate's dark thoughts. "Yes, I used the situation to my advantage. But that doesn't mean that that was my reason for doing it… it just sort of came to mind part way through…"

Blake felt the heat in her cheeks mirrored on Yang's face. She was trying to put something into words to tell Yang, but failed. The door swung open and a doctor walked in looking at a clipboard.

Looking up, he noticed Blake sitting in the chair. "I'm sorry, I need to examine Miss Xiao Long. If you'll please wait outside…"

"Of course." Blake managed as she rushed out the door. Once in the hall, she kept walking straight to the cafeteria. Some iced coffee was just what she needed right now.


When she returned, Blake found Yang sitting up and talking to Weiss and Ruby who had their backs to her. Since the door was open, Blake walked up beside them as Yang explained what the doctor had told her.

"He was amazed. He couldn't believe his eyes when he went to re-bandage me and he found out that the wound was completely gone!" Yang kept her eyes on Ruby and Weiss, as if she hadn't seen Blake either. "He asked me how I'd managed to regenerate my aura so quickly to heal, so I just shrug and say 'I guess I'm just that awesome'!"

"That or you used someone else's aura to do it." Blake commented. Ruby and Weiss both let out a squeal of surprise as they jumped literally a foot in the air at the sound of Blake's voice.

"Don't do that!" They both yelled in exasperation as Blake sat down beside Yang who was now clothed, looking like she could leave any second.

Yang burst out laughing at her teammates. "You guys are so entertaining, you know that?"

"I aim to please." Blake responded with a smile as Yang continued to laugh and Ruby and Weiss started to smile a little from Yang's contagious laughter.

Yang calmed down and looked past Weiss out the door. "When are they gonna bring those release papers? I wanna go now!"

"Be patient, Yang." Ruby reprimanded. "They have other people to take care of. You're probably not on the top of their priorities."

"Besides, not everyone knows how to use their aura. Those people can't just fix themselves after all…" Weiss started, reminding herself of Blake's earlier comment. "Blake, did I hear you correctly? That Yang used your aura to heal?"

Blake hesitated for a moment, it felt like something too personal to just talk about, but something in Weiss's tone told her there was something important that she was missing. After the internal debate ended, Blake decided that she should tell her teammates about what happened, so she nodded slowly.

Weiss looked on in disbelief. After she seemed to get over the shock, she turned to Yang. "Do you realize what you've done?"

"Uhh, I healed?" Yang said, sounding slow like she did when she was trying to explain her school work.

"Yes, but at what cost? You of all people should know the risks with doing something like that!" Weiss was starting to gear up and both Blake and Ruby moved into action just as a nurse walked in carrying some papers.

Ruby clasped her hand over Weiss's mouth as Blake stepped around them, blocking them from view.

"Are those the release papers?" Blake said as she heard Weiss struggle against Ruby's grip.

"Yes, I just need a signature from the patient, then she's good to go." The nurse answered. She walked to Yang and gave her a pen and pointed to a line part way down the page.

As Yang signed the paper, Ruby removed her hand from Weiss who'd shut up when she found out the nurse had come in the room.

"I think we all need to have a little chat back at the dorm." Weiss said darkly, as she punched in the number for a taxi. "Front doors of the hospital. Five minutes." She clicked the phone shut and walked out of the room to leave Ruby and Blake wondering what she was so upset about.


The ride back to Beacon had been a quiet one, only Weiss had spoken instructions to the driver as she tapped the arm rest on her seat. As they walked through the school, students would occasionally recognize Yang and offer their congratulations on her recovery. Yang replied shortly to them and continued along with her silent team.

The dorm was exactly how they'd left it. The usual pile of garbage in the corner, piles of books everywhere, and the bunks untouched since they'd all been there last.

"Since Yang obviously read this book, how much did she tell you?" Weiss asked as she picked up a book off a nearby pile. It took Blake a minute to realize Weiss was addressing her.

"I wouldn't exactly put it like that…" Yang said as Blake searched for an easy answer to the question.

"Then how would you put it?" Weiss demanded, fury in her voice.

"Weiss, calm down!" Ruby interjected as Weiss slammed the book down on the desk making a loud bang echo like a gunshot through the room.

"It's okay, Ruby." Yang said as she sat on the edge of Blake's bed. "I sort of skimmed the beginning of a chapter that looked interesting. It said something about lowering mental defenses and using physical contact to share aura. So that's what I did to heal myself."

Weiss huffed out an exasperated breath. "Do you have any idea what you've done? What you could've done? Of course not, you just skimmed the beginning!" Weiss gestured for the rest of the team to take a seat as she took the desk chair and started flipping through the book's index. "Here, I'll explain to everyone, so we don't have another episode of stupid happen."

She stopped and slid her finger down the page before starting. Everyone was watching her as she flipped to the next page and then back before reading out loud.

"Aura is the energy that a soul produces. It has various abilities that depend on the specific person. Among these are semblances…" Weiss turned to the next page as she muttered "blah blah blah" under her breath. "The most common is the healing ability."

She looked up at her team. "That was the introduction. Now, I'll go to the part Yang skimmed over."

She flipped half way through the book and turned a few more pages before continuing her explanation.

"Through advanced manipulation of will, a soul can theoretically absorb energy from other sources as evidenced by the effect of sleep. There is a way, therefore that one individual's aura can theoretically absorb energy from another individual via a leeching effect."

Yang was nodding as she remembered the part she'd read. Weiss frowned at her and flipped a few more pages into the chapter.

"However, very little is known about this form of connection. Leading experts hypothesize that a connection is formed between individuals, creating a sort of pooled aura where both individuals use the exact same source of energy. Expanding on this…" Weiss trailed off as she scanned the rest of the paragraph.

She skipped a few more pages before settling on one of the paragraphs. "In the few documented cases of a successful aura share, there was a one hundred percent success rate of pooled aura as a result. As with normal rules of aura, if the aura in the pool becomes excessively depleted, symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, partial or complete temporary paralysis, or death are common. The only difference is that under these circumstances, the two tethered to the aura pool will inadvertently battle over the last reserves of aura, creating a reasonable certainty that one of the two will cease to live. As there is no data on this part of the connection, it is pure speculation. Many experts agree that it is likely that if one of the partners die, it will create a sort of leak in the aura pool that prevents regeneration of said energy."

Weiss slammed the book shut and back to the desk. Ruby was still digesting the academic terminology in silence, shock slowly coming into focus on her face. Blake seemed to be whiter than the sheet of her bed and Yang had her mouth hanging open and tears rolling out of her eyes.

Since nobody said anything, Weiss rolled her eyes and decided to be the first to start talking. "Well, it can't be helped now, but I suggest you do your research before doing something you don't fully understand."

"Yang, did you really do that to Blake?" Ruby sounded like she was hoping it was all a joke.

Yang simply nodded, closing her mouth. Tears continued to roll down her face as she turned to look apologetically at Blake. Blake had to admit that she was a bit surprised by the passage, but somehow, she knew something was different from the second she woke up.

"Well, it can't be helped now." Blake almost couldn't stop the next words that wanted to come out. Once she blocked those words somewhere deep and dark, she looked at the rest of the team. "I've read another book like that, and I think it's right, but there is something that it fails to mention."

"What would that be?" Ruby asked carefully, not wanting to open up yet another can of worms.

"I think the connection can be broken safely under certain circumstances." She felt heat come radiating out of her cheeks and quickly hid her face behind her hands as she continued. "If our mental defenses are completely down, and someone was to separate us physically while our aura's were active, it should separate the aura's again…"

"That's a great idea! Lets-" Ruby started just to be cut off by Weiss.

"But it won't work, will it?" Weiss interjected, looking at Yang and Blake sitting beside each other on the same bed.

Blake shook her head and Yang looked down at her hands as Blake responded. "No, it would only work if both of us were equally defenseless. The only reason Yang was able to do anything in the first place was because I let my defenses slip and she was strong enough to push through the rest."

"I'll see if my father can get me any advanced research in the area." Weiss said. She then pointed at her two teammates, caution heavy in her voice. "And you two better be careful until we can get this sorted out. Meaning you stick together, and be extra careful of your surroundings!"

Weiss left the dorm, Ruby trailing behind her. Blake looked over at Yang who was watching her tears drip from her chin into her lap.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Blake asked, her hand cupping Yang's face and tilting it so they were looking into each others eyes.

"I'm so, so sorry." Yang said, her voice thick from the tears she had yet to shed.

"Shhh…" Blake said, wrapping her arms around her teammate and bringing her face closer. "Just because there are risks, doesn't mean that there aren't rewards…"

"Hmm?" Yang asked just as Blake's lips met hers and she felt herself grow immediately hot from the contact. When Blake moved away, Yang's lips tried to follow her just to be met by Blake's finger.

"If we're going to try to break this connection, we'll need the help of one other person…" Blake said, as a short list of possible candidates ran through her head. "How exactly do you feel about Ruby intervening in a private moment?"

"Wha- Where are you going with this?" Yang stuttered, a blush rushing over her whole face so she looked like a tomato with blonde hair.

"That will work perfectly." Blake replied, already forming a plan as she stood up and dragged Yang to her feet. "Let's go get something to eat. I'm hungry."

"You're not the only one…" Yang mumbled, the distinct feeling that Blake was planning something. Blake felt the intense heat radiating off Yang's hand and smiled. Perfect.


End Note:

Again, thanks for reading! I will be posting the next chapter on wednesday like usual, but I am considering moving it to sunday or monday to work around my schedule better. I'll let you know in the next end note if anything changes, or if I decided to keep it the same.

Also, thank you everyone for voting for the last chapter. I'll tally up the votes and post the result next week.