Blake had stood here before, when she had decided to become a huntress, to change her ways, to help people, to fight Grimm. She had stood here and looked at the statue and thought that maybe Human-Faunus cooperation was actually possible. Then she ruined it.

Blake looked away from the statue and squeezed her eyes shut, holding back tears. She untied the bow and dropped the ribbon, slowly opening her eyes. It wasn't like the bow was going to do any good now.

"I knew you'd look better without the bow." Came a voice from behind her. Blake started, not having heard him coming. Time was she wouldn't let anyone sneak up on her, let along someone she didn't trust.

"I didn't ask you." Blake managed, glaring at the Faunus from the docks. It wasn't his fault, she knew, but…

We'll, she'd gone for the bow for a reason.

"Whoa, hey, I didn't mean anything by it!" He said, holding his hands up in a 'don't shoot' gesture. "You just don't look like you've had the best day."

"Hn." Blake snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Ok, that might be an understatement." He said, keeping his hands up. "But Mama taught me never to leave a crying girl on her own."

"She teach you to stowaway on ships too?" Blake asked.

"Eh, let's keep that between us… Soulmates pact?" He offered with a smile. "Wait, we are soulmates, right? Because those were definitely my words."

"Yeah, soulmates." Blake agreed.

"Awesome, I'm Sun by the way, Sun Wukong." He grinned wide and easy and Blake could feel herself calming down.

"Blake Belladonna."

"Are you going to keep following me?" Blake finally asked. They'd been waking mostly aimless through the dark streets of Vale. She was tired, she was cold, she was freaking out. There was a big part of her that wanted to run far away from Vale, but Sun was talking and not giving her the chance to leave.

"Do you have a place to stay?" He asked casually. The bastard didn't even look cold, even with his shirt hanging open.

"No." Blake admitted, immediately seeing where this was going.

"Money?" Sun asked again, voice still casual.

"No."

"Food?"

"No." Blake growled.

"Gonna go back to Beacon?"

"No… Not just yet." Blake added softly. "I really don't think they want to see me."

"Then I'm staying with you." Sun shrugged. "Or you're staying with me. Come on, I know a place."

"I don't need you to watch over me." Blake protested.

"Yeah, but I'm here now," Sun shrugged. "And unlike you, I know where to spend the night." He raised an eyebrow and grinned. "Coming?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know where you're going?" Blake asked finally. Sun stopped in the middle of his story to look at her.

"Not in a find it on a map sense?" He said fianlly. "It's a friend of a friend of a friends place ok? Trust me."

"Really?" Blake aksed. "That's what you're going with?"

"Got you to smile didn't it?" Sun ginned and Blake scowled at him. "Oh, no come on, I'm sorry."

"If we don't stop soon I'm knocking you out and hiding your body in a dumpster." Blake glared.

"Eh, not my worst night."

Whatever time it was when Blake finally sat down, inside, in the warm, was definitely one of the unpleasant hours of the morning. The ones where outside felt colder than it had any right to.

Despite this, or maybe because of it, Blake couldn't sleep. There as too much going on in her head. She could hear Weiss yelling, then that sudden crushing silence. On a loop over and over.

"You don't hide." Blake said, apropos of nothing.

"Can't really." Sun said, sounding half awake. "Tail's kinda got a mind of its own."

"I'm sorry." Blake said, not really sure what she was apologising for. Bringing it up? The fact that he couldn't hide and she could?

"It's not that bad for Faunus these days. There's still some assholes but… that's totally why you had the bow isn't it? Sorry." From her position on the couch Blake watched Sun drag himself into a something resembling sitting up.

"For what?" Blake asked.

"I can't just be sorry?" Sun yawned. "I guess your team didn't take it well?"

"One of them didn't." Blake muttered darkly.

"One of th- wait, the Schnee girl is on your team? Tough break."

"It wasn't so bad." Blake lied. Weiss hadn't been as bad as Blake had feared, sure, but there were some things she said, or assumed. Maybe she wasn't as blatant as Cardin but she wasn't a picture of tolerance and respect either.

"That sounds like a lie." Sun said.

"She didn't know I was a Faunus." Blake said, not really sure if it was a defence or not. "It must have been worse for you."

"Some people said stuff. A few tried to start stuff, that stopped once I got these," he said, gesturing at his chest. "Can't imagine why." Blake gave him a Look and he grinned. "Kids are kinda the worst, there's like this age where they don't understand that my tail is attached to my spine."

"Ugh, I had to look after a teething musk deer Faunus, try convincing them that ears aren't chew toys."

"That sounds like a story." Sun laughed and Blake hid a yawn behind her hand. "Sounds like something to be told with breakfast though."

"That's in three hours." Blake said, curling up on the couch.

"Breakfast is whenever you wake up Blake, how do you not know that by now."

"Thank you so much for enlightening me." Blake said, closing her eyes.

"My plea-eh-eh-eh-sure." Sun said through a yawn.

"Why aren't you staying at Beacon?" Blake asked over breakfast. Well, brunch. Well, lunch. Sun's friend of a friend had attached a sticky note to his head giving them use of the kitchen so long as they didn't burn the place down.

"I will be, I'm just really early. Really unbelievably early. But a free ride-"

"For a given definition of free." Blake interjected.

"A free ride," Sun repeated with emphasis. "Showed up and I couldn't turn that down. Only Beacon really isn't ready for the Haven students yet."

"So you're camping out on someone's floor." Blake finished.

"Well, it was going to be someone's couch but I'm a gentleman." Sun grinned.

"Of course."

"You really want to buy another bow?" Sun asked as they weaved through the lunch time crowds. Blake didn't give that a response. "I'm just saying you don't have to hide." His tail flicked in emphasis.

"That's not why I'm doing it." Blake said. She was hyperaware of the crowds now, like someone was going to start screaming at her. Even Sun walking with her wasn't helping.

When it was clear Blake wasn't going to say anything else Sun shrugged. "Alright, how about a colour change then? I'm thinking a nice sunshine yellow."

"Ugh." Blake rolled her eyes and ignored Sun's grin

"So," Blake said, looking up from her tea. "You wanted to know more about me."

A/N: Sun is a good person who does not take advantage of his soulmates emotional state to get information. This takes place during the two days Blake is missing, as you might get from her last line. I tried to keep it with the timeline, with the added soulmateness to make them talk. I'm fairly sure Sun spends a day talking about all the dumb things Neptune did that were somehow sooo coool

I have a driving test in about 12 hours, I should really be sleeping... Wish me luck.