RWBY Destiny 13
The following day
Adam was nervous, he would admit to that. Grand Master had insisted on sitting in for his fake meeting. "I do not see why there should be any issue if I do," she had commented coolly when he had subtly questioned her. "Wouldn't it give Blake more incentive to come spy on us? She'd come hoping she could get to see my face, or at least understand who I am that would make you betray Winter's deal."
Adam winced on the word betray. It still stung him because it was what Blake had done to him, and it reminded him of his failure to stop it from happening. "I guess that is appropriate, although I do insist I can handle this situation on my own." He had a sneaking suspicion that Grand Master didn't trust him to do this properly.
"I do not doubt that, but I must admit I am most curious as to who this Blake character is. If she poses a threat to our operation than it would be imperative to end her."
"End her?" Adam suddenly felt like his throat was dry and like he couldn't breathe right.
"Yes. Kill her."
Kill Blake? "Don't you think that is a bit ostentatious? She has many uses and talents and I could still talk her back into joining our cause-" Adam was rambling a bit but the thought of killing Blake made him feel a bit sick and light headed. True, when she had first betrayed him he wouldn't lie that anger filled his very core and made him want to hurt her, to wring her neck, to separate it from the rest of her body. But after his anger had faded away, he missed her. She had been his best friend for years. She had been his family. His rock. And without her support he felt lost in the endless tides of blood and anger.
He just wanted her back, and he knew if he talked to her, explained his reasoning for what he did, then she would come to her senses and join him.
"Adam," Grand Master stopped his words, folding her arms and hiding them up her sleeves. "She betrayed your cause once. She will betray it again. She cannot be trusted, and I do not let those who cannot be trusted into my, our, cause. She must be killed, and especially because of all her uses and talents, as you so said. She is too dangerous."
Adam felt the knife that Blake impaled in his heart dig deeper every time Grand master said the word betrayed. He wanted to argue back and tell the hooded woman she was wrong, that she didn't know Blake like he did, but he didn't say anything more, worried she'd doubt his resolution as well.
"Do we understand each other? I'd hate to see you become untrustworthy as well," the woman asked, aware of Adam's pain even past his white mask.
"Yes," he said quietly and like a child that had been scolded.
"Good. Now, let us get this meeting underway and hope that Blake does indeed come, or else we are going to have to find another way for you to get Winter back for me."
The Day Before
Blake had met with her contact outside the forest and in the seedy bar of a town forty miles away. They were a common faunus with no relation to the White Fang, but Blake's friends inside the gang had found a way to pass on the word through the faunus so as not to raise suspicions in Adam. The faunus creature was a bit scared of Blake as they approached her, no doubt worried to offend her. Blake was amused but didn't try to soothe the faunus. She didn't have time for that. She was in strictly business mode right now. The contact informed her that Adam would be meeting with the mysterious woman for whom he had betrayed the deal with Winter for. Blake was too curious to ignore not going. And she could find out invaluable information there too.
"Be careful," her contact warned her. "Curiosity killed the cat."
Blake's conjecture of this contact's character rose and she tensed her body.
"Or at least, that's what they said to tell you," the contact quickly stumbled to answer.
Blake relaxed at that. She had been worried for a second that if the contact knew she was a cat faunus than they knew other things about her. But Blake always made sure to keep her faunus identity hidden because it helped to keep human's mistrust of her low.
"Thank you," she said softly and dismissed the contact who slinked away. Blake finished up the drink at her bar, paying for it before she began the drive over to the White Fang's second base. It was an eight hour drive and she needed to go now if she wanted to make it in time for tomorrow's meeting. She gave furtive glances up and down the street to check no one was around before she activated one of her ribbons, the ones wrapped around her wrist, and let it slip between the practically none existent gap between the window and car frame. The pink ribbon made its way expertly to the door lock, flicking it open. Blake than called back her ribbon and got into the unlocked car.
Because Winter had wrecked Blake's original car, Blake was forced to hot wire this one so she wouldn't have to walk all the way over to her current destination. The car was an older model and it reeked of cigarettes inside but it would have to serve her purposes. The most important part was that it had a full tank of gas.
She peeled out of the parking spot, adjusting her hood over her head to keep her identity secret.
She briefly thought back to Winter. Even though they had agreed to the deal that would be mutually beneficial to the both of them, there was no shortage of a lack of trust between the two of them. And animosity. Blake disliked Winter for her crimes against faunus even if they had been purposefully constructed. And Winter hated Blake because she was insubordinate to her. Blake had robbed Winter of her powers, and her freedom, and that pissed the former Queen off because she had once been in a position where she had everything.
Blake so loved irritating her. It was funny to see the normally regal and perfectly put together queen act so imperfectly, almost like a brat. Blake had been convinced that Winter was incapable of feeling. That she was heartless. A monster. But over the past few days Blake was able to see that Winter bleed like any other human, and that she had feelings and was capable of love. She cared deeply for Weiss and was desperate to help her, to protect her. It almost seemed like she wanted to take all the blame and pain for the faunus upon her own shoulders. Wanted to spare Weiss from fulfilling the Schnee legacy.
Blake admired that. It was noble. And sometimes those who were true heroes wore the mask of criminals. Blake had thought she had been a hero over all her years of working for White Fang, but it was she who in fact was the criminal, her hero's mask covering up the ugly scars and rotting core of her heart.
Blake vowed to fix the error of her ways, and she knew she could do it by helping Winter fulfill her plans for a reconstructed world. Blake knew she couldn't save her reputation, couldn't get rid of the sin of so many stolen lives, so she was going to delve further into the hell and raze it down to make way for a heaven on earth. And the first step to it was to destroy Adam. And then go after the woman who dared to interfere and tear Winter's plan to shreds.
Blake knew that Winter already wanted to take action, but Blake couldn't put her in a perilous position. She had after all promised to protect the Queen from the shadows while Winter set up the legislation and laws to make the plan a reality. It had been risky leaving the Queen alone and armed back at the safe house but they needed to amend that lack of trust between themselves and if it meant not babysitting the Queen for a whole afternoon than so be it. She had to trust it that the tidbit of information that Blake spilt about the two of them leaving tomorrow would be enough to tide the Queen over, to keep her in place. Or it might not. But placing trust in a person was a gamble, one that didn't always pay off well. Blake hoped the odds were in her favor because she'd hate to lose a powerful ally.
By the time Blake arrived it was early morning in the city. Since she had been up all night she decided to take a short nap before it was time to go into the meeting which would be held at five pm in a small warehouse hideout that the White Fang usually used for storing dust supplies. If a fight broke out it would be a volatile environment as Dust was highly explosive. But no fight should break out. It was going to be a quick get in, listen, and get out operation.
Crawling into the back seat so as to get more comfortable, Blake shut her eyes. But her sleep was never peaceful. It was always full of the screams of those she had killed, of their glowing eyes haunting her as she ran down empty corridors painted red and decorated with guts. Today Adam featured in her dreams.
"Blake!" he screamed at her, his voice echoing painfully in her head. "You betrayed me! You traitor! How could you do this to me? How!" Blood began to drip from behind his mask. "Did you get tired of me? Tired of the own monster you created?"
Now blood was coming out from the sleeves on his jacket, dripping over his fingers. "You made me! You don't have a right to leave me alone! Face your problems!"
"I will," she ground out resolutely. She wasn't going to let some dream version of him scare her away.
"That is right, my dear. Do not let your dark feelings take over you. Do not let your fears consume you." A soft and angelic sounding voice infiltrated Blake's dreams, as Adam's screams got smaller and smaller and his figure began to dim until it completely vanished. The environment around Blake changed and she was standing in a room whose walls emitted a deep purple neon light. It was empty save for the rows of tall bookcases that went up and up, getting lost in clouds of white smoke.
Blake had been here before. Sometimes she got sent here in her dreams, and some weird voice would talk to her. Blake didn't know if this was normal. She chalked it up to it being her conscious trying to tell her certain things, for the voice didn't always make much sense. Recently she had been having these dreams more and more commonly, but she didn't know why.
"What do you want this time?" she asked the disembodied voice as she plopped down on the beanbags there. This room was always full of comfortable spots to sit on.
"Things are finally coming together. And you will need to be the one to unite them all."
"Are you talking about me and Winter uniting?" Blake didn't have time for such mystical words. She needed to focus on infiltrating Adam's meeting successfully.
"There are four. Four of you."
"Four?" Blake was getting annoyed at the vague statements.
"One of the ice, one of the sun, and one of the hunter. And you are the one of shadows."
"I don't understand what you mean." Blake frowned, staring ahead at the wall in front of her where the voice seemed loudest.
"Then go."
How rude. Was her own consciousness telling her to leave?
A ladder used for retrieving books flashed bright red to the side of Blake's vision. She arched a brow. Was the voice telling her to go there? Shrugging, for what harm could come to her in her own head, she decided to ascend it. She had never climbed it before. She had never really done much when she was here in this room before. Usually she'd find herself here, with the voice commenting one or two mysterious lines and then leaving her alone here. Blake was then stuck here and she would take to reading the books here. There was so many of them that she had barely gotten higher up than the second shelf on any of the bookcases.
Then she would read until she woke up, feeling odd. She found it disconcerting that she could read actual books inside her own dreams but attributed it to a highly creative mind. She had read a lot of books as a child.
This time she climbed up the ladder. It took her up through the clouds of smoke hovering over her room. She couldn't see for a while, her vision obscured. So she relied on the feel of the steps underneath her and the wood on her hands until the smoke cleared and she found herself in a room with neon blue lighting coloring the bottom half of the walls. The rest were white, as was the room. Blake got off the ladder and squinted in the bright glow of white light. All the furniture was elegant here. Square and professional looking. Other than a couch, a coffee table and a glass desk with some papers on it, there was nothing here. Or no one here.
Was this another part of Blake's consciousness? Like a special section in her brain? If the purple room represented her bookworm personality than what did this white one represent? She got a sudden headache as she began to try to think about this all.
"This is too meta for me," she grumbled out through the pain and decided to look around the room more in detail. Maybe she could find something here? The voice had told her to go up. Blake let her hands trail over the glass desk as she sat down in the chair there. Would there be something on the papers? But when she lifted them up she saw that all that was written on it was the word Atlas.
"Atlas?" she murmured to herself. What did that have anything to do with anything.
"Find them," the voice said, startling Blake who jumped out of her seat and hit her knee on the desk. The voice had suddenly just appeared behind her ear and it had freaked her out.
"Do I have to do this? Why? Why me?" Blake spoke but the voice didn't respond. It had talked a lot today, more than ever and she guessed whatever had fueled it had ran out. Blake was about to give up on waiting for a response when she heard it, a whisper so low that only her faunus ears could pick up on it.
"Because you must show the world that more than just evil lurks in the shadows. That hope does too."
"Wait-" but the room disappeared with a pop and Blake sat up in the car, sweating hard and breathing heavily.
She steadied her breath as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. But there was no way to understand the mindfuck that had just occurred.
"I really shouldn't eat tuna right before going to bed," she concluded.
When 5pm rolled around, it found both Adam and Grand Master sitting at a single table in the middle of a cleared space. Two of Adam's goons stood behind him in case he needed back up. They were silent, hands clasped in front of them and bodies positioned directly behind Adam's shoulders, but not too close that he had no room.
"Good evening, Grand Master," Adam started, doing a casual sweep of the area with his eyes. There were many rafters here, and it would be easy for Blake to conceal herself and listen in. That was why he had picked this place. Blake would for sure have no issue in coming in. but getting out would be another story. Adam had set up trip wires there so if she was indeed here, then she would set them off. He was hoping he could talk to her before Grand Master did, because there was no way he was on board on the idea of killing Blake. She was too important for him to do that.
"Good evening Adam," the Grand Master sat down. She had come alone. He didn't know why. She was placing a lot of trust in him. What if he decided to back stab her? Than she would be all alone.
"I'm glad we could schedule a meeting in person. It's much more motivating to talk about life changing goals when it is face to face rather than over the phone." Adam was trying to act casual, like he normally did at meetings. But acting like he normally did was hard when he was aware of how stilted his actions and words must seem.
"Let's get down to business, shall we? Time is short and I do not want to spend it on pleasantries."
"Very well." Adam nodded his head curtly. He had no idea what next to say. Good thing she did. He let her take the lead.
"I am pleased that we can work together. You see, my organization is very small. We are comprised only of the most trusted members. They were both the inner circle and the whole. They are entirely loyal to me and they are highly skilled. As only the people who belong to my organization are."
Adam knew most of this, but he said nothing. Grand Master was saying this more for Blake's benefit.
"We have existed over many and many years. Each leader of the organization is chosen specially to lead and to help give fruition to the All Master's genius. They are the ones who the Grand Master answers to. I, as the current Grand Master, must follow the goals the All Master has chosen me to complete. And that is domination of the world. In past years, all other Grand Master's have had different destinies to fulfill. Some were smaller, some were larger and not all of them succeeded. I intend to be different. None of the leaders before me have managed to conquer the world yet, and that is because they were too small minded." Grand Master took a breath her, folding her hands on her lap more carefully.
Adam was getting wrapped up in her words. There was a certain way she spoke that drew one in, that mesmerized them. It was what had convinced Adam to her cause in the first place. "My organization is small and it cannot take over the world by itself. But, there are other organizations out there that have more power, more military force. Whose very name spreads horror into the blood of those who hear its name. And I knew, that if I wanted to succeed in my plans, I needed a powerful ally, which I could share my destiny with. That is why I chose you, Adam. You are special. You have the charisma to lead giant groups of people. To rally them to your cause. And with your help I can finally fulfill my goals, of taking over the world to make it a better place.
"For too long the All Master has seen how the world has fallen into disrepair by the humans. And they want to fix that. Faunus were an unfortunate casualty along the way. Humans too did them wrong. Ruined the world they were supposed to share. Which was just as rightly there's."
Adam could feel righteousness fill his veins. She was damn right! Humans had treated faunus cruelly, even when the two species had come into existence at the same time. Even when they should act like brothers to one another. He was glad he crossed paths with her. Winter had wanted to give equal rights to faunus too, but could you really trust a Schnee? A family that was known widely for its cruelly to faunus? He had only gone along with her plans because he had thought it was his best option. But then he had met Grand Master and found in her a kindred spirit.
Adam was so wrapped up in Grand Master's words that he almost forgot that he was supposed to be keeping an eye out for Blake.
"And now, we must discuss the next stage of our plan. The first stage had been in securing Winter Schnee. But that stage has failed." Grand Master leaned in closer and Adam found himself mirroring her actions. "And so now it's the second stage of our plan; luring Blake in here."
Adam blinked as he came out of the trance his words brought her. "What are you doing?" he hissed at her under his breath, casting wary glances up into the rafters. "That was supposed to be secret. How are we going to catch her now?"
"Don't worry. The little kitten has already been caught."
"What?" But none of the trip wires had been tripped off!
There was thud to his left and Adam flinched at the sudden noise. A small woman wearing the robes of the disciples had joined them. So Grand Master hadn't come alone then. And at the small girls feet lay Blake.
Adam got out of his seat in shock. "How-?"
"I told you my members have many talents. And what better way to catch an assassin than with another assassin." Grand Master got out of her seat, taking her time as she circled around to Blake who had her arms pinned behind her back, as the small disciple's knee dug into her back.
Adam couldn't get his eyes off of Blake. So many emotions warred in him. Anger, happiness, disbelief, shock. "Blake," he said her name softly.
She didn't say anything, just glared at him angrily from the floor.
"You've been a very bad kitty," Grand Master clicked her tongue disapprovingly. "You've taken something that belonged to me."
"I wasn't aware Winter was your property. You her girlfriend or something?" Blake said evenly although indignation burned in her amber eyes. She was upset she had gotten caught.
Grand Master didn't like that. "You clearly don't think you are in serious situation but I assure you, you are. You should be very afraid of me. Now," at this she bent down so that was closer to Blake's face, but not enough that that faunus could see under her hood. "You will tell me where it is you have taken Winter or I will make the last moments of your life very, very, painful."
At this the small assassin twisted Blake's arms painfully and the faunus let out a small gasp of pain.
Adam didn't like the sound of that. His anger at Blake was overridden by his concern. "No need to act so rashly. We have Blake secure. Let's get her to a safe facility and interrogate her there."
"That won't be necessary," Grand Master promised. "She'll tell me all I need to know. Metropolitan," now she addressed the smaller girl. "Do it."
"Stop!" Adam shouted out, his heart pounding loudly in his chest. The smaller girl paused and Grand Master looked over her shoulder at him. "Mind explaining your interruptions?"
"B-Blake is mine. She was a worker of mine and as such I reserve the right to interrogate and punish her as I see fit." He lifted his chin up, trying to convey a calm about this. He couldn't tell what Grand Master was thinking. Was she upset?
"Please, let me make up for my sloppy efforts in gaining Winter," he added when she remained quiet. He could feel a bead of sweat roll down his back. He didn't want whatever it was Metropolitan had planned for Blake to play out.
"Very well." Grand Master said, getting back up. "Call a car over and let us take her back."
Blake was shoved roughly by Metropolitan into the back of an armored car, the small hands of the girl pinning Blake's hands to her back. Blake had learned how to get out of hold's like these and had done so countless times, but there was something about the small girl that wouldn't let her accomplish a successful escape. Each time she made the smallest of muscle movements to begin the process of escaping such a hold, pain laced up and down her arm, so powerful that she gasped out loud.
What the hell was this? Was this Metropolitan's semblance? The ability to inflict pain without weapons but just a simple thought?
Blake was shoved into the farthest part of the car while Adam went up to the passenger seat with her weapon Gambol Shroud. The assassin followed her in and so did the Grand Master. They sat on the further benches, one of each side of her. She couldn't tell where they were looking, their hood obscuring their evil faces. Now Blake was trapped with two dangerous foes. This situation wasn't looking any good. She had to find a way to get out. The metal doors to the truck slammed shut, only the light of a single light bulb illuminating this metal trap.
The car had only just begun before Grand Master spoke. "Adam would have you punished by his own methods. But I know he holds a soft spot for you and I'm not going to let you take advantage of that. In fact, we're going to have our little interrogation now. By the time we get there, I'll have everything I need to know and I'll have you dead."
"You sure talk big. And dream big. Do you honestly think your plan for world domination is going to work?" Blake spat, trying to distract Grand Master while she fiddled with the handcuffs around her wrists. There had to be a way out of them. A sharp pain in her eye stopped her. That damn assassin was watching her too carefully to attempt that. Blake did have one ace left up her sleeve, but she'd rather not use it so...publicly.
"My dear, I don't talk or dream big. I do big. I will see my plans come to fruition. You won't, because you'll already be long dead," Grand Master's voice had a smile in it and then raising a hand she clenched it tightly. Blake felt the sensation of hot and cold wash over her, flickering between both so quickly that it took her breath away, made her nauseous, made her sweat and shiver. Grand Master relaxed her hand and the sensations disappeared.
"Now you are good and powerless. Your aura and semblance have been blocked. You'll bleed nicely for us."
Blake felt cold dread fill her. A woman who had such an ability was dangerous. Too dangerous to remain alive. Blake was more than ever incentivized to rid the world of this unpleasant woman. Now, unfortunately, wouldn't be the time, as Blake had to focus on getting out alive.
"Metropolitan, do the honors."
A loud gash ripped it's way down Blake's stomach as the small girl took out her weapon, a pink umbrella, and sliced down and deeply with the sharp tip. Blake's aura didn't turn on and the wound continued to bleed and sting.
Shit, she had to get out of here and now.
"Tell us, where is Winter."
"I'm not scared of a little blood." Blake glared at them hard.
"What about pain?"
Metropolitan steps back, hides her weapon once more. For her true weapon is going to come out. With just a simple thought Blake has fallen out of the seat.
The pain is indescribable. She screams and screams, her cries bouncing off of the metal walls. She writhes on the floor.
"Even the most hardened of criminals will be hard pressed to stand up to Metro when she really let's her powers loose. She's even driven some to insanity with it. So I suggest you talk."
Through the pain and her own screaming Blake can hear Grand Master speak, the woman sitting calmly, hands on lap, watching the dark haired girl's pain in delight. With an air of detachment, like she watched things like this for her Saturday morning brunch.
Metro stopped the pain just momentarily, enough time for Blake to gain her breathe back and to say "fuck you," before it started all over again.
It goes on like this for a while. Torture, a question, than a break, waiting for Blake's response, and than back to torture.
"Tell me where Winter is." Her voice is patient while she is not.
"Why don't you tell me why you need her?"
"Tell me where Winter is."
"Tell me why you're such a stupid bitch." Blake's insults lack bite but with her mind turning to mush it's the best she can come up with.
The words still cost her and her back arches up from the floor. Neck veins strain and she can no longer scream as white flashes behind her eyes.
She wakes up to being kicked in the stomach wound painfully. "Wake up. We're not done with you," Grand Master says and Blake groans, wishing she was anywhere but here. That this was but a dream. She knows now that she has no choice but to use her special ability. She had been hoping that Adam would hear her cries, and stop the two women, giving Blake enough time to escape. Sadly, that is not an option.
"Okay, okay. I'll tell you," she wheezes. Everything in her body aches, burns. She wants to douse herself in ice. She draws ragged breaths in. Concentrates her powers on the little shadows underneath the bench behind her.
Takes too long. Gets another kick, this one moving her closer to the shadows.
"Give me a fucking minute. Your torture has fucked up my brain. Things are fuzzy."
Both women are quiet, don't see what Blake sees through tear logged eyes. The shadows under the bench are swirling, rising. She's blocking the view of them from the assassin and leader with her prone body.
"I've been keeping her in a safe house," she says slowly, licking her lips, tasting blood. "It's not far from here." She leans her head in, her nose almost brushing the dark moving ink of shade. All she needs is a simple touch.
She doesn't know where these powers have come from, but she knows they haven't been a part of her semblance, otherwise they wouldn't be working right now.
"In fact," at this a smirk lights her tired face; she can't resist being annoying. "I'm going there now." And she touches the shadows with her face and she's gone. Sounds and dark swirl around her. She thinks, safehouse, safehouse, over and over again and hopes in her half delirious state that she can make it there.
She misses the howl of frustration she leaves behind and closes her eyes as she falls and falls into a dark abyss between shadows.
Blake crashed down painfully onto something wooden, breaking it. She hoped she was in the safe house because she was injured and she couldn't do a fast travel like that again.
"Blake!" Winter's voice cried out, and she rushed to her feet to where Blake lay in the ruins of the dining table.
"Heh, glad to see you're still here. Thought...you would have...could have...run away," Blake panted as a sharp stab of pain went through her.
"How did you get in here-?" The woman had literally dropped out of thin air. Winter knelt by Blake's side as the dark haired woman wriggled in pain. She had to get up and get some painkillers. She didn't know what the hell that Metropolitan girl had done to her but her body felt like it was on fire, and it didn't help that she had a gaping wound down her side.
Her aura should have been working on fixing it already but Grand Master had blown away Blake's aura along with her semblance and she had no way of telling if either of them would come back.
"Shit. What happened?" Winter cursed once she noticed the blood pooling out of Blake's side.
"I ran into some trouble," the faunus grunted out as she pushed away Winter's hands and stumbled to her feet. Her bloodied hands smeared the wooden walls as she tried to make it to the kitchen but failed to do so, collapsing to one knee as her world span around her.
"You need medical attention! Why isn't your aura working?" Winter followed after Blake.
"It...got...blasted away," Blake managed out, refusing Winter's hands once more.
"Let me help you," the former Queen huffed. "And what do you mean, it got blasted away?"
Blake heaved herself back to her feet again and thankfully made it the last ten steps to the kitchen, ripping open the drawer there. Winter followed her the whole way there, a couple steps behind to make sure Blake didn't fall again.
"How is that possible? Was it a Schnee device-"
"No," Blake panted and then shoved the first aid kit she had grabbed into Winter's hands.
"Why are you giving me this for?" Winter eyed the kit.
"You wanted to help. Now, do you know how to stitch wounds together?"
Winter looked a bit green at that, understandably. "No." She swallowed.
"Congratulations, today is your lucky day," Blake still managed a smirk at the end before she let her back hit the wall and slid down. "Just follow my instructions."
"Okay." Winter nodded her head.
"First, take off my shirt."
When Winter reached for the corners of the shirt Blake shut her down. "Not like that. You need to cut it off. If you take it off normally it'll aggravate my wound more." Blake had to make sure to keep her voice low or else it would increase the blood flow more.
Winter got up and quickly scoured the kitchen for a pair of scissors. Then she set to work cutting the shirt in half quickly. Blake's wound came into full view now and Winter saw it was long, trailing from just under ribs to the middle of her stomach, almost reaching her belly button. "What the hell happened out there?" she cursed for the second time.
"I told you, I went to go meet my contact."
"And this happened?" Winter's eyes roved over all the other scars that littered Blake's body. Those came from the careless mistakes of youth. Blake had learned from then.
"My wound is down there," Blake reminded in amusement, watching the former Queen's cheeks color a little when she had been caught tracing the path of a faint scar up between the valley of Blake's chest and to her collarbone with her blue eyes.
"I was looking at your scars!" she protested and Blake would have said more but she was in too much pain.
"Grab me some pain killers too." The burning sensation was still with Blake and while it had subsided greatly, the joints of her bones screamed at her.
"You must be getting a kick out of bossing me out," Winter commented dryly but got the pills Blake requested. The faunus swallowed them down dry. Winter watched her before she got the needle and thread ready. "Okay, tell me how to help you." There was some slight panic to her voice. "I don't want you bleeding out all over the place. We have a deal, after all. It would be in bad taste if you expired before it could happen." That was added to cover up any signs of concern that Winter might possibly show towards Blake.
"This is how you stitch up wounds.." Blake began her slow explanations and the ex- Queen nimbly picked up the information given to her. Her needle went in and out of Blake's flesh as the cat faunus tried not to hiss out in pain. Just because she had faced a lot of pain during her young life, didn't mean she was completely numb to it. She clenched her eyes shut and focused on happy thoughts, on books, on anything that would take her mind off of the pain.
"There. Done," Winter said proudly, cutting up the last of the threads. Blake looked down and saw the ex- queen had done a stellar job for her first time.
"Thank you," she murmured, gazing thankfully at the kneeling woman in front of her.
"I-it's not a problem," Winter muttered back, clearing her throat as she looked away from Blake, unable to maintain the shared look. She packed away the first aid kit and then bent down to wrap one of Blake's arms around her shoulder so as to help her get up. The pain medications were finally kicking in and Blake felt a bit light headed from them.
"You know it really was amazing," she softly began.
"Yes, well I am a Schnee and we can do anything-" Winter tossed her head back haughtily.
"No. I meant having the former queen kneeling in front of me," Blake concluded with a small chuckle. As expected it riled up Winter.
"How dare you!" She roughly dropped Blake who crashed painfully down to the floor at the lack of support. "You can get yourself back to your room on your own!"
Blake let out a half laugh half groan of pain. "Worth it."
A small amount of pain was nothing as long as she got to aggravate the Queen.