Blake had this puberty thing down.
Like, this whole road to womanhood and being an adult? She was nailing it. Like a ninja. A cool, adult ninja. Or like, you know, a completely typical but also exceptional example of a Faunus woman.
For example; Blake had she'd known about human facepaint for a while, and all the aristocrats used some degree of the stuff, and in some of Weiss's imagination games she ended up with make-up, so like, Blake knew how to put on makeups and stuff, like a completely typical but exceptional adult.
So today, while Weiss was preoccupied with something else, Blake had put on her warpaint and walked down the halls, to the dining room, with confidence.
"Oh," stated Mum Schnee, from behind her, at some point.
That sounded like the human was addressing her, so Blake turned and waited to be spoken to.
Mum Schnee looked like she was trying not to laugh. So Blake tried to look like she was trying not to glower.
"I see you got into- someone's makeup," said Mum Schnee, "You are aware that none of it is edible?"
Blake blinked.
Mum Schnee made a small laugh. Then she said, "Alternatively, If Weiss is playing rough enough to give you two black eyes, we really should have a talk with her about her behavior."
"are you done?"
"One more," said Mum Schnee. She held up a finger.
Blake figured she could allow it.
"If someone mistook you for one of our coal miners and dragged you into the coal shafts, you could have just mentioned my name and they'd let you go."
Blake figured she shouldn't mention that she never actually learned Weiss's mother's name.
"I actually came up with one more, just now," Mum Schnee said.
Blake sighed, theatrically, but she allowed this one as well.
"I thought you were feline-aspect Faunus, not procyonidae-aspect Faunus."
Blake blinked. "comical."
"Thank you," said Mum Schnee. She snapped her fingers. "Anyway..."
Two maids appeared, with a chair and a small end table with a large box on it.
And the maids escorted Blake to the chair. Mum Schnee opened the box and kneeled besides her.
"Do try to pay attention to this lesson, Blake."
Mum Schnee pulled a towelette out of the box and and rubbed some sort of gross sticky looking lotion on it. Blake tried to pull her face away but she was ultimately unsuccessfully in preventing mum Schnee from rubbing her eyelids and cheeks with the towelette, which became dirtied with the color of Blake's facepaints.
"For your eyes, first, you'll want to apply eyeshadow." Mum Schnee gestured to a section of the paints in the box.
"You should pick three complementary tones, one dark, one light, and one in between."
Blake looked at the the selection of eyelid paints, and after a while, she pointed at three separate shades of bronze that she thought looked nice.
"Good choice," Mum Schnee said. She took three separate tiny sponges and started dabbing them into the three paint repositories. "These colors will bring out your eyes. I guess those color theory lessons stuck."
Blake scrunched her mouth.
Mum Schnee gestured for Blake to tilt her head back. "You ought to apply the lightest shade to your lids to contrast with your eyelashes. The medium shade goes onto the crease of your eyelids, and the darkest shade under your eyebrows.
After Mum Schnee applied the paints in the correct order to Blake's left eye, she pulled out a hand mirror. "Now, I'm fairly certain that cats pass the mirror self-recognition test..."
Blake glared.
Mum Schnee smirked, "Oh, don't you worry; Weiss didn't recognize herself in the mirror until she was six."
Blake blinked. She tried not to smile, and she didn't ask if that was actually true (she didn't need to).
"But anyway, in case you didn't know already," Mum Schnee gestured to the mirror, "The Faunus that appears in the mirror is actually you, only reflected horizontally."
Blake made a face.
"So why don't you use this mirror to try to apply eye-shadow to your right eye?"
Blake did, and she did so pretty decently- it wasn't that hard. Except maybe she'd have to practice the part where she made the colors fade into each other. Mum Schnee observed Blake with an impassive face. It was an expression Blake could approve of.
"So," Mum Schnee said, as she pulled out several black sticks, "There are three types of eyeliner; liquid, gel and pencil, with gel and liquid occupying most of the same use space and differing mostly in their resistance to moisture."
Mum Schnee pontificated with one of the eyeliner sticks. "Your wings should be at an angle tangent to your lower eyelash line," said the human. She put the paint stick at her face, to demonstrate. "You'll want to draw the outline in liquid or gel and fill it in with pencil."
Mum Schnee didn't perform an example for this section, so Blake had to draw the black lines on her face herself. She did her wings satisfactorily, probably. Filling in the corner bits was pretty straightforward too.
But Blake was-
Blake was much, much worse at trying to draw on the edges of her eyelids- she kept blinking, which messed up the application on the lids, and even with her ninja reflexes and precision she was a little- almost not at all, really, but a little- afraid of poking herself in the eye.
"Try to do it in one long stroke," Mum Schnee suggested.
That suggestion didn't help, not really.
Mum Schnee adjusted Blake's hand which held the mirror. " And if you're having trouble getting the edges of your eyelids, try looking down into the mirror, like it's a foolish peasant that dared get their blood on you when you slaughtered their children for their insolence."
That suggestion did help, really, but not enough for Blake to perform satisfactory with her make-up application.
After Blake's third failed attempt, Mum Schnee reclaimed the eyeliner pencil from Blake's hand, and then the woman squirted some lotion onto another towelette and dabbed at Blake's eye. She re-applied Blake's eye-shadow, real quick, because some of it had also been smudged off.
"Perhaps you will learn better if you see a demonstration," Mum Schnee said.
And she did Blake's makeup. Blake didn't know if she should be avoiding eye-contact or not- so she did about half-and-half. It was awkward.
But after what felt like a long time but was probably only just a moment, Mum Schnee finished, and handed Blake the hand mirror.
Blake stared into the mirror as the human did some sort of optical illusion artistry stuff to make her eye look, like, super big, now. It was pretty metal.
After Mum Schnee finished, Blake grabbed opposite sides of the mirror and pulled it closer, moving it and tilting it to examine her new appearance.
"If the lesson stuck with you," Mum Schnee said. she waved her hand. "Off chance, I know. But if it did, why don't you do your other eye?"
So Blake did. She wanted to have this look be repeatable, without outside help.
Some time later, Blake's left eye also looked, like, super big and stuff. Her eye-adjacent hairs were long and fluffy and the paints on her eyelid made her eyes stand out.
If Blake didn't know better, she would have thought mum Schnee looked like she approved.
Mum Schnee then pulled out a separate set of paints.
"I recently looked into make-up composition and techniques for Faunus skin tones," Mum Schnee stated. If Blake didn't know better, she would have thought the woman's cheeks had tinted, just a bit.
Blake blinked.
"Don't get the wrong idea." Mum Schnee glanced at the wall, briefly, "It just so happened to be featured in a beauty magazine I just so happened to be reading."
"you read beauty magazines?"
"Yes," Mum Schnee stated, against all evidence to the contrary. Not that Blake meant that Weiss's mother didn't look entirely unconcerned with her aesthetic presentation, it was just, from what Blake had thought she knew of the woman, Blake would have assumed Mum Schnee wouldn't buy into to a corporation's mass-produced beauty standards designed to shift the ideals of external beauty in such a way that benefited them financially. Mum Schnee seemed above all that, and too independent to allow some collection of marketing to externally define her standards of beauty. Just like Blake.
Blake blinked.
"Silence," said Mum Schnee.
Blake blinked again, though she refreshed her poker face.
Mum Schnee coughed. "So we first need to know whether or not you have a cool or warm or neutral skin tone," she said.
Blake blinked. She didn't know what those words meant in that order.
Blake continued to blink as Mum Schnee held various colored paints up to Blake's cheek and explained how she discerned that Blake had warm skin tones (Blake was pleased; she enjoyed being warm), and thus that she should try for certain shades of blush.
"It is fortuitous," Mum Schnee said, "Since warmer hues will also compliment your eyes. But I get ahead of myself; go ahead and put on your foundation and blush."
As per the woman's instructions, Blake used a weird brush thing to smear some powder that that turned into a film-like substance, over some of the parts of her face that were discolored due to acne, and then a similar-looking powder the color of her skin to normalize pigmentation or depressions in areas of her face, and then a yellowish paint around her cheeks that made her face look, maybe, fuller. It was pretty cool, overall.
And after Blake's war paint was finished being applied, completely, she took the mirror again.
She looked preeeeety friggen sweet. She tilted the mirror and her face, as she admired the facepaints from different angles.
Mum Schnee was silent as she packed up all the paints into their box and then handed the container to Blake.
"You go ahead and keep this," Mum Schnee said. She stood up, and she snapped her fingers, and some maids appeared and took the chairs and table away.
Mum Schnee began to walk away.
"um," Blake said.
Mum Schnee turned to her.
Blake coughed.
Mum Schnee blinked.
Blake fidgeted.
Mum Schnee blinked again.
Blake sighed.
Mum Schnee turned to leave.
But then Blake found something to say.
"weiss will appreciate this."
Mum Schnee paused and tilted her head back, each very briefly. Blake could see a hint of a smile. "I'm sure she will."
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" Weiss emitted, the next time she saw Blake. She actually saw Blake first, so Blake flinched, wildly, as she was tackle-hugged by a young human girl, screeching and vibrating in non-euclidian directions. "ARRGHGGBHTHYUHJFgy27yuhfeyg2y8o809prwojf;vdnklbjskgushoifdspuao;lemknsljk
/-74928394478reuh2bj3knjefu789uhjkbh
32ygefaspoj;mkln;lqo39008thoujnflkm;almskmkj
473y98efoijw jhsdbhuojiklsndnkhbf-/
Blake flinched.
"YOU'RE SO CUTE BLAKEY!" Weiss wailed, echoingly, as she jumped on top of her, in some kind of smothering, enveloping hug.
Blake tried, unsuccessfully, to keep Weiss from smudging her make-up.
- A POSSIBLE FUTURE -
It is a couple days after Weiss and Blake had started officially dating. Their relationship had become- well, Weiss had taken her oldest friend out twice, and they'd snuggled during the afternoons, and they ate meals together, so, whatever that was, that was what their relationship had become.
And they had talked. Like, really talked. About everything- serious issues, their own personal concerns about their identities, and personalities, their futures and their pasts. They shared quiet laughs and heartfelt tears and the reminisced about their memories, from their childhood home and since attending beacon.
And they had talked about what they each were expecting out of this whole thing; what a 'relationship' meant, to each of them, and what they expect from each other now and in the future.
Weiss tries to take care not to settle into any negative aspects of their old routine. She tries to be as considerate of Blake's feelings and wants and needs as possible. Like, if it's a new start, then it's also a new opportunity to try to reframe mixed experiences as positive ones.
It was also an opportunity to try new things. New-ish. Or, like, a new spin on something that had happened before.
Weiss counted it as new, though since even though they had been intimate in the technical sense, they had never gotten, well, intimate, in the, like, you know, sense.
"Do you want to, maybe, play together?" Blake says, one day, and there is an emphasis was on the word 'play'.
Weiss knows what she means.
So they make some quick preparations. They each shower, and Weiss informs Yang and Ruby that she and Blake will need some privacy in their dorm, for a while.
Yang congratulates her. Ruby is a little insufferably happy for her, with sly eyes and grim intonations obliquely referencing sin and carnal knowledge.
Weiss doesn't let it get to her. Actually, in her new understanding of her combat partner, she considers it a show of support. Or something close enough to a show of support.
Blake had been in charge of setting up the room, so Weiss is a little surprised at what the room looks like; the lights are dimmed and the curtains drawn, and there are some flower petals strewn about.
And Blake is dressed up all fancy- a sheer skirt and tall socks and a tight blouse that shows off her breasts. She is sitting at her desk with her computer, her legs crossed. She looks authoritative. It's pretty sexy.
"Aw, Weiss," Blake soothes, "Did you want to get dressed up too?"
Weiss does, so she opens the door to the closet, so Blake can't see- it's part of the game, a little surprise- and the human changes into a cream-colored babydoll with frills around the skirt portion and a bow set between her breasts, with the skirt cut at her navel, asymmetrically, in a way that shows off her panties.
Blake beckons over with her hand, and Weiss kneels at her master's chair. She tilts her head down and lets Blake stroke her hair.
"Do you want to be my pet human for the night?" Blake asks in a soothing voice, as if they hadn't gone over their expectations before hand.
Weiss nods. The game is that she is too embarrassed to speak, and she doesn't really need to use her theater skills to give that impression.
Blake stands and picks up the collar on her desk and walks up to put the collar on, fumbling only a little.
Weiss glances down, to avoid eye contact, and also to admire Blake's cleavage.
After the collar is affixed (it's a little too snug, which is just how Weiss likes it), Blake hooks a thin black leash to a ring in the collar, the end of which she keeps in her lap.
Blake sits back don at her desk, and gestures to the floor besides her. Weiss sits there.
Blake pulls out some rectangles and a small cardboard cup with a plastic lid.
"I got you some nice human spreadsheets to play with, and a nice triple venti pumpkin spice latte for you to snack upon."
Weiss accepts both, and she doesn't correct Blake about the specifics of the coffee- it's still reasonably tasty, and Blake's passive contempt for the trappings of humanity is part of the game.
So Weiss sits on the floor at her master's feet, while Blake does homework or something, above her. (It's not Weiss's place to ask what specifically her master is doing, but out of character, Weiss understand that Blake's a little behind on Grimm History.)
Weiss has fun finding out the mean and standard deviation of her spreadsheets, and doing some analysis on the correlations between the different independent variables in the data.
And after a while, almost as Weiss is getting a little bored (though she figures, maybe, she'd have to beg Blake to play with her, and that'd be fun), Blake tugs on Weiss's leash, to get her attention. Weiss perks her head up.
"Do you want to come to bed, my pet?"
Weiss smiles, and she nods, three times, real fast.
Blake walks over first, leading Weiss by the leash, though Weiss doesn't join her master on the bed until Blake finishes fluffing up a pillow (for herself, not for Weiss) and gestures for Weiss to come join her.
Weiss crawls up, from the far side, ending ending up with her head on Blake's lap.
Blake pets her head, gently at first, but eventually she's running her hands down Weiss's body, rubbing Weiss's neck and shoulders and lower back and- and she cups Weiss's face, leading her pet human upwards, so Blake can nip at Weiss's neck.
A soft moan escapes Weiss's lips, and she can't contain herself any longer; she starts smooching Blake as much as she can- first, with a smooch on Blake's forehead, and another on her eye- which Blake closed in anticipation- and then on her nose, with an old sound-effect that makes Blake chuckle, just a bit.
And, face-to-face, with intermittent eye contact, Weiss leans in, for a smooch at the lips-
Only to pause, a half inch between them.
After a long moment, Blake closes the distance.
And Weiss smooches her master again, on the mouth, and then at Blake's cheek-
And then down her neck, and at her collarbone, and above Blake's cleavage, at the edge of her exposed skin.
Weiss leans back. "May I undress you, master?"
Blake glares. "You presume too much."
Weiss shirks. "I- Yes master. Sorry master."
"Though perhaps," Blake soothes, "If you beg..."
Weiss gulps. She breaths.
"P-please, master-"
Blake frowns. "No no, not that way."
Weiss gulps again, and her cheeks flush just a little as she lowers her head and paws at the air, and she emits a high-pitched whine.
Blake inhales, sharply, and after a few moments of Weiss's begging, Blake smiles.
"Aw, I can't say no to you, my little cutie~" Blake says, as she strokes Weiss's chin.
Weiss smiles and exhales.
Then Blake stretches her left leg. "You can start with my socks."
- PRESENT DAY -
Blake awoke.
And she felt cold. It took her a moment to realize that that was because Weiss wasn't hugging her.
She deduced that Weiss hadn't been hugging her for a while.
Blake sat up, and looked around-
And Weiss was there, just, on the armchair in their room.
She was brushing her hair. Her hair was wet.
"H-hey, Blakey," Weiss said. She made a smile. "Good morning."
Blake blinked.
Blake rolled over and spread her limbs out. Usually, Weiss would come hug her when she did this.
"Heehee, you're so cute, Blakey!" Weiss exclaimed. But she didn't stand up or do anything to acknowledge Blake's body.
Blake blinked.
"C'mon," Weiss waved, at some point "Lets go get breakfast."
Blake had known how to walk ever since she could remember (Despite what Blake was certain Weiss believed), and she wasn't, like, put off by having to walk down to the dining room- but it still felt a little strange walking down to breakfast, since it had been a while since she actually had to, since Weiss usually carried her there.
Once they got to breakfast, Weiss sat down, next to Blake, as per their usual arrangement, but when it came time to share food, Weiss didn't find an excuse to hug Blake, or grab Blake's hands to prevent Blake from stealing back a few breakfast meats, or otherwise attempt to be in physical contact with her.
And Weiss was similarly non-tactile during their knowledge training, but since they sat apart from each other, that didn't stand out as noticeable.
What was noticeable was that Weiss really, really avoided contact during their weapon training. Like, they had individual practice for half of it, but whenever they practice sparred Weiss would always find some way to turn a faint into a tackle, or a fumble into a fall at Blake's feet, or she'd sneak behind Blake and jump on her and pin her down in a body hold.
Dinner was very much like breakfast, though the presence of the adult Schnees at the table usually meant that Weiss was more tempered in her affection, so like, if it hadn't been for the other data points, Blake might had not even noticed.
And what was really, really weird was that Weiss didn't attempt to drag Blake into the bathroom for her daily washing.
Blake laid down on the bed, having unbuttoned the top of her shirt so that Weiss could more easily remove it for bath time.
"Um, Blakey," Weiss said. She shifted where she stood.
Blake turned her head. She blinked.
"Um. Do you think you could take your bath yourself, today?"
Blake blinked.
She knew the motions for taking a bath, yes, but like, why would she ever, willingly cover herself in water? Did Weiss know her at all?
Aloud, though, she only said, "okay."
Blake stepped into the large, fancy, well lit bathroom. She glanced at the golden faucet handles in contemplation.
Today was an opportunity, then, to skip baths. Finally. That was so awesome.
Not that Blake had gotten used to baths or anything. Water was still the grossest thing. Like, it was, just, super gross. Blech.
Blake filled the tub, careful to not let any of the water splash on her. Weiss would hear it filling, and assume Blake took her bath.
Though, it might look suspicious if she walked out completely dry.
So she just washed her hair, a little.
And then she figured maybe she should wash her face, since she'd started getting some of this acne thing and she didn't like it at all, and apparently it was because of her skin reacting to dirt and stuff on it.
And then, she figured she'd just jump into the tub, real quick, and then jump out, so that at least the water would wash some of the sweat and dirt accumulation away (Blake was willing to admit that, perhaps, she had grown accustomed to not having dirt on her body. Things just felt nicer that way.)
Though, for some reason, Blake didn't feel as clean as when Weiss bathed her. It was probably fine, and on the plus side, she had spent a lot less time in contact with gross water.
Blake did, however, completely skip all of her dental hygiene. Weiss probably wouldn't notice that, she figured.
Blake left the bathroom, with her hair still wet, dripping onto her pajamas and parts of the carpet, and she sat down, on the armchair in their room, and she held the brush out, to Weiss, expectantly.
"Oh! Um..." Weiss said. "Y-yeah, I can brush your hair, Blakey..."
And Weiss brushed Blake's hair, like always, except, she didn't ruffle Blake's hair, or rub her face against Blake's hair, or otherwise make contact with her. Blake tried not to worry too much.
And when Weiss went into the bathroom to take her own shower, Blake crawled onto their bed and arranged the blankets into a nest and fluffed up the pillows and she lay down on their bed, waiting for her human.
She and Weiss had come to an arrangement, recently, in that Weiss would rub Blake's sides and stomach, to induce the release of endorphin into Blake's frontal cortex, and in return Blake would let Weiss snuggle her.
When Weiss exited the shower, brushing her hair, in her own pajamas, Blake lifted her head and tried to look at least somewhat enthusiastic.
"So, um," Weiss said. "You can have the bed tonight, if you want."
Blake blinked.
Weiss opened the room's closet and pulled out the giant basket from waaay back, like the first week Blake had arrived.
"I'll take your basket," Weiss said, "Since I figure it wouldn't be too comfortable for you to suddenly switch sleeping arrangements..."
Blake blinked in bewilderment, but she agreed.
Blake lay back onto her pillow. Then, alone, without anyone hugging her- alone for the first time in a long, long while- Blake drifted off to sleep.
Blake awoke. It was the middle of the night.
And it might have been a little cold. Like, Weiss may have had inherited the ability to not be bothered by the cold, but, as far as Blake's scientific observations went, Schnees still produced body heat (though not as much as other humans, or Faunus), and in an insulating cocoon of blankets, with Blake's help, throughout the night, the heat added up and saturated the bedding, into a nice warm burrow. Now, it seemed that Blake's body heat was insufficient to reach prior levels of warmth.
And Blake may have gotten used to being hugged, while she slept. So maybe it was weird trying to sleep without Weiss's arms around her.
But Blake figured it was mostly the temperature thing. She didn't miss Weiss at all or anything.
And all of that- all that latent loneliness- that happened again the following day. Blake awoke, and Weiss never hugged her, and they walked to breakfast, side by side, without Weiss carrying her.
And during breakfast, Weiss took her portion of Blake's food without getting into some sort of wrestling match, even when Blake tried to pretend she wanted to.
And during lessons and training, Weiss smiled a lot, but never hugged Blake.
And Blake was, patently, beginning to notice how tiring it was to have to walk everywhere, without being carried.
Internally, Blake was betting on when Weiss would break down and hug her.
And like, Blake was happy (usually) to provide her human with- with whatever it was Weiss got out of hugging her- so like, Weiss should just hurry up and do it already. Even if Blake didn't exactly like it or whatever, it was weird that Weiss would suddenly stop hugging her, one day, without any explanation.
So Blake decided to force the issue. For the first time in her life, she initiated a hug with Weiss. Or she tried to, at least.
Blake waited until Weiss wasn't looking, then she pounced.
"hrk-" Weiss emitted, in Blake's hug. She pushed Blake away, in what felt like reflex.
Blake stepped back, afraid that she'd down something wrong-
Weiss's mouth was curved into a wobbly frown and her face was red and she was shaking, slightly, "I- um."
And then Weiss ran away.
Blake frowned; that was her move.
And after the human was absent from dinner, Blake decided to track down Mum Schnee. It was, possibly, an opportunity to maybe work Weiss into the topic of conversation (That shouldn't be hard, since Weiss was basically the only commonality between Blake and Mum Schnee, so Weiss was, like, the one thing they could maybe talk to each other about, if Blake ever decided to talk)
So when Blake found the door to the Master Bedroom ajar, she stepped in.
Mum Schnee was directing the packing of what looked like an overnight bag, which was splayed out on her bed.
"you're leaving?" Blake said.
"Briefly. It is a holiday season," said Mum Schnee, "But Schnees don't celebrate holidays except as an opportunity. While lesser people and corporations- but I repeat myself- take time off, we leverage the time to make deals and corner markets otherwise unpursued."
Blake blinked.
"So yes, Blake, I will be leaving this weekend, but it will not be for any semblance of vacation," Mum Schnee said, "My partner and what staff are desperate enough for holiday overtime will hold down the fort here, Weiss's instructors are all graduate students, so they cannot afford to take time off."
"And of course," Mum Schnee scrunched her mouth, and glanced at the wall, "You will here, to keep the family safe."
Blake- blinked?
"oh. thanks?"
Mum Schnee scrunched her mouth to the side. "No, I was thanking you. Perhaps you misunderstood."
Blake blinked.
Mum Schnee blinked. She turned away.
The bags had finished being packed, by that point. Mum Schnee stood up, as a few maids marched out of the room, with her luggage in tow.
Mum Schnee paused and she turned, to Blake, and she held out a hand.
Blake blinked, at Mum Schnee's hand, and she she held out her own. They bumped hands, and they parted ways.
Well, it wasn't, like, Blake really needed Mum Schnee's advice, like, this instant.
Blake'd be fine, at least until the adult came back.
The quickest thing would, just, be to ask Weiss why she no longer liked physical contact.
Like, what were the possible results? Like, what changed for Weiss (Blake was pretty sure she herself hadn't changed too much, except for the whole puberty thing) that made her not want to hug her?
And Blake's body froze, her mind gripped by a deep, existential dread, and a hollowness in her gut that gnawed into her diaphragm.
Because, maybe-
Possibly-
It was that Weiss didn't love her anymore?
What- what if-
What if that was true? What would that mean-
And then Blake's fears boiled over.
She ran though the mansion, until she found Weiss, in their room (the obvious place, in retrospect).
Blake slammed open the door-
"O-oh!" Weiss said. She sat up in their bed. "H-hey, Blakey-"
"weiss," Blake intoned, sounding a little more sad and desperate than she intended to.
Weiss smiled and turned to her, but she clasped her hands behind her back, like she was trying to keep them back. "What is it, Blakey?"
Blake opened her mouth, and then she closed her mouth. Blake took a big breath.
Blake got onto the bed, next to Weiss.
Weiss squeaked.
Blake crawled up to Weiss, pushing the human back on the bed, and Blake crawled above her, arms on either side of Weiss's shoulders.
Weiss squeaked and her body froze, and she stared at Blake's face.
And after a moment, Blake leaned in for a nuzzle-
And Weiss rolled away from Blake, all the way off the bed. She stood up, stiffly, and she brushed herself off and she coughed.
The gnawing in Blake's gut intensified.
"weiss~" Blake said, and it was much less cool and resounding as she would have hoped. Like, maybe it sounded a little desperate.
"don't-" Blake swallowed, and her eyes started getting itchy for some reason.
"don't you love me anymore?"
Weiss bit her hand, and her eyes widened and watered and wobbled. "Oh, Blakey~!" Weiss said.
And she held her arms out, but then she held them back.
"Of course I still love you." Weiss said.
Blake's nose was a little clogged, so she rubbed it. Her vision was blurry, so she rubbed her eyes.
"then- why..."
"Oh, you mean the hugging? I-it's not you," Weiss said, "It's- it's something I'm dealing with..."
Blake blinked.
"can i help?"
"N-no," Weiss said. She refreshed her smile. "It's- it's just something with- with my body-"
And then Blake smelled something that corroborated Weiss's statement.
Blake got up and sniffed at Weiss's neck, and then at Weiss's collarbone, and then her torso-
"are you bleeding-"
"OH MY DUST, BLAKE!" Weiss exclaimed, and she hit Blake with a pillow.
So like, if Weiss's situation was some sort of health issue, Blake couldn't, just, leave the situation at that.
So Blake found the remaining adult Schnee, and she relayed her discovery, and her concern.
And he kept a straight face, as Blake tried to explain, and he thanked Blake, after she was done, and he summoned the maids who had opted to work today for holiday overtime.
Blake eavesdropped outside the door, but not, like, because she was concerned or anything.
"So it appears that Weiss has- has hit a developmental milestone," said Pa Schnee , "So I'm going to need one of you three to explain the changes to her endocrine system as a result of puberty."
"Oh, um," came the voice of one of the maids, "I'm actually a Faunus. We have seasonal estrous cycles rather than monthly menstrual ones-"
"Okay, fine," Pa Schnee said, "How about you?"
"Well, I'm trans, so I wouldn't experience cyclical hormonal changes that prompt a menstrual cycle," came the voice of another one of the maids.
"They didn't teach you that in, like, girl school?"
"Is that a thing? Where do I sign up?"
"Alright, fair enough, so that leaves-"
"Ah, actually, I'm a guy, I just like cross-dressing," came the voice of the third maid, "So, like, similar deal as her, except I'd have no personal reason to actually learn about it..."
"So what you're saying is," pa Schnee said, and his voice trembled, "That none of you can inform my daughter that, as a part of puberty, she'll occasionally experience discharges of blood and mucousal tissue from her vaginal canal as her uterine lining is shed?"
"I'm afraid not, sir."
"Sorry, sir."
"Okay," came Pa Schnee's voice, weakly. He sighed. "Let- let me call my wife..."
And Blake eavesdropped over Pa Schnee's phone call with Mum Schnee. That felt a little more like an invasion of privacy, even though Blake couldn't hear what mum Schnee was saying.
"Okay," said Pa Schnee, "I'll try my best."
Pa Schnee emerged from the room, appearing defeated by something.
Blake flinched, since she hadn't moved from her eavesdropping spot. The adult didn't seem surprised though.
"Is Weiss in your room?" he asked, without looking at her.
Blake blinked. She figured it was likely true.
"Okay." He started walking towards there. Blake followed.
Blake entered her and Weiss's bedroom first. It didn't have a lock, so she just walked in-
"O-oh!" Weiss said. She sat up in their bed. "H-hey, Blakey-"
Blake smushed her mouth together, and she waited for the knock at the door.
It came about a half-minute later. "May I come in?" Pa Schnee said.
"Yeah," Weiss said. "What's up?"
And when Pa Schnee entered thee room, he was visibly sweating, with a forced smile on his face. He took a seat in the armchair, at the edge.
"So, Weiss," said Pa Schnee. "Blake informs me you're experiencing some, ah, personal changes..."
Weiss glared at Blake. Blake looked at the wall.
Pa Schnee took a breath. "Your mother will be home tomorrow, to walk you through some of the changes to your body, but in the meantime," Pa Schnee said, "I think it would be prudent to inform you- and Blake- of where babies come from."
Weiss winked. Her face was impassive.
Blake pretended she wasn't curious.
"So," Pa Schnee pontificated, "When two consenting adults of legal age decide they want to continue their lineage," he said, "They each draw a DNA sample into clean, sterilized vials."
Blake blinked. "wait, really?"
"Yes. Historically it has been blood, but with recent technological advances things like hair or flakes of skin are accepted as well."
Weiss nodded. Blake blinked.
"Then they call a Stork; a dark witch of the blasphemous flock, who collects the samples and a small fee and takes them to the Baby Factory, where a vile ritual of ancient blasphemies uses Dust and magic to imbue the samples with life, and an Aura, wretched, screaming, from the ether, into a wriggling flesh pupae. Because creating life is the first blasphemy, and the weight of such an affront curses all those involved, including the baby "
"So that's why babies are born full of sin," Weiss said.
"Precisely; it's actually not until around three years of age that a child has burned away the residual hideous taint of its parent's sin, to the point where it can be considered self-aware."
Weiss nodded.
"And Faunus come from improperly formed rituals," said Pa Schnee, "Where the essence of Grimm contaminates the pupae, causing animal aspects to appear in the child, after birth."
Blake blinked.
"But anyway; after the quivering fleshling is formed, the most traditionally feminine parent allows it to burrow into their abdomen where it forms a noisome cocoon next to the parent's stomach, where it leaches nutrients from the gestational parent's digestive tract to feed itself over nine somber months of growth."
"And once the pupae outgrows its host, we call the Stork, again, in the capacity of a midwife, to complete the childbirth ritual, and cut free the parasitic protohuman from its progenitor's abdomen, screaming all the while. (Your mother can show you her cesarean scars, if you ask her)."
Blake kind of wanted to see that.
"Huh," Weiss said, "Makes sense."
"And the stork cleans the newborn infant, caked in blood and discarded flesh, and a flesh tailor (who is often also the Stork) stitches the wound in the gestational parent."
"Okay," Weiss said.
Blake blinked.
"And afterwards," Pa Schnee said, "The parents celebrate with sex."
Weiss clutched her face. "Ewwwww~"
Blake made a face.