A/N: Wow! Pandemic, anyone? Defenestrator was traveling last weekend, so we've got an extra long chapter today. Hopefully it'll take the edge off all the social distancing.
- Fiercesomest
Lively sounds of cheering and cheesy movie dialogue bled through JNPR's door as Blake and Weiss slipped into team RWBY's empty, quiet room. Blake set Gambol Shroud on her pillow and eyed her saran-wrapped peanut butter and jelly sandwich with mild disdain. They had managed to slip into the cafeteria just before it closed, only to find dinner's offerings picked practically clean, save for two lonely misshapen sandwiches that they snatched up and brought with them back to the dorms. So much for that solid meal.
Weiss sighed, dropping into her desk chair because she was certainly not going to eat on her bed. Myrtenaster's tip scraped lightly on the hard floor, and she stood partway to prop her sword against the edge of her desk instead of letting it drag. She rethought that immediately (the last thing she needed was for an accidental nudge to cause her Dust cartridges to freeze/incinerate the dorm room) and laid it flat on her desk instead, where it sat like a physical manifestation of her brand new shiny batch of paranoia. She reached for her Monday folder to make sure her homework was in order before worrying about eating, or about whether she should sleep or break up the movie night in the other room to share the news that her would-be murderer was loose.
Still standing in the middle of the room, Blake watched Weiss's back, her ears flattening in concern at the rising tension pulling Weiss's posture tight.
"Hey," Blake tossed her sandwich on her bed and crossed the room, lightly placing her hands on Weiss's shoulders. "Did you want the shower first?" Even though she had no idea what she could possibly say to make anything better, maybe simply acting normal would help? "I think I might shower in the morning."
"Don't you dare," Weiss slapped the folder down on her desk, turning to point at Blake, her dismal dinner prospects and the entire murderer-on-the-loose thing momentarily set aside. "If we're sleeping under the same covers, we're both showering."
Blake's Faunis ears perked, her heart doing a pleasant flip at the realization that sharing sleeping space was becoming more of a regular occurrence. "That's... a sensible requirement." She returned her hands to Weiss's shoulders, gently squeezing where they seemed the tightest. "That still doesn't answer my question of whether you're taking one first."
Weiss tensed more when she squeezed, but realized that Blake was trying to help her relax and tried her best to do so. While she considered which order they should shower in, she glanced at Myrtenaster and decided that she probably didn't need to be too paranoid. Professor Goodwitch seemed confident in her training, and anyone sane would think twice about a second attempt on school grounds after being taken to task so quickly. (Whether or not the would-be murderer was sane was another question.)
Either way, her time at Beacon was doing far more to prepare her to fight monsters than she'd anticipated. She shook out her hair a bit, tired, but still determined, "You can go first. You're faster, and I still need to talk to the others."
Hesitation kept Blake from moving away at first, but she stopped short of actually offering to go with her to break the news. By now, Blake was fairly confident that if Weiss needed moral support she would ask, so instead she leaned in for a quick nuzzle and pulled back with a smile. "Have fun storming the party, then."
"I'm sure I will," Weiss rolled her eyes in mild amusement. She ate and reviewed her notes while Blake got her pajamas and shower things together. Peanut butter and jelly left much to be desired, but it was a small price to pay for the few minutes' privacy in the locker room earlier. She could make up for it at breakfast.
And who was to say they needed to forfeit their privacy after the others knew about the situation anyway? Weiss slid her organized folders into her book bag for classes tomorrow. A certain amount of preparation was certainly prudent, but honestly after all the apparent trouble Torchwick and company went through to break her out of... wherever she was being held. On campus? Probably there was a holding cell someplace. In any case, the odds of her returning so soon were decidedly low.
The shower was running in the bathroom by the time she was set to head across the hall. She still picked up Myrtenaster on her way out the door.
Just as her fingertips brushed the cold brass knob, the hair on the back of her neck prickled up and she whirled, facing back into the room where she saw... nothing. Nothing out of the ordinary- or at least nothing more out of the ordinary than usual. (The two bunk beds were rather nonstandard.) Bookcases, the patched red curtain, their desks and dressers. Light from the lamp at her desk and a bit from under the bathroom door. Narrowing her eyes, Weiss opened the door to find the hallway empty.
"Okay..." she took a deep breath and looked over her shoulder one more time. Something skittered on the floor as she took a step and she jumped back, sword at the ready, but it was only a piece of paper on the floor.
An envelope, rather. It had been propped against the doorframe and she'd hit it with her shoe when she'd stepped forward. She stooped to pick it up.
It was addressed to Blake.
Looking up and down the empty hall, she turned the envelope over in search of a clue as to who it was from, but all she found was a sketch of a rose that didn't quite match the one Ruby had on all her things. It looked like it was wilting, almost.
Well, that was definitely a problem for later. She tucked it under her arm and took the two steps to JNPR's room to knock loudly on the door.
After some sounds of confusion and shuffling, the movie volume lowered and the door clicked open to reveal Pyrrha, already looking very comfortable in a set of silk pajamas that practically matched her hair in shade.
"Weiss!" She lit up with a surprised smile, green eyes glancing past her as if expecting to see Blake, "Have you come to join movie night?"
Weiss drew back a bit, overwhelmed by the amount of red Pyrrha was wearing.
"Well," she started, but the taller girl was already stepping back so she could come in. Dust, it just had to be Pyrrha who answered the door. Sighing, she accepted the invitation, asking as she followed her in, "What's the movie?"
Popcorn would be more than an adequate trade for her time. It smelled amazing, and the news could probably wait.
"Oh!" Pyrrha gave the hall one last cursory check before closing the door again. "It's RoboGrimm number... ah..."
"Four~!" Yang chimed in from her place next to Ruby on Pyrrha's bed. "Return of the Revenge."
Brow furrowed, Weiss took the spot Ruby scooted over to make on the bed. She couldn't fathom why someone would want a robotic Grimm or how revenge could return (unless it was the name of an airship or something), but from the explosions currently occuring onscreen she doubted any of these questions would be answered.
The holoscreen was set up slightly angled on one of JNPR's desks against the wall so you could sit on any of the four beds and have a good view. Ren and Nora and Jaune occupied the closest one, which was Jaune's (judging by the familiar trunk stashed underneath), probably at Nora's insistence. Pyrrha's bed, they'd dragged out from the wall a bit so no one had to try to see over anyone's head.
"Dare I ask about the plot?" Weiss tensed up when Ruby leaned practically across her lap to get the popcorn from Jaune.
"I'm not sure there is one," Ren answered between bites of what looked like popcorn heavily dusted in some kind of green powder.
"It's about a man who had given up on his quest for revenge once again deciding to pursue his nemesis from the previous film." Pyrrha recounted as she reclaimed her seat squished between Yang and the wall.
"OK but she makes anything sound good," Yang nudged the taller girl with a grin, reaching past her for a handful of Ren's weird green popcorn.
"Well, I make no promises about staying," Weiss took a few pieces of the normal popcorn in Ruby's bowl, though probably Ren's was fine. Nutritious, at least. Ruby was too busy watching the movie to comment on Myrtenaster, Weiss supposed. Or, well. There was Crescent Rose behind her on the mattress, and Yang with her ever-present gauntlets. Why had she even thought that would be a concern? Coming to movie night armed to the teeth was very on-brand for Beacon. She tucked the letter she'd found outside their door between herself and the foot of the bed and pulled out her scroll to text Blake so it wouldn't look like she'd vanished into thin air.
Hey. Lured to movie across the hall by popcorn.
"What's that?" Yang asked as another explosion lit up the screen. The presence of weapons might be par for the course, but envelopes were another story, and a mischievous slant pulled Yang's easy smile ever closer to grin territory as she eyed the spot where Weiss had tried to hide the one she'd walked in with. "You two passing love notes or something?"
"Wait, what?" Jaune fumbled for the remote, trying to gauge if he should pause the movie. Ruby lunged to stop him from pausing in the middle of the scene, her spot being immediately usurped by Nora, who snagged the envelope on her way to it while Weiss was busy scoffing at Yang.
"You guys are writing love letters? That's so sweet!" Nora turned the envelope over, squinting at the neat cursive on the back, "Is this your handwriting?"
"Give me that!" Weiss found her attempt to snatch back the envelope checked by Nora's one arm as she handed the mystery note to Yang for inspection.
"What a beautiful sketch!" Pyrrha remarked, peering at the letter over Yang's shoulder.
"Yeah you know," Yang squinted at the rose, then grinned at Weiss. "A little too beautiful. Did you trace this?"
"I can draw," Weiss bristled, still trying to reach past or around Nora, who was blocking her without even really paying attention. Finally she sat back and crossed her arms, "Not that it matters. It's not mine."
"It's... not?" Yang looked genuinely surprised.
"Then who is it from?" Pyrrha tilted her head, her eyes bouncing from the letter to Weiss with a new curiosity.
"And why do you have it?" Yang's sly grin made a quick return.
"Swift and efficient removal of the competition." Ren concluded, still watching the explosions on the holoscreen.
This was turning out to not be worth the popcorn.
"I found it on the floor," Weiss said lightly, "I was going to give it to Blake later," after informing the group about the murderer on the loose. Heat rose to her face as she internally denied just wanting an hour or two to rest first. She motioned to the screen, which seemed to be displaying just a non-stop sting of explosions, "Are we watching this... whatever this is, or not?"
"Aw Weiss, don't even worry, whoever this is doesn't stand a snowball's chance in Vacuo anyway," Yang handed the letter back to Weiss, halfway to reaching over for a side-hug when there was another knock at JNPR's door.
Jaune, ceding the controller to Ruby, ran for the door this time.
Blake blinked at how quickly the door flew open. "I... heard there was popcorn."
"Yeah!" Jaune glanced back at the two bowls, one of which hadn't moved from Ren. "Right this way."
Meanwhile, Weiss fumbled the envelope and Nora snatched and immediately sat on it, hiding it from view as she scooted closer to Yang to try and make room on the overloaded bed, "We've got room!"
And they did, as long as Blake didn't mind sitting practically on top of Weiss. Beacon's beds weren't especially long, and both Yang and Nora had a tendency to sprawl out a bit.
Blake rolled the edges of her pajama sleeves between her fingers as she surveyed the scene. The girl's bed was disproportionately crammed compared to the boy's bed, but Yang made a show of reaching over and patting the sliver of space available between Nora and Weiss, grinning all the while. That grin, coupled with the apparent lack of high tension in the room told Blake that Weiss probably hadn't said anything yet. Maybe she was waiting for the right timing? Or had she gone back on her decision to tell them at all?
"Okay okay I see that thousand yard stare - I'll scrunch," Yang teased, scooting back until she was practically in Pyrrha's lap, setting the taller girl's face ablaze. Nora quickly scrunched in after, and Yang crossed her arms in triumph. "Better?"
Now there was almost enough room for an entire half of a person.
It was good enough for Blake though, and she took the offer, doing her best to squeeze in between Weiss and Nora without accidentally smacking either of them with gambol shroud.
Weiss tried to angle so she could fit and wound up having to take Myrtenaster and line the sword up with Crescent Rose behind her so no one got poked. She considered (not for the first time) investing in a sheath, but it was really too late to worry about that.
It wasn't too late to worry about it being her turn to shower, though. Maybe she was just feeling prickly about whatever this letter was, but showering meant being alone and unarmed, and not showering was an excellent excuse to stay here on the bed next to Blake, whose hair was damp and smelled very nice, and Dust, she really should shower.
"My turn, then," Weiss sighed and started to get up.
"Already?" Blake caught Weiss's hand with her own, but her brain stalled out trying to figure out what to say next.
"Yeah come on Weiss, Robogrimm is about to fight the Leviathan!" Yang clenched both fists in excitement.
The black and white and steel monstrosity roared on the screen while Weiss hesitated, Blake's hand gripping hers. She gripped back, and settled back primly. Well, as primly as was possible when wedged between the foot of the bed and her girlfriend, who was warm and at least one shower cleaner than she was. Shaking her hair out to the side to distract from how self-conscious (and yet relieved) she felt, Weiss sighed, "I suppose I could wait till the end."
It would be better to talk to the others fully dressed anyway. Not that her being in her pajamas or not would make a difference to the others, but telling them was tantamount to asking for help, and she could use all the dignity she could get. She didn't notice that she was still gripping Blake's hand perhaps a little harder than necessary.
The Leviathan, which was very clearly a man in a suit standing in a lake or something, slowly lifted one arm and just as slowly decked the robo Grimm. An alarm sounded as the two duked it out in slow-mo, but it wasn't coming from the movie.
Ren picked up his scroll and silenced the alarm. "The cookies," he stood, handing his popcorn to Pyrrha and Yang. "Nora, you want to come?" Normally he wouldn't even have to ask, but since this was his new experimental cookie recipe he wasn't sure whether Nora would feel the same desperate need to secure an armful of cookies for herself before Ruby descended upon them.
"Ooh!" Nora was up by the end of the word 'cookies' and promptly attached herself to Ren's sleeve, bouncing up and down all the way to the door and leaving the slightly crumpled envelope forgotten on the covers between Yang and Blake.
Blake's Faunus ears twitched towards the light crinkling of paper. There was no stopping the inevitable - she arched a brow at the envelope and picked it up, a flash of anxiety from the sketchy wilted rose quickly replaced by a curious smile directed at her surrounding teammates. "What's the occasion?"
Weiss had clapped a hand to her forehead. So much for her cover. Not that she wasn't going to give Blake the envelope anyway. She at least tried to keep her voice down so whoever wasn't paying attention to them could just keep not paying attention. "I found it outside our door."
Blake stared hard at the letter trying to fight back a creeping panic. It had to be coincidence how much that wilting rose looked like...
"Aw c'mon you can read it later, you're missing the big fight!" Yang nudged Blake's leg with her foot.
"Right." Blake pocketed the envelope and offered Weiss a small smile. She could still feel one of the corners of the letter poking her in the leg.
They settled in for the rest of the train-wreck-in-movie's-clothing, Blake suppressing her panic and Weiss racking her brain for a way to break the news.
Hey guys, there's a murderer after me again. That seemed too abrupt.
Remember that time I almost died? Mm, better that zero people had that regrettable episode in mind. They might be so worried that she wouldn't have a moment's peace for the rest of the year.
Did you know we have a set of holding cells here at Beacon? Actually, that made sense. Atlas Academy policed its own too- you couldn't exactly call in regular officers to subdue a huntress.
The sudden 'click' of Ruby switching off the game station snapped her out of her thoughts, and she shielded her eyes from the Dust lamp Jaune turned on. The movie was over. The credits must already have rolled.
"Okay, rankings," Ruby pointed both index fingers to Yang. "Go!"
"Solid eight!" Yang barely managed to keep hold of her eerily green chocolate chip cookie as she held up eight fingers. "Had to dock two points because I was promised lasers and there were none," she threw a pointed look at Pyrrha who crossed her arms, looking bashful.
"I may have confused this one with Robogrimm 3, The Revenge..."
"Ah well, Weiss! Go!" Yang pointed at the ex-heiress, signalling she had been chosen as the next in line to rank the film.
Weiss straightened, hesitating. All eyes were on her. Would there be a better time? Probably yes, but she might as well get it over with.
"Neo broke out of jail during last night's attack. Goodwitch told me this afternoon." She shifted, hating to ruin the mood. Lifting her chin a centimeter or so in the beat of silence that followed, she added, "Also two, but that's probably high. I wasn't actually paying attention."
In the second beat of silence that followed, Yang finally picked her jaw up off the floor. "Neo? Jail? Beacon has a jail?"
"Is that the vault Oobleck needed Nora to cut the power to?" Ren's brows furrowed, his hand coming to rest on Nora's shoulder.
"Could be," Pyrrha had already squared her posture, ready for battle, "Haven had something like that - holding cells for hunstmen that had gone rogue-"
"Ok but like - ok so if it's Neo," Yang cracked her knuckles, "where's Velvet?"
"Goodwitch didn't see the need to call her," Blake answered, taking hold of Weiss's hand. "She's that confident in Weiss's training."
"Of course she is," Weiss said with a slight toss of her hair, showy, but also businesslike. An excellent combination to hide both her nerves and the pleasant feeling she got hearing Blake talk her up. "I just thought it would be best if you were aware of the situation in advance."
Ruby had gone for Crescent Rose in the middle of everyone's reactions.
"Don't worry, Weiss," she chambered a round for dramatic effect, "no one messes with team RWBY."
"Or JNPR," Jaune looked to his teammates to make sure they were on board. "Or, uh, friends of team JNPR. Because technically Weiss isn't on the team."
Pyrrha and Ren nodded in solidarity, but Nora was rubbing her chin, "Well, they could have a jail and a secret vault full of the cafeteria's secret recipes."
Clearly she'd been pondering 'the vault' for some time. Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose with the thumb and forefinger of her free hand.
Blake couldn't help the small smile that pulled at her lips as the conversation spiraled into increasingly outlandish speculation over what could be down in Beacon's vault. Gambol Shroud remained a heavy weight on her back, but Weiss's hand was warm in hers, and the promise of safety in numbers eased at least a little of the tension lingering in Blake's shoulders. Between Adam and now Neo too, she would probably never truly shake the paranoia that lurked in the back of her mind, but at least now she had an extra six pairs of eyes and ears on alert to help keep it at bay.
All in all, everyone took the news remarkably well. Probably it had something to do with the constant threats on their lives via the Grimm- choosing to become Huntsmen and Huntresses did entail a certain tolerance of mortal danger. It did not entail a tolerance of people standing guard in the shower.
"If I die, avenge me, but stay. Out." Weiss snarled, a fraction shy of brandishing her rapier in the bathroom doorway, her one arm full with a clean towel and her pajamas.
"Roger that," Yang saluted, throwing an arm out across Blake, as if to block her path.
One of Blake's ears flattened, but she nodded in agreement as well.
Ruby was busy hauling her cardboard box of ammunition and parts/junk out from under Weiss's bed, so Weiss relaxed her stance and stepped into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. A moment later, the shower was running and all seemed calm.
"Okay, guys, I've got a great idea," Ruby thunked the box down on the bookcase and brushed her bangs out of her face with her forearm. The box contained her stash of standard ammunition all neatly stacked against one side, and a big tangle of different sized pieces of metal. Some were the same candy apple red as Crescent Rose, others were black or covered in grease, or just plain metal. She dug out a rectangular tupperware with no lid that seemed to be full of pieces of an old VCR and a small black remote. She held them up proudly, "Ta-da! I call it the Hyper Motion Sensor Alarm System 5000."
Blake and Yang both perked up, looking at Ruby's newest invention with clear interest, though Blake's was tinged with confusion. "This is... a motion sensor?"
"This isn't gonna be like that Cookie Thief Alarm System 3000 that left dad half-deaf for like a week, is it?" Yang playfully nudged Ruby's side.
Ruby held the tupperware slightly further away from Yang, "As in 'will this be more successful than that already very successful prototype thank-you-very-much'?" Clearing her throat, she explained to Blake, "It's actually a lot of motion sensors. If we set them up around the room, they should alert us if anyone comes in."
"What kind of alert?" Blake's ears flattened in anticipation.
Ruby was already hopping from one spot to another, sticking components to the bookshelf, the window frame, Yang's lamp, Weiss's dresser. She stopped at Blake's question and glanced a little apprehensively at her sister, tugging at her collar as she did. "Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing this, but also I thought it would be super cool and you've been busy, so."
She turned to her bunk and hit a button on the remote, and from the foot of her bed an object at the end of a spring-loaded arm flung off a bunch of balled up blankets to reveal the rocket engine Yang had picked up from the thrift shop a few days back. It swiveled towards Yang and Blake, its single turbine spinning fast and making a sound like it was about to launch directly at them.
Blake started, inching back from the growling engine with a combative stare and flattened ears.
"So that's where that went!" Yang's hands found her hips, "You know, I was looking all over for that thing yesterday. Started to think I'd hallucinated buying it - how did you even get into my- you know what of course you got into my locker, you probably know my passcodes better than me by now," she grinned, seemingly unperturbed by the unconventional invention aiming straight for them, "I should have known you would borrow it if I left it lying around too long."
"What um..." Blake didn't even know how to finish her question.
"Oh," Ruby fumbled the remote and its disconcertingly large number of buttons (disconcerting mostly because the rocket engine was aimed right at them). Fortunately, all she wound up doing was powering it down. She shrugged both of her shoulders up to her ears and gave Blake a sheepish grin, "That's it. The alarm I mean. It doesn't shoot or anything- it's just loud, so we'll wake up if anything happens at night."
Yang patted the rocket engine like she was patting a dog. "Well at least this little guy's going to good use."
It certainly looked far less menacing while dormant, giving Blake room to relax a little, her ears lifting once more in curiosity. This was a pretty cool invention... but they'd only just learned about Neo's escape today. Not even Ruby was that fast. "When did you make this?"
"I started a while ago," Ruby grimaced and looked around, maybe for a calendar. "After we kept watch last time Neo was around? We didn't really wind up training with Velvet, and after Weiss kept coming back wiped out from working with Professor Goodwitch I figured this would be easier. Aaaaaaaaaaaand then Yang got a convenient rocket." Ruby gave the engine an upward shove and the arm supporting it, which was made of a complicated looking series of springs and hinges, folded back up, causing the engine itself to wind up back up at the foot of her now-blanket-less mattress. She waved at the arm and engine, as if to dismiss it, "The sensors were the hard part. Anyway, cool, right?"
"Very cool." Blake agreed, her smile filled with gratitude.
The sound of a scroll buzzing pulled Blake's attention from Ruby.
Yang pulled out the offending scroll, opened it up, and laughed. "Pyrrha wants to know why Bumblebee is in our room."
Blake squinted at the small red insignia emblazoned on the scroll in Yang's hand, "That's..."
"Oh, Pyrrha and I traded scrolls so they could use mine to get in here to help us on the fly if we need it," Yang somehow seemed to feel Blake's questioning gaze, even as she was busy firing off a response.
Ruby glommed onto Yang, her red cloak askew as she read over her shoulder, "Tell her the sound was my alarm so she can come if she hears it!"
"Better warn Weiss too, so she doesn't think she's about to get run over in her sleep," Yang snickered.
"Pfft, we'll warn her," Ruby waved the comment off as she abandoned Yang in favor of getting ready for bed.
Approximately five hours later, after another round of 'do we really need anyone on watch?' and a final decision served by both Weiss, who was unconvinced the little terror would even show her face at the school again, and Ruby, who was confident in her security system- after all that, the lights were out except for the small green display from the clock next to Weiss's bed showing 2:15 in the morning. The team slept. At least most of the team.
Without warning, the engine catapulted on its arm from the end of Ruby's bed, revving like it might launch the entire school off the face of the planet.
Weiss bolted up with a shriek loud enough to combat the noise, clinging to Blake in a tangle of blankets with one arm and flailing for her sword with the other.
The Blake in Weiss's arms vanished in a shadowy puff of smoke as a far more solid but no less sleepy Blake rolled to her feet from her graceless spill from the bed to the floor, Gambol Shroud already shifting to its pistol form in her grip, bleary amber eyes darting around the room.
Her gaze wound up fixed on Ruby, who was desperately trying to shush the rocket engine.
"Sorry," she hissed, fumbling the remote in one hand and a Beacon mug in the other. "I was just getting water."
"Ruby Rose," Weiss's voice didn't lose any volume, even as the engine powered down. She thrust her sword back into its place next to the dresser and spat to get her hair out of her face. "I could have seriously hurt you!"
Blake sighed and let Gambol Shroud drop to her side, but then immediately jumped a second time when the dorm door flew open to reveal the entirety of team JNPR armed and ready.
"We heard the-... alarm?" At the head of the pack, Pyrrha lowered her rifle.
"You're lucky you're holding water right now because otherwise this pillow would so be headed straight for your face." Yang groused, still half-asleep as she flopped back down from her ready-to-pounce-from-above-and-destroy position.
Ruby gave a sheepish laugh and righted her mug so Yang couldn't see that she hadn't actually gotten the water yet.
Nora read the room and saw there was no fight to be had. Her shoulders slumped as she lowered Magnhild, "Aw, man."
"Honestly," Weiss straightened the covers after they'd gotten the situation sorted out. Jaune had been relieved that it didn't matter that he'd only gotten one shoe on between JNPR's room and RWBY's. Nora had been extremely disappointed not to get another crack at the teleporter, but had been content enough to head back to JNPR's room. Now all was quiet, Ruby had gotten her water and reset the alarm once everyone was back in bed. The new rule, immediately established by Weiss, was that you had to wake everyone up before getting out of bed and triggering the alarm. Either that or just suffer till morning.
Irritable and sleepy enough to skip her usual 'is this amount of personal contact okay' crisis, Weiss shifted close to Blake to properly be able to take advantage of how warm she was again so they could be comfortably asleep as soon as possible. In doing so, she accidentally bumped Blake's leg right where she'd been injured the previous night.
Already half asleep, Blake winced in surprise pain, waking right back up. Even though clean stab wounds to large muscles were one of the easier injuries for aura to handle, the nurses warned her that the area would still smart for the next day or so. She'd mostly forgotten their warning though... until just now.
Weiss drew back with a start, cranking her crisis knob up to max because maybe Blake didn't want to be so close. She whispered so the others might not hear. "Did you want to- we don't have to. That's fine."
"Oh- no- it's fine it's just- my leg," Blake managed a hastily whispered reply. She followed Weiss's retreat, burying her face in the crook of her neck to keep any warmth from escaping.
Weiss had her arms up as an ineffective barrier between herself and Blake, and now they were sort of pinned in the warm space between the two of them.
"Oh." She managed, shifting more carefully under the covers this time as she recalled that Blake had gotten stabbed in the leg the previous evening. She flushed at how Blake's hair tickled at the edge of her jaw, "Are you- I didn't mean to."
Blake shook her head, trying not to think about her leg, or the previous night, or even earlier that day. She just needed sleep. Time for everything to sink in. "It's okay." She wasn't sure whether she was trying to convince Weiss or herself. Adam, Neo, and by proxy probably Torchwick - every possible threat seemed to be gunning for them... but that only posed a problem if she didn't gun them down first.
Circling both arms loosely around Weiss's middle, Blake drew in a deep breath and smiled. "Lucky for me, you don't kick in your sleep."
Weiss wasn't sure what to do with her hands exactly in this position, and she didn't have the right words to say back. So she halfway curled her fingers into the fabric of Blake's yukata in a gentle cling and tried to think of what she could say that would adequately communicate the mix of emotions she held all seized up in her chest. She just... loved Blake. But 'I love you' wouldn't tell her that she would rather let Neo skewer her a second time than see Blake get injured again. It wouldn't explain the guilt she felt for talking Blake into going out when clearly she hadn't been capable of protecting her. She wanted to be capable. She wanted to be able to say that anyone coming for Blake would have to get through her- she wanted to say it and have it mean something, and not just wind up in a stupid net and have to get rescued by her professor.
And it would mean something. Tomorrow classes resumed, as did her training with Professor Goodwitch. She would use whatever time she got to her advantage.
It was too late for a verbal response to Blake's joke, but she did nuzzle in just a little. A tentative gesture, in case Blake had fallen asleep already.
Vale's industrial district had seen better days. Sure, the factories still ran- they did a lot of shipping work. Parts for repairing seafaring vessels or cars, a couple refineries here and there for some of the iron ore eked out of the mines in the mountains to the east, but most of the world's manufacturing was done by big shots in Atlas nowadays probably, and most of the jobs were based who knew where. And who cared, as long as it meant these great big rusting-out old warehouses were left unsecured and unguarded?
Neo certainly didn't. She lounged on the ragged but relatively clean couch Cinder's lackeys had dragged in some time ago. Both of them, the gray haired one and his illusionist friend sat on a pair of far inferior crates, glaring at her. Neo opened and closed her pink and cream lace parasol idly, waiting for them to decide whether it was worth it to try to make her stop hogging the entire couch. It was a big couch. She certainly didn't need all the space. She twirled the parasol, taking it all up anyway as she side eyed the pair smugly, a pair of slim but very interesting cuffs at her belt.
Emerald ground her teeth together, shifting her glare over to Neo's equally infuriating partner, who was currently bent over a map of Vale spread out over the one proper desk in the entire warehouse. "Remind me again why we couldn't just leave her there?"
Torchwick waved a hand, not even glancing up from whatever back-alley routes he was tracing through the city. "What, you're not delighted to have the single most amazing member of your little school-team back?"
"That would be Cinder," Emerald muttered to herself.
"Yeah, right," Mercury rolled to his feet and motioned to himself, "The most amazing member is right here."
Despite the bravado, his voice came out all congested. He dug in his pocket for a wadded up paper towel and blew his nose wetly.
"The most amazing at catching a cold maybe," Emerald rolled her eyes and moved away from her germ-factory of a partner to sit on a crate closer to Torchwick's desk.
"Eugh, really now, a cold?" Torchwick immediately abandoned his map and put some distance between himself and Mercury, leaning against the armrest of the couch Neo had claimed. "This is exactly why I don't work with children."
"Ha ha," Mercury examined the color of the mucous he'd blown into the now damp paper towel and balled it back up, cramming it into his pocket and nodding to Neo, "Like she isn't what? Twelve?"
Neo had balanced her open parasol against the back of the couch to cup both hands into a heart sign towards Roman for his earlier comment, but hearing Mercury she stopped and propped herself up on one elbow to face him, fingers splayed over her heart in mock offense.
Torchwick leveled a look of disdain at the congested boy, but before he could retort with something snappy, two people who he liked even less than Cinder's school-kid lackeys arrived on the scene.
Adam Taurus, flanked by his massive shadow Cerise, stalked towards their little circle of fluorescent lighting from the darkened back end of the warehouse.
Emerald squinted at them, always wary but probably not as afraid of the pair as she should have been. "Where's Cinder?"
"She had more important things to do, apparently," Adam sneered. "Not that it matters." He stopped, arms crossing as he shifted his focus between Emerald and Neo and back again. "Because you two are the ones I want to talk to."
A/N: I'm sure everything will be fine.
Stay tuned, folks!
- Fiercesomest
