"He's been in and out of consciousness, but he's on the upswing, I promise you. All he needs is rest and some more monitoring, but he'll be just fine."

"T-thank you."

"I want you to know I've seen a lot of Huntsman pass through here in my time, miss. I've never seen one your age have injuries like this. He's a true fighter."

"I know."

"What you do is a blessing for us regular folk, but your work is dangerous. He'll survive, but those scars will remain."

"I… I know."

"Better to live and learn than the alternative. The older Huntsman I've seen thought they'd seen it all and got careless. He won't. You won't either."

"Thank you."

"Now, just press the button if you need me for something. Otherwise, I'll leave you two alone."

Blake watched the nurse leave the room. She looked back to see her mistake lying in a hospital bed. Briar, the one she had failed, was strapped to several machines monitoring his vitals. The thing that kept her calm was that they were stable. Briar was okay. Her mistake didn't cost him his life.

She couldn't have known.

She couldn't have predicted what was in that cave.

She had no way to prevent getting tripped up.

She couldn't blame herself for getting her friend hurt.

But it was her fault.

Blake stared at Briar and his unconscious face. Were it not for the several objects taking his pulse, he'd look like he was sleeping. She wished he was. She wished she could. It was late in the day, seeing as last night's inability to sleep made her pass out for most of the morning. Yang had roused her just enough to make it to her bed before she collapsed, so she had technically earned some rest. Now, though, by Briar's side, she finally felt some form of actual calm. Yang had disguised it last night, but seeing him alive and breathing lifted at least one of the many weights off of her.

Blake wished she could do something. As calming as the feeling sitting beside an okay Briar was, she was incapable of doing anything but sit there and wait. It was selfish, but she wanted him to wake up. If not to be alive, then to be someone to talk to. She wanted to hear his voice. Really, she didn't want it to be so quiet.

The rest of RWBY had decided to give Blake some private time to see Briar by herself. She was thankful for that. She needed that time. But now, she could do nothing but sit and wait and pine.

Blake was in love. Of course she was. Briar was a Faunus. He understood her better than anyone else. He understood why she hid her ears because he hid his. Their struggle was unique. He was willing to stand up to a group of racists assaulting a little girl and not care about the consequences.

And he had saved her.

Blake was already interested in Briar. She had been. He was cute and funny and kind, even ignoring the Faunus aspect. And then, he protected her. Blake knew it was stupid of her to fall for him completely just because of that. That was what Huntsman did. They fought Grimm and saved people. Even if Briar saved her specifically, he would have done it for anyone else. Pushed that far, she knew he would have awoken his Semblance and saved whatever person had fallen from the top of that cave.

But he saved her.

And, as much as she hated it, she wanted to believe in fairy tales.

She wanted to believe in fairy tales so, so much.

She'd run away from one already. What she thought was one, at least.

She had thought Adam was a hero in the making. An icon that would become a legend, a story to be passed down like the Grimm Reaper or the Maidens. Instead, he was the wolf who came for the boy. The cursed rose. The beast.

Blake didn't want to be in love. Not again. Not when she had only just ran away from her story.

But she sat in a hospital room, getting swept up in another damn series of pages. Her only comfort was that judging from the fact that Briar was alive, this story would have a happier ending. He'd wake up, they'd fall in love, and the book would close.

But that wasn't how life worked. Blake wanted Briar to wake up. She didn't want the story to end, she wanted to continue writing the pages with his hand beside her. Even if she was just being a stupid little girl in love with a boy that saved her, she wanted the story to start already. If it ended in heartbreak, that'd be fine. Blake was still young and she'd find love again if she and Briar weren't meant to be, but this wasn't that story. That chapter would come later, if at all.

Blake put her hand on Briar's hand as it lay motionless beside him. Suddenly, everything in her body calmed down as she felt the warmth in his hand. Seeing him before her like this wasn't enough, but feeling the pulse in his veins let her know that Briar was alive. Her heart opened, the lock weighing it down suddenly falling off. She hated being in love after one cliche, but this feeling was so… so… beautiful. Blake felt longing. She knew that were he awake, Briar would take hold of her hand and squeeze it and tell her that things were going to be okay.

Blake rubbed circled her thumb around Briar's hand. She really hoped he could feel it. That was about all she could do right now. That and sit and pine for someone right in front of her.

Hearing a familiar sound of three different sets of footsteps, Blake jumped. Before she could stop herself, she grabbed Briar's hand and held it up to her face. Touching her cheek to it, she said, "Please wake up soon." Placing his hand back down, Blake welcomed the rest of RWBY as they entered the hospital room. She was very glad her Faunus ears allowed her to hear her team coming, otherwise, she'd had to explain her infatuated behavior. It also occurred to her that they still didn't know. Briar was the only one that knew she was a Faunus. He was the only one at Beacon allowed into her world of secrets.

"So it looks like the strip routine I suggested didn't wake him up?" Yang says, throwing on a wide smile.

Thankful for Yang's sunshine, Blake rolls her eyes. She was glad she had Yang as a partner. Last night/morning proved that she knew how to take care of people in bad places. She could walk in the room and brighten the mood with a bad joke. Now equipped with the ability to smile, Blake says, "Sadly no. I played music and everything."

"Dang. Bet it was hot."

"I wore a lacy bra and everything. Not even a peep."

"Better hope nobody was peeping~"

"is this really the time for dumb jokes yang" Ruby says, lazily hanging her arms.

Weiss frowns and rolls her eyes in a much less enthusiastic manner than Blake. "I swear, Yang, you know just how to ruin a mood."

"I disagree," Blake says, smiling. "My mood has been ruined for too long. I need more dumb jokes in my life right now."

Yang pumps her fist and looks over to Briar's sleeping form. "So what's the actual story?"

"He's stable. The nurse said he just needs some rest and he'll wake up."

"Anything else?"

"Aside from… the scars… he'll be just fine. He won't save any more damsels in distress for a while, but he'll be okay."

"Told you he'd make it through."

"I'm glad he will."

RWBY spent their time watching over Briar, each ensuring for themselves that he was okay. After several minutes of quiet chatter to lighten the mood, Yang said, "I think it's best we leave him be for a while. And Blake, I promised to take you out for some tea."

"I think that sounds great right now." Blake puts her hand on Briar's again and squeezed. "We'll be back. I promise." Hesitating for a moment, she stood up and nodded to her team. RWBY walked out of the hospital and back into the world.

"Weiss, Ruby, you two head home or whatever you want. We'll be back before too long."

"Understood."

"Okay!"

Ruby and Weiss ran off to go catch the next airbus to Beacon. Yang lets Blake slowly walk her towards a nearby tea shop. The trip takes a minute, as neither girl had slept so much as passed out. Together, they ordered something caffeinated and several items of comfort food. The pair sat down in a cozy, warm space that did well to alleviate some of the harshnesses of their conditions.

Blake plucked a mini cupcake off of a tiny plate before her and placed it into her mouth. Another thing she was annoyed by was that, much like the cliche of girls falling for their saviors, sweets immediately made things better. Still, comfort was something she desperately craved, so she quickly wolfed down several more delicious sweets before washing it down with tea. The chocolate-flavored cure-alls further soothed her aching body and mind, compounding with the knowledge that Briar was safe and on the way to recovery. She fell back in a cushy chair and sipped her tea.

"Feeling better?" Yang asks, nursing an iced coffee.

Blake let out a long breath and nodded her head. "Much. Last night was… a lot."

"I told you it'd work out. He'll be fine, and then you can go ahead and bring HIM along next time instead of me."

Blake immediately got annoyed with herself again. Quite possibly one of the most cliche things in the book was a coffee date. She wanted to be a little creative… but she really liked coffee and tea, plus the coziness of this particular place was doing wonders for her mental health. With a sigh, she relented, "That sounds like it would be nice." Blake was done. She liked cliches and she needed to just accept that. By definition, they were the tried and true with the best results.

"*Would* be? Not *will* be?" Yang teases, with a wide smile. "Don't tell me you're gonna chicken out after all this! You spent all night pining over a, 'maybe'? Come on, girl!"

Blake tries to frown, but Yang once again infects her with her shine. "You know what I mean. It's still going to be strange between us for a while. I need to let things play out how they play out."

"Hmm…" Yang sips her coffee and tosses a cupcake in her mouth. "I… don't suppose you would want to bring me along… Or would that make it weirder? I dunno."

"I just… have to see what happens. I feel like a lovestruck schoolgirl–"

"–Which you are, don't forget."

Blake manages to frown. "And I don't want to be. I know I'm better than that."

"Nah. We're all lovestruck trash at some point. Though now you've got me thinking about you in a schoolgirl outfit. A proper one, not our boring Beacon uniforms; I'm talking short skirt, tight shirt, cute little ascot... Add that on to the list underneath sexy nurse."

"Yang, I am NOT going to play dress up for him, even if… even if things go that way. I have some pride, you know."

"But you'd look cute with pigtails!"

"We were having a serious conversation about my feelings. How did we ruin it?"

"Adding on to an idea board of fun stuff to get up to once you're together is not ruining it. You can go get coffee together and then get all dolled up in a cute skirt! He'll love it."

Blake pouts as she eats another cupcake, though her lips quickly curl into a small smile as she lets out a long-held breath.

"That sounds like it will be nice."