A/N:

Hi Friends!

Here is the 10th Chapter of RWBY: The Selection. Once again, please review with any questions/comments/concerns/all that jazz.

This is the part where I would normally say 'enjoy', but Adam's in this chapter, so... -.-

Chapter 10: Blake

The display of the Capital Report was always fuzzy in the White Fang barracks. Summer was beginning to sweep into Vale, and the heat from the campfire made it even worse. Although she grew up on the desert island of Menagerie and should've been used to the heat, Blake could feel the sweat building on her brow as she watched Peter Port and Bartholomew Oobleck announce the contestants of the Selection.

She watched it on Adam's scroll, in Adam's tent, with his free hand wrapped around her, tracing little circles onto her bare arm. The rest of the White Fang was surely following on the report their scrolls, she assumed, but Adam had wanted to watch it with her. He wanted to be there for her if she wasn't selected, and he wanted to ensure that she didn't make a run for it if she was.

Blake had a habit of running away. A few months ago, she and Adam had attacked a Schnee Dust Company cargo train, and she had thought that was her chance. She'd tried to hop onto the moving train, with hopes of leaving the White Fang, leaving him, and starting over.

Adam hadn't let that happen. He had attacked her, pulled her off the train, forced her to the ground, and then, when they returned to the camp, he had nursed her back to health and made it clear just how much her attempt to leave had hurt him. Did she not care about their mission? Did she not care about Faunus at all? Did she not care about him? Was she going to abandon the cause, just like her parents?

Blake had cried nonstop when he'd interrogated her about it, and her eyes stung even now as she remembered it. Sensing her tears, Adam nuzzled her neck, pulling her closer as their reception got better as Port and Oobleck moved from Threes to Fours. Of course she cared about him.

"Sienna wants to meet with the leaders of each branch and the selected, to go through further plans," Adam murmured in her ear. Blake nodded, staring wordlessly at the screen, where Port and Oobleck talked over a picture of a winking girl with long golden locks and a carefree smile. "So if you aren't chosen, I'll have to go to Menagerie for a few days."

"Can I come with you?" Blake asked quietly. Her parents lived in Menagerie, and even though they had abandoned the White Fang a few years back, she ached to see them again.

Adam shook his head. "No need. If you're chosen, I'll have Sienna come out to Vale."

Blake nodded solemnly. Adam didn't trust her to return to him if she had the chance to go back home. She hardly trusted herself.

"Lady Velvet Scarlatina of Vale. Seven."

"Faunus," Blake whispered.

Adam sneered. "Did you notice how he hesitated with the 'lady'?"

"Lady Ilia Amitola of Vale. Eight."

Blake's heart soared as a blurry picture of Ilia's face came onto Adam's scroll. Ilia Amitola was a chameleon faunus, and was the closest thing Blake had to a best friend. Both in the White Fang, the two girls shared similar values of justice and civil rights. They had had many late-night conversations together over the years, but, when Blake had grown closer to Adam, she had drifted away from her other friends. Now, she hardly saw Ilia anymore, but it seemed that she would be Blake's saving grace. What were the odds that both eights chosen for the Selection would be from the same kingdom, from the same branch of the White Fang? Blake let out a little sigh of relief, until the next announcement from Adam's scroll caused her to inhale sharply once more.

"And finally, last but not least, Lady Blake Belladonna of Vale. Eight."

Port and Oobleck continued spouting logistics and announcements, but Blake was hardly listening. Her world was spinning, crashing, burning down, and she lost all contact with reality. She was vaguely aware of how Adam's grip around her tightened when he heard her name. The little circles had stopped.

"Adam," she whispered breathlessly. She felt like she was going to faint.

"I'll contact Sienna." He stood up, leaving her on the floor. Blake panicked. He couldn't leave her on the floor. He couldn't leave her like this. He couldn't… what if, if she went to the Selection… what if he left her? He'd been so upset when she'd left him, what if it was the same if he left her? Or what if, by being selected, she had somehow left him again, without even meaning to? Oh, gods, what if she had hurt him?

"Adam, wait," Blake protested. "I think we should talk about this, about what being a member of the Selection means,"

Adam dialed Sienna's number into his scroll. "That's what I'm doing," he snapped.

"No, not about what this means for the White Fang," Blake's chin trembled, "about what this means for… us."

He stopped. Sienna's voice was distant on the other end, and he hung up on her. Adam slammed his scroll on the table, making Blake jump, and then gently, he crouched to the floor beside her. "My love," he said softly, "'us' isn't something you need to worry about. I'll always be here. You'd have to run, far and fast, for me to ever let you go." She looked away in guilt, her past sins hanging over her head like the blade of a guillotine. After letting his words sink in, Adam whispered, "You're not going to the palace to fall in love with Jaune Arc,"

"I know,"

"But our plans only work if you get him to fall in love with you." She couldn't see past his mask, but she felt his stare on her. "Whatever it takes,"

Blake froze. "Whatever it takes? Adam-"

"Don't worry," Adam coaxed. "Whatever physical… connection happens between you two, I won't be mad." Blake swallowed. He certainly sounded mad. His words weren't loud, or harsh, but there was something in his tone that made her feel like she was walking on thin ice. Adam brushed a strand of hair out of her face and chuckled softly. "It'll only make it that much more satisfying when we kill him."