On the outskirts of Vale
It hadn't been a planned stop here at Forrester's Inn, but the gray skies and impending rain had sent Blake Belladonna seeking a reprieve. The black-haired girl was nursing a cup of hot tea in the corner of the main hall, watching out the window as the few people still on the streets began scattering as the rain picked up. While it was bothersome to be delayed in getting out of Vale like this, there was something oddly soothing about the rain, at least as long as she wasn't actually getting drenched. I suppose I wasn't going to be finding a boat out for a few days anyways, she mused to herself. She pulled out the book she bought after leaving ; after the disaster at beacon, she hadn't had time to recover her old ones. She was vaguely aware that someone entered the inn by the tingling of the bell. Light steps became just perceptibly louder as they creaked on the polished wooden floor, causing Blake to raise her eyes from the pages of her book. The blonde, youthful faunus standing in front of her caused her golden eyes to narrow.
"Boy, you're a tough one to track down, Miss Belladonna," the boy said with a cheerful grin on his face as he sauntered up. "But hey, you know what they say, you can't hide from the Sun," he finished with a wink. Blake closed her eyes and sighed at Sun Wukong's humor. She didn't realize her mistake until she opened her eyes and Sun had already clambered onto the chair opposite her at the table.
"Sun, what are you doing here?" she asked bluntly. "If I'm not trying to get tracked down it's for a reason. So, why?"
"Oh, I think the better question," Sun began with a twirl of his finger as he began helping himself to a cup of tea by pouring it with his tail. "Why are you here? You know, instead of with your friends and teammates. They're in pretty bad shape, ya know."
"They're strong," Blake responded, tilting her gaze away from Sun's and out the window again. "They'll survive. And besides, it'll be easier if I'm not there. Simple as that."
"Oh? Strong? You know Weiss is in emergency care, right? Crushed esophagus, or something to that effect? Or had you already bailed at that point?" Sun asked, his cheerful tone betraying the sting in his words as he stirred some sugar into his tea. Blake's eyes shifted back to him for just a moment.
"Look-"
"Or, you know, there was the bit about how Yang got her arm chopped off and she nearly bled out on the campus," Sun continued, taking a sip of his tea. "Huh, not bad."
"You added five teaspoons of sugar to it," Blake noted.
"Is that a lot?" He asked with a raised brow.
"Just a bit."
"Right, so, yeah, whatcha doing all the way out here? Don't care about'em anymore? I find that a little hard to believe."
Blake narrowed her eyes at him again. "I do care, it's just… they're safer without me. And I want to get away from this. I need to get away from him. If I stick around, it'll just draw everyone into my past, just like what happened with Yang."
"Him, being the guy that hurt you and Yang, I take it." Blake nodded. "Mind telling me about the guy?"
"Yes. I do."
"Aww, come on. I gotta know who my competition is," Sun said with a grin that disappeared when Blake shot daggers back him. "Okay, fine," he relented, holding his hands up in surrender. "But still, did you ask them about it? Maaaaaybe, I don't know, get some input from them?"
"It's not their choice to make!" Blake shot back with a hint of aggression. "It's my past, and it'll get them killed."
"So because you've got some stuff in your past that you're not proud of, scared of, whatever, you're going to just vanish from your teammates? You can tell yourself that they're strong and they don't need you, and you'd be only half-right. They are strong, your team was awesome. But they do need you Blake, at least right now."
"What would you even know about having a past like that, Sun?" Blake shot back. "Mr. Sunshine wants to lecture me about letting go of my past, that's rich."
"Oh, that's where we're going, eh?" Sun's visage darkened noticeably as he opted to pour himself another cup of tea and began swirling some sugar in it. "Not gonna lie, that was a bit of a stinger I hadn't thought I'd hear from you of all people, Blake. What, you thought I lived a life of sunshine and rainbows in Vacuo so I decided to stow away on a ship just for fun to attend here?" Blake's eyes softened as she realized a line had been crossed.
"I suppose I never mentioned my parents or sister, did I?" Sun asked with a sigh. "I guess it's not fair for me to ask about your past if I won't mention mine. Mom and Dad were smiths. Made all kinds of stuff, horse shoes, nails, doors, you name it. Occasionally they'd make a weapon for a special order or something. But business wasn't great because a lot of humans wouldn't buy from them, convinced it was cheap or badly made. Eventually things kinda boiled over in the neighborhood, and when a faunus died in the hospital from a beating, a resistance group kinda just sprang up. Called themselves the Faunus Defense Group, but it was pretty much just a local group from the nearby neighborhoods. Wasn't too hard to convince mom and dad to start making weapons for them. Mikado was right on board too, probably helped convince them."
Sun paused to drain his second cup of tea. "Well, you know how things go down when the White Fang went violent. FDG started going after humans, first richer people, then shopkeepers. But eventually the whole thing just blew up. Full on riot. Mom and dad knew how to make weapons, but they weren't fighters. Didn't stop them from marching right up onto the frontlines. And then, bang" he motioned with his hand with a gunshot motion. "Bang. That was the last I saw them. Mikado was… well, I don't think I've ever seen anyone as angry as she was. Not even Yang. I mean, I was mad too, but it was mostly a lot of sadness too. The whole thing was dumb, everyone got so hung up on whose fault one something was, so they'd retaliate and then it just kept building on itself. People were so hung up on guilt and fault that they couldn't see what they were doing was destroying everything. That's what I got out of it, anyways. 'S why I never went into the White Fang, by the time I was old enough to be doing anything like that, they were just as bad as the FDG was."
"So where's your sister?" Blake asked.
"No idea. Haven't seen her in ages. She's a couple years older than me, and when Mom and Dad passed, she… well, she wanted to do something pretty different than me. 'S why I left. Wasn't much for me there."
"So how can you criticize me for leaving?" Blake asked. "You just upped and left too!"
"I left," Sun shot back with a more pointed gaze than she was used to. "Because I didn't have anything left. My house was in ruins, the only thing I had left at that point were the clothes on my back and Ruyi and Jingu," he said, patting the collapsed staff on the belt of his jeans. "Yeah, we lost the school. But you still have Ruby and Yang and Weiss and everyone else who made it out. They've been with you this whole time. Remember the last time you ran off?"
Blake returned her eyes to the window.
"Remember how they got really mad and never let you back into the school and held a grudge against you forever and kicked you out of the cool kids club? Oh wait, no, they were upset because you ran off and didn't tell anyone what was going on. Like. Right. Now." He pointed a finger to the table for emphasis. "And once you got back to your senses, you guys got everything patched right back up. I mean, I can't guarantee it'll go over that smoothly again, Yang was pretty pissed. But that's her thing."
"Look, thanks for telling me all that, Sun," Blake said with her eyes down at the table. "Really. And, uh, I'm sorry about what I said."
"Apology accepted!" Sun responded, his cheerful façade back.
"But it's still not right for me to endanger them like this. Adam's probably still in the area looking for me. I can't put them in that danger. And I… well I'd like to go home."
"Alright. Hey, it's all up to you, still. I'm not gonna drag you kicking and screaming through the mud back to the hospital, as fun as that might be," he said with a wink. Blake sighed and rolled her eyes. "But seriously, you should at least visit. Let them know what's up. After that, you wanna go home, I'll smuggle you on the nearest ship myself."
Blake stared wistfully out the window as thunder cracked to the beating drum of rain on the window.
"Okay," she said with a sigh. "Fine. You're…. right."
"Wahoo! Sun Wukong is right for once! Woooooooo!" Sun proclaimed loudly while standing up from his seat, causing a number of curious folk to stare at the faunus. "Ah, eheh, never mind me, nothing to see here…" he said as he drifted back into his seat in front of Blake, who rolled her eyes and planted her face on the table. "Sorry, sugar rush."
Vale Central Hospital
"Hey everyone, look who I found!" Blake was standing beside him out of sight, fiddling with the bow in her hands. Not much point in this anymore, I suppose, she thought to herself, her ears twitching on top of her head instinctively at being out in the open. She was about to tuck it away when she was yanked on the arm by Sun's tail and spun into the room, twirling to a stop in front of her teammates.
"Blake!" Ruby jumped from her position and engulfed the faunus in a bear hug, swinging around her with the momentum. "Blake we were so worried about you! With everything happening and then you-"
"Hey, little sis," Yang spoke up coolly, looking at Blake with a raised eyebrow before lifting herself from her bed. "How about you let go for a sec? Lemme have a good look here," she said as she sauntered up. Ruby detached herself and looked confusedly at her older sister. Blake's ears flattened against her head and she looked down to the floor.
"Yang, I'm so-" Blake's apology was interrupted by Yang leaping forward with agility that betrayed her hospitalized state and sending the faunus flying backwards with a punch to the gut from her one good arm.
"That's for DITCHING US!" Yang bellowed, her eyes flaring red and her hair starting to shimmer. "Where the hell did you go? I thought we were a team, partners! And then you up and vanish when things are at their hardest? I don't know if you NOTICED," she added for emphasis, gesturing to the rest of the shocked room. "But things kinda went to FUCKING HELL!" Yang whirled around and plopped herself back on her bed with a humph. "Alright, fine. Now tell us all about how hard things have been for you as the excuse for running off," she finished with a wave of her stub arm.
Blake just laid on the ground for a moment, ears still matted to her head as Ruby and Sun ran over to help pick her up. "Yang… I'm sorry. And, you're not wrong," Blake said looking over, catching sight of Weiss in the corner of her eyes, watching thing with a raised brow. "I should've been here, and I should've told you guys what I wanted to do. It's… after that night, I was worried that Adam was still here. He nearly killed you, and he would kill all of you just to get to me."
"That your old boyfriend that gave me a parting gift, I take it? Sure know how to pick'em," Yang responded brusquely.
"Yang!" Ruby scolded in disbelief. "That's-"
"That's right," Blake interrupted glumly. She took Sun's arm and picked herself, walking over and sitting herself in the guest chair next to Yang's bed. "Look, I get it. I reacted in the worst possible way by cutting you guys out. It's just… my nature. It's what I've always done. So if you want to hit me again and again, do it. Maybe it'll teach me something for once."
Yang glared at the downtrodden faunus for a couple seconds before her eyes finally softened a hair and returned to their normal lilac shade. "Gaaaaaah," she growled in frustration before flopping over and laying back down on her bed. "I can't do it if you're going to look like the saddest kitten on the planet. At least until the next time you run off and ditch us," she added in, shooting Blake a sideways look. "So what, you came to officially tell us you're leaving?"
"I…" Blake started, glancing back at Sun, who shrugged. "I don't know. I want to go home to Menagerie soon. You're not the only ones I've ditched," she added glumly. "But I can stick around here until-"
"Blake you're bleeding!" Ruby exclaimed. Blake looked down and sure enough, it seems the bandages covering her wound from Adam had failed to prevent her wound from re-opening after Yang's welcome.
"Well, Miss, it seems you will be staying here for a few days," a new voice called out from the opened door. The nurse was standing in the doorway, clipboard in hand. "I take it you're the other remaining teammate of the three here?"
"Wait, how long have you been here?" Sun asked her.
"Oh, a few minutes. Miss Xiao Long was not exactly discrete. I came to investigate the ruckus. I'm glad I didn't have to call a crew in to restrain you, Miss Xiao Long," she said, narrowing her focus on Yang, who glared back at her. "I'm going to have to request you refrain from further physical exertion. Now, Miss, uh…" the nurse glanced back to Blake.
"Just Blake, thanks," she said.
"Very well, Miss Blake, come, come with me, we'll get those bandages re-assessed and check for… new injuries. I'll see if I can't get you Miss Rose's place. Oh, and on that note, Miss Rose, we'll be discharging you later today. Thank you for cooperating with us on those tests," she said, nodding as she pulled Blake out by the arm.
"So, on a scale of one to ten, about how mad at her are you?" Sun piped up once they'd left.
Yang growled. "She's not off the hook, but… gah. Almost would've been easier if you hadn't dragged her back here and I could just keep it at a ten. I don't know, an eight?"
"Hey, now, I didn't have to drag her out here. She just needed… a little prodding. Well either that or I just kept following her and embarrassing her with my general presence until she came back to try and get rid of me, you decide," he said with a grin. "Rest of you?" he asked Ruby and Weiss.
Weiss held up her right hand with all five fingers outstretched. "Wait, guys, she did come back!" Ruby exclaimed. "Come on, I know it's frustrating and she should've… maybe been here sooner, but she did come back! We're a team… aren't we?"
"We were a team, Ruby. At Beacon. Which, if you forgot, is gone," Yang responded. Another heavy silence fell on the room. Sun's eyes lit back up as something seemed to occur to him.
"Hey Weiss, you've been awfully quiet, what's the matter, cat got your tongue from all this?" Weiss' left eye twitched as Yang groaned. Weiss pointed to her neck with her index finger, following it with a swiping motion, then raising a different finger into a rude gesture at the faunus while glaring at him with lowered eyelids. "Oh, oh jeez, I'm sorry, I didn't know," he said, scratching the back of his head. I dipped out pretty early to try and track down Blake, so I never heard about, uh, this. Well, uh, in that case, I'm starving, so if you ladies will excuse me," Sun said with a deep mock bow and sweep of his arm. "I have to track down the restaurant on the first floor."
"Yang, if we're not a team anymore, then now what?" Ruby asked her sister.
"I don't know, Ruby," Yang muttered, rolling over on her shoulder and pulling the blanket up. "I don't know…"
A/N:
In my head I wanted these chapters longer and covering more scenes, but I also would rather like to keep an update schedule. We'll see if I can't get more efficient as I get in the groove. Either way, thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites. All much appreciated. Also, the swearing will not be a common thing, and obviously it's a bit out of character in the technical sense, but I am a fan of the very occasional precision F strike if I feel the tone of the scene is appropriate.
Song of the day: Avantasia - The Scarecrow