The prompt for this was "There's a breakup, but from the ashes a new relationship is born." Once again I had to take it in an unexpected direction.
"What are you doing out here?"
Ilia turned to see Blake approaching the stern of the ocean liner where she was sitting, her legs hanging off the side of the deck. To her left, the sun had just touched the horizon and was painting the sky orange and violet. But with the weather as nice as it was, the deck was likely to remain crowded for at least a few more hours. With the constant drone of the engines irritating for most Faunus, the stern was the one place that they didn't congregate.
"I'll take the noise over the crowd," Ilia replied, returning her gaze to the sea. She was surprised when Blake sat down beside her a moment later. "But, uh, we could go somewhere else if it's bothering you."
Blake shook her head. "It's not too bad." Ilia watched the cat Faunus staring out across the ocean for a moment before leaning against the railing as she'd been doing before her friend arrived.
The two sat in silence for a few minutes before Blake spoke up.
"We never talked," she began uncertainly. "About what you said in that alleyway."
Ilia's eyes widened. She had said a lot of things then. Was Blake talking about…?
"About your feelings for me."
The chameleon Faunus opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She had absolutely no idea what to say in reply. Whenever she'd imagined discussing her feelings with Blake, it had never involved much talking.
"I'm sorry I never noticed."
Ilia raised her head to meet Blake's gaze. She'd wanted to hear those words for so long. Why did they hurt so much now?
"Well… I never told you," the chameleon Faunus managed eventually.
"I could have noticed," Blake insisted softly. "I would have noticed if I hadn't been so preoccupied."
"With Adam?" whispered Ilia, just loud enough to be heard over the engines.
"Yeah, and the White Fang in general," answered Blake. "I think there's a lot of people I didn't treat as well as I could have then. My parents for one. And of course…" Blake trailed off and shook her head.
Ilia understood. The last couple of years before she'd left the White Fang, Blake had hurt a lot of people, both directly and indirectly. Probably more than Ilia had. At the time it had all seemed worth it…
"The point is that we should have talked about this sooner," Blake continued.
"Is this something you learned at Beacon?" asked Ilia with a forced grin. "How to talk about your feelings?"
She was avoiding the point and she knew it. She was scared of what her friend was going to say to her.
"No," answered Blake with a chuckle. "I wasn't very good at it there either. But this is me trying to be better."
The two Faunus girls met eyes, a fake smile on Ilia's face, the remnants of a laugh on Blake's. They sat there for a minute, then two, their expressions slowly becoming more serious.
Part of Ilia wanted to delay as long as possible. She tried to come up with any way she could to change the subject, but staring into Blake's eyes, knowing what was about to happen, she couldn't think of anything to say. Another part of her wanted to get it over with quickly, to just-
"Ilia, I can't return your feelings. I'm sorry."
There it was, exactly as she'd known it would be. She'd known ever since she'd first seen Blake and Adam in a room together. So she didn't cry, or let her feelings show on her face for even an instant.
But still her entire body turned a deep blue color.
"You don't have to forgive me if you don't want to," said Blake after a moment. "But I hope you will."
"There's nothing to forgive," whispered Ilia, staring at her knees, trying and failing to make her skin change back. "It's not your fault."
Blake shook her head. "It's still up to you."
Ilia lifted her head to meet her friend's eyes and finally allowed some emotion to creep into her voice. "Of course I want to forgive you. You're my best friend."
"Well that's the thing," Blake began slowly. Ilia's eyes widened in surprise and fear as she wondered what was coming now.
"The entire time I've been friends with you, we've had these things hanging over us. The White Fang, Adam, me not knowing about your feelings, it's all been there, and it's always been a part of our friendship." Blake leaned closer to Ilia before continuing. "But I think we're putting all of that behind us. The relationship we had back then is over, but I think now we can make a new one. Hopefully a stronger one."
Ilia smiled. If she was being honest, she wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but it sounded like a good thing. "I'd like that," she replied. That was when she noticed that her skin had returned to its normal hue.
The two Faunus smiled at each other for a moment before Ilia spoke up again. "I'm glad we had this talk, but I could use some time to think right now."
Blake nodded and stood up. The sun had gone down completely by then, but many of the Faunus were still out on deck. Blake turned to go and join them, but said one last thing before leaving.
"I know you'll find someone who makes you happy."
Ilia smiled and nodded, but didn't say anything as Blake left. She sat there for a while longer, staring out at the sea. She wasn't exactly happy, but she had cleared the air with her best friend, and she knew that she was doing the right thing by going to Mistral. That was more than she ever could have said in the White Fang.