A/N: I enjoyed writing huge portions of this chapter and then there were other parts that just wouldn't come out so if this chapter comes across as choppy, I apologize. Here's hoping it's more 'well paced' than choppy.

Adam stirred in his bed as the light from the high window reached his eyes. He'd fallen asleep with his mask on, something that was a rarity now. He usually shed the black cloth as soon as he was in private unless…

A figure next to him stirred, snuggling under his right arm, curling into him and resting her head on his bare chest, her hair tickling the skin of his shoulder and arm and he instinctively wrapped an arm around her waist. This was a sensation he hadn't felt in years, and it was comforting: her heat, the softness of her touch. As he tightened his grip on her waist, the tips of his fingers grazed her bare skin below her night shirt. He let his fingers wander to the scar on her back, tracing the outline of the circle as she nestled further against him, rapping one of her legs around his and sighing in contentment.

He missed this: just the feeling of physical closeness with someone he trusted unconditionally. His hand eventually wandered upward, running his fingers through her hair and ending at stroking her velvety soft ears. Or at least that was his intent. Blake always loved it when he rubbed her ears, and it was one of the only times he could get her to purr for him, and nothing was sexier than both hearing and feeling her purr as he ran his fingertips across her catlike ears on the top of her head. However, as he reached the crown of her head, his fingers touched nothing.

Her ears were gone.

He glanced down in confusion. This wasn't Blake. Instead of her wavy, raven locks, there were long strands of white-silver hair. She looked up at him with her blue eyes where Adam was expecting Blake's honey golden irises.

The Schnee.

How had this happened? When did this happen? He'd sent her back to her barracks after she'd melted down over his scar, but then he'd remained awake for a while, drinking several fingers of his whiskey before the bottle ran empty. His thoughts ran wild as he tried to piece together what occurred after he'd gotten drunk. Had she come back? Or worse, had he sent for her? Adam squeezed his eyes shut, hoping her image would change back to who he wanted: back to Blake. He inhaled sharply, trying not to panic as a light feeling of nausea overcame him. The distress was clear on his face. Weiss' blue eyes narrowed in concern as she pushed herself up to reach and touch his face, her body pressed further against him.

"Adam?" She asked.

It wasn't Blake's voice.

It wasn't even Weiss' voice.

"Adam?! Why aren't you up?"

The White Fang leader jerked awake as Ilia shook him by the shoulder. He slapped her hand away to shield his eyes from the light gleaming in his face from the window.

"How much did you drink last night?" Ilia asked as she indignantly picked up the empty bottle. "You missed morning exercises and the Schnee girl has been waiting outside to serve you breakfast for over an hour."

Adam groaned. "Have her leave the tray; I'll get it when I'm dressed. She can pick it up later and finish packing my things."

"Do you really want to leave this late in the day? We won't get very far."

"We have to make camp anyway, what's the difference of a few miles?"

Ilia inhaled sharply and looked away, knowing it was better to not argue with him when his mind was made up, even though his decision was short sighted.

She was proved right when their entire caravan was attacked by a pack of ursas. Weiss did what she knew would be the most beneficial to the most people and just stayed out of their way. Adam decided to take on the Ursa Major leading the pack, carefully luring it away so he could use Moonslice on the creature without catching any of his own men in its wake.

It was the first time Weiss had seen the bull use his semblance and stood in awe of the raw power as his hair glowed red, the swiftness and power of his motion as the massive grimm seemed to evaporate before her very eyes. She snapped back to the chaotic reality of her situation when she caught the motion of something swinging at her from the corner of her eye. She may have no aura, but she still was light on her feet and incredibly flexible, dodging the paw of the ursa looming over her. Despite being surrounded by other targets, the ursa chose to round on Weiss swinging at her again, backing her away from her place with the White Fang's supply hovercrafts. She knew she'd only be able to evade and that eventually she'd need saving but was also confident she was valuable enough to the White Fang that she'd be protected and not left to die. Incidentally, it was Adam who came to her rescue, again turning the black bear into nothing more than vapor only a feet in front of her. It was only after she realized she was safe that she noticed the hovercraft and White Fang were gone. Somehow, they'd been scattered in the attack.

"You're not a huntress anymore, Schnee. You're a slave." Adam scolded her while helping her back to her feet.

"And if I were still a huntress, with my sword and this stupid collar off my neck, I could have helped fight them off." Weiss retorted. The fight, and not being able to participate in it made her realize how much she missed her beacon life and her huntress aspirations. "So how do we find our way back?"

"We don't." He dusted off his clothes. "We have a protocol for if we ever get separated. For now, we'll look for shelter nearby and wait for them to find us," he announced. "Look there," he pointed to a structure in a tree a short distance away," we can stay up off the ground for the night, and we'll be able to see."

It was an old lookout or perhaps a hunting perch of some kind, but had been abandoned for years if not decades. The roof was entirely gone, and the floor had rotted away in areas. Adam tugged on the rope ladder to make sure it would bear their weight.

"Ladies first," he said with no modicum of politeness, handing the ladder to her.

At the top, Adam pulled up the rope ladder while Weiss tested the floorboards step by step making her way to a trunk, that had by some miracle stayed watertight. Inside there were sheets and a blanket. Adam seized all three, trying to find a portion of the floor sturdy enough to sleep on. Weiss figured the best way to block the wind was to curl up in a corner.

"What are you doing over there?" Adam said when she began moving away. "Come back and lay next to me."

The look of shock and disdain on her face was understandable, but Adam was in no mood to be defied. "Look, we have to stay awake and stay alive long enough for the rest of the team to find us. We stay together or we freeze to death," he said, removing his jacket. "You have no aura to keep yourself warm, and I know my aura dampens when I'm asleep so when night falls, it won't be keeping me warm. The only way we make it out alive is by sharing body heat."

Weiss clenched her jaw, but complied, gingerly making her way across splintered boards back across the floor to where he'd spread one of the thin blankets on the planks below them and laid down on it. He patted his right side, indicating where he wanted her to lay. She laid down, keeping a hand's breadth away from him. Adam rolled his eyes under his mask, but let her keep her distance for the time being. With his free hand, he draped his coat over her to cover her back and then used the blanket to cover them both.

It was awkward, but at least she could stay warm. She reached her arms up to let her hair down to cover her ears and neck before tucking her hands into one of his coat sleeves for warmth. The air outside was already turning from chilly to frigid.

"So, what now? We take turns keeping watch or…?"

"You honestly think I'd trust you enough to fall asleep next to you when my sword is within arm's reach? We can sleep on the hover transport when they find us."

Weiss snorted. "What are we supposed to do, then? Play twenty questions to keep ourselves awake?"

Adam shrugged, pushing her head up in an uncomfortable position. "It's not a bad idea. You go first."

Weiss had so many questions she wanted to know: about Adam, the White Fang, the SDC, but faced with an open-ended opportunity, her mind went blank. "What…is your middle name?" she finally asked.

"I don't have one. What is your middle name?"

"Erica."

"Erica. Fitting." Adam mused. "With a C or with a K?"

"That's a separate question."

"Probative follow-up questions are permitted. C or K?"

"C. My turn. Were both your parents faunus?"

"I don't know, but I assumed so. My mother never talked about my fathers, so either he was human or a cow-type faunus like my mom."

The questions bantered back and forth, mostly trivial minutia that required only one-word answers, but once the polite questions ran out, the pair found themselves at ease enough to ask more personal questions and to answer them at greater length.

The weather grew colder as the sun completely vanished. Adam wrapped his arm around Weiss and pulled her even closer, until her head was resting on his chest, but she didn't object: he was warm. His gloved hand rested on the small of her back where her scar was, as his fingers absentmindedly traced the outline of the panther's head and the raised circle of the border.

"Tell me about this?" he said, running his thumb along her scar.

"It was a training accident," Weiss began, "I wanted to go to a huntsman academy, so my sister was helping me train in secret for the entrance exams. She summoned an armored gigas and it got me in the eye with his sword when my aura was at its lowest. I won though…and that gigas became my first glyph summon."

"Was your father upset?" he asked absentmindedly.

"He never found out. We practiced on the roof of the building and Winter left for the military a few weeks after that. We were super careful every time. My dad didn't even know I was leaving for Vale…"

"No, I mean was he upset about your face when he saw it?"

"He never noticed," she admitted. "At least, he never mentioned it. So, either he didn't care or he still hasn't noticed I have a scar over my eye."

"Why didn't you have it fixed?" he probed further, "You had the money to afford a cosmetic surgeon, why not fix it?"

"Klein wanted me to, but I chose to keep it so the admittance judges would see that a spoiled rich girl like me was willing to get her hands dirty. I got in, so I assumed it worked. What about your scar?"

Adam leaned back, lying flat on his back looking at the broken moon. "Ask a different question."

Weiss exhaled deeply in displeasure. "Ok…tell me about your semblance. How does it work?"

"Moonslice works by converting kinetic energy that comes in contact with my body into potential energy I can store and send back at will."

Weiss nodded in comprehension. "My friend, Nora, has something similar, only hers is electricity not kinetic energy and she can't absorb it through her hammer like you can with your sword."

Adam shifted underneath her to get comfortable. "My katana is a carbon steel that was literally forged with my hair and my blood. It's literally a part of me." He couldn't see her face, but Weiss was scrunching her nose, slightly disturbed at the thought of it.

"So that's why the blade is red and it glows when your semblance activates. Like your hair."

"Exactly."

"And, are your hairs sewn into your coat as well, because the red in the coat glows."

"No, that's just dust embedded into the emblem that activates when I use my semblance. It does nothing to enhance my attacks. It's just there to look intimidating."

"I guess that's cool," Weiss said. "It's your turn."

Adam was silent as he thought. He eventually asked:

"Why weren't you upset when I kidnapped you? You went without a fight, and you chocked it up to being overpowered, but you didn't fight back on anything. You were so…docile isn't the word…compliant? Why were you so compliant?"

"A combination of things I suppose," Weiss replied. "My father lived in constant fear of his legacy being taken away, so my siblings and I had training on what to do in any kind of corporate espionage situation. Self-defense, hostage negotiation, kidnapping negotiation, even getting poisoned. But the other part of it was…despite being a slave here, I'm not any worse off, except going hungry every once in a while. Here, I'm forced to do the bidding of someone I'm literally enslaved to someone who views me as nothing more than property and a trophy to show off to everyone else. I might not have the freedom to use my aura anymore, but you're not going to force me to marry someone for their money, are you?"

"Not for the foreseeable future," Adam assured her.

"I don't feel betrayed by you. I feel betrayed by my own family. My father making up some story about me being unfit to take the dust company, and giving it to Whitley who literally knows nothing about managing funds or leading a company."

"He disinherited you?"

"I think he was looking for a reason to get the girls out of the way so he could give it to the boy. Whitley was so obviously dad's favorite; Winter just made it easy for him by joining the military; me he had to fabricate a reason. I'm sure that makes me sound even more selfish and spoiled."

"It's fine. It's your turn to ask a question anyway."

"Did you ever sleep with Sienna Khan?" Weiss asked.

Adam lifted his head to squint at her. "What kind of question is that?"

"A yes or no question," Weiss replied.

Adam leaned back and made himself comfortable again before answering. "Of course, we did. Sienna threw herself at anyone she thought could advance her position. I think she did it as a method of earning my loyalty. My turn. When's your birthday?'

"May 8th. What about Cinder?"

She felt Adam shudder beside her. "Why? Why would you even think that? She's human; she's a terrifying and manipulating woman. She threatened my people, pressured the White Fang to helping her take down Beacon Academy, sacrificed faunus lives, and I'm the one who had to bear the brunt of it dealing with Sienna Khan. I got sent off to Atlas…to kill you incidentally."

"So, you didn't want to kill me?

"I thought I did. But I thought of something that would be a better form of vengeance. But it's not your turn to ask a question, it's mine. And I want to know…" he struggled to think of a question. "Where the best place you ever vacationed?"

Weiss scoffed. "We never had vacation. We went on business trips with my dad sometimes, and we went to galas and stuff hosted in Atlas or Argus, but we never got to relax or spend time as a family. Our idea of vacation was when dad was gone and didn't take us with him to parade around like wind-up dolls."

"Wow…you have a very bleak outlook on your childhood," Adam mused. "It's your question."

"Did you ever sleep with Blake?" It became clear that the previous questions were just a warm up to this one. She was trying to subtly ease into that question.

Adam signed. "Twice." he admitted, "Both times it was after a life-threatening mission and we were high on adrenaline and success and had no one to be accountable to. I knew Sienna wouldn't be happy, and I assume Blake hasn't told her parents. Mostly the time we spent together was just cuddling…like this."

"I know you loved, her but you see why she left, don't you?"

Adam stayed silent for a solid minute. Eventually, he sighed. "I have spent my entire life watching people that I've grown attached to leave. Not die. Not get taken away. Leave. My dad walked out on my mom just after she found out she was pregnant. She had to work herself to death in the mines to provide for both of us and when the chance came, she was offered an advertising position in Argus, one of the conditions was that she'd have to go alone, no spouse or kids. And she chose to take it to leave me behind. She sent me money, but I was eleven and left alone at the mercy of the SDC children's barracks. When I was thirteen and broke out, I thought I'd found my family again in the White Fang, and the Belladonnas were the closest thing I'd had to parents in years. But then Ghira and Kali left too, and I was so heartbroken, my only solace was that Blake stayed. Blake was literally all I had: she was my protégé, she was my partner, and we made a great team. So, when she just disappeared, yes, I admit it, I was hurt, I was enraged, but she was more than just something to me, she meant a great deal to the White Fang…the daughter of Menagerie's chieftain. She should have been the face of the liberation movement. She didn't just betray me, she spat in the face of my future and the future of every faunus in the White Fang. So, while you ask me if I understand why she left, let me ask you: can you understand why I wanted her to pay for her actions?"

Weiss opened her mouth to answer, but was surprised when Adam put his hand over her mouth to shush her. He sat up, cocking his head as if listening for something. "They're coming." he said.

"Your people or more grimm?"

"From the sound of it, Ilia and maybe five or six more." He took his coat back leaving Weiss with the blanket as he threw down the rope ladder.

Ilia's search party had blankets and hot coffee to drink. Adam, of course was tended to first, but Weiss was given secondary consideration. They were returned to the rest of the camp and put by the fire. Adam, however, carefully avoided Weiss, though she didn't mind not being forced to wait on him hand and foot. In their moment of desperation, they'd been too open with each other, too honest, and it now was awkward between them. Somehow, they both knew nothing would be the same going forward.