Despite the enjoyable time spent testing out his Semblance's new capabilities, Blake was being rather quiet. The man just left the training grounds, where she had been making her clones do funny poses and goof around, but now she seems really intense. Come to think of it, she had grown sharper about 15-20 minutes ago.
"You feeling okay, Blake?"
Blake looks over her shoulder as she rounds a corner. "No, it's noth-nothing. Might just be the rain." The weather has definitely grown poorer since the two left; when they got to the training grounds, there was just fog, but now the rain was quickly starting to come down faster and faster. A distant flash of lightning went off, followed shortly by thunder, causing Blake to jump. She seems paranoid, as the man couldn't imagine she was afraid of thunder.
Blake suddenly drew close to the man, almost like Weiss did when they were together. It would have been nice, had Blake been his girlfriend, or had she not been in an uncomfortably jumpy mood. Her hood was up, so he couldn't even see her face. A feeling of dread wells up inside him, the feeling brought on by Blake's paranoia.
Without a word, Blake grabs the man by the shoulder and forcibly drags him into an alley. Drawing her face close to his, she whispers, "I think we're being followed. Pretend we're only thinking of each other." She draws even closer; considering both hoods were up, anyone looking at the two of them would see what appeared to be a couple kissing.
"What? What's going on?"
"Shut up. I really hope I'm wrong," Blake says, shifting her eyes to either side of the alley. "I think I heard somebody back at the training ground. Please, charge up your gloves and make sure your weapon is ready. Discreetly."
Before the man could understand what was happening, Blake had shoved him off of her. A flash of yellow snaps where his body just was, followed by the crackling of electricity. As he turns to where the spike of lightning was retracting towards, a silhouette starts stepping towards him and Blake; unlike most silhouettes, this one came into focus by way of the head, arms, and lower legs. As if fading in from the dark, a figure wearing a horned White Fang mask steps into view.
The man readies his weapon, as does Blake. A White Fang member was attacking; Blake was both angry and determined, letting him know that she wasn't as surprised as he is. She wasn't confused, so she knew she might have been in danger. He would 100% need to question her, but first, fight to win.
"Go," Blake says, not breaking contact with the person attacking. "Get help, you aren't a part of this."
"The hell I am! I'm not leaving you alone!"
The masked figure starts to swing what was now identifiable as a whip coated in electricity. "Maybe you should!" cries a female voice as she swings her whip. The tight enclosure of the alleyway makes it difficult to avoid the whip, but the man ducks out of the way just in time. Another strike comes at him, but he manages to block it. "What does he know!? Does he know what you really are?"
Blake, ignoring the taunt, rushes in. She ducks a whip swing but fails to connect with Gambol Shroud. Taking the free moment, the man fires several times into the air, alerting people to an assault. The masked figure takes notice, dodges around Blake, then starts towards the man. Before he could dodge, she swings her whip, knocking his weapon out of his hand.
As the White Fang member aims to strike the man, he can't help but crack a smile. After all, losing his weapon wasn't nearly as bad now that he literally just trained failsafe attacks. Though he was low on aura in general, his gloves glow with bright energy, signaling a full charge. Testing his luck, the man surprises the masked woman by attacking with no weapon; training had drained him, but he manages to pull off a double palm strike enhanced by aura. The figure manages to retract her whip into a lance-like weapon and stab him in the shoulder, but she's blown away before she gets deeper than a glancing blow.
The White Fang member flies back past Blake, her mask flying off from the force of the attack. Though the gambit worked, the man's Semblance training had left him with little aura; just about all of it had gone into the double palm strike, leaving him with none to help heal his new shoulder wound. Still, as the woman caught herself before hitting the ground, he still had Blake.
"Are you alright?" Blake asks, sounding terrified. She ignored the White Fang member and came to the man's side.
"I'll live."
Undeterred, the White Fang member returns to standing. She touches her face, her mask now gone. As she looks up, Blake gasps.
"I-Ilia…?" Blake lets slip from her mouth, unable to believe her own words.
"Blake," the figure known as Ilia replies, disdainfully.
"You know her!?"
"I know that traitor better than you!" Ilia screams towards Blake, her exposed skin turning scarlet and her hair turning bright yellow. "Who have you been lying to this time? Leading him on, just like you did with me?"
"It's not like that!" Blake answers with her own scream. "Can't you see what Adam's become!?"
"Can't you see what he's doing for us? For YOU?"
Before Blake could continue answering, sirens began blaring a few blocks away. Drawn to the gunshots, people were converging. Ilia shouts, "Liar!" before fading back to blackness and running off.
Blake, upon seeing Ilia run off, grabs the man by the hand and starts running away from the alley without explanation. Though he expected to talk to the cops, she was clearly trying to avoid confrontation; he lets her lead him back to the apartment before she lets go. She grabs the keys from his pocket and opens the door, trying to get inside as fast as possible.
Breathing heavily, Blake turns to the man with terror in her face and asks, "Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay."
Adrenaline was still flowing through the man's system, so pain was fading in and out of his shoulder. To be safe, he first removes his now ruined jacket, then his now ruined shirt.
"Oh-oh my god," Blake says, clapping her hands to her mouth in horror. Her reaction was brought on from the wound on the man's shoulder; Ilia had stabbed him with an electric lance, and while it wasn't horrible, it hurt like a mother and would likely leave a very obvious scar due to low aura. Tears starting to well up in her eyes, Blake cries, "It's my fault. It's all my fault."
The man takes a moment to think about what to say. Being a hunter meant putting the self in danger, so he couldn't care less about a scar; right now, it was important that he calm Blake down. "Blake, look at me. I'm fine. What I'm really worried about is you; what are you keeping from me?"
Blake looks away from the wound and diverts her eyes to the ground. "I-I… need some time to put this together."
"Why don't you shower, put on some warm clothes, and I'll make some tea? Does that sound alright?"
Blake takes a long breath. "O-okay."
As Blake retreats to the bathroom, the man dresses his wound, changes into dry clothes, and starts preparing Blake's favorite tea. His roommate takes her sweet time in the shower, the water only stopping almost a half hour later.
"Are you ready to talk?" Blake asks from behind the door. When he affirms that he is, she says, "I think that… you deserve the full explanation."
"I have the tea ready. Can you come out?"
"Just… promise you'll hear me out before anything, okay?" Once again, the man affirms he will, Blake opens the door to her room and steps out. He focuses on her somber expression, causing him to take several moments to notice something incredibly important; as Blake grabs a cup of tea, he sees an unmistakable pair of cat ears adorning her head where her bow usually sat.
Nearly dropping the cup of coffee, the man blurts out, "Y-you're a Faunus!?" The woman he's known for several months was a Faunus! Such a secret was by no means something trivial; she chose to run away and hide rather than face her true self in a world of discrimination. Of course, she had a million reasons why, but…
"Yes," Blake says, somberly sipping her tea. "I am a Faunus. That's… not all." She took a deep breath and admitted, "I was once a member of the White Fang. With Adam Taurus. That woman who attacked us, Ilia… she was my partner."
Things start making a bit more sense. Actually, things becoming clearer was a better description. It wasn't even that long ago, but Blake had runaway and wound up involved with Roman Torchwick; when Weiss had come to the man crying about not knowing what to do, she said that she wasn't sure if Blake should have been arrested. He guesses that Blake had revealed herself as a Faunus, which is why she ran away from the rest of RWBY.
"Alright then…"
"I joined because I wanted to make a difference in the world, to make Faunus stand as equals. I saw Adam as a revolutionary, but eventually, I started seeing that he was becoming a monster, so… I ran away. The White Fang used to stand for peace, and that was what I strove for, but it became less about moving forward and more about setting charges." She finishes her tea, trying to prevent her hands from shaking.
"So, they don't like deserters?"
Blake takes a very long, very deep breath. "I imagine that's part of it, but… Within the White Fang, there are two branch factions as of late; Sienna Khan took it to the violent side, but… Adam Taurus… he made it the terrorist group it is today. I… we… I… l-loved him. I loved what I thought he was; when I first joined, I thought I was standing with someone who would go down in history as a hero, and he saw me as an equal, as a…"
Blake chokes up. She looks at her hands with disgust. The man doesn't know the full story, but something tells him that Blake and Adam were more than just fellow revolutionaries; he didn't have any experience with the idea, but he feels that he can safely figure that Blake and Adam were at one point intimate, but it had devolved into abuse. She grabs her stomach, looking like she was ready to throw up.
"And now, people are getting hurt because of me. My friends."
The man… has no idea what to say. Blake was torn up, to say the least; her being a Faunus seems like a pittance compared to her formerly being a White Fang member. He couldn't care less that she has cat ears, nor does he care that she wanted to fight for what she believed in. She clearly understands that what the White Fang is doing is more than just wrong, and from what Weiss told him about her disappearance, she wants to fight the right way.
The man feels that nothing he says is going to particularly help Blake's freak out. Thinking it over, he pours her another cup of tea, leads her to the couch, and puts a blanket over her. She wordlessly follows, accepting the tea and snuggling tightly into the blanket, though barely acknowledging his existence. He fiddles with the tv, looking for a movie to play; he decides on something aimed towards kids that was a simple, pleasant story about an animated cat and her friends that would hopefully calm Blake down.
Trying to push the dread away, the man watches Blake silently watch the movie he put on. She occasionally sips her tea but says nothing. Her face gradually shifts from her previous repulsion at herself to a more neutral expression, and about a half hour in, she shifts over and starts leaning on the man next to her, remaining quiet. A bit unsure of what to do, he runs his hands through her hair, not unlike he would with Weiss to ease her stress; certain Weiss wouldn't fault him for trying to calm her friend down, it still felt strange basically petting a platonic friend who he also discovered was a Faunus.
To the man's somewhat pleasant surprise, Blake doesn't object to being pet, despite being adamantly against degrading Faunus (even prior to the reveal). In fact, she grows far less tense, and leans in closer to the man, loosening up and slowing her breathing. Though now back to a comfortable level, Blake remains quiet, though he can see her watch the movie with less fear of other things on her mind.
The man and Blake, both physically and mentally exhausted, fall asleep on the couch shortly after the movie ends. Though they shared no words, he can tell he did the right thing to help Blake. Maybe tomorrow, they can talk more about everything, but now was a time to rest.