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Chapter 13

Adam's pale blue eye stared down on her, lips drawn into a thin frown and body unnaturally tense – even for him. Ruby wished she could take the request back and quickly tried to do so. "Y-You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

His frown grew. "What happened to that confidence? You said you wanted to know."

It had wilted in the face of his reaction and her instinctive desire not to displease him. She did want to know, especially since she was team leader and they were always at each other's throats, but not if it made their partnership awkward. And yet the way he was looking at her now made her feel even worse for having pushed and then backing down. He was always telling her to be a proper leader and she couldn't do that without knowing what their problem was.

Ruby took a deep breath and squared her shoulders. It didn't do much when Adam was a full head and a half taller than her, but it helped her squeak out the words, "I want – I need - to know. I-If I can't then I won't be able to stop you fighting."

Adam raised a single eyebrow. "Is that so? It's a very personal question you're asking."

Her stomach flipped and flopped. Every nerve in her body burned for her to say it didn't matter and go back to talk about comics. It was a deeply ingrained instinct from years of being the quiet one in Patch. That's not me anymore. I'm a team leader. I'm a huntress – and I'm not going to back down because I'm more scared of nerves than Grimm!

"Even so!" she pressed. "Y-You can refuse if you like but I'm still asking."

"Hmph." His lips curled up just a little. "Quite the nosey team leader I have."

"I have to be!" she whined, letting out an indignant squark and stamping one foot down. "My team is cool when it comes to fighting but it's like herding cats. If it's not Yang driving you and Weiss up the wall, it's the two of you trying to start the second Great War in the cafeteria. I feel less like a huntress and more a relationship counsellor."

"I wasn't criticising. It's good that you're not afraid to push where needed."

It was depressingly hard not to grin and rock on her heels. As a bit of a nerd and the quiet student she'd always been eager for praise from teachers, and even though Adam was meant to be her teammate and even her subordinate he still had that teacher vibe. His praise was also so rare that it felt like a real victory when she earned it. Mature. I'm mature. Do. Not. Squeal.

"S-So, are you going to tell me?"

"Not here. Too many eyes." He took her arm and drew her after him, tugging her in the direction to follow him before letting go. Ruby kept pace easily, though she wondered what he'd meant about eyes. He must have meant ears and people listening in.

They left the comic store and stepped down a quiet street that she vaguely knew but only in the sense of walking down it to reach her favourite shop. Vale was busy for a weekend, bustling crowds and milling people talking to one another or their scrolls, wailing children and the constant footfall all around them. Adam walked through it all with such ease, people parting around him like water around a rock. More than a few did so with disturbed expressions, women carrying children away and men stopping to stare after him.

For a few moments she thought it was because he was a faunus and felt unfamiliar rage rise up inside her, but she realised it wasn't when even a faunus woman repeated the action. It's the bandages, she thought. The people weren't reacting to his horns but the white bandages wrapped around half his head. Had they never seen an injury before? Probably not. As stupid as it sounded most of the people here lived safe within the walls of Vale and only knew about Grimm as distant boogeymen. Broken arms and cuts and bruises were common enough, but a disfiguring injury could turn heads. At least they weren't being racist. Ruby wasn't sure their rudeness was any better.

Not like Adam cared. She supposed she shouldn't either since, like he said, their opinions didn't matter. They probably would have thought similar things about her – how a girl her age and size should be playing with dolls and not sniper rifles. How she should leave the fighting to the grizzled veterans and stronger kids. People could be stupid. It really depended on where they were. Patch had enough encounters with Grimm in its forests and hills for the people to know more about the craft and value any huntsman or huntress. Vale was sheltered.

Stepping off the main street and down a smaller one, Adam brought her to a glass-fronted shop with the word `Tukson's Books` above it, along with the slogan `every book under the sun`. The interior showed rows on rows of wooden shelves along with one or two comic racks. It was quiet inside, practically empty. The only person was a man with a bushy beard stood behind the counter who looked up as they entered and then went very, very still on seeing Adam.

"Tukson," Adam greeted.

"A-Adam… I…" His eyes flicked left. "W-What are you doing here-?"

Ruby looked back and forth between them curiously.

"Shopping with my team leader," Adam said casually. "You might not have heard but I joined Beacon. This is Ruby. Ruby, this is Tukson."

"Hello," Ruby said with a shy wave.

"H-Hello there." Tukson smiled nervously back and then looked to Adam. "Are you wanting a word with me in the back, Adam? I have a private room-"

"We're here to shop, like I said. You don't need to worry yourself about us."

Mr Tukson looked more confused than anything. Adam led her down one of the bookshelves at random, away from the counter and the front door. She'd be the first to admit she sometimes missed social cues but that hadn't been so much a cue back there as a song and dance.

"Why was he so afraid of you?" she asked.

"We have history," Adam said evasively. "Not the best kind. It's not important now and I only brought us here because I knew it would be empty. Independent stores like this don't do so well, especially when they're owned and run by faunus."

Ruby's head snapped back. "He's a faunus? I couldn't tell."

"A lot of faunus choose to hide the fact if they're animal traits allow them to. We're not all so obvious as to have horns, ears or tails."

Ruby scowled. "You shouldn't have to hide."

"You're preaching to the choir, Ruby. And I don't hide so there's no need to get upset. You wanted to know about my issues with Weiss' family, didn't you?" He thumbed the bandages over the left side of his face. "We needed somewhere away from prying eyes for that."

Away-? His bandage- She gasped.

"No, no, no! You don't need to show me anything!" He paused, finger under the edge of it. Ruby swallowed. "I don't – I mean, you don't have to show me that if you're not comfortable with it. You hide it for a reason, right? I didn't mean to be that nosey."

Adam's good eye stared down on her and Ruby felt smaller than she ever had before. Would he be angry now? Had she made it sound like she was grossed out by whatever was under there? Was he disappointed that she kept taking things back? Ruby stared at the floor, hands clenching and unclenching helplessly at her sides.

"Ruby." He said her name with a tired little sigh. "If you ask me something I'm not comfortable with I'll say so. Yang may be, but I'm not afraid to say no to your face – no matter how pouty you act." His joke brought an embarrassed giggle from her. "There's a scar under here. It's ugly, I'll admit, but if I let myself be afraid of it then I'd be letting the ones who gave it to me win. I don't care if you see it. I doubt it will change anything..."

A shuffle of cloth reached her ears and then she saw his hand drop, white bandages gripped between his fingers. He'd taken the bandages off. Ruby stared at his hand, eyes wide and heart hammering in her chest. Adam hadn't shown anyone his scar – he wouldn't even talk about it. Yet here they were, just the two of them, and he was revealing it to her. That was… She didn't know what it was. Intimate? Trusting? Frightening? It was a lot of pressure either way and her brain was shrilly telling her that the more she stared at the floor, the more she was spitting on his offer.

Adam's fingers curled under her chin, his thumb on her cheek and by her lips as he gently tugged her head up to look at him. Ruby didn't dare blink, eyes tracking over his chest and his collar, the open white shirt and the taut skin of his collarbone and neck, over his chin and mouth – set in a frown as it always was – up past where the bandages would have begun and to darkened skin that looked like it was patchy and discoloured.

And then she saw it. Bold and red, even after it must have healed. It stood out against his skin and was printed over his eye and a bit of his nose. Up close she could see that his skin blistered up, burned and bubbled before setting like melted iron. Her stomach churned and vomit rushed up her neck. She clasped her hands over her mouth, gagging past the urge to expel her breakfast.

SDC

It looked like the most painful thing imaginable, and Adam's second eye was open now, a slightly darker blue though she could see that was because the whites of his eyes had been dyed pink from ruptured blood vessels that she could only assume had exploded when a hot piece of metal was pushed down into his face and held there. And while he'd be thrashing, fighting and screaming for it to stop. Screaming and being ignored - held down. Burning. The smell. Her teeth clenched together so hard they hurt. Her vision grew hazy and watery, washing him out to an indistinct blur entirely.

"Not pretty, is it?"

Ruby's eyes watered and angry tears dripped down her cheeks. She swallowed her own sick, tasting it all the way down – but that didn't matter since she had to say something to stop him thinking that. The scar wasn't all that ugly, not enough to make her sick. It was anger, pure and simple. Ruby felt sick with rage so bad she'd almost thrown up.

"W-Why…?" she choked, cried, sobbed. She wasn't sure which.

"Not everyone sees faunus as people," Adam said simply. "The SDC is a part of that as you can see." He traced his finger over it. "I expect they felt I was property, or that I was a farmyard animal. We brand cattle."

"Stop it! S-Stop acting like this is okay!"

"I'm not." He sighed. "I just hoped that making light of it would make this easier. I won't bother trying, then. Yes, this is what I hide. I'm sure you can understand why I don't think it's a good idea for the team to see this. It would shatter Weiss' worldview."

Ruby's world lurched so hard she had to grab onto the nearby bookshelf for support. "Does she know?" she breathed out. "Does Weiss know about what her family's business does? I-If she does…" Ruby wasn't sure, but she knew Team RYST wouldn't survive. If Weiss knew and still made light of Adam and the racism he faced, Ruby couldn't handle being on the same team as her.

This was too much. Too big.

"Weiss doesn't know. I assumed myself that she didn't care at first but her indignation whenever the SDC is called into question is too honest. And then it hit me. Why would the heiress of the company know everything that goes on in the company? I'd be surprised if Jacques Schnee himself knew my name or what happened to me."

"That doesn't make it okay. All those times Weiss called you a liar-"

"Were times where her greatest crime was ignorance," he interrupted her. Adam rubbed his scar again, playing with the skin. It can't have been comfortable to have it always under a rough bandage, but she could understand now why he never took it off in front of them. "I won't say that fully excuses her but it does make her words more… innocent, I suppose. Acceptable. She doesn't know better. I'll have a different opinion if she ever finds out and still holds to her worldview."

If, not when. "You never intended to show us it, did you?"

"Not really. I'm sure you have scars on you somewhere and I don't see the big deal. This would only make it impossible for the team to operate and it's none of her business. None of Yang's either, even if she isn't involved. I'm only showing it to you because you're right – you need to understand where our issues come from if you're to lead the team effectively."

"Are you angry?" Ruby asked nervously. "You didn't have to show me…"

"I'm not angry at you. As I said before, if I really didn't want to show you I'd have refused or given you the explanation without showing it. This, Ruby." He gestured to his scar. "Doesn't bother me as much as it once did. It's ugly, it's annoying, but it's no longer painful. I don't hide it because I'm afraid of being seen with it but because showing it invites everyone to stare or ask what happened." He huffed. "I don't have the energy to explain it to every single person who asks."

That had to be the single stupidest reaction to something like this she'd ever heard and yet at the same time it was so Adam! Here he was with the logo of a company branded into his face and his biggest concern was how annoying it would be to have people stare at him. Well, she could understand why it would be, but she'd personally go for anger as a first reaction. Maybe the second, third, fourth and fifth, too.

He's right, though. If Weiss sees this then the whole team is going to go up in flames. Even if she accepts what happened and is sorry for it, he'd be a constant reminder of what her family did.

Ruby couldn't imagine how that might be like, but she tried to imagine finding out that Summer liked beating up innocent faunus on her days off, and while the image really didn't fit with the idyllic memories she had of her mom, it helped put it in perspective. It wouldn't have been enough to make her stop loving Summer, but it would have shaken her to her core. She liked to think she would have tried to change her mom for the better, too.

She was fortunate that Summer Rose had been a wonderful person and that her dad also had no problem with the faunus he taught at Signal. Weiss did, though, and would be forced to pick between her team and her family.

"It doesn't seem fair that you have to hide it."

"It's not," Adam said succinctly. "But I don't care about fairness." He brought the bandage back up and closed his one eye, quickly concealing the hateful brand behind the cloth once again. Part of her felt she should tell him he didn't have to, but a small and cynical part of her she hadn't known existed before meeting Adam knew he really did.

It wasn't fair at all, but Adam had to hide it for the sake of the team.

There were more questions she wanted to ask. When did he get it? How did it happen? Who did it? All those questions burned angry holes in her stomach, yet she didn't put them to words. What would it really achieve other than to satisfy her curiosity at the expense of making her partner go over something he'd fully admitted he didn't like talking about? All she'd be doing would be making him relive it for the sake of her curiosity.

"I hope this explains a few things," he said with a note of exhaustion. This alone had taxed him even if he tried not to let it show. More would only make it worse. "I'd rather not deal with the whole team knowing about it. Weiss and I quarrel, I know, but it's not nearly as bad as it could be and I think we're getting a little bette-"

Adam cut off suddenly, grunting as Ruby walked face-first into his stomach and wrapped her arms around him. With the height difference, it meant her hands slotted under his chest and around his back.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Hug," she mumbled into his shirt. "I'm hugging you. It's when a person-"

"Ruby, I know what a hug is. I'm physically scarred, not emotionally ruined. I meant why are you hugging me."

Because she wanted to make him feel better; because she wanted him to know she was there; because she was afraid of what she'd do if her hands weren't occupied; because she wanted to cry; because she wanted comfort. The reasons weren't the best and felt so stupidly selfish. Why was she the one who needed this when he was the one who'd been branded like cattle? Her arms squeezed, tighter, tears soaking into his shirt.

"Are you crying…?"

"No!"

"I feel wet."

"It's snot. I'm using you to wipe boogers off. Now hug me back!"

"Ruby…"

"Hug me back! That's an order!"

His hands slowly and uncertainly came to her shoulders, and then down to her lower back. Adam obviously wasn't familiar with hugs other than technically knowing what to do. That was fine – she'd have to teach him. Ruby pushed her face into his stomach and sniffled loudly, rubbing her nose on his shirt.

"You realise this is an abuse of authority."

"Shush. Hug now. Complain later."

Adam chuckled. "As you command."

His powerful arms tightened around her cautiously at first but with more confidence when she didn't protest.

It felt good.

/-/

Blake couldn't contain the relieved gasp that slipped out when the bell over the door rang Adam's departure. Her heart thumped in her chest as she slid down with her back to one of the shelves, clasping Ninjas of Love to her chest. That had been too close. If Adam had just looked around for a few seconds he would have seen her. Sweat dripped down her face and she sat at the base of the shelf to catch her breath.

When he'd first cornered her in Tukson's store she'd thought he'd been hunting her through Vale. There was so little Tukson could do to protect her and she'd been ready to fight for her life. She still couldn't believe he hadn't and had instead taken his new partner off to talk to her quietly. The content of that conversation hadn't been audible to her and she certainly hadn't dared get closer, but she'd noticed him showing the girl his scar – and her sad reaction.

He's manipulating her. Tricking her. He's working his way into her head.

Her stomach flipped as she asked herself what she was meant to do about that. Adam was no longer her problem, nor was the White Fang, and yet he'd come to Beacon in pursuit of her and she couldn't just pretend that wasn't a thing. He'd find her eventually and she couldn't hide behind teachers and other students forever.

"Lucky break, that," Tukson said, coming around his counter unsteadily. "I thought he was going to kill us both. Could hardly believe it when he said he had no business with me." His eyes hardened as he peered down on her. "You didn't warn me he was in the area!"

"I didn't know he'd be following me."

"But you knew he was in Beacon…"

Blake looked away guiltily. "I… I didn't want to think about it." Accepting his hand and help up, she unsteadily found her footing, wobbling to one side and placing a hand on the nearest wall for support. The proximity to him had shaken more than just her mind. "He's at Beacon and I've been avoiding him where I can. What are the teachers thinking letting him in? He's White Fang."

"You're White Fang, too."

"I'm ex-White Fang. He… Adam would still help them if he had the chance. You know that as well as I do. Did you know he fought some people earlier? Got injured and nearly had them expelled. Everyone thinks he was beaten but I know he was faking it. How can everyone else not see that? He could have killed them at any moment."

"Did he?" Tukson asked curiously. He obviously thought it was a very real possibility.

"No. But only because the teachers were there," she added. "If they weren't then I'm sure he would have killed them on the spot."

"Are you sure? He looked fairly chummy with that girl…"

"It's a mask. He can be charming when he wants to be – how else do you think he led people at his age? He knows when to put it on and when to let the monster out. I… I have to do something about this, don't I?" she asked, more to herself than Tukson. "Adam is only here because of me and now he's working his way into that team of his. What if he hurts them on a mission?"

With one of them being a Schnee, it was almost a certainty. He could get rid of her and blame it on the Grimm and no one would know. It'd be her fault if he did, too. Adam was only here for her and that meant she'd lured him straight to Beacon. Anything he did might not be her full responsibility, but she was to blame for anyone caught in the crossfire.

"You're not thinking something reckless now, are you?" Tukson asked. "That's Adam Taurus we're talking about, not some naïve recruit. If he's as close with her as it looked there, I'm not sure you'd be able to convince her he's a danger. Who's she going to believe, her teammate she gets on with or some stranger she doesn't know?"

"I can't not do anything!"

"Why not? It's what I do." Tukson took the book from her hands and rung it up, printing out a receipt and waiting for her to distractedly hand some lien over. He took to bagging it up, speaking in a slow and steady voice. "You chose to leave the White Fang just like I did. That's the long and short of it. If you keep trying to chase after them then it's like you haven't left at all. I know it's not a perfect comparison but think of it like leaving a marriage or a long relationship. The best thing you can do is move on, not stick around to take pot-shots at the other person."

"A terrorist organisation is a little different from a failed marriage!" Blake snapped. "Most exes don't run around bombing busses, attacking convoys and executing prisoners. And I think someone would be justified being nervous if the ex they just left literally stalks them with unknown intentions." Ripping the bag out his hands, she said, "I'll move on when he's nowhere near me. When he's out of Beacon and I'm safe."

"Or you could transfer out," Tukson suggested. "Join another school."

"I'm not running away from him!"

"You kinda are." Tukson held up his hands when she fixed him with a furious glare. "What do you want me to say, Blake? You ran away from him and the Fang – I'm not saying you made the wrong choice, not when I did the same, but call it what it is. We both ran, and now that I know Adam is here in Vale, I'm thinking of skipping here as well. Is it such a big deal to go study in Vacuo or Mistral? I hear those schools are pretty good. Safer than throwing yourself into a confrontation with Adam and the White Fang."

"It's the coward's way out. I can't run forever, especially not if he's going to follow me…"

"You don't know what he will. I doubt he can just up and leave Beacon if you do. At least give it a shot before doing something stupid, lass."

Blake shook her head. This was Tukson in a nutshell – a good man who'd made bad choices joining the White Fang. He was like her in wanting to leave but little else. The word coward felt unfair to him, more… he was too nice. Too nice for this way of life and not afraid to duck his head and toe the line when he had to. He'd made a living hiding his animal parts and was content to live under oppression if it meant staying out of trouble.

If she kept running away, Adam would corner her eventually. Tukson was relatively unimportant in the White Fang's plans but she was Adam's ex and the daughter of the Chieftain of Menagerie. They couldn't afford to let her run free. Running might work for you, Tukson, but it won't for me. I need to stand my ground.

To him she said, "I know what I'm doing."

"Do you?" Tukson sighed and rubbed his beard, shaking his head as though he'd lost faith in her to make the right choice. It reminded her of her father, though that wouldn't help him any. She'd ignored Ghira's advice, too. "Looks to me like you're a stubborn idiot about to lower her horns and charge right in. Let it go, Blake. Let him be the first to make a move. You can play it safe and let his patience get away from him. He'll crack sooner or later, do something stupid and get himself kicked out of Beacon or thrown in a cell."

"You really don't know Adam like I do," she said, laughing softly. "He's only wild when he's fighting. Outside of that he's smart. Cunning. He isn't the most patient of people, but he knows how to work things to his advantage."

The recent display with Team CRMN proved that. He'd come out looking like a martyr and people were already flocking behind him. It was the White Fang all over again. Adam won his battles with strength, but strength didn't win the hearts of their comrades. Charisma did.

It was so easy to look at the masked killer and wild dog of the White Fang and assume he didn't have any, but it wasn't like he spent all his time like that. He would talk with the men, train with the recruits, work in the medical tents and even eat and drink with everyone else. He was charismatic when he wanted to be – it was why she'd fallen for him. It was why he was having such an easy time winding his teammates around his fingers.

"I need to get him out of Beacon," she said. "The sooner I do the less time he'll have to hurt people. Don't worry, I'm not going to try and fight him. I'm not that stupid. Waiting for him to step out of line isn't an option, though. I need to make him."

"I still say this is a bad idea. Either pack up and leave like I am or keep your head down. There's no need to make things worse than they already are – not with the White Fang already acting out in the city. And what if you're wrong, Blake? What if you have this wrong and all that we just saw is genuine?"

"It's not."

"But what if it is…?"

"It's not!" Blake's heated words came out loud in the empty bookstore. "It's not!" she said again, quieter. "I know Adam. I… I know him better than anyone else does. He might be able to convince everyone else he's reformed – and he might even be able to convince himself! – but not for long. There's too much hate in him. Too much anger. It'll come pouring out sooner or later. I'll make sure it's sooner. That…" Her eyes closed sadly. "I'll have him out of Beacon within the month."

Tukson remained silent.

/-/

"So," Yang was in front of them the second Adam and Ruby entered their dorm. She would have been right up in his face if not for him pushing his hand against her face to ward her away like some ancient spirit.

"Spare us the idiocy."

"How was your date?"

Ruby gasped.

Adam sighed. "I thought I asked you to spare us it."

"It – It wasn't a date!"

"Yang knows that full well, Ruby. She's trying to get a raise out of-"

"It wasn't! It wasn't! It wasn't! Yaaang!"

"Trying to get a raise out of her?" Weiss drawled. "Not like she has to try very hard. You might as well give up," she said, watching Ruby chase Yang around the room, quickly catch her and then try to beat her to death with a pillow. Yang was laughing at the top of her lungs. "It looks like they'll be at it for a while. I assume you were a perfect gentleman."

"You assume correctly. I know how to not offend someone."

"Miss Goodwitch would say otherwise."

Hmph." He brushed by her and to his bed, removing his black jacket and laying it down. "That's an exception and you know it. I wasn't aware you'd be so interested in what Ruby and I do in our spare time. Something I should know?"

"What is that supposed to mean? Can't I be curious?"

Adam opened his mouth and then caught Ruby watching. The anxiety was writ across her face. Even though he and Weiss had argued like this for weeks now, knowing what she did had changed things in ways he hadn't really wanted. Ruby expected the worst. Maybe she'd relax once she realised that wasn't going to happen, but for now all he could think of was the wet patch on his shirt and the thought of her sobbing out like that again. It was too much to bother with.

"No. It's fine." He sighed and let it go. "Didn't mean to snap at you."

Weiss looked startled by the sudden change in tune. "A-Ah, well, perhaps I could have not made it sound so accusing. I only said it because I was sure you were both fine."

"Hmm. Ruby took me to a comic shop, we visited a bookstore and then we had some food in the mall. It was… fun, I suppose."

Ruby beamed.

Yang raised an eyebrow. "You suppose…?"

"Shopping trips aren't my usual thing. It was a new experience and not bad. I'd say I enjoyed the company more than I did the shopping, though, hence the `suppose`. I imagine it would have been just as enjoyable if we'd been anywhere and-" His eyes narrowed. "Why are you smiling…? What is that face you're pulling?"

"It-It's called a smile," Weiss lied.

"A smile it is not." He scowled. "You're laughing at me."

"I'm not!" Weiss' lips wobbled. "Snrk." She looked away as his eyes narrowed on her. "I just think it's sweet what you said. It surprised me that it'd come from someone like you."

Someone like him. He almost called her out on that but caught himself at the last second. It was painfully obvious she meant his personality and not his species and he couldn't exactly fault her with that.

"I can relax and have fun when I want to."

"Oh, I have to see this!" Yang crowed. "You ever gone out drinking?"

"Numerous times. Don't think you're going to get me drunk and hear anything embarrassing. It's more likely I'd have to carry you back to Beacon."

"That confident on your prowess, huh?"

"No. That doubtful of yours."

"Hey!" Yang waved a fist over Ruby's head. "I'll have you know I can drink most guys under the table."

"Hm." He flashed her a smirk. "I'll have you know I'm not most guys."

"Whoah. You are in a funny mood today." Yang grinned suddenly. "That's kinda hot." She seemed to realise what she'd said a moment later because she winced and laughed awkwardly. "Not, like, you know. I mean that you look good when you're not being so angsty. You're normally Miser McBroodyPants and…" Seeing a chance to recover, she threw Ruby under the bus. "And I'd never steal my sister's first boyfriend."

"Yang! No! It's not like that!"

Too easy. Yang laughed as Ruby tackled her, letting her much smaller sister overpower her while Adam shook his head, shared a long and despairing roll of the eyes with a heated enemy and made his way to the shower. It was a relief to see that his mistakes around Team CRMN hadn't completely burned his bridges with Team RYST. Maybe he'd been a fool to think so, or perhaps it was the recent loss of Blake that had him assuming the worst.

Adamstood under the shower and ignored the constant wailing and arguing outside the door. By the sounds of it they'd dragged Weiss in, probably by physically yanking her into the fight. Something like this would have never flown in the White Fang, but he couldn't bring himself to see that as a particularly bad thing. Not enough to complain about anyway.

This isn't so bad. All things considered. I could almost get used to it…

Torturing Ruby on Monday, giving her huggies with Adam on Tuesday. It's a varied week.

Also amusing to see the trend of people thinking I hate Blake as a character and always bully her when before this it was how I like Blake too much and always make her the main pairing. To give Blake her fair dues, she's been through terrible times with Adam according to the show. As such, wouldn't it be perfectly reasonable for her to think the worst of him? He hasn't given her much reason to think otherwise in the past.

Next Chapter: 25th August

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur