I do not own RWBY or any of the characters.

Choices

Fox leaned on the railing of the back porch of Blake's home, where the public couldn't see him, and where he could think in peace. His hand trailed over his new scar as he stared off into space, memories finally beginning to leak into his mind, along with a searing migraine, but he ignored that. After a bit, Fox felt a hand on his shoulder and turned, finding Blake watching him worriedly.

"Hey," Fox smiled. "Hell of a night, huh?"

"Yeah," Blake nodded, leaning on the railing beside him. "Thank you for your help."

"Of course," Fox smiled. "I'll always be there if you need me."

Blake smiled slightly before it fell. "You almost weren't."

He knew what she meant. When he had fought Cinder. He had almost died, and now that he remembered, he felt more guilty for it than he had expected. He didn't regret it, and he would never change what he had done, but he felt guilty all the same.

"I'm sorry," Fox said. "If there had been any other way, I would have taken that route. But no one else stood a chance against her."

"You remember?" Blake asked.

"Yes," Fox said. "My injury allowed my memories to finally come back."

"Was it really that bad?" Blake asked.

"Life-threatening, no," Fox said. "Painful, yes. And I guess the pain broke whatever block was holding the memories back."

"I see," Blake nodded.

"So, are you and Sun..." Fox trailed off but Blake shook her head.

"No," Blake said. "I like him, a lot, but...I don't think I love him."

"You don't think?" Fox asked.

"It's...complicated, I guess," Blake said. "I care about him, but I also care about you."

Fox smiled slightly before sighing. "I suppose you want to know about Sienna?"

"A bit, yes," Blake nodded.

"Well..." Fox sighed, deciding how to start. "You remember how I told you that my semblance regenerates me as an infant, or a toddler?"

Blake nodded.

"Well, this time, it was a toddler, and Sienna's the one that found me," Fox said. "She took care of me growing up, at least until I had learned to fight, then we sort of took care of each other. I got into fights defending her, and then she'd bail me out of the trouble. We joined the White Fang together after being driven out of a town for being faunus."

"Is that why you usually hide your ears and tail?" Blake asked, glancing at his exposed tail, something he still wasn't comfortable doing, but had no reason to not do in Menagerie.

"No," Fox sighed, leaning heavily against the railing. "That's a...worse incident."

"I'm sorry," Blake said. "You don't have to-"

"It's fine," Fox said. "I don't want to keep secrets from you."

Blake blushed a little but nodded.

"During one of our rallies, back when it was still peaceful, and we were still young, Sienna and I were kidnapped by a couple of hardcore racists," Fox said. "They were criminals, but we didn't know that. All we knew was that they were humans, and they hated faunus. I'm not sure which of us had it worse. Sienna was raped, repeatedly. Honestly, sometimes I wonder how she didn't turn out like Adam. But...they couldn't break her. Despite what they did to her, she still wanted peace and equality. It was what they did to me that changed her. It started out basic. They chained me to a wall and whipped me, cut me, burned me. Anything they could think of. But the more they tortured me, the angrier they got. The angrier they got, the more creative they got. Eventually, they took some electric clippers to my ears. It lasted hours. And then once they were done that, they took a steak knife to my tail. About the time they had finished, Leon, Wulfe, and Ava found me with some White Fang adults. They...they killed the humans, and took us to a hospital. Unfortunately, hospitals were no better than any other business, and it was hard to find one that would accept us."

A tear fell from his chin, hitting his hand. He wiped his eyes and took a shuddering breath.

"You don't have to talk about it," Blake said.

"But I need to," Fox said. "When I was in the hospital, they wouldn't give me any good painkillers because they didn't want to waste them. I couldn't sit down, I couldn't stand up, I couldn't even lay on my stomach. Everything made it hurt. My semblance managed to regrow my ears and tail, but I was afraid to let them show again. I wasn't ashamed of them, not really. Just...afraid. Still am, I suppose. Sienna...she changed after that. She hated humans. She started to think that humans wouldn't respect us unless we showed force. I tried to talk her out of it, but she wouldn't listen. I hated her idea. I hated that we stooped to attacking humans when what we wanted was to be treated like friends and equals. I stayed because Sienna was...is...a sister to me. But no matter what I said, or what I tried, we never saw eye to eye on the matter. She was adamant that violence was necessary to keep anything like what had happened to us from happening again."

"You're a good brother for staying loyal to her despite hating everything she believes," Blake said.

"No, not everything," Fox said. "I could never hate her for it. I didn't agree with her about using violence. But I understood why she was. She understood that violence was faster, even thought it wouldn't end up the way we wanted, it would be good enough. Because it meant I wouldn't ever be tortured again. She resolved to use violence as a way to protect me. And I'm grateful that she cared that much, even if I can't be grateful about her methods."

"I see," Blake nodded. "So, after you met Ava and the others, you four formed a team?"

"Yes," Fox nodded. "It was Sienna's idea. She saw that Ava had grown a crush on me while helping with my recovery alongside Sienna, so she suggested we be a team, then Wulfe followed because he's in love with Ava, and Leon followed because we needed a fourth and he was friends with Wulfe. Once Sienna took over as leader, she put me in charge of the team and told me that I could run the team as I saw fit, meaning we didn't have to take part in anything violent. And for the longest time, we didn't. Once in a while we'd be sent after the odd Huntsman or Huntress that was threatening other groups, but never to kill, only to force them to leave us alone. That's actually how I met Ozpin. Adam warned me that he was trouble and sent me after him, Ozpin whooped my ass, and then offered me the chance for a new life at the school. So, I accepted. I let Sienna know I was joining the school and she gave me her blessing. And the rest is...well...you know."

Blake nodded. "It was kind of fun, you know? Not at the time, but in retrospect...I had Weiss, and Ruby, and Yang to hang out with and to help me fight the White Fang, and you were always following me around and helping us fight whether we wanted you there or not. And Sun was trying to flirt with me while you were trying to politely tell him to fuck off."

"Yeah, he's pretty dense," Fox smiled.

Blake laughed. "That's putting it mildly. I was always wondering which of you would finally grow enough of a pair to just accept the consequences first."

Fox's eyes widened slowly before he sighed internally. "So I guess I lost, huh?"

"What makes you say that?" Blake asked.

"It's been just the two of you for months," Fox said, Blake raising an eyebrow. "Wait, you're telling me, that in the several months he's had you all to himself, he never once had the balls to try anything?"

"He flirted constantly," Blake shrugged. "But I guess he just doesn't have any more balls than you. He's too afraid to make the first move."

Fox stared at her, unsure of exactly what she was saying. Her words at the beginning of their conversation drifted back to him, as did his "final" message to Blake before he fought Cinder. Apparently, even after everything, he still hadn't grown enough of a pair. Of course, that was only part of why he didn't just kiss her then and there.

"I see," Fox finally sighed, turning and leaning back against the railing. "He's an idiot."

"You're an idiot," Blake said.

"Yeah, I am," Fox smiled. "I'm too much of a pussy to kiss you, no matter how much I want to, because I can't make myself unless I know it's what you want."

Blake laughed, Fox staring at her. "Fox, you're even dumber than Sun. I do want you to. I basically just said it. You told Pyrrha to tell me that you wished you had had the balls to kiss me and accept the consequences before you fought Cinder, well, now we're both alive, not in any immediate danger of dying, and alone. What are you waiting for?"

Fox stared at her for a second before sighing. "Ah, hell."

He leaned in, Blake meeting him halfway, wrapping her arms around his neck. Fox sighed as he felt Blake kissing him back, his hands settling on the small of her back, holding her against him. They held the kiss, not even separating to breathe, until their lungs burned and Fox thought he might actually reincarnate from forgetting to breathe. Finally, Blake pulled back, allowing her lungs to take in air, Fox doing the same. Then, before three seconds had passed, Blake had captured his lips again, the kiss more passionate this time, both pouring their hearts out into the kiss. Finally, after what could have been hours and yet not been long enough, they heard a door slide open and separated, turning to see Sun standing frozen in the door. After a moment, he sighed, chuckling and shaking his head.

"I guess that settles it, then," Sun said.

"Sun, I'm..." Blake trailed off, unsure what exactly to say.

"It's alright," Sun smiled. "I already knew. It's why I never did anything past trying to cheer you up while we were alone."

"I care about you too," Blake said.

"I know," Sun smiled. "But you love him. It's alright, Blake. Really. I'm a big boy. I'll be fine. Anyway, I came here to let you both know that dinner's ready. Oh, and Sienna and your dad are only barely keeping from arguing, mostly because your mom and Ava are keeping them calm."

"I'll handle Sienna," Fox sighed. "Thank you, Sun."

Sun nodded and turned, walking back into the house. Blake sighed, resting her head on Fox's shoulder.

"That's not how I wanted him to find out," Blake said.

"Maybe it's better this way," Fox said, wrapping his arms around Blake and swaying slightly. "Besides, if all else fails, we could probably hook him up with Velvet, or Ilia."

Blake shook her head. "Velvet's with Yatsuhashi, and Ilia's in love with me."

"Wait, what?" Fox asked looking down at her. "You've got a girlfriend?"

Blake rolled her eyes. She reached up, kissing him for several seconds before pulling back. "Come on. We should get to dinner before Dad decides you're assaulting me."

"Yeah right," Fox snorted, walking toward the door with her. "I'm not suicidal. I know you'd kill me."

Blake snorted, bumping her shoulder into his and making him laugh before he reached the door, sliding it open and allowing her in, following.

Fox rolled over, staring at the ceiling in the dark, one forearm across his forehead and the other out to his side. He sighed. He hated not being able to sleep. It had been worse the last three days since he had remembered everything that had happened during the Fall of Vale. Of course, not sleeping at night meant that he was constantly falling asleep when he was around Blake, which was about the only time that his emotions would settle and allow him to relax. Blake didn't really mind, but he could tell she was getting tired of only spending time with him when he was asleep. He'd have to remember to go to the store and get sleeping pills. At least until whatever emotional distress his memories had stirred up settled.

He sighed, sliding his arm down over his eyes. He just wanted to sleep. Really that was all he wanted right now. He could keep himself awake if he could just get a night of sleep first. Suddenly, a weight settled on his outstretched arm and he lifted his other one, staring at Blake as she smiled down at him, head propped up on her hand, her other resting over his diaphragm, about the perfect spot to knock the wind out of him with a quick shove, if she felt so inclined.

"What are you doing in here?" Fox whispered. "Your dad will kill me."

"Well, if I can't spend time with my boyfriend while he's awake during the day, then I'll just have to do it at night," Blake shrugged. "Is that a problem? I could always go bother Sun."

Fox wrapped the arm she was lying on around her, making her roll over on top of him as he did. Blake grinned down at him as her hands settled on his chest, holding herself up, his arms wrapping around her waist to hold her in place.

"Well, alright, I can stay a few minutes," Blake smiled, bending down so her lips just barely brushed his as she spoke. "Now that you've got me here, what are you going to do with me?"

"Nothing that's going to get me killed, I can promise you that," Fox whispered back.

"That's no fun," Blake whispered.

"And your father's got better hearing than either of us," Fox pointed out.

"Then I guess we should stop talking," Blake smiled, closing the distance between them.

Fox kissed her back, one hand moving to the back of her head. After several seconds, he felt her tongue trail across his bottom lip and allowed her access, his own tongue meeting hers part way, the two fighting for dominance for a moment before Fox let Blake's win. Blake smiled, running her tongue across his bottom lip again before locking her lips around it, sucking it into her mouth and dragging her tongue over it before biting down lightly and letting her teeth drag over his lip as she released it. Fox choked back a groan, his hands instinctively holding her tighter against him as he captured her own lip, returning the favor. Blake released a shaky breath as he copied her treatment, so he repeated it before she could react to the first time. As he released her lip this time, she pulled back from the kiss, breathing harder than he expected. Fox realized he was in no better condition just as Blake moved in for another kiss.

Fox had to swallow another groan as she kissed him, because the first thing she did was bite down on his lip, not hard, but enough to send a carnal excitement and a hint of pain pin-balling through his brain. After she had released his lip, she dragged her tongue across the offended area, only for his own tongue to meet hers. She moaned quietly, allowing the kiss to muffle her, the moan accompanied by a roll of her hips against his own. Fox couldn't hold back his own moan as she pressed against him, but Blake deepened the kiss in time to silence him, her tongue beginning to map out the contours of his mouth, his own tongue doing the same.

Finally, Fox's brain caught up with the situation through the haze and he pulled away, forcing her to stop. She blinked, looking down at him in confusion as he tried to catch his breath and control himself.

"I'm sorry," he finally said. "I can't."

"You don't want to?" Blake asked.

"I do," Fox said. "Desperately. But...not now. It's...not the right time. We've got the fight against Adam and the White Fang coming up, and we just got back together for the first time after Beacon, and not to mention we just got together barely a week ago. I just...I want to be sure it's...not just because you're afraid of losing me."

"I'll always be afraid of losing you," Blake said. "And I'm not doing this just because of Adam. But, okay. If you want to wait until after, I'll wait. But you have to promise me that we'll all get out of this okay."

Fox smiled, kissing her. "I will never let anything happen to you."

Blake smiled, nodding and laying her head on his chest. Fox closed his eyes, listening to Blake's even breathing as she drifted off. Then, he slowly followed.

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