I bet you weren't expecting... PLOT ADVANCEMENT?!
-OOO-
Blake spent the rest of the day laying about. Weiss scratched her head and stomach and played with her ears and nose and Blake was full, so she didn't have the energy to fight Weiss off even if she wanted to.
Blake must have drifted off to sleep, because she awoke, later in the day; the lights were low, and the bustle of the staff had died down a bit.
Weiss wasn't there. Maybe she was fixing her scar.
Blake caught the whiff of meat and garlic and fava beans and followed the smell, lazily.
It led into the maid's quarters, and into an old side alcove.
Blake followed her worst judgement into a dark workshop that smelled of linen and sweat.
There was a plate of food, laid out on a desk. Blake might describe it as some of the bloodiest meat she'd ever seen, but that'd be a lie, since Blake had eaten raw meat before. Oh, and there were also carbohydrates and vegetables on the plate.
But, next to the desk, was a sackcloth doll, a perfect facsimile of Blake, except for button eyes; it had flowing black hair and droopy ears and pale whiskers. It even had her exasperated frown.
"Ah, I see you've followed me," said the guant maid, from behind Blake. Blake flinched.
The maid sat down at the desk and cut a square of bleeding meat off the steak.
"It's not quite as fluffy as you, I'm afraid."
"And it was a bit of a rush job, you see; I was able to use one of the spares of Weiss's model. You're roughly the same size."
Blake furtively glanced between the maid and the doll and the meat.
"Oh this?" The maid gestured to the meat, "Don't worry. It's not Faunus meat."
Blake eyed the door. Nothing reached out and grabbed her when she made a break for it (Blake was genuinely worried), as fast as she could with a full stomach.
Blake located and approached one of the taller Schnees, to relay her discovery.
"Oh don't worry about that." Weiss's father swatted the air idly, "There's life-sized doll replicas of all of us. It's really handy if we need to fake our own deaths."
Blake blinked.
Blake shrugged.
And then the younger Schnee located and approached Blake.
"Blakey I found you!" Weiss hugged Blake's back. She rubbed her cheek against the back of Blake's head. "C'mon, Blake, let's go get ready for bed!"
Before bedtime, Blake braced for Weiss to brush her teeth. It was just as horrible as always. Blake smacked her dry, polished, minty-fresh mouth afterwards.
And when it came to bath time, Blake took great delight in seeing Weiss struggle to untie her right shoe. Blake even held her foot out, pretending to be helpful.
And then, Weiss pulled on the loop of her left shoe, tightening the knot, and then did everything except untie the shoe.
Blake mrawed at Weiss and pulled her foot back. She untied her shoe.
The rest of bathtime went as usual. Blake still hated the soap and the water but it was easier to bear on a full stomach.
And they lay down to bed.
Weiss pulled Blake up to her chest and wrapped her arms around Blake's neck and back. Weiss closed her eyes and smiled and kicked her legs, slightly, as best she could with Blake flopped over her.
"Oh Blakey," Weiss said.
Weiss put her hands under Blake's armpits and held her at arm's length, above her. Blake invested the energy to keep her neck straight so that she made eye contact with Weiss. Her limbs, however, she let flop wherever.
"Look at how Blakey you are, Blakey!" Weiss exclaimed.
Blake looked down at her stomach.
Weiss pulled Blake back onto her. Blake's head nestled in the crook of Weiss's neck.
"You're so Blakey, Blakey," Weiss mumbled blissfully. Her assessment was accurate.
Weiss drifted off to sleep, and Blake did too.
Blake woke up in the middle of the night. The door opened. Blake didn't quite know which one of those happened first.
The guant maid was there, holding a finger to thin lips. In one of the maid's hands was a dim lantern, and in the other was the Blake doll from the workshop.
The maid approached the pair of sleeping girls and pried off Weiss' arms from Blake. At the maid's behest, Blake swiatched places with the doll and followed the maid out of the room, through a semi-familiar hallway tinged with long shadows.
They entered a room. The two taller Schnee's were there, as well as some members of the security force.
"Hello," nodded the male taller schnee.
Blake blinked.
"So we brought you here," continued the Schnee, "Because we like to see opportunities where other people might see obstacles."
The other taller Schnee tapped her husband's shoulder. "This is going over its head, pumpkin. Cut to the point."
The taller Schnee coughed. "Right. So since you're," he gestured to Blake, "Already safeguarding our daugher's emotional health-"
"Pumpkin, that's not a real thing. It's just a lie the hippies made up to excuse their laziness."
"But Weiss does certainly seem a lot happier. Nothing we did could cheer her up since she cut her face."
"She's been eating better. Less nutritional unbalances."
The male Schnee coughed. "Right. What I meant to say was," he gestured to Blake, "Since you're already safeguarding our daughter's nutritional health-"
The other taller Schnee nodded reluctantly.
"We wanted to know if you would be willing to safeguard Weiss's physical well-being as well."
Blake blinked.
"I don't think it can talk, dear," said the other taller Schnee.
Blake flattened her face and cleared her throat. "what would that entail?"
Blake tried to hide her joy in seeing the other taller Schnee's shocked expression.
"You're already around her all the time, so it shouldn't be too hard to just keep an eye on Weiss, making sure she doesn't get into undue trouble." The taller schnee continued his spheal.
"We'll teach you to recognize danger, and teach you to handle the danger you can deal with, and to protect Weiss until help arrives to deal with the danger you can't deal with."
Blake nodded.
"We can train you in self defense and martial arts and weaponry. Weiss is learning the rapier, but her weapons instructor is familiar with other forms of fighting as well. When our sweetie resumes training, you can start. When she begins spellcasting, if you have the knack, we can enroll you as well."
"And we'll teach you how to blend into the darkness if need be, to keep her safe, from the shadows."
"like a ninja?"
"There will certainly be similarities to ninjas, yes." The taller Schnee smiled.
"And speaking of the bushido code," The taller Schnee pontificated, "- and we don't want to imply that it's at all likely, but we want to be upfront about the possibilities-," The Schnee cleared his throat, "So while we don't anticipate any life-threating dangers to our daugher, if they come up, we might ask you to give yours."
Blake shrugged.
The taller Schnee turned to his wife. "See? That's some loyalty, there."
"More likely that it realizes that if our daughter dies, we have no reason to keep feeding it." The other taller Schnee crossed her arms.
Blake blinked.
"So that's our offer. No pressure though; you can continue being our daughters, ah..."
"Being Weiss's 'Blakey'," smirked the gaunt maid.
"Yes, continue whatever that is, if you'd like. But consider this our formal offer to train you to be a secret ninja bodyguard…"
Blake blinked.
Then Blake smirked. "cool. i'm in."
You could also replace 'Plot Advancement' in the descriptor with 'Ninja's'