A/N Note: For those of you who've read the previous chapters or reading this fanfiction for the first time, you might be confused. To cut an explanation short, I wrote this story a long time ago during a time where I wrote for recognition instead of enjoyment. Now I want to re-write this story, and make it as good as it can possibly be the second time around. For archival reasons, I'll leave the previous chapters up marked Zero Version (ZV). I hope you enjoy the chapters to come.

I should also mention that this story is set in my Aftermath AU, which takes place 10 years after the events of RWBY. The grimm are gone, Salem is defeated, and humanity must carry itself forward. The focus is put on how the characters adapt to their new lives.

Blake Belladonna stood inside her bedroom, staring at the door that lead out into the hall. She knew Adam was waiting for her on the other side. He would never follow her into the bedroom but the rest of the apartment served as his hunting grounds. Blake opened the door.

"Hello my darling," he said.

"Get out of my way," Blake said. "Yang will be home soon and I have to make dinner."

"That woman is all you talk about these days."

"She's my wife."

"You're my wife!" He said. He stepped forward, brandishing Wilt.

Blake slammed the door and locked it. She braced herself against it with her full weight. She felt his fist beat against the wood.

"Come on. Don't be this way darling." He said.

The knob jittered, distracting Blake, and the door swung, knocking her to the floor.

Blake curled into a ball and put her hands between her ears and Adam's cooing. She shut her eyes and cried and felt him grasp her shoulders and she screamed and when she opened her eyes she saw Yang Xiaolong. She said something but Blake couldn't hear her.

After dinner, Blake curled next to Yang on the couch; sliding her arm in between Yang's, hugging her belly, and resting her chin on her shoulder. Yang would start their nightly ritual by turning the TV to the evening news and they would watch how fast the world was changing.

Adam watched them, standing next to the coffee table, crushing the hilt of Wilt with his hand. His mouth moved but Blake couldn't hear what he said, not when Yang was near. She tightly clasped Yang's hand.

You're safe, Blake told herself. You've always been safe. He died ten years ago. You saw it with your own eyes. You saw Yang throw him off a cliff and he broke his back on the rocks below. But they never found the body and that's why you know you're not safe. But you're safe as long as Yang is by your side so don't screw it up.

Blake kissed Yang and pretended to ignore Adam.

After they made love in the bedroom Adam dared not enter Yang said: "So the league is going to head up to Atlas soon. It's been a slow season here."

"You're not going are you?" Blake asked.

"I thought maybe we could talk about it."

"If you did go how long would you be gone? You aren't going are you?"

"Six weeks. Maybe sooner if the fights bring in the big crowds. Maybe later."

"I wish you stopped fighting ten years ago. Why can't you go back to police work?"

"Not that again. I wasn't cut out for police work. Too rigid. Besides the police don't like us ex-Huntresses."

"Why don't you take Pyrrha up on her offer."

"PI work's less consistent money than the league. Besides I like it and I'm good at it. Blake we need the money."

Because of me, Blake told herself, because your wife sees a dead man, but I know he's there and he wants to hurt me, hurt us, and if I leave, if you leave, he'll hurt me and you want to believe that's true but you can't.

"Oh I'm so sorry Yang," Blake said. She dug her nose into her shoulder and said: "You're so good to your schizophrenic of a wife that can't even leave the apartment. I'm so sorry."

"Hey don't talk like that," Yang said. She ran her fingers through Blake's hair. "Look I'll promise you this. When I get back we'll go on a trip. I'll book us a stay in a fancy hotel on the Mistral coast. We'll go swimming, we'll go see the plays, hit up the night life, shopping, all of that; and the bed will be so dirty with our love making the cleaning ladies will gossip about the mess. You'll have all the fun and I'll never leave your side so you won't have to worry about blindfold boy."

Blake laughed. "Oh stop it Yang. I don't want your extravagant trip. I want you. And stop acting like we're two borbatusks under the blanket; I wash these sheets you know."

Yang laughed. "OK then picture this," she said. She held her hands up like a director framing her scene. "When I get back I'll lock us in here and throw away the key and only answer for the delivery guy. We'll curl up with all the takeout and binge-watching you can imagine and we'll ruin this bed, instead of the hotel's, and you'll have all the fun and I'll never leave your side so you won't have to worry about blindfold boy. How do you like that fish, kitty?"

They both laughed. "I think I'll bite," Blake said and gently gnawed Yang's neck.

"Then it's settled," Yang said, but they both knew Adam waited on the other side of that door.