Yang, hunched over, dazed, and still gripping Ruby's hand, burst into flames.
A tangle of sounds- sharp cries of surprise and the clatter of abandoned chairs- followed as Curtis threw himself back and Weiss yanked Ruby out of her seat by her sleeve and collar.
"Hey, let go!" Ruby protested, shoving to get away from her partner.
Weiss tightened her grip, her arm around the struggling teen's waist to keep her clear of her sister's flames. She spat accusations at Curtis and Cyan, "You! Are you insane? What did you do? She's on fire. Blake."
Acting on instinct, Blake had thrown her arms around her human torch of a partner, quickly pulling the brawler's dead weight away from the table, but not quite fast enough to keep the tablecloth from catching fire. With one swift kick, she knocked Yang's chair out from underneath her before it could catch fire as well, gently guiding the disoriented blonde to sit in front of her on the ground, thankful for the stone tile flooring beneath them.
Shaky fingers gripped Yang's arms as Blake leaned forward, trying to catch her partner's eyes through her burning semblance. She'd only seen Yang's semblance act up like this once before, and Grimm toxins were not high on her list of things she wanted to encounter ever again.
"Yang - what's going on?! Say something!" A muffled groan was the only response Blake received as Yang hunched forward, burying her face in the Faunus's shoulder. Blake whipped her head around, eyes as wild as her partner's flames dancing harmlessly around her. "Someone get water!"
Ruby used her semblance to slip free, sending Weiss tumbling to the tile floor with an armful of rose petals.
Cyan was already fetching a pot from under the counter. Ruby snatched it from her hands, dropping it in the sink and cutting the tap on full blast. She urged the pot to fill faster, "C'mon, c'mon."
"Here," the other girl whipped a dish towel off the oven handle. Ruby dunked it and threw it to Blake.
With one hand, Blake snatched the towel out of the air and hurriedly draped it over Yang's head. For a moment, it seemed like the dampened fabric was helping the brawler start to cool off. Then it began to steam. The minuscule amount of water trapped in the towel evaporated in seconds, unable to keep up with the creeping intensity of the flames beneath it.
Stifling a curse, Blake grabbed the now-smoking dish towel and tossed it aside, instead wrapping her arms around her partner's shoulders and squeezing, as if she could will the flames away with a hug. She felt Yang push against her, muttering something unintelligible as she tried to get to her feet, but Blake held fast, determined to keep the brawler safely on the floor and away from anything flammable.
Ruby lost patience altogether and dumped the remnants of the tea from the stove top into the pot of cold water, and upended the mix over her blazing sister.
The sharp hiss of water meeting flame met her ears, and hot steam billowed up, catching her full in the face. Weiss wrenched the pot away from her hands to refill it while Ruby coughed and sputtered, feeling suddenly very strange. The young team leader reeled back against the table, shedding rose petals. She looked at her hands. They glowed a soft, steady red- her aura? "W-what?"
"It's the tea," Cyan choked, "It's supposed to stimulate the healing properties of-" she broke off, coughing.
Not caring much about the steam after a face-full of water, Blake wiped her eyes and pulled back to get a better look at her equally sopping partner. Despite looking as though she'd just climbed out of a pool, the brawler continued to smolder, small licks of flame still bursting forth from her skin here and there. Blake tilted Yang's face upwards with one hand, marveling at the thin lines where the brawler's cuts had already begun to heal over.
She watched like a hawk as her partner squinted - glassy amethyst eyes clearing further each time she blinked. "I think she's coming around... One more should do it. And Weiss-" Blake set her jaw, stealing a glance in the heiress's direction, "make this one ice cold."
Weiss rolled her eyes and poured the pot of tap water over her two sopping teammates. Her brow furrowed as she noticed the lack of burn marks on the bare portions of Blake's arms.
The first bout of steam suffused the air with a pleasant herbal scent. Ruby sprang to her waking sister's side, still sporting a halo of crimson light about her. Words tumbled out of her mouth, "Yang, are you okay? Er, Blake, are you okay? Are you both okay?"
"I'm fine," Blake sat back with a short sigh of relief, keeping a close eye on her partner.
Yang was shaking her head, pausing to rub her eyes. "Ugh. What a rush." With one last exaggerated blink, the brawler looked around, bewildered eyes wandering from the singed table cloth and upended chairs, to Weiss holding a dripping pot, down to herself and Blake, soaking wet, then finally over to her unusually luminescent little sister. "Wow, uh," Yang tried to wipe away the water blurring her view, but only succeeded in making it worse, "You ok sis? You're kind of glowing."
"Um..." Ruby gave Yang a once-over. Her sister's hair was white-gold. Wisps of steam rose from her clothes and skin. Beside her, Blake emanated bits of shadow.
Cyan let slip a bout of laughter, her every movement edged in blue.
Weiss's aura gleamed, soft and gentle and white. She dropped the steel pot back into the sink with a resounding clang. "This is not funny."
Curtis was beating at the smoldering tablecloth with a potholder. Ruby grinned a lopsided trying-really-hard-not-to grin, "Well, it's kind of funny."
"I'm sorry. I had no idea she'd have such a strong reaction," Cyan opened a drawer and passed another towel to Blake. "On the bright side, this bodes well for her hearing."
"It bodes less well for my tablecloth," Curtis examined the singed fabric with an air of resignation. His aura didn't seem to glow like the others, but then he was farthest from the action at the time. His narrow shoulders slumped and he gestured to a clipboard on the wall, "Remind me to make you fill out the forms next time."
The top yes/no checkbox question was Do you have a volatile semblance at all likely to react to medication?
He made a few more recommendations, mostly common sense about avoiding extremely loud noises and bat-wrangling without proper equipment. Cyan offered to let them spend the rest of the night, but the clinic only had beds and the mattresses were thin and the couch in the front room was short, even for Weiss.
Ruby leaned close to consult her sister, worry in her silver eyes, "Think you can make it back to the cabin?"
Yang leaned in the rest of the way, pressing her forehead to Ruby's and smiling. "... What?"
Blake rolled her eyes at the sisters, allowing herself a small half-smile. Yang's cuts were nearly invisible, and the heat from her semblance had already dried her hair and clothes, but on a field mission where Grimm could attack at any moment, they would have to keep a close eye on her until her hearing returned.
After making sure that Yang was indeed capable of walking, if a little wobbly, and only after Yang insisted she help Blake dry off with an impromptu flaming bearhug that nearly gave Weiss a heart attack, the four finally bid their thanks and farewells to a surprisingly alert Cyan and a very sleepy Curtis, promising to have the brawler check back in with them in two days.
The trip back to the cabin was unexpectedly lively, with Ruby constantly nudging her sister and pointing out random clusters of stars for which Yang promptly made up constellations and ridiculous backstories. Blake and Weiss served as the silent bookends of the line, each walking beside their respective partner, lost in their own winding trails of thought. Blake's centered on keeping watch - with her superior night vision, she had seen the bell tower in the distance.
If they were still going to keep watch, Yang was obviously out of the question, and Ruby... Blake eyed her team leader, noting each catch in her voice, each slip of her features, each telltale twitch of nervous body language. The younger girl wasn't that great at hiding her worry for her older sister. As they neared the cabin, Blake reached across behind Yang to tap Ruby's shoulder.
"Ruby. Weiss and I can keep watch this evening."
"Huh?" Ruby tugged her cloak a little closer at the collar, "Oh, keeping watch. Right. Um..." her sister couldn't hear, and it was kind of her fault- she was the leader and she'd approved the plan, after all. Taking care of her team always took first priority, and taking care of Yang, well... Ruby rubbed her neck, turning to her partner, "Do you mind, Weiss?"
"Of course not," the heiress said without breaking stride. Her hair was a cascade of silver when the moon emerged from the clouds beginning to crowd the open patch of sky, "Just don't forget to write up your report for Beacon. I'll proofread it in the morning."
The dark-haired girl gave a nervous laugh and started thinking of ways to make Yang getting mauled in the face and losing her hearing not sound quite so bad. She dragged her boots with the weight of that particular responsibility.
They arrived back at the cabin in short order. Ruby shed her boots and steered Yang towards the single small bathroom to get cleaned up. "C'mon, sis, you've still got some dried blood in your hair and it's gross."
Meanwhile, Weiss collected her sleeping gear off the couch and waited for Blake to retrieve her own from upstairs. Ruby had informed her that she and Yang had run into the head of the watch in the afternoon while gathering supplies for the ill-fated bat trap and had been fully approved for participation at the bell tower.
Weiss had a suspicion that the go-ahead had been somewhat reluctant when it came to her personally, but if Ruby said it was fine, it would probably be fine. The heiress shifted her bedroll to get a better grip. Her performance certainly wasn't going to give anyone any grounds for objections. "Blake, are you coming?"
With one last parting half-smile and wave as the sisters ducked into the bathroom, Blake grabbed her bedroll and a simple black capelet coat from her bag, pulling the heavy fabric around her shoulders as she descended the stairs to stand beside Weiss. "Let's go."
The streets were dark and quiet. Much more so without the talkative sisters. Many of the stars had vanished from overhead. Somewhere a dog barked. The trees higher up among the crags whispered, stirring in a breeze that didn't reach the valley floor. The ground was hard, beginning to set in a serious freeze. Weiss took a deep breath, drinking in the night air, testing it. It smelled like snow.
Many of the streetlamps had been put out for the night, but James Point was a small town, so navigating was simple. They reached the bell tower without incident.
The heiress paused, her hand on the vertical bar of iron that served as the imposing structure's front door handle. She turned to Blake in the low light of the lamp at the corner, "Can I ask you something?"
Blake's head tilted. "Of course."
"Back at the clinic, when Yang's semblance 'flared up'," Weiss made air quotations. She frowned, searching Blake's face in the shadows, "... you didn't get burned."
Silence stretched between the two as Blake considered her reply. It had never been expressly secret that her partner's semblance was no longer a threat to her (and hadn't been a threat to Ruby probably ever), but she knew Yang was hesitant to mention it for fear of making Weiss feel left out. Still, Blake knew how the heiress valued honesty, and since she was asking directly...
"Technically, that's not a question," Blake finally retorted, the hint of a smile pulling at the edge of her lips. "But you're right," her eyes drifted sideways, staring off into the distance. "Yang's semblance hasn't affected me for a while now."
The heiress dropped her hand from the door at the top of the steps and crossed her arms, "I hope that's not the entirety of the explanation you're going to give after what happened tonight. I thought you were being burned alive."
Blake cringed at that. "Sorry, Weiss. That... must have looked pretty bad." She crossed her arms as well, more out of an attempt to keep her bare fingers warm and out of the biting wind than as a testament to her mood. Gloves really would have been a good thing to bring. Or Yang... Blake mentally slapped herself. Now was not the time to pine for her personal human space heater.
It was just a bit of cold. She could handle it. Blake quietly thanked the darkness for hiding whatever blush might be creeping across her cheeks as she collected herself. "As far as an explanation, well, I don't really know how it works. When Yang tried to explain it..." her voice trailed off as she tried to remember her partner's exact words.
It looks like you're part of the family now, Blake... A tiny crease appeared between Blake's brows as they furrowed in thought. What did that actually mean? She hadn't really thought to ask for further clarification at the time, and bringing it up after the fact would have only dredged up memories of an extremely unpleasant time.
At least, she assumed that was why Yang had never once brought it up again. That pesky blush returned as Blake did her best to avoid thinking about any other possible implications. "She... didn't explain it well. My best guess is it has something to do with... mutual affection?"
"Mutual affection?" Was Blake blushing? Weiss leaned to get a better angle and almost fell of the stairs. She recovered her footing and dignity at once, though she could feel heat rising to her face to mirror her teammate's flush.
Weiss decided to blame her own blush on the cold and soldiered on. "How do you want me to interpret that exactly? Does Ruby know about this?" she gestured with one hand to encompass the whole situation- Blake, the not-burning, the 'mutual affection'.
She recalled the way the Faunus had been hanging off of Yang the previous evening. Hadn't those two spent the entire night together back at the cabin? Weiss scowled to distract from the deepening shade of red painted across her features.
The darkness couldn't hide the heiress's flush from Blake's night vision, throwing the already-embarrassed Faunus into a slight panic. "Weiss, no, it's not... At least I don't think- I... we..." She froze, not from the cold, but from sheer mortification. Was she really having this discussion with Weiss Schnee? The heiress did bring up a good point though. Did Ruby know she wasn't the only one immune to Yang's flames now? ...Or that her big sister was an incorrigible flirt?
Wrangling her features into a relatively calm expression, Blake slowly took in a deep lungful of air that was just a bit icier than she normally preferred, imagining her nerves as the small white puff of breath gently drifting away and disappearing into the night as she exhaled. She shifted her two armed grip on her bedroll over to one arm, bringing her hand to cover her burning face, exchanging some heat to her icy fingers in the process. "I'm not sure... But if you really want to talk about this can we please at least do it inside, and not out here in the cold?"
"Are you kidding? It's a bell tower. There's no heat," besides, Blake was avoiding her gaze, bow flat against her head, and that was a rare sight indeed. Weiss went so far as to stand with her back against the door in case the other girl had any more ideas of retreating inside. She continued the interrogation, mouth quirking at one edge, "So you're saying you're not sure about Ruby? Or you're not sure what kind of mutual affection you and Yang have? I take it nothing's official."
"No-nothing-is-official," Blake's tone reached a pitch far higher than her usual low register. She stole a glance at Weiss through her fingers, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole when she caught the beginnings of a smirk on the heiress's face. "Ruby probably knows, I guess, and do we have to talk about this right now?"
"So Ruby knows," Weiss pressed her advantage, merciless, ice-blue eyes sly and full of mirth as she brushed a loose strand of hair back behind her ear. "Are you sure? Did Yang tell her? I'm pretty sure I would have noticed before Ruby."
For a fleeting moment, Blake considered turning and simply walking away, but she had run from Weiss once before, and it hadn't gotten her anywhere.
"Weiss Schnee." Blake growled, stepping forward and bringing herself face-to-face with her ruthless teammate, bearing a scowl that could rival one of the heiress's own. "Are you going to stand there and tease me all night, or are we going to go keep watch like respectable huntresses?"
The use of Weiss's full name had more of a sharpening than an intimidating effect on the young heiress. This was to be expected: the Schnee family name was one to be respected and feared... by others. Weiss raised her chin a fraction of an inch as Blake took her stand on the stair below her own and met the Faunus's scowl evenly.
"You're right, Blake," Weiss wielded the other girl's name with a light touch, as if it were made of crystal. She opened the door and held it, her amusement unfaltering, "We should get to work. Besides, I can stand and tease you just as easily at the top of the tower."
"And I can continue to ignore you just as easily," Blake muttered darkly as she stormed past her treacherous teammate and up the spiraling staircase. Honestly, why was Weiss so interested in this particular topic anyway? Surely the heiress had better things to do than meddle in - Blake froze. Her Faunus ears twitched forward, picking up a distinct sound even through the echoes of her heavy footsteps. A distinct,very unlikely, and very confusing sound.
Curiosity pulled her up the stairs two at a time, leading her to the wooden trap door that she threw open without a second thought, where she came face to face with... an orange ball of fluff. The ball of fluff mewed at Blake, bright blue eyes staring up into utterly perplexed amber. Her ears weren't playing tricks - it was a kitten.
"Ouch," said a voice behind Blake. Jack, the blonde-ish boy who had carried Weiss's bags their first day, held his head, grimacing. He had circles under his eyes and wore a thick scarf tucked into his coat. It looked like the trap door had knocked into him when he was bending over, or something. He lifted the door a little and a second kitten scurried out before he met Blake's gaze, "Uh. Hi?"
"Blake what-" Weiss checked at the top of the stairs. She had a hand on Myrtenaster, because Blake running usually meant trouble. Now she stared in open skepticism at the pair of fluffballs exploring the piles of junk shoved up against the outer walls. "... are those kittens?"
"Yeah, I, uh, kind of brought them up. I figured you could use some company on watch," the boy continued to muss his hair and grinned uncertainly at the two huntresses-in-training.
Blake had stopped listening the instant she caught sight of a second kitten, small, gray, and currently trying to tackle the orange one to the floor from its high perch on the junkpile. Hopelessly charmed at first sight, she started heading in their direction when she spotted a third one - a tuxedo kitten curled up inside a long-since-emptied-out can of what was probably once lamp oil. Weiss and teasing and pretty much all else were stricken from her thoughts, replaced with the desire to simply hug a kitten. Her path was intercepted when the gray kitten suddenly made a beeline for her legs.
"Well hello there," Blake stooped down and reached a hand out, not even bothering to hide her smile as the tiny creature scrambled up her arm, pinprick claws digging into the thick fabric of her coat for purchase. The kitten's series of tiny mews as it reached Blake's shoulder nearly stopped the Faunus's heart, and she tilted her head just slightly to nuzzle its soft fur. When the mewing turning into purring, it took everything she had not to purr right back. "It's nice to meet you too."
The heiress crossed her arms tight over her chest, lecturing Jack up and down for bringing such an obvious distraction to a job requiring nothing short of unwavering vigilance. She ignored the gray kitten climbing Blake, the black-and-white kitten curled up in the tin can, the orange kitten with its bright eyes and tiny tail exploring the edge of the trap door. But its whiskers were so little and cute... she tore her attention away, back to the shrinking watchman, "Honestly, you... you..."
The orange kitten tumbled off the landing, down onto the top step by Weiss's boots.
"... should I...?" Jack made a motion to collect the kittens up and go.
"... no. Yes. We're relieving you," the white-haired girl pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. "Just leave."
"The kittens can stay though," Blake chimed in, heading back over to Weiss's side. "We could use some company during our watch," she gently plucked the mewing gray bundle of fuzz from her own shoulder, placing it on the heiress's instead. "Right?"
Emerald green eyes honed in on ice-blue, one tiny paw reaching out to bat at Weiss's earring.
The white-haired girl froze, opening her mouth and snapping it shut again as the kitten clung to her coat. It took her a second to regain the power of speech and bring it and an icy glare to bear on Jack, "You. Gone. Now. We're more than equipped to handle the rest of the watch."
The effect of her dismissal was somewhat diminished by the gray kitten toying with her left earring. Her eye twitched in the small light of the lantern Jack had retrieved from the edge of the wall.
"Right. Uh, yeah," he said, hopping down through the trap door so Weiss didn't have to move out of the way. "Just let the kits' mom up if she comes yowling."
The heiress remained rigid until she heard the heavy thump of the bell tower's oaken doors being opened and shut. Then she gathered the ball of fuzz from her shoulder to her arms. She crouched down so the kitten wasn't so high off the ground, absolutely melting as she addressed the kitten, "Hi. Hi~ Are you so sweet? Are you? Look at you and your little paws~"
It wasn't often her human cactus of a teammate showed this far sweeter side of herself, and Blake found she quite enjoyed seeing it now that the sheer outpouring of affection wasn't being aimed at some suspicious, overly-friendly mailbox dog. With a knowing smile, she crouched down as well to scoop up the orange kitten trying and failing to scale Weiss's legs, using one of its 'little paws' to boop the preoccupied heiress's nose. "If only you were as nice to people as you are to animals."
Weiss half-glared at Blake and accepted the orange kitten into her arms.
"Maybe if people were more like animals, I would be," she scratched the gray kitten's ears, a smile sneaking across her face as the tiny creature closed its eyes and rattled with kitten purrs. The little ball of fuzz didn't care about her name or her status as a Schnee. It wouldn't lie or pretend, wouldn't hold her to a complicated set of expectations. It was simply a kitten who must feel warm and safe enough to stay in her arms and let her scratch its ears for the time being, and would soon be wanting food or its mother and, well, that was that.
A breeze found its way down the steep mountainside, gusting flakes of snow into the open bell tower. They were barely visible in the burnt-orange light from the street lamps below.
The heiress rose, still cradling the two bundles of fur, "We should be keeping watch."
A strange look overtook Blake's features as she watched Weiss head over to the edge of the junkpile, kittens in hand. If people were more like animals?... The raven-haired girl put a hand to her face, wincing for only a moment at the coldness of her own fingers.
Sometimes she seriously wondered if Weiss occasionally forgot about her Faunus heritage, or if she was just that unaccustomed to thinking about how her words might come across to one. Still, the other girl had once expressed a desire to learn, so it would be a disservice to let such a remarkably awkward offhand comment fly.
Blake followed Weiss's lead, heading towards the half-wall of the open tower and going straight for the sleeping kitten inside the oil can, effectively ignoring the comment about keeping watch as she picked up and cradled the slowly awakening black and white kitten in her arms. It blearily opened one yellow eye and mewed in appreciation of the newfound warmth of Blake's arms.
"Hm, that's funny," the Faunus laid a kiss to the small creature's nose - a creature she had, at one time, hated with a fervor for being a representation of the unique source of discrimination she faced, but also a creature she had grown to love, as she grew to realize the problem lay not with herself, but in those that were blinded by prejudice. Weiss's questioning gaze pulled her from her reverie, and the edge of her lips quirked as she pointedly flicked one of her Faunus ears beneath her bow. "I've found that the closer your kinship with animals, generally the worse your treatment becomes."
Wiess colored, turning to survey the streets below so Blake wouldn't see the depth of her mortification. "That's not what I... I just meant that they're..." she held the kittens in her arms a little closer, shielding them from the chill of the wind and lightly falling snow. Her voice was soft, "Well, you don't have to hide anything from them, is all."
"True," Blake admitted, her steps smooth and efficient as she came to stand beside Weiss, wondering briefly at just how much of the city her human teammate could see through the snow-riddled darkness. The kitten in Blake's arms had already fallen back asleep, spurring the Faunus to keep her voice low, amber eyes alight with curiosity as she cast a sidelong glance at the subdued heiress. "What exactly are you hiding, Weiss?"
The heiress remained silent, watching the snow, remembering the night she left home for Beacon. It had snowed then, too. The cold was sharp in her lungs and her breath hung as a mist in the air when at last she sighed, "Let's talk about something more important, like who takes first watch. We should be able to get by with one shift apiece- it's practically morning, after all."
In a rare moment of graciousness, Blake let the matter drop, and offered to take first watch, handing Weiss the final kitten and watching with a half-smile as the heiress settled down on her bedroll with the three balls of warmth - on the other side of the tower for some reason - sleep taking her shortly thereafter.
A/N: ... or so Blake thought, while in reality Weiss was still kicking herself over that people and animals comment. OUCH, but at least no one's on fire!
Tune in next week for more of our special brand of awkwardness/mayhem/personal injuries!
- Fiercesomest