A/N: Hey! So last week e-mail notifications were down. Not sure if that's the case this week, but there's a chapter before this one! (Easy to miss since we're starting off the chapter with Angry Weiss (TM). Angry Ruby? Something big must have happened. Angry Weiss? Ah, it's Saturday again.)
And away we go!
- Fiercesomest
Weiss had checked and rechecked all the ties, traces, couplings, and buckles holding the sled and its gear together. The ice she'd used to help patch the bottom of the sled had cracks in it after the day's travel. Myrtenaster's chamber spun to blue and Weiss summoned a glyph to patch the slight damage, ignoring the approach of Blake's footsteps in the snow.
Stopping a few feet away, Blake stood and watched Weiss work. She crossed her arms, quietly waiting for the heiress to acknowledge her presence, her frown deepening a notch for every second she was ignored... which lasted for all of about five seconds before Blake's patience failed. Sidling right up into the heiress's personal space - a surefire method for garnering a response - Blake leaned back against the side of the sled, watching Ruby and Yang fit her catch onto the roasting mechanism. "You know, most people say thank you when someone brings them dinner," she said quietly, tone and expression flat.
Weiss dropped her glyph and turned to Blake with an icy glare, "I'm trying to work."
Blake simply raised a brow, unperturbed. "On what? Being antisocial?"
"On the contrary, there's a crack in our major means of transportation," Weiss jabbed a finger at the stress fractures in the ice at the bottom of the sled. She sighed, bracing her gloved hands on the sides. "Did you need something?"
For a while, Blake said nothing, amber eyes carefully searching Weiss's sharpened ice-blue for a trace of anything other than irritation.
"I need you to tell me what's wrong," she said at last, Faunus ears lifting from their curious tilt to stand at attention, "You're grouchier than usual."
"I am not 'grouchy'," Weiss snapped. She fastened her attention back on the sled, summoning her glyph with a flick of her wrist. Grumbling, she added, "I'm just trying to make sure we make it back to Beacon before another town ends up like this one."
Being on watch duty every night for more than a week didn't exactly help her general stress level. It was impossible to sleep in the sled during the day (at least for her) and there was always so much to be done around camp that she couldn't just collapse as soon as they picked a spot for the night. Plus, they now had a small child to worry about. Weiss set her jaw- she would deny all this to her grave, of course. At least to Blake, who had apparently decided to vie with Ruby and Yang for the 'most irritating person in the world' award.
There - just for a moment - Blake caught sight of it, buried alive underneath a mountain of prickles, the heart of the cactus. Exhaustion.
Lips pursed, the Faunus pushed herself away from the sled. "That's what we're all trying to do." She moved to leave, but turned back briefly to soften what had felt too much like a parting shot. "Come join us when you're done. Dinner will be waiting for you."
Answer in hand, Blake strode away without waiting for a response, making a beeline for her team leader.
Weiss glared after her, then focused back on her self-appointed task.
"Where's your face? Where's... There's your face!" Ruby laughed and nuzzled the tiny giggling Faunus in her lap who'd peeked up at her. It was a nonsense game she played with other little kids (and also Zwei), and it passed the time while they waited for the food to be ready.
Yang looked up from her task of evening out the pile of hot coals beneath the roast, "Blakey!" she called in greeting, sneaking a thumbs up to her sister, as there had indeed been no yelling.
Upon reaching the concrete, Blake flashed a smile to her partner, but was all business as she approached her team leader. "Ruby. Whatever you do, do not let Weiss take watch tonight."
Ruby looked up at Blake and went serious. "Is she okay?"
Robin clung to Ruby's cloak and looked up too, leaning her head back super far to see.
"No," Blake sighed, "But I imagine she'll be fine if we can just get her to rest."
"You'd have better luck getting a Beowolf to lie down and roll over," Yang almost laughed, but raised a brow when Drei actually rolled over at her command. She rubbed the dog's belly. "Come to think of it though, Weiss has been on watch like... every night."
"Yeah..." and Ruby had let her. They hadn't had much of a choice when they were booking it after Yang and Blake, and now that they'd found them... between not trusting them to stick around and not wanting to share a sleeping bag, Weiss had been awake half the night, every night. Not that the whole team hadn't been running low on sleep since the blizzard back in James Point... but the whole team hadn't been as injured as Weiss, and the rest of them had had nights off by now. Even if those nights off came with nightmares.
Truth be told, Ruby had kind of been hoping Weiss would sleep some during the day, but if she had, Ruby hadn't caught her doing it.
She bit her lip, trying to think whether to offer Yang and Blake a turn at watch (at the risk of the proposal being harshly refused by Weiss) or to take watch herself and hope for the best for Blake or Yang, whoever wound up sharing a bed with her prickly partner.
In the end, dinner came first. Blake's kill was a little gamey, and they didn't have much in the way of salt, but after a long day in the frozen mountains Ruby could have eaten tree bark and called it awesome. The meat was amazing.
Weiss didn't complain either. She scrubbed her plate with snow and shook it clean, "I volunteer for watch."
"Let me take first watch," Blake counter-offered, tipping a bit of her unfinished food onto Robin's immaculately clean plate, "I'm still wired from the hunt, and this," she gestured to the enormous amount of remaining roast, "still needs to be sectioned and smoked."
"Oh, then give me second watch," Yang added, raising the hand she'd been resting on Drei's head, "I'm feelin' pretty good after a hearty meal like this. I could make everyone breakfast!"
Weiss frowned, looking between the two of them, "What? No, you can't both be-"
"Sounds great!" Ruby banged her plate on the concrete slab she'd perched on and jumped at the unexpectedly loud sound. Robin looked up from the plate she was licking clean in Blake's lap, ears pinned back. Ruby grimaced, "Uh, right. Weiss and I will get some rest while you guys deal with the cooking."
The heiress opened her mouth but shut it again.
Ruby thanked her stars- even Weiss didn't want a repeat of the week of baked beans. "So that's all set."
Blake could practically feel the collective flood of relief from both Ruby and Yang once Weiss relented. Releasing a soundless sigh of her own, she pressed her face between Robin's Faunus ears, hiding a victorious half-smile in the little girl's hair.
"They're out cold."
Black velvet ears twisted to catch her partner's surprisingly passable attempt at a silent approach. Amber eyes lifted to meet amethyst, one brow raising in a silent skepticism that had the brawler lifting her hands and smiling.
"Okay maybe not cold, actually they look kinda warm and snuggly," Yang smirked, glancing over at the sleeping bag that currently held Ruby and Weiss.
In an effort to make sure their exhausted heiress had nothing to do when she eventually woke, the brawler had taken it upon herself to stay up a little bit longer and tidy up the campsite. As a result, she was able to watch exhaustion claim Weiss almost immediately - something she fully planned on mercilessly teasing her about later. She also got to see her little sister drop like a rock not minutes later, curling right up to the heiress in a bid for warmth that would more than likely end in some kind of embarrassed shriek come morning. Yang dearly wished their scrolls still worked so she could take a picture.
For now though, she sat beside Blake at the fire. Technically, it wasn't a fire at the moment, just a pile of smoldering wood - they had been lucky enough to find splintered remnants of what looked like it was once a nice set of hand-carved oak chairs. It smelled fantastic, and still gave off enough warmth that they had set up the second sleeping bag for Robin right beside it. The little Faunus was fast asleep, using Drei as a pillow and an extra source of warmth.
"You should sleep too."
Yang blinked, then shrugged, scooting close until her side was pressed up against Blake's. "Eh, I'm not tired yet."
Blake hummed in response, but said nothing more, quietly staring straight ahead, lost in thought.
They sat together in silence long enough for Yang to lose track of time, but with each stolen glance at her partner, the gradual darkening of those amber eyes made something in her heart twist, pulling at her until she just had to say something. "Blake-"
"I'll cover for you." Blake turned her head, looked her partner square in the eye.
Yang seized up. She didn't need to ask for clarification. She knew exactly what Blake was talking about - the same thing she'd been unable to stop thinking about, no matter how much she put on a smile for the team. Her heart sank into her stomach. "I'm..." She turned away, gaze dropping to the ground. "I don't think I can do it."
She couldn't bring herself to lie about something like this. Not to her friends... her professors. Some of the tension building in her shoulders bled away upon feeling Blake's hand come to rest atop her own. "I could never force Ruby and Weiss to carry a secret like that... or you," she met Blake's gaze evenly.
"I'm well-versed in secret keeping," Blake flicked an ear.
"...Okay, yeah, good point. But being a Faunus is just a teensy bit different from being a..." Murderer. The word died on her lips, but Blake squeezed her hand as though she'd said it anyway, and Yang tried not to think about the level of understanding flashing deep in her partner's eyes. "I... I have to own up to it."
"You already have," Blake looked as though she'd been about to say something else, Faunus ears flattening in what could have been frustration or sadness - Yang wasn't quite sure. She wasn't sure about of lot of things, lately.
"I mean, I guess have no idea what the consequence is for something like this... but I can't just... get away with it. That feels wrong." Yang's eyes strayed to her little sister. The villains, monsters, and killers in Ruby's story books always had to face justice in the end.
"Punishing you for an honest mistake - for something that's already happened and can't be changed feels wrong too," Blake frowned.
Yang's self-loathing eased up a bit. Another good point from Blake - a mistake was at least a few notches up from intentionally setting an endless horde of Grimm on an unsuspecting town. It didn't change the end result though... people had lost their lives. Sighing, Yang ran her free hand through her hair. "Maybe I'll... just get expelled or something."
Blake bristled, "I don't want another partner."
Yang pulled her hand from Blake's grasp in order to throw her arm around the scowling Faunus's shoulders in a show of what was ultimately false courage. "Aw, don't worry Blakey, who knows, they might fix you up with someone cute-"
"I'm serious," Blake growled, pushing Yang's hand from her shoulder and gripping the brawler's upper arm, "If Beacon expels you, I'm leaving too."
Eyes wide, Yang mirrored Blake's grip and tried to gently shake some sense into her. "Blake. No. That's stupid. I'm not letting you end your career as a huntress just because I-"
"We can go somewhere else," Blake cut Yang's refusal short, pressing onward when she realized her interruption had the brawler stunned. Yang wasn't the only one who'd been considering this subject at length. "There are three other schools we can apply to. Well, two anyway. Atlas... probably wouldn't be good for either of us, but I'm sure Sun and Neptune could put in a good word for us at Haven. Barring that, I've heard that Shade is very open to new students... doesn't ask many questions..."
Yang simply stared at her partner, dumbfounded. In time, she found her voice, but it was soft, hesitant. "You would... come with me?"
Relaxing her death grip on Yang's arm, Blake took a breath, and smirked. "What, did you seriously think I'd let you go it alone?"
The brawler bit her lip, holding back a surprised snicker and what may or may not have been tears at hearing her very own words parroted back to her.
Dropping the smirk for a gentler smile, Blake's ears began to twitch with nervous energy, but she pushed herself to keep going, confident that the darkness of the hour would keep Yang from noticing the warmth she felt creeping into her cheeks. "Yang, I fully intend on being your partner until we both graduate... and... and beyond. If you'll have me."
Partners sticking together after graduation was never a sure thing, many went their separate ways, formed temporary alliances between taking solo missions, which was all well and good, but Blake held her breath, hoping theirs could be a different fate.
Looking as though she had won the lotteries of all four kingdoms of Remnant simultaneously, Yang flushed and sputtered, trying to get her words to come out right. "I... Yeah. Yes. I'd like that a lot."
All at once, relief washed the weight of uncertainty from Blake's mind, leaving her with a light, almost playful feeling. "Good." Mentally marking that matter as settled for the time being, Blake switched tracks. Using the arm she already had a hold of, she pulled the brawler close, whispering into her ear, "Do you want to know what I'd like a lot?"
Yang nodded, spellbound.
Leaning back, Blake pointed to the sleeping bag currently holding Robin. "For you to get some sleep, so you can actually be awake for morning watch."
Spell broken, Yang pouted, but it lasted for all of a second before she grinned, crushing Blake to her chest in a steel-trap bearhug. "Blake, you are seriously the best, you know that?"
Blake rolled her eyes, managing to push her partner away just far enough to affectionately bump Yang's forehead with her own. "We'll see if I retain that title when I wake you up three hours from now."
Yang pulled her back in for one last squeeze before finally letting go and getting to her feet. "Sleep ain't got nothin' on you."
The compliment caught Blake off guard, but she recovered quickly, "That's high praise coming from someone who once took ten naps in one day."
"You know it." Shoes off and safely set aside, Yang threw a wink at her partner before carefully wriggling her way into the sleeping bag next to the little Faunus girl. Pulling her close, Yang let her eyes fall shut.
"Yang." Blake called softly. She continued only once her Faunus ears picked up her partner's nigh inaudible hum of curiosity. "You're the best, too."
Though the brawler didn't audibly respond, her lips curved in a slight smile - one that remained even as she slept.
A/N: Let's get some rest, guys.
Also congrats to you recent college grads! Have fun out in the big wide world!
- Fiercesomest