So after my first bumblebee two-shot…it's time to get back to Secret Base.
If you like my stories and want to support me, pay a visit to my profile and read the notes under 'announcement'. In short, you can donate to me to help me update faster!
I do not own RWBY.
#
Chapter 8: Friends Forever
It didn't take long for Dr. Torchwick, Weiss and Yang to reach Secret Base.
Topaz was the first to dash to the doctor wagging his tail as the blonde introduced them to each other.
Qrow and Summer went to shake hands with him and the girls took turn to introduce themselves. He wished Ruby happy birthday and the girl happily thanked him.
They saved the birthday cake for night time and proceeded to start the barbecue. First the adults set up the grill, followed by the preparing of food by the four girls. After everything was done they had started to grill the food and eat while chatting happily with each other.
And Yang couldn't help but kept stealing glances at the heiress whenever she had the chance; but she made sure none of them noticed.
She was longing to touch her more; to listen to her chuckle and to see her smile.
She would wait for the heiress, no matter how long it would take.
But what she didn't notice was another pair of eyes looking at the same person – a pair of quiet amber eyes.
Blake was way better than Yang at this, but there was a moment where both eyes stopped on the heiress at the same time and this didn't go unnoticed by each other. Blake quickly looked down while Yang looked away, pretending to play with her golden locks.
Is Blake…no, that's not possible.
Was Yang stealing glances at Weiss too?
Their minds were so occupied by thoughts and assumptions that they didn't notice the birthday girl calling them.
"Hey!" Ruby shouted with a louder volume and the two had finally snapped out from it.
"Are you two okay?" Weiss asked.
"Y…yeah." Yang scratched her head and Blake just smiled.
This can wait.
Never mind, I was probably thinking too much.
"Anyway what is it Rubes?" Yang tried to distract the pair of questioning eyes from the heiress by making use of little red.
"What?" She tilted her head, a moment later silver pupils widened and she put both her palms together, resulting a clapping sound, "Right! Let's play! I'm already done eating."
"Sure! What do you wanna play?"
"Ruby, moving around too much after eating will upset your stomach." Weiss crossed her arms, "If you want to play, play something that doesn't require big movements."
"Aww. I was gonna suggest playing tag."
"Uh, even I know to not run after eating." Yang teased.
Ruby pouted.
"Let's just sit here and chat." Blake suggested.
So Team RWBY had sat in a horizontal line on the ground near the huge rocks beside the lake.
"Okay! What do you guys want to talk about?" Ruby glanced at Weiss, Blake, then Yang.
And her eyes stopped at the blonde.
"Eh Yang, you let your hair down!"
The other three girls almost fell down.
"It has been like this since I came back here with Weiss and Dr. Torchwick, you dolt." Yang imitated Weiss' way of talking.
Ruby laughed while Weiss' face turned red with a scowl on her face – and even Blake couldn't control but chuckled lightly.
"Ah, stop laughing at me you dolt!" Yang crossed her arms and tried her best to pout like the heiress did.
"Yang Xiao Long."
"Okay…I'm sorry We-" Yang reverted back to her normal self and apologized but the heiress had instantly tackled her on the ground, not giving her any chance to continue her sentence. She sat on Yang's stomach, pinning her while pinching her cheeks with all her might, showing her disapproval of Yang's mocking.
"You…stupid…little…dragon…"
"Wuby! Bwake! Halp meeeee!"
Ruby laughed even harder looking at them – to the point where she rolled on the ground and almost choked. Blake on the other hand just shook her head and said, "You're on your own this time Yang."
"I'm shorry pwincesh!"
"Excuse me?!"
"I'm weally shorry Weish!"
"Hmph!" She released her hands, got up from Yang, and stomped to the cave to join the adults instead.
"She's angry of me…" Yang got up and dusted off the dry leaves on her clothes.
"Your teasing tends to go overboard sometimes…" Ruby said with a sheepish smile on her face.
"And, who, laughed, at, her, the, most?!" Yang attacked Ruby by cupping her cheek tight and moved her palms in a circular motion.
Weiss heard the sound of laughing coming from the group of girls a few moments later. She already made up her mind to let Yang thought that she was angry and let the girl be nervous.
But apparently it wasn't working.
She sighed and decided to take her time listening to Qrow and Summer talking about their missions with Roman. Most of them were interesting – until the man started talking about skirt lengths. And Summer didn't seem to mind an eleven year old child like Weiss listening to that.
Roman just laughed and proceeded to tell them about funny stories he encountered in his job. Although they were hilarious, Weiss couldn't focus on listening to him at all. Her attention kept being distracted by the group that was sitting beside the lake.
Debating whether she should forgive Yang for making fun of her or not, she felt a tap on her shoulder and she saw Summer when she turned around.
"Weiss honey, go join them. It must be boring with us here." She smiled in a motherly fashion.
"No no!" Weiss panicked and waved her hands, "It's not boring at all! In fact it was really nice hearing you guys talk, it gives me a lot of knowledge and lessons."
"Why thank you." Roman giggled.
"Tsk tsk ice queen, it's written all over your face~" Qrow smirked, pointing at the heiress' face with his index finger.
"W…what? Ice queen?"
"Qrow!"
"Whoops."
Weiss was pretty amazed by the resemblance between Qrow and Yang. If Yang said Qrow was her biological father she wouldn't even hesitate to believe her. Their attitude and the way of speaking were basically similar – the only difference was Yang's voice being more energetic and Qrow's was calmer.
"So? Going back to join them?" Qrow knelt down.
"I uh…"
"Forgive me but it's really obvious that you want to join them instead of staying here with us." Roman motioned his head towards his stepdaughter.
"Just go, Weiss." Summer encouraged.
"Alright." Weiss smiled, "Thank you."
"It's our pleasure." Roman touched his fedora and moved his head a little, just like how a cowboy gave salute.
The heiress walked towards RBY and Ruby was the first to greet her.
"Hey Weiss! Welcome back!"
"Hi Ruby." She took a look at the girls.
Yang was sitting the nearest to Weiss, to her right side was Ruby. Her previous position was in between Ruby and Blake but the black-haired girl had moved into her spot to get nearer to talk to both Yang and Ruby.
So her choice was to either sit beside Yang or beside Blake.
Naturally she went to the black haired girl.
"Aww princess, still angry at me?" Yang said as the heiress walked passed her.
"Hmph." She made a grunt with her nose while adjusting her skirt to sit down properly beside Blake.
Yang covered her face with both her hands and pretended to cry dramatically while Ruby kept patting her shoulder to comfort her.
"Weiss?" Blake whispered.
"Yes?"
"Yang didn't mean it."
"I know." She smirked, "Just want to let her be nervous a bit before telling her."
"She didn't show it but she probably felt guilty inside."
Weiss sighed. Yeah, she had forgotten about the blonde's tendency to bottle things up and never told any of them – as well as her habit of blaming herself if any unfortunate accidents involving the gang happened.
"Yang Xiao Long." She said as she straightened her back.
"Full name! Yes princess?"
"Stop calling me that! And do you understand why I was angry at you?"
"Yeah…" She scratched her head, "Am really sorry prin- Weiss."
"That's good." Weiss smiled, "What were you guys talking about just now? I can hear your laugh even from the cave."
"Ruby was telling funny stories that happened in the combat school she was studying at." Blake giggled, recalling the incidents that Ruby just told them.
"No fair! I want to know too!" Weiss squeaked.
"Don't worry Weiss, I have tons more to tell!"
#
It was around four in the afternoon when Ruby suggested playing tag – which all of them agreed before realizing that there wasn't enough space for them to run around.
Team RWBY dejectedly walked towards the adults to join them; they were presently sitting inside Secret Base, still chatting happily. Ruby was walking in front with Yang beside her, followed by Weiss and lastly Blake.
Summer saw them so she waved her hand and Ruby had burst into rose petals, leaping right into her mother's awaiting arms. The rest of the gang also quickened their pace towards the cave – and Blake tripped.
Yang and Weiss stopped instantly. The adults all rushed to Blake and everyone was trying to help her up. Sounds of concern filled the air instantly as the black-haired girl got up, assuring them that she was fine and that it was just a scratch.
But she felt something strange.
Firstly, every pair of eyes around her did not focus on her face or her injuries.
Secondly, she saw a black colored object on the ground.
A black ribbon made of silk.
Golden orbs widened as she felt a breeze directly with her ears – and it was not the human pair.
It was over.
Her secret of being a Faunus was no longer kept in the dark. Her best friends and their parents had seen her cat ears, which meant they knew that she wasn't a human.
She cursed her legs for tripping and her brain was in a total mess – she didn't know what to do.
"Blake, are you alright?" Yang said as Ruby who was beside her looked at her, silver eyes clearly concerned.
"N…no…I…"
This was it. Their friendship was doomed. Now that they knew Blake was not human, they would abandon her like how they always did in her nightmares.
And they had finally become reality.
She didn't know what to say nor what to do, so she did what she was the best at. Without delaying even a second her legs started moving and she ran.
Anywhere was better than seeing her best friends' disappointed expressions.
"Blake!" She heard Ruby's voice calling for her but she did not stop.
Tears spilled out of her eyes as she ran into the forest, not knowing her destination. She couldn't go home like this, her mother would question her about this and she didn't want to tell her that her secret of being a cat Faunus had been found out.
So where could she go?
She came to realization that she belonged to nowhere. She had no friends aside from Ruby, Weiss and Yang; she had no one to rely on.
Normally she would go to Yang if she had any problem and the blonde would gladly help her no matter how troublesome the problem was.
But she couldn't go to Yang now; in fact she was running away from her. After a few minutes of running she was near to the entrance. However before she could get out of Dragon Tears Forest she tripped again and hurt her knees.
The skin was torn off and it started bleeding. Blake was one of the members in Team RWBY that didn't unlock her aura so she had no choice but to treat it manually. Limping towards the entrance she slowly made her way onto the pavement path.
The first thing that came to her sight was another opening that she had always seen Yang entering. They wouldn't expect Blake to be in there so that was probably the best place to hide. She knew they were chasing after her but she didn't want to face them, because she was terrified.
She couldn't witness their friendship broke in front of her. It was destined to be destroyed anyway, so it was better to hide and not face it; at least it wouldn't hurt that much.
So she limped into the other opening of the forest while bearing with the throbbing pain coming from her knees.
#
"Blake! Where are you?!" Ruby shouted while she ran along the route towards the entrance of Dragon Tears Forest. She was the first to get out due to her semblance but there wasn't any sign of Blake around their usual gathering spot before departing to Secret Base.
Weiss was the second to arrive, followed by Yang, Topaz, Qrow, Summer and Roman.
"Why did she run?" Weiss said while panted for breaths.
"I don't know…" Ruby said as she tried her best not to cry.
"She must be really afraid of us finding out that she's a Faunus." Yang bit her lips, "Silly Blake."
"But why?! It doesn't matter if she's a Faunus or not! Blake is Blake!" Ruby cried.
"That wasn't how she was thinking." Yang shook her head, "It was my fault. I shouldn't have started to walk faster to join the adults."
"No it isn't." Qrow walked to the three girls and knelt down, "Her secret was bound to be found out sooner. She can't hide this from you forever. So stop blaming yourself firecracker."
"Qrow is right." Summer said, "Blake was afraid that you'll find out because she thought you wouldn't want to be friends with her anymore."
"But that's not true!" Weiss shouted.
"She doesn't know that." Qrow's lips curved upwards, "So you need to tell her."
"Yeah girls. Go chase her and tell her how you really feel." Roman said.
"But…but she doesn't want to see us…that's why she ran! If we chase after her she'll run again!" Ruby sobbed.
"If she runs again, you'll just to chase after her again." Summer smiled, "Just go, honey. She will understand if you tell her."
"That's right little red." Roman smiled too, "See, if you really value this friendship, you'll do anything to save it."
"Roman's right. You're the leader of Team RWBY honey. And you're a huntress wannabe. You can do this!" Summer encouraged.
"Yeah." Yang nodded, "Yeah Rubes, we can do this. I…I don't wanna lose Blake."
"We love her." Weiss added.
"Y…you're right guys…let's go get her!" Ruby sniffed and forced herself to smile, "Alright Team RWBY! Let's go get Blake back!"
"But where did she run off to?" Weiss frowned.
"Topaz!" Yang shouted as the dog sat down beside her and whined.
"What's wrong boy? You can't track her scent?" Ruby got near to the guilty-looking golden retriever.
"It's the smoke." Roman pointed towards the entrance, "The smoke from the barbecue. He must've inhaled it too much and he lost his tracking ability temporarily."
"Damn…what do we do?" Yang stroked Topaz's fur, "It's okay Topaz, it's not your fault."
"Think. If you're Blake, what would you do?" Qrow suggested.
"First of all, Blake doesn't want us to find her – she won't go to the places we all know, so her own house is eliminated. The school is closed on Sunday so it's unlikely." Yang deduced.
Weiss had an idea suddenly as she stood exactly in front of the entrance and looked around. The first thing that came to her mind if she were to hide was the vehicles.
"The cars, try look there!"
"Not likely, she doesn't want us to find her." Yang answered, but obliged anyway. The rest of the gang then followed her but Blake was nowhere to be seen around the vehicles.
"Should we call the police?" Roman said.
"No!" Ruby shouted, "No Uncle Roman! She'll be scared…she needs us! We'll find her! But…where…"
Everyone simultaneously looked around and soon a gasp was heard. They looked at the heiress as she pointed at the other entrance of Dragon Tears Forest.
"You don't think…?" Yang gulped.
"Maybe. It's possible." Qrow said.
"But it's dangerous to go there alone! We have to find her!" Ruby yelped.
"I'll go with Topaz, I'm familiar with that area!" Yang suggested.
"No Yang, Topaz and you should be separated." Summer said.
In the end, they had separated into four groups; Ruby and Yang would go into that entrance together with Weiss and Topaz but would go separate ways looking for Blake; Roman would wait here while Qrow would go back to Secret Base just in case she had found her way back and lastly Summer who would drive back to their house to check if Blake was there.
#
No matter where Blake walked, everything looked the same to her. She couldn't tell the difference.
She was officially lost.
This is bad…
Her knees had stopped bleeding but the dull pain was still present and it was slowing her down a lot. She started regretting running into an unknown area alone. She tried to go back the way she came in but she couldn't find any trace as the ground was covered with dry leaves.
After Dust knew how long of walking, the scenery started to change – there was an abandoned house not far from where she stood.
Maybe that was Yang's house. She felt relieved and her legs moved on their own, bringing her towards that house.
However, she came to a halt when her brain told her that her initial thought was to run away from her friend. She gritted her teeth; how could she be such a bitch? She ran away from her friends and now when she was in trouble she came back to them for help.
She shook her head to clear her thoughts.
What if that wasn't Yang's house? Maybe it was someone else's house…or maybe no one was living in it. But that was all just excuses to justify her own actions. She hated herself for having thoughts like this. Ruby, Weiss and Yang didn't deserve a friend like her.
Rustles of leaves was heard behind her, startling her as she turned around.
And amber orbs had met sapphire.
"Blake? There you are!" The heiress was struggling for breaths.
Blake could see how messy her clothes and hair were; she was probably running around the forest non-stop searching for her. Guilt washed her as she turned around, ready to run again.
"Blake, please…please don't run away anymore!" Weiss shouted.
Her voice was so fragile, as if it would shatter upon contact. It broke Blake's heart to see her best friend like this, so she used up all her might to force herself to stand still.
"Topaz, go tell the others we found Blake. Is that you and Yang's house?"
"Ruff!"
"Alright, go boy!"
"Ruff ruff!" Topaz took off, leaving the two girls there.
"Blake." Weiss stood there, not daring to step any further in fear that it would trigger Blake's tendency to run again.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have hid it from you. You must think that I'm disgusting…"
"Yes you shouldn't." Weiss huffed, "You shouldn't hide it from us. You should tell us who you really are."
Blake shrunk as she heard the heiress' angry tone.
"But no, you are not disgusting. You're you, we don't care if you're a Faunus. It doesn't make you any different."
"But…"
"Blake. We all love you. Ruby, Yang, Qrow, Summer, Topaz and even Roman, we all love you for who you are, not what you are."
Blake turned around, sobbing as she looked at the heiress.
"What makes you think we'll abandon you? Is our friendship this fragile? Is this how you see us?"
"No!" The Faunus shouted, "I've never doubted our friendship! You guys are the best people in the world and I don't wanna lose you!"
"Then why are you running away from us?!"
"Because I'm a Faunus! People hate Faunus!"
"People like Cardin hate Faunus. We're not anything like him and you know it!"
"But…"
"Ah-pup-pup-pup!" Weiss raised her hand to eye-level, "I don't wanna hear your excuses. Just answer me one question Blake. Do you love us like how we love you?"
"I…yes."
"That's good." The heiress smiled, "That all that matters."
Weiss then walked slowly to the Faunus while taking a good look at her – she was in a really bad shape. Her clothes were torn, probably by branches as she ran; her body was full of minor injuries like scratches and cuts but her knees looked really bad.
"Sit down." She ordered and the black-haired girl obliged without saying anything.
Weiss then knelt in front of her, putting her hand extremely near to the wounds on Blake's knee but far enough to not touch them. She then began to channel her aura to help Blake ease the pain. Blake sent her a questioning look and she just smiled.
"Schnee family always has to be prepared for battle. There are many business enemies who're jealous of us and we have the chance to be attacked anytime so my parents had me prepared."
A moment later the pain wasn't that bad already but Blake didn't stop crying.
"Thank you…I was really happy." Blake sniffed, "I was really happy when you came to me the first day we met. I was really upset but you reached out to me. You told me it's all gonna be okay and you smiled to me. Then you brought Yang and Ruby to me…it was the best day ever. I don't want to lose you all…I want to always be with you all."
"Of course you will be with us." Weiss spread out her arms, "Always."
Blake accepted the invitation and hugged the heiress tightly.
"Blake!" Ruby's voice was heard and soon the gang arrived.
The Faunus broke the embrace and Yang had taken this chance to pull the girls in for a big group hug. Blake indulged herself in the warmth of the people she loved the most in the world.
Friendship was just like one's life; it had ups and downs, happiness and sadness as well as hardships. It was a process that was necessary and through facing difficult times together they knew each other better and deeper, thus tightening the bond.
The bond would be tested through time and it was love that brought them all united as one, that made their friendship stand strong.
"We're going to be friends forever. No more secrets! Promise?" Ruby shouted with tears of joy rolling on her cheeks.
"Aye captain!"
"Promise."
"Of course."
Blake smiled from the bottom of her heart – she was truly happy to have such understanding friends like them and she no longer had to worry about them finding out her secret.
There would no longer be nightmares and fear.
Even if there was, she would go to them and seek for help.
For once in her life, she felt fully accepted.
She vowed silently in her heart that no matter what happened, she would not leave them. She would not run away again. Even if she ran, it would be to her best friends.
#
And they live happily ever after!
Just kidding. If I can't live happily ever after, neither can they! *evil laughs*
Anyway that's it for this chapter. The whole point about this chapter is the Faunus discovering and I had to add in so many events to make it 3k words length XD.
Things aren't always happy, let me tell you first. So be prepared for next chapter :D
