It was a little past one in the morning, and Blake was struggling not to fall asleep on the empty bull head. There was just a couple of minutes left in the flight, and if she wasn't careful, she might get stuck on the next flight back to Vale and spend the rest of her night sitting only half comfortably on the air equivalent of a bus seat.
Blake was trying to think about Detroit and what Rabbit had said to her about life dealing them bad cards, but she was too exhausted from the excitement that went down in the parking lot to think clearly. She felt her head begin to lean down to her right shoulders, and her eyelids grow to heavy to hold.
But thankfully the ride back to Beacon was over as the bull head landed with a soft thud on the academy's helipad. Blake, while struggling, managed to sit up from her seat, and despite it being uncomfortable beckoned her to sit back down.
The platform on the back of the bull head was lowered, and revealed the long empty stone trail leading up to the front doors of the academy, lit only by the light of the moon and the stars. Blake sighed, and begun the home stretch up to her dorm.
The walk down the empty path felt as lonely as it looked. The bull head had already taken off, leaving Blake with just the sound of her heels clacking against the stone. She was alone with no one to talk, watch, or listen to. She probably wouldn't even notice herself with all the black she was wearing.
The path way seemed to stretch back and forth, seemingly never ending. But it must, everything has to come to an end at some point. The only thing that could have made her trek more depressing would for it to be cold, but luckily the climate at Beacon was much warmer than Detroit.
At the thought of that, Blake realised that she should take her jacket off and make it easier to slip into her pajamas when she eventually got back to her dorm. She pulled the zipper down towards her waist, and took off the jacket. But she didn't bother to tie it around her waist and instead just clutched it with her right hand, barely keeping the sleeves from dragging on the ground.
The walk that seemed to last for an eternity finally came to a stop as Blake reached the front gates into the school. She pushed one of the doors open, and walked into the front room, closing the door behind her.
The elevator to the north dorms was to her left, and thankfully only a few yards away. She perked up knowing that it wouldn't be long now. She walked to the elevator and hit the button that immediately turned a faint yellow.
After a few moments passed, the elevator reached the ground floor and greeted Blake by opening its doors. She stepped inside and hit the button that would bring her up to her floor. The doors on the elevators shut and the ascent begun.
After twenty or so seconds passed, the elevator began to slow, and stopped at her dorm's floor. She exited the elevator, which proceeded to close its doors as she walked down the corridors of the complex leading to her room.
After making three turns, and walking down a seemingly endless hallway, Blake finally made it to her room. She pulled the handle down, and opened the door, letting the soft hallway lights paint a picture of her silhouette in the door frame in the dorm room.
Everyone was asleep in their respective beds, not even noticing she was present. Blake walked in and shut the door quietly behind her, not wanting to wake any of her teammates up. She fumbled around her dresser and found her kimono that she wore as pajamas.
She lazily walked into the bathroom to get changed, and turned on the light. It was whiter and colder than she remembered, which only motivated her to get changed and get to bed quicker. She undressed from her normal attire, and smoothly slipped into her black kimono.
She walked out of the bathroom, and tossed her clothes and jacket on top of her dresser. She lumbered over next to her bed and placed her scroll on the small book rack. Blake raised her arm up to her head, and reached for her bow, but was met with nothing but her unconcealed cat ears.
Her adrenaline almost kicked in, worried about where she must have forgotten her bow, but she remembered that she used it as a tourniquet for Rabbit's friend. In the end it didn't matter, she had spares. She relaxed and pulled back the sheets to her bed, lied down on the mattress, and pulled the blanket and sheets back on her. In a matter of seconds, she was out cold.
It was as if the world had changed and crossed into a different dimension. A dimension that is as vast and timeless as infinity, with no light or dark but a grey line between the two. And from the endless depths came a noise. While vague at first, it soon made its presence clear, so clear it was a wonder that it was ever vague in the first place.
"Bl-" It beckoned
"Wa-up!"
It was loud, it sounded unlike words but rather mere sounds. It was unpleasant to the ears of the beholder, but at the same time far from distorted or painful. Then the sounds were deciphered, second nature had returned and the contents of the sounds were made both clear sense.
"Blake. Wake up!" came a high pitched voice.
Blake picked her head up, realizing Ruby was telling her to wake up and get ready.
"What time is it?" Blake mumbled.
"It's seven thirty, and if you're not going to start getting ready soon we're going to miss Penny's fight." Weiss replied.
Blake sighed and stuffed her face in her pillow. A few moments passed and she lifted head up followed by pulling the sheets off and lowering her feet to the ground. She was tired but she knew she would wake up buy the time she got in the shower. She needed about thirty minutes to take a shower and get dressed. Thankfully the fight didn't start until eight forty five.
Ruby was already fully dressed and ready to walk out the door, Yang was grooming her hair in front of the mirror but other than that was ready, and all Weiss had to do was put on her boots. Blake stood up from her bed and walked over to her dresser, picking out her usual outfit.
She made her way to the bathroom and shut the door behind her.
Blake walked out of the steaming bathroom, fully dressed aside from her missing bow. She walked back over to her dresser and switched out her night wear for her spare bow, tying it to her head, hair still damp.
"Ready?" Ruby asked in a positive tone.
"Yeah." Blake replied as she grabbed her scroll from the book rack.
Ruby was the first out the door and was followed by Yang and Weiss with Blake being last. As they made their first few steps out the door, Yang decided to spark up a conversation.
"So Blake, what had you so busy yesterday? You didn't get back until early this morning. I heard you come in at one thirty, and from the looks of it you were exhausted."
Blake knew she had to choose her next words wisely. If she told her about Rabbit right off the bat, or even at all, Yang will try to make it a bigger deal out of it than it really is. Especially if she went into detail of just about anything.
"I went for a walk across town, stopping and looking at the stands for the festival." Blake replied.
"For fifteen hours?" Yang said, questioning the truth in Blake's explanation.
Blake had already messed up. She didn't add nearly enough detail to fill all the gaps and small holes, and she knew Yang was picking up on it.
"Well I was at first, but before I knew it I got a little lost." Blake couldn't stop now, she had to tell her the full story, but tell it in a way as innocently as she could.
"Apparently I walked all the way from Vale to Detroit, a small city just a little south of the kingdom. I took a look around but didn't plan on staying long. That was until there was a big fight in a parking lot and someone pulled a gun. He accidentally shot himself in the leg, so his friends and I drove him to a hospital. By the time we got him to the hospital and one of his friends got word of his condition, it was already dark and I had no idea where I was. That same friend of his showed me to a bus stop at his place which could take me back to Vale. I got on the bus and he came with to make sure I made it to the right stop. From there I just walked back to the bull horn and took the first flight back to here." Blake said, hoping Yang would would take her explanation with no follow up questions.
Ruby gave a whistle, almost as if to say 'wow' as her reaction. By now the team had made their way out of the front doors of the academy and were making their way down the filled stone lane to the helipad, where crowds of students were being picked up by the bull heads.
Yang stopped dead in her tracks, and the rest of team rwby stopped to see what was the matter. Yang turned around and gave Blake a long intense stare into her golden eyes with her lilac ones. filled with skepticism. Blake gave a confused innocent look, hoping Yang wouldn't catch on to anything she might have said that could be used against her.
It took eleven seconds pass, but Yang eventually turned around and continued walking to the bull heads, leaving the rest of her team slightly behind her and confused. Ruby Weiss and Blake all quickly walked back up to the blonde who was acting strange for some reason.
It took them all a moment to realize it, but they cracked the code. Yang was thinking. Not to say she was dumb and didn't put any thought into anything, but she was focusing and giving it her all. Her teammates watched as they saw the serious look of thought change to a smug grin. Blake was screwed and she knew it. Why did she ever think she could keep Yang from making something sensual.
"You know…" Yang started
"I noticed you ditched your bow, which you held out from even showing us, and were extremely tired when you got back. And didn't you say the bus stop was at his place?"
Everyone knew where this was going, and Blake didn't like it. Yang gave a fake gasp, pretending to just realize what she was saying.
"Blake Belladonna, I never took you for the type to ditch your friends to partake in such naughty deeds. So tell me," Yang said, both making Blake blush and stopping to put her arm around her.
"Did it feel good?" She whispered in Blake's ears.
The words sent shivers down Blake's spine and made her face as red as Ruby's cape. Blake took a second to imagine doing those things, but immediately snapped herself out of the thoughts and smacked Yang's arm off from around her shoulder and stepped away from the blonde, who burst out laughing.
"Hahahaha! You should have seen your face!" Yang said, still cracking up from embarrassing her teammate.
Blake's look of bashfulness changed to that of annoyance, her face returning to it's normal pale color but small bits of pink lingered along her cheeks. Within the small amount of time she spent with Rabbit, she showed her vulnerable side to him, and from what she could tell he did the same.
"Yang that's not-"
"Yang, Xiao, Long," Weiss cut Blake off out of nowhere.
"We are here to train and become the next defenders of humanity, not be victims to your perverted sense of humor. The way you are acting right now is about as close to immature as you can get." Weiss said in a defensive tone.
"Geez Weiss, I'm just playing." Yang said, not taking her comments personally. The group restarted their trek to the bull heads, leaving the moment behind them. Or at least for now. Weiss turned to Blake and quietly spoke to her but not quite a whisper.
"I got you covered. She tries to pull that stuff with me too." She said with a smile.
"Thanks." Blake replied, cherishing this rare moment where she and Weiss actually act like the close friends they are.
The group reached the end of the long trail where the dozens of students waited for the bull horns to arrive and take them to the stadium. The flight up was about fifteen minutes, which made sense seeing as how it was practically in the mesosphere.
The team waited for five minutes in line, or rather the mass of people that was huddled up, to board the next bull head. Luckily they all made their way to the front successfully to shorten the wait, although Ruby did almost get lost and trampled about four times. Although socially standing out was the major problem for her being two years ahead of the rest of the academy, actually being shorter than everyone else gave her a hard time as well.
The ascent to the clouds was a peaceful one, they bull heads while full, were still spacious enough to give everyone small amounts of personal space. Blake thought of what she said to Rabbit about enjoying the time she spent with him. She didn't want it to be a one time thing, but she didn't know how to strengthen the small friendship they share.
She remembered that she had his number on her scroll. She also remembered Yang and Weiss were going to be fighting after penny. Although Blake herself wasn't participating in the tournament herself, she figured this would be as good of an opportunity as ever to get a little closer to him.
She reached into her pocket and took out her scroll, extending it to access the screen. She put in her password and went into messages. She saw Rabbit's contact sitting at the top due to being most recently added. Blake looked to her right, Yang was sitting next to her and was currently talking to Ruby the next seat over.
Blake contemplated if texting him was worth the risk of Yang seeing her. On one hand she knew she wouldn't survive trying to deny the concrete proof being friends with Rabbit and the relentless onslaught of gossip talk Yang would put her under. But on the other hand she wouldn't know when she would be able to talk to Rabbit next which could end a potential friendship with someone she enjoyed talking to.
A few seconds passed and Yang was still distracted and talking to Ruby. Blake decided to risk it, with any luck she can make it quick and be done before any of her friends notice. Blake looked back down on her scroll and tapped on Rabbit's name, which opened up the empty conversation screen.
She began typing her message as quickly as she could without misspelling a word, although she wouldn't risk trying to go back and fix any mistakes.
"Hey. My friends Yang and Weiss are going to be competing in the tournament in a few about an hour. They're the going to be in the second fight in case you want to watch." Read her message as she hit send. Thankfully none of her teammates have noticed her yet. Her scroll vibrated as Rabbit replied.
"Sure. I don't got shit else to do and ma's at bingo. Lily and I got the place to ourselves for a couple hours." Said his text.
Blake took a moment to think, he didn't mention a Lily when she saw him last. Mabey she was a friend or something, but it didn't bother her but she was still curious to who she was.
"Lily?" She replied.
"Sorry, I forgot to mention she's my little sister. She's only five but I don't think she'll mind watching the tournament." Rabbit responded. Blake felt slightly easier knowing who Lily was, but she wasn't entirely sure why.
"Cool." She sent, finishing the conversation.
"So you were worried he already got a girlfriend. That's cute." Came the blondes voice.
Blake was slightly startled. She had let her guard down and now she was going to pay for it. Bake turned her head to see Yang's smug grin for the second time in less than an hour, and she was getting sick of it fast. She responded with an angry expression, hoping Yang would get off her back to no success.
"What, am I not allowed to have other friends?" Blake said.
"No, It's just that you really looked like you were trying to keep your little talk private. And if it's nothing intimate, what would you have to hide?" Yang said, getting slightly on Blake's nerves. Not wanting to look like a fool, Blake decided to just tell her the context of the situation.
"Look, he and I-"
"I think you mean 'Rabbit and I'" Yang interjected, reminding Blake that she was looking at her texts, to which Blake sighed out of frustration.
"He and I hit it off on the bus ride back, so we exchanged numbers incase we ever wanted to talk or meet again." Blake said in a mildly irritated tone. Yang smirked, leaned her head back with her hands behind them and closed her eyes.
"See, it wasn't that hard was it?" Yang said in a playful tone.
Blake only grunted, but she was relieved that Yang was dialing back her 'gossip chatter'. The stadium was in view, the ride wouldn't be long now. Blake looked at Weiss who was sitting on the other side of Ruby and Yang and noticed that Myrtenaster wasn't at her side.
"Weiss, did you forget you were fighting? We still have time to get Myrtenaster you you forgot," Blake paused, realising she didn't know their weapon's needed pronouns.
"her." She finished.
Weiss leaned forward to see Blake to which she responded
"No, I got things set up ahead of time. They have a locker room for weapons at the stadium so I don't students don't have to lug them around all day. Many of us aren't don't have the convenience of being able to wear our weapons like bracelets." Weiss said, looking at Yang.
Yang looked back and forth between Blake and Weiss.
"What?" She said confused.
The bull head landed and at one of the docking stations, and lowered the exit to get off. The group left the ship and joined the mass of people that were heading to the wide corridor that lead to the main seating area of the stadium.
Team rwby made their way to their seats within the coliseum. The cushioned seats for the students were much more comfortable than the benches for the masses that didn't attend any of the academies across Remnant. The group found their seats amongst the the hundreds, or rather thousands of others within the stadium, grateful for being essentially VIP's. The four of them waited for Penny's fight to comense.
A/N:
Sorry for not including much for the 8 Mile side of the crossover, I promise I'll give Rabbit some more of the spotlight next chapter. I know this chapter was slightly shorter than the last but there wasn't much I could add to this chapter without combining this and the next chapter.