Chapter 2: Crimson

"H-hey, Blake? Did you manage to find a clean sweater? I know my room's a mess but…" Ruby questioned the noirette, that was currently in her room, from the kitchen area, seeming to drift away before completing her sentence.

Blake's hands began to slightly tremble, her fingers balling into fists around the crimson sweater. Her breath was caught in her throat and restricted her voice from calling out to the petite girl.

Why… Why would there be blood on Ruby's clothing? Why? Did she get hurt? Why didn't she tell us…? I could have… The pale fingers of the raven-haired girl seemed to unconsciously glide over the rough, red stains that coated the back of the crimsonette's zip-up hoodie. She scratched the dried splotch lightly with the nail of her index finger, her crinite eyes squinting in examination. It looks old… Then Blake gingerly sniffed it, just for precaution. Real old, thank the gods. But still… She should have told us… told m-

"Blaaake?" Ruby called out in a sing-song tone, snapping the golden-eyed girl out of her cluttered thoughts as her hidden Faunus cat ears twitched towards the voice. Blake's heart raced as she heard the redhead's socked footsteps pat again the hardwood flooring, each step getting closer and closer to where Blake was. The noirette gulped, as she quickly placed the crimson sweater back where she found it, underneath Ruby's unmade bed. Blake then started to pretend to search the ground on the carpeted bedroom, trying to make it seem that she's just been looking the entire time. Before she knew it, the crimsonette, her torse clad now a black tank top, popped in, and looked at Blake then at the floor she was staring at.

"A-ahaha…" Ruby laughed unsurely, smiling awkwardly as she rubbed the back of her head, "This is why I don't really want you coming in here... ehehe…" She timidly gestured to the mess that was sprawled all over the quaint bedroom, then met her silver eyes with amber. Blake's breathing seemed to calm down, which made it easier for her to pretend that nothing was concerning her. "Have I taught you nothing, Ruby?" Blake was able to question sarcastically with a small smirk, taking her eyes off the youngest girl to scan the room once more. Ruby's cheeks puffed up in joke frustration, "I know, I know… realistically, I should have broken this habit of mine already … especially when I live with you and – Ruby then continued in a mocking tone - little miss 'I'm-so-rich-smart-and-never-wrong'." Almost immediately after the crimsonette stated that, an offended Weiss who yelled "Hey, excuse me?!" was heard all the way from the dining room. Ruby then let out a chuckle at her friend's reaction as Blake breathed out a light laugh along with a gentle smile.

"Anyways," Blake began, directing her attention to the reason why Ruby came in here in the first place, "I didn't know if it was okay to look in your closet, I know some people are a little… sensitive when it comes to that."

Blake was hinting at Weiss a couple of weeks ago; she'll never forget the painful bump on the head that the ice princess gave her. She had just been trying to look for her spare ribbon, and after asking for help to find it and getting the cold shoulder from Weiss, Blake decided to take matters into her own hands. She just didn't expect it to land her in bed with a major headache and Ruby daintily holding an icepack to her head.

Ruby laughed, "Aha, right. No, no, I'm fine with it. But you probably wouldn't be… if you thought this is a mess, wait until you see in here." The petite girl wandered over to the closet door, and yanked the set of narrow double doors open. Gold eyes widened at the sight. Everything was just stuffed and jam-packed, no sense of order or neatness. The only thing that was remotely organized was the clothes that hung on the hangers. Everything else… looked like it was just thrown in the closet, to be dealt with later. Though, when it came to this stuff and Ruby, the noirette knew later meant never.

"O-oh, I see…" Blake stuttered out, internally cringing at the messiness. Ruby awkwardly poked her two index fingers together repeatedly, "Yeeaahh…" After a quick moment of silence, the crimsonette spoke up once more with a smile, "No worries, I'm kinda glad you didn't find this mess on your own, aha." She then yanked a baggy bright red pullover from one of the hangers, and slipped it on in one swift motion.

Looking at the newly sweater clad Ruby, Blake's thoughts hit like a brick, going back to the bloody zip-up she found underneath the bed. She shrunk down and unconsciously fidgeted with her fingers while looking away. She didn't want to make her nervous actions very noticeable, but Ruby still acknowledged the noirette's down casted behavior. Smiling cheerfully while placing a hand on Blake's shoulder and pointing to her pullover, she said, "I said don't worry about it, okay? Just a sweater, is all." Blake couldn't stop herself from pondering up those eerie thoughts on how those blood stains got on the young girl's wrinkled old sweater. Amber eyes glanced at where the stained sweater lay, but Blake quickly shook her head to temporarily rid her thoughts. She looked up at Ruby only to find her at the door, peering over her shoulder at the raven-haired girl. "I think the tea's almost done, c'mon," she stated with a wave of the hand, not waiting for her golden-eyed friend as she made her way to the kitchen. Blake sighed deeply and held her head in her hands for a couple of seconds, closing her eyes.

You just need to relax, Blake. There will be a time where you could ask her about it. Just calm down, everything will be fine.

Blake trotted out of the untidy room and into the kitchen where her two roommates were. Ruby sat at the head seat of the dining table, her legs swaying back and forth in a playful manner, silver eyes practically glued onto the screen of her phone. Weiss' back faced Blake as she prepared the tea for the three of them, slowly pouring boiled water into the tea-maker. Blake crossed her arms and leaned her body weight onto the top of the back of the chair on Ruby's right side. She watched Weiss grab three mugs and place them on the table in front of each person's respective seat. With Blake's usual mug broken, she was given a pure-yellow coloured cup to drink from. Ruby and Weiss had their normal mugs: a dark-red coloured one with rose designs all around, and a light blue one with a crystal-like snowflake pattern. Blake kept silent as she waited patiently for her tea, occasionally glancing at the crimsonette beside her and watching the snow queen's actions. When the tea finished brewing, Weiss gracefully poured the green tea into everyone's cups.

"Thanks Weiss!" An over-enthusiastic Ruby blurted out, putting down her phone as Weiss finished pouring the tea. The crimsonette almost immediately lunged for the sugar that was already sitting on the table. The ice princess just sighed and rolled her eyes at the youngest girl, and continued pouring the rest of the tea into the remaining two mugs. When she almost hit the rim of Blake's new mug, the raven-haired girl thanked her, picked the cup up and sipped some so none would spill. After pouring for herself, Weiss took the seat that was on the left side of Ruby, and sipped gingerly as a smallest tug of a smile appeared on her now-satisfied face. She looked up at Blake, who was still standing.

"Are you going to take a seat?" Weiss inquired, quirking her eyebrow to the chair in front of the noirette. Ruby was too busy to join the conversation, as she was currently in the middle of unloading the third spoonful of sugar into her tea.

"Actually, uhm, I'm just gonna go to my room and smoke for a bit," Blake's slightly unsteady tone seeped out as she cleared her throat and internally hoped that her roommates didn't notice it.

Weiss took another quick sip of her lightly-sweetened green tea and looked up at Blake again. "You know that someone might find out about your, er… habits one day. Students aren't allowed to smoke in the dormitories. Why don't you just go to the designated smoking areas?" The snow-haired girl tsk-ed then questioned. After Ruby finally finished dumping the heaps of sugar into her tea, she looked up at her two friends, silently joining the conversation. Blake stuffed her free hand into the front pocket of her white jean short-shorts while looking away for a moment, "It's too loud in there. Most of the time it's filled with druggies who I don't think even attend the school. Not my sort of crowd."

Weiss smirked, "Then what is your sort of crowd?"

Blake stood speechless, trying to find the right words. She was an introverted twenty-year old university kid, she didn't have too many friends. She had lots of acquaintances, for sure, but had very little she considered a friend. But it's not like she was going to admit that to Weiss, heiress of The Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest mining companies in all of Remnant, who most likely had tons of friends due to the sole fact.

Before Blake was able to reply, Ruby cut in. "US!" The youngest girl answered a little too excitedly as she flung her arms up in the air. Weiss just rolled her eyes, drinking more of her tea as Blake laughed lightly and mentally thanked Ruby for derailing the ice princess' train of thoughts. "Anyway, you're all great and I'm thankful for that but I just need some alone time right now, okay?" Blake said, waiting for a response before deciding to leave to her room. "I'm not going to stop you," Weiss stated, looking away from golden eyes. "Yeah, we get it! Don't worry 'bout it!" Ruby replied as cheerful and understanding as ever. Blake tugged a smile, "Thanks guys. Oh and thanks for the tea again, Weiss." The snow queen just hummed in return as the two at the table went back to drinking their tea.

Blake sat up in her usual smoking spot: on the ledge of the open window. She sighed, bringing her already lit cigarette to her mouth. Parting her lips ever so slightly, she blew out a stream of smoke to the outside, watching the rain sadly fall towards the earth from gloomy clouds. The chilly air brushed her face and purple hoodie-clad arms, making her body and hidden Faunus cat ears shiver a bit. She tapped the ember part of the cig into her blue ash tray and took another sip of her almost-finished mug of unsweetened green tea. Blake sighed again.

I shouldn't be thinking about it anymore, yet here I am, thinking about it. Those blood stains… yes they're old but why didn't Ruby just throw the sweater out if she wasn't able to clean it? Why keep a stained sweater, especially when it's blood? I don't understand. Also, she should have told us, told me. Maybe she couldn't… or didn't want to? Maybe it was a personal matter, I'm not sure...

Ha, look at me, being a hypocrite when I won't even tell her or Weiss who I really am… what I really am...

Blake's cat ears twisted towards a sudden knock that echoed throughout the dorm room. The raven-haired girl cocked her head in the direction of the front door, still sitting on the ledge. "I GOT IT!" Ruby's voice boomed as the sound of a chair scrapping against the wooden floor sounded. "You dunce, I'm right here, you don't have to yell!" An annoyed-sounding Weiss raised her voice, but not as loud as Ruby's. "I was telling both you and Blake, princess," Ruby teased, making Weiss scoff disgustingly. Soft footsteps were heard but then they stopped and were replaced with the sound of the front door squeaking open.

"Hiya," Ruby greeted nonchalantly, "What can I do for you?"

Curiosity setting in, Blake got up from the window ledge and placed her still burning cig in the ash tray. The noirette poked her head out the doorway of her room to see who was at the door.

Three men stood outside the dorm room, two of them wore the same serious expression and clothing: a black business suit, black dress shoes, and a red tie. Blake's attention quickly snapped to the man in the middle. He was clad in a black suit with thin, white vertical strips and a crimson tie with a detailed design of a rose. He sported a pair of dark-tinted aviators and a white fedora with an onyx-coloured silk ribbon wrapped around the top, similar to the one she used for her bow. Small strains of blood-red hair stuck out from the tilted hat, his grim expression showing as he looked down at petite girl who had opened the door.

Blake stepped back into her room in panic. Her breathing was rapid, her chest feeling heavy. Terrified, she leaned up again the wall of her bedroom, attempting to slow her breath. H-he… He couldn't have found me… how? How the hell did he-?

"Hello there, I'm looking for a girl named Blake. Does she live here by any chance?"

Adam.

/cue dramatic music, DUN DUN DUUUUNN!

There ya go! I was really in the mood to write today so here's an early update.

I'm really excited for fic, since I actually planned some stuff out and know where it'll be going.

ANYWAYS!

Thanks for all the recent favs and follows, glad to know you guys are enjoying it.

Also reviews, yes! Thanks a bunch, y'all are all-stars!

ANYWAYS! x2

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With that said, peace out till next chap! B)