Hey lovelies! I decided that I'll be from now on replying to reviews from previous chapters before each chapter just so it's a bit more organized for me. Feel free to skip if you're not interested in reading review feeback! Thanks to the reviewers, y'all just a bundles of goodness :))

reconghost5: Glad you found it interesting! And well, I have some ideas up my sleeve so hopefully they will be intruging? aha

Matthew998: Thanks for the constant feedback, bud! And yeah, that weekend I had tons of inspiration to write so BOOM! 2 chaps in 2 days hehe. And heck yes, finally the Bumbleby starts *pumps fist*

unmei96: Hella yahas they meet! Only took a couple of chapters but welp, *jazz hands* here there are! B)

Chapter 4: Flare

The blonde girl was taken aback slightly at the sight of the silvery-black blade, the distance between her face and the knife too close for comfort. The girl's wide lilacs fixated onto the dagger, then into the noirette's tense amber eyes. She sat up a little bit straighter, biting her lip.

"H-hey there… Let's not get too hasty, alright?" The blonde stuttered out, her cool-headed way of speaking seeming to melt away. She shifted her body just a tad back to space herself from the yellow bandana-faced girl, leaning on her fingerless-black gloved left hand. The raven-haired girl's fist continued to softly tremble, making the knife shake noticeably. She thought of using her other hand to steady her grip, but voted against it as it would make her seem weak and tilted the blade ever so closer to the girl, trying to become more intimidating. The blonde lifted her right arm up in meek defense towards Blake, her sweater sleeve sliding down a bit and the girl's palm facing directly at the noirette to stop.

Blake flinched back; not at the gesture, but at what her now-wide gold eyes fell upon. She hadn't noticed this feature about the girl until that moment and Blake mentally slapped herself for her dazed mind not paying closer attention. She slowly lowered her pocket knife down and unconsciously pulled down her handkerchief, her purple-sleeved arm falling limp to her side at the sight of the blonde's limb.

Or what should have been the blonde's limb.

The girl didn't have a right arm. She was missing her fleshed-covered, blood-pumping organic human arm. Where a real arm should be, it was replaced with a thinly-metaled prosthetic. Its skinny but detailed iron frame formed a stiff hand, resembling human fingers and had tiny bolts for the joints. The prosthetic seemed to do as the blonde commanded, as Blake's citrine eyes regarded the metal digits curling up as they hesitantly shaped into a closed fist.

Blake closed her eyes and shook her head sharply, snapping herself out of her thoughts. Confused but relieved lilac eyes fixated on the noirette's down casted ambers, as Blake inhaled deeply and shut her eyes for a moment to compose herself. She then flipped the blade of her knife back into its hilt and slipped it into the bag she wore. She looked away uncomfortably, not knowing what to say. Luckily, the blonde cut through the silence, her shoulders visually relaxing at sight of Blake's now passive actions.

"Hey, look. Maybe we could settle this out, clearly we've gone off on the wrong foot here."

A pause.

"Who are you?" Blake repeated her original question, but this time in a more curious tone then demanding.

The blonde's normal calm and carefree attitude seemed to slowly flow back into her as she sat cross-legged and rubbed the back of her head with her metal hand, her lips curling into a shy smile.

"I have lots of names: Blondie, Firecracker, Goldilocks, Lioness, Phoenix… I know there's others but I suppose you could add 'bitch' to that list," The girl let out a soft chuckle, remember what trouble she got into before, but when met with Blake's serious expression, she stifled it quickly, "But uhm, most people just call me Yang."

Blake's lips curved into a frown, letting her citrine eyes stare into intense violet. There was another short pause, the noirette's Faunus cat ears twitching at the sounds of soft rain pelting the metal construct of the train cart and the train's iron wheels grinding against the tracks. The sliding door of the cart was still open, Blake's eyes glancing at it. Yang looked over at it too, uncrossing her legs and pushing her body up. "Oh, I can close it a bit more if it bothers-" the blonde started, in the midst of standing up before the raven-haired girl cut off both her sentence and movement. "N-no, it's fine. I'd actually rather have the door more open if that's okay," Blake answered, the girl nodding as Blake walked over and slowly pushed and made the opening of the rusty, metal sheet wider.

She stood there still for a moment, inhaling deeply as her amber eyes watched the forest landscape around her pass by. The light rain shower outside gave the scenery an almost peaceful and tranquil feeling to Blake, as she felt her pluviophile side beginning to show. The noirette watched as unrecognizable land shot past her, biting her lip at realization of what's become of her life now.

She was on the run. Again.

It took her a good 18 months of never ending hard-work get where she was at. The first few months were the worst: alone with no home, no money. She hid her Faunus identity and changed her last name from Taurus to Belladonna to avoid conflicts just so she could start off fresh. Yes, she had broken the law a couple of times: stealing, trespassing. Though she needed to do those things to survive. She quickly changed her ways and earned money in a more honest way, doing whatever job that needed to be done, let it had been cleaning beds to painting walls. By the end, she could contently say she was happy with how everything turned out. She proudly got into Beacon Academy, her university of choice, her endless days and nights studying paying off, and lived on campus with two girls that she considered her friends in a quick couple of months. She had a place she could call home and people she could trust.

But she knew it was too good to be true.

She always had that lingering thought that her vengeful brother would come find her again. "This isn't goodbye, sister." Adam's last words shouted to her that fearful night always haunted the back of her mind for years.

And now she had to start a new life again. All that work just to be on the run, escaping her crazed older sibling once more. Time still flowed on, never to stop. All of the events she lived through led to this point, sharing a stolen train ride with a stranger.

A stranger with wild, long blonde hair and vibrant lilac eyes. A stranger who possessed a metal prosthetic arm. A stranger that Blake for some reason couldn't bear to see get hurt and ended up saving.

A stranger named Yang.

Blake breathed in and out the metallic smell that coaxed the air as she sat down cross-legged facing the outside, back to the blonde girl. Some raindrops dampened her soft face and clothed body, but by now the droplets were so tiny they were almost like mist. The noirette slipped off her black knap-sack and dug her hand into, searching for her cigarettes. Her fingers lightly brushed her money pouch and pocket notebook before she found what she was looking for, grabbing the box and plucking out one of the seven cigarettes. Sighing, she popped the cig into the corner of her lips and searched for a lighter. After a while of digging through her bag, she tsk-ed to herself. Damn it, seriously, Blake? You forget a damn match? Now how am I going to-?

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when a figure joined Blake on the floor, filling up the empty space that was to her left as a mess of blonde hair entered her prereferral vision. Blake tugged the strings on her bag to close it and turned toward the girl sitting beside her, who held up a red-coloured lighter with her flesh fingers.

"Need a flame?" Yang asked with a light smile, her thumb on the sparkwheel. Blake hesitated a bit, not expecting the offer, but she nodded slowly in response. The blonde's metal hand waved for her to come closer and the noirette shyly shuffled over, her knee now touching the girl's leg. Blake leaned her head into where Yang held the lighter, with the cig still in her mouth. The purple-eyed girl cupped around the lighter with her left hand, protecting it from the elements, before flicking the sparkwheel once. Yang led the petite flame to the end of the cancer stick and when it caught fire, she released her thumb, pulling back and holding the lighter loosely on top f her dark-blue denim clad lap.

"Thanks," Blake said after taking a drag of the cigarette and blowing the smoke away from the girl. Yang nodded then grinned, "No probs." Silence surrounded the two once more, both girls turning to watch the outside roll pass them. Blake noted that she was still touching legs with the blonde and she wondered to herself if she had noticed it too. She glanced at the girl sitting beside her, who was mindlessly fidgeting with the red lighter, alternating from metal to human fingers.

"Do you… do you maybe want a cigarette?" Blake offered quietly, making Yang quirk her head to peer into amber eyes. "Ah, no thanks. I'm not a smoker," the blonde replied nonchalantly, still slowly spinning the lighter around. Citrine eyes squinted at the object in the girl's hand and frowned, "Why do you have a lighter on-hand then?" Yang stopped twirling the lighter and met Blake's amber gaze with violet. She answered while letting out a breathy laugh, "I hang around people who smoke a lot. It's become a habit of mine to carry one around for their sake, as they sometimes forget their own…" She paused, her grin becoming wider as she winked at the noirette, "Much like yourself."

Blake turned away, biting her lip. Does she act and smile like this to every person she meets? Or am I just a special case? No, no, what are you thinking, Blake. It has to be the latter…

"Welp, I'm also a bit of a firebug, so there's that too," Yang added, scrapping her thumb against the sparkwheel to make a flame appear. She stared at it for a second, then released her finger to make the small flare disappear. Blake ever so slightly tugged the corner of her lips to form the smallest hint of a smile before taking another inhale of her cigarette and tapping the ashes away.

Yang turned her head to face Blake's profile, a thin line of gray smoke escaping her lips.

"So what's your name?"

Blake paused mid-action, holding the cancer stick an inch away from her mouth. She pulled the cigarette away, her eyes fixated on the embers that fell from the end of it. She bit her lips slightly. I mean, there's no harm in telling her my name, right?

"Blake," she breathed softly, glancing at the blonde for a second before turning away to smoke. She felt a bit awkward staring directing at the girl…

"Well, Blake," Yang addressed her in a cheery tone, "It's real nice to meet you, seriously. Everyone I've bumped into 'round Beacon have been, well… not the friendliest, to say the least. I mean, you saw what happened with that bear-of-a-man earlier. Can you believe that oaf's name is Junior? Aha, such a fitting name," Yang chuckled to herself, rubbing the back of her head with her mechanical hand before clearing her throat to continue. "Anyway, what I'm trying to say is thank you. For, ya know, getting me out of that situation. It was kinda my fault for agitating the dude but despite that, you still came in to save me- a stranger. If I saw some idiot girl messing with a guy of that size, I would've minded my own business to be honest. But… I'm glad you didn't. Only the gods know where the fuck I would be if you didn't bud in. So I thank you for that… I owe you one."

Blake didn't puff on her cigarette at all during the blonde's whole exposition. Her hidden Faunus ears twitched when listening intently to the girl's voice as she felt Yang's lilac eyes intensely staring at her profile. The raven-haired girl scuffed out the half-smoked cig into the train cart's metal exterior, the ashes being swept away by the cool, spring wind. Blake quirked her head to face the blonde, running a dainty hand through her midnight-black tassels. She smiled softly at Yang, amber fixating on violet.

"D-don't mention it, it was nothing," Blake's shy stutter returned and she mentally slapped herself in the face for the second time boarding the train. She didn't usually sound like this towards strangers, but her voice kept on giving into how she truly felt about the whole ordeal. She was uneasy with this girl knew nothing about, for sure, but there was something different about her that made Blake just-

"Sorry, do I make you nervous? I can sit away from you if that'd make you feel better, I understand," Yang frowned, her eyebrows furrowing as she picked up on the noirette's anxious attitude. "No! No," Blake said almost too spontaneously, urging the blonde to keep her seat next to her before clearing her throat, "Uhm, I mean- it's fine. I'm fine, sorry. Please, sit." Yang plopped her half-standing body back beside Blake, the corners of her lips quirking into a gentle smile. Their knees were touching again but this time Blake decided not to question it. The silence between them returned, though it was a comforting type of quietness. The two girls just stared out at the forest that passed them, post-storm weather giving it a sense of tranquility. Yang went back to impetuously playing with her lighter as Blake lazily traced the details of her combat boots. She could never get tired of rainy weather.

"I like your bow," Yang said, looking at the noirette again with that warming smile of hers. Blake glanced at content amber, the compliment making the raven-haired girl tug the corners of her lips as she lightly touched the black ribbon. "Thanks," she impulsively replied. Why is she… so nice to me? Yeah she did say I saved her life, I guess, but we're still strangers. And I pointed a fucking knife at her as soon as we got onto this train… is something up? Is she toying with me?

Blake shook those clouded thoughts away as quickly as possible. She may be playing her for all she knew, but if Blake had to make another mad dash for it, she wouldn't hesitant. She was not afraid to take risks anymore, considering what had happened today. It wasn't a mindset she enjoyed but she had to focus on the present and what comes after that. What comes after...

"Uhm, so," Blake started up the conversation this time, curious purple eyes peering at her, "Do you know where this train's heading?" Yang turned her head to look at the forestry outside the train cart. "Hmm… I mean, I hope it's heading towards where I need to be. I sort of found this train by sheer luck or else I would have been walking the whole damn way home. But we can keep an eye out for any landmarks to find out where we are, if you want," the blonde yawned, lying down on the wooden floor with her hands cupping the back of her head before sighing, "that won't be for a while though." Blake twisted her body, looking at Yang's peaceful face, her lilac eyes shut in relaxation. It was only early evening and Blake didn't feel like taking a nap. Strangely enough, this was one of the only times she felt like she wanted to speak with someone, to hold a conversation. To not be in silence.

"Hey, uh," Blake said, fixating her gaze on the girl lying down next to her. Yang didn't open her eyes but hummed a drowsy and content acknowledgement. "You… you said before that you owed me one, right?" The noirette asked the blonde, the girl humming again, though this time in question. Blake continued, "Well, you can owe me right now then." This time, Yang didn't stay lying on the floor any longer but sluggishly propped her torso up onto of her elbows and squinted her eyes into amber. "Hmm, what do ya have in mind?" the blonde's soft voice inquired, curious to what the raven-haired girl was pondering. "I was thinking that well, since, as you said, we'll be on this train for gods know how long," Blake started, pausing before smiling fondly at the girl next to her.

"Why don't you tell me more about yourself, Yang?"

Oooh. Blakey, dear. What's going on in that mind of yours? :oo

Anyway, there ya go, next chapter complete! Thanks to all of the recent fav and followers, let's me know y'all are interested in my fic. Makes me happy :))

If you're new AND are enjoying this fic so far, let me know with a fav or follow. They truly give me more motivation to write this story!

Also, rEVIEWS. Nom nom. Just like the author's note in the last chapter, I still feed off them. So throw some my way, maybe? :))

Welp, with that said, peace out till next chap! B)