Blake starts to wonder if she's not the only one who knows about the ears resting under her bow.

Blake was becoming paranoid. Ruby somehow knew about her faunus heritage, Blake could feel it.

Ruby kept giving her fish, of any sort but mostly tuna. And everytime she handed it over, she had this knowing smile on her face, one that left Blake worried to no end.

She paced around the empty dorm, growling to herself as she turned over possibilities in her head.

It could just be Ruby being weird, but why fish? The single food she couldn't help but crave as a cat faunus. What if Ruby knew, and was planning to use it as blackmail? She didn't think Ruby was like that, but one couldn't deny the possibility.

Her ears flexed, lowering as her teeth clenched. She couldn't keep wondering about this, it was only fueling her obsessive tendencies.

She would have to ask Ruby directly. Face to face.

Oh god, she wasn't up for this. She could fight grimm without batting an eyelash, stand completely calm at gunpoint, excecute attacks with deadly efficiency, but there was no way in hell she could talk about her heritage. Not yet, maybe not ever.

Ruby could go around sharing her secret with everyone. Then everone would be just as quick to judge her by her ears as they were her skill. She didn't need that. She didn't want that. She was just trying to reform herself, isn't that enough?

Her ears swiveled, pick up the sound of footsteps near the door. Quickly, Blake pulled out a book from her bookshelf, opening it to a random page as she sat down.

Ruby walked in, alone. She gave a cheerful wave to Blake as she climbed onto her bunk.

Blake pretended to keep reading, only nodding in Ruby's direction. It was now or never. It might be a month before she got Ruby completely alone like this again. What should she say though? If she screwed this up, then her secret could be revealed to Ruby for no good reason, or her worst fears would only be confirmed.

This might be one of those things she just had to go for, no matter what may come of it. She reflexively smiled as Adam's advice came back to her. She quickly shook away the nostalgia. Adam was a complete monster, she knew that now, and the advice was given for her first attack on a racist shopowner. But that wasn't the point. He was in the past now, as was her old self.

"Ruby?" Blake asked softly, half hoping Ruby wouldn't hear her. She was left disappointed though, as Ruby immediately poped her head over the edge of the bed.

"Why do you keep giving me fish?" Blake went for the straightforward approach, fingers tapping nervously as she waited for Ruby's response.

Ruby got up and handed her scroll to Blake. Settling herself beside Blake in the process.

"I'd thought you'd like it. I saw you staring at the fish they had for us at lunch once, and I thought you might like it. But you didn't eat any, so maybe you didn't like to eat it around others? Anyways, I was just trying to make sure you were happy and comfortable. I'm your leader after all."

"Oh." Blake felt stupid now. All that panicking, for nothing. Of course Ruby was just trying to be considerate. And she had been eying that fish pretty badly last week. "You didn't have to."

"Sorry if you don't like it. I'll stop if you want me to." The reply was instantaneous, the words flying onto the scroll as soon as it left Blake's hands.

"Hmm, maybe just not as much fish, but you can keep giving me some if you feel like it." Blake agreed, a small smile blooming now that the situation was much less tense.

Ruby nodded in agreement, moving back up to her bed as Blake stood up to put the book back in its shelf.

Blake thanked Ruby in her thoughts, not wanting to say the words put loud. She hoped her leader got the message though. Someone who wasn't a faunus had considered her wants for the first time in months, and that was more than enough to satisfy her for now.