Blake was leaning out against the balcony of her room; the same one she had once sworn she would never come back to. Menagerie spread out before her, half hidden in the trees.

Her door slid open. Ears perking up she turned around to give the familiar greeting whenever her teammates came back, especially with their tendency to show up when she was deep in thought.

"Blake?" Her mother was there, with tea and a worried smile, and Blake froze. "Mind if I come in?"

"Of course." Blake said, proud that her voice only trembled slightly, while also cursing herself for forgetting her situation, and where exactly her team was. Now she was at the point where she didn't want to flee from any conversation from her mother- well, she never wanted to flee but, she just, couldn't stop the nagging fear that any moment her parents were going to turn on her for all the hurtful words she had spouted years before. She hadn't even apologized to them yet out of fear of how they would handle it. It only got worse when she added her team in Beacon into the mix.

But small talk with her mother over tea? Blake thought she could handle that. Her mother was adept at carrying a conversation, with much more tact than Sun.

"Were you expecting someone else?" Her mother asked the moment the tea was laid out. Always straight to the point.

Blake's shoulder's slumped. "No- yes- sort of- not really. It doesn't matter."

"You know," Her mother took a sip of tea as she begins, looking at Blake with warm eyes. "I never hear much about how Vale was, or about Beacon. Most of what I've heard has come from Sun."

"Oh. I guess I just. Never found a reason to bring it up." Blake hummed, ears twitching.

"That's too bad. I would like to hear more about your teammates." Her mother sets down her glass. "We've certainly got a lot of tea."

"Um." Blake swallowed. She wanted her mother to know about her friends, the real ones she had made, but she's at a loss of words when it comes to describing them. "Well, Ruby is- was our leader. She was admitted early due to her skill. She can't talk; well, physically she can but… she can't. We made it work; she was smart enough to come up with unique ways to get around it. She scared me a couple times because I thought she had figured out I was a Faunus."

Her mother looked worried at that admission, but now the words were coming out and Blake couldn't really make herself stop.

"I didn't really like Weiss much at first. I may have hated her. I thought she was a stuck up racist brat. And she was, on some level. But she's more then what she appears. She has a grudge against the White Fang, but no dislike for Faunus in particular. She's stubborn, but with enough evidence you can convince her. She has a good heart, she just doesn't know how to show it. She's a good person." Blake sucked in a breath, remembering far too well her last teammate, her partner as assigned by chance, and the person she had let down more than anyone.

"Y-Yang, was loud and bright. She was even more upbeat than Ruby. She got me, in a way. She even managed to pull me back when I got to obsessed over finding what the White Fang was planning."

"What happened honey? If I can ask." Her mother reached out across the table, putting Blake's trembling hand in hers.

"She- Adam, he-" Blake made an effort to calm her panicked breaths before continuing, her voice now steadier. "She lost her arm. And it's my fault. I don't even know how she's doing now."

"I'm so sorry you had to go through that. And I'm sorry that happened to your friend." Her mother pulled her in for a hug, Blake sinking into the firm hold. "But whatever happened to this Yang is not your fault. You didn't cut off her arm. Okay?"

Blake nodded, swallowing down the lies as her hands tighten around her mother's shirt.