At last, she touched her ears.
Faunus.
"Oh my god, Blake," was all she could manage to whisper, not sure how she wound up with both her hands stroking a pair of secondary ears, but finding it hard to stop. Blake took it with patience. Closing her eyes, she bowed her head just enough so that Weiss didn't have to strain to reach. Pulling the velvety skin between scissored fingers, she rubbed them with soft, pinching motions, staring at them openly. "Are— are they real?" she asked, mind still numb.
"Yes," Blake said. She twitched one of them to demonstrate, and it slid out of Weiss' grasp with a single fluid movement.
She started unbuttoning her vest as Weiss sat down on the edge of her bed, a rush of memories furiously swamping out any coherent thought. All the times they had argued about the faunus labor laws, the history of the White Fang, the dubious inception of her family's company. How irrational Blake got, how hot-tempered and quick to bite.
I don't see why you care, she even said to her once, while Blake stood before her with her hands balled into fists and her face red with rage. Her whole body shaking as Weiss turned aside their argument with a dismissive, It's not like it affects you, anyway.
She buried her face in her hands, trying not to groan.
No wonder Blake wanted to break up with her.
No wonder Weiss' hands frightened her. Schnee hands, touching without permission.
Blake displayed the scars on her back again, turning around not to face her. "I got these," she said, "In the— the mines, the— quarries. Schnee produced and Schnee approved. I was just a kid, so they didn't let me do much." She let out a long breath, a shuddering sigh. "But there were some things that they needed small bodies for, and the labor laws didn't exist then, so I—"
The veins in her forehead throbbed, head pounding with blood as she listened. What could she say? What could she do? It seemed like a sick joke. How often had Blake railed against the inhumane mining practices? How often had Weiss defended them, demanding proof of these alleged abuses?
Well, here was her proof. All along, all those times Blake had hesitantly allowed her to run her unmarred hands along her back.
"I quit, before too long. Or just gave up. I'm not sure if you can quit a place where you technically don't exist. And then I…" Her hands reached behind her back, stroking the largest scar of all. A brutal starburst of discolored skin, Weiss had often wondered what kind of injury or surgery would prompt such a disfiguration. Blake's story was running ragged now, jumping around from homeless shelters to park benches, a disjointed account of a life she barely remembered. She was so young when it all happened that the details got swept away. "The tail was harder to hide. It drew too much attention, so I just…"
She didn't finish, or couldn't finish, voice trailing off helplessly. Rolling her shoulders, she pulled her clothes back on, still not facing Weiss. "The rest I got in training," she said. "When I got tired of it all.
"And I joined the White Fang."
OoOoOo
The air was too dry for snow, but frost still covered the ground in the mornings and in the gloomy afternoons. It crunched under her heels as she stalked through her allotted hunting grounds, ears pricked for danger. Close behind her she could pick out Yang's heavier tread, loud as hoof-beats in the forest's silence. The stillness in the air, the way the hair on the back of her neck stood up, the deep unsettled feeling in her soul— there were still Grimm here. Their job wasn't finished.
Students who chose to stay behind for the winter break, or didn't have anywhere else to go, got assigned missions like this. The Grimm crawled at Vale's borders day and night, rain or snow, and so a part of their unofficial training was to learn how to come to terms with this as they kept the city safe. She was glad for it. Clearing missions kept her body busy and her mind empty.
Ruby was also too glad to volunteer her team, especially since it meant she would be going partnerless. The night after Weiss left, Ruby stayed up late with Blake, admitting that being able to go on another solo hunt again for the first time in so long excited her. Even though she missed Weiss terribly, solo hunting was her element, and she was eager to return to it.
The areas they cleared out already belonged to an established huntsman or huntresses, but few of them were proud enough to begrudge the student expeditions. If it meant a slight reprieve in their duties, and more dead Grimm, then they were all for it.
Team RWBY— or, well, just RBY ever since Weiss went home— cleared their area in record time. But here and there remained some stragglers, those not grouped together in a pack as the Grimm were so wont to do. That was bad news. Solo Grimm were those who didn't need a pack, generally. Alpha Grimm. Ancient monsters. The kind it took more than two people to kill.
A noise.
She felt it more than heard it, but it still caused her to pause. Stopped in her tracks, she felt Yang freeze behind her as well. They had hoped to run into Ruby at their meetup spot before any more Grimm, but luck, it seemed, didn't favor them today.
Blake's left ear twitched, pointedly.
Given the signal, Yang stepped up to place herself firmly at Blake's side, feet spread hip-width apart as she clapped her hands together, fingers interlacing. Bracing herself, she wound up like a pitcher at a baseball game before lobbing out a funnel of pure, blazing fire. It surged out in the direction Blake had gestured towards, the flame of her semblance clearing out the foliage with explosive force. The Grimm who had been quietly stalking them howled, rolling out from its cover with its fur ablaze. They opened fire on it, tracking its position as it tried to zig zag towards them.
"Break!" Yang shouted, ducking into a roll. Blake dissolved as the beast's tusks brushed against her, using shadows to skid to a halt a few feet away as it continued charging, trying to lash out at anything it could reach in its fevered rage.
"Plan?" Blake asked as they circled it, eyes trained for any movement. The good news was that this was not actually some ancient cosmic horror, but a straggler that somehow escaped their net. The bad news was that it was still a big, mean sonofabitch and wasn't likely to go down easy.
Yang rolled her shoulders, pumping one fist back to chamber and reload. "Shoot it til it's dead!"
Her lips twitched in a smile. "Good plan." Morphing Gambol Shroud into its chain scythe mode, she launched it at the boarbatusk. The beast squealed, legs tangled up in the ribbon. Blake angled it, trying to direct it over to Yang, but then it broke free to charge again. Shouting a warning, she felt her heart stop when it slammed straight into her partner.
And then she saw that it hadn't gored her; Yang had the Grimm by its tusks, arms shaking with exertion as she planted her feet in the ground, wrestling wildly for control. Taking aim, Blake tried to go for a killing shot, but their movements were too erratic. Yang was in her line of fire. Just when she thought she'd have to go in close and get her hands dirty to save Yang, her partner took another step and twisted, tossing the Grimm over her hip. It went crashing into the trees only to come charging back out, screaming in fury at the hail of bullets crashing through its hide.
Gambol Shroud arced out again, winding three times around the boarbatusk's legs. This time Blake wouldn't let it go. With another jerk, she knocked it off it's feet and fired again. Gambol Shroud's head whipped straight down into the Grimm's belly with another blast. Yang moved in for a killing blow, but when she reached the body it was already dust, dissolving in the wind.
Blake tugged Gambol Shroud free and walked over to inspect her kill.
"All right, Blake!" Lifting up a hand, she waited expectantly for Blake to celebrate with a high five. Blake gave her a single, up-and-down glance before turning her back on her and continuing the way they had been travelling before the attack. Whining, Yang trotted after her, being even less careful to make noise now that they had taken care of what was probably the last Grimm in their area. "Aww, Blake!" she said. "That's the third time you left me hanging today! What am I doing wrong, am I being too reckless? Did I miss something?"
Jogging faster now, she turned midstep and started walking backwards in front of Blake, demanding her attention. "Okay, I get it," she said, managing to keep just a few steps ahead of her. Blake walked faster, teeth clenched and eyes straight ahead. Yang easily kept up the proper speed to stay in front of her. "You wanna focus on the mission. Or. Do your feet hurt? You wanna go home? You're hungry. You didn't get any sleep? Or maybe you have to use the bathroom. Are your ears cramping up? Blake!"
Stopping them both, she put her hands on Blake's shoulders and forced her to stop moving. "Come on!" she said, expression pained. "You've been like this ever since Weiss left! What do I have to do to get you to talk to me again?"
"Nothing," Blake said. "I'm fine."
"No, you're not." Yang let her go only for Blake to move around her and continue to the meetup point. Hands out and pleading, Yang tried to coax her back to no avail. "You won't tell me what happened. If you won't tell me what happened I can't fix it. And if I can't fix it, then we're all gonna be unhappy." She followed after her when it became clear she was getting left behind. "And I can't handle that much tension in one team!"
There wasn't anything she could say, though. If Yang expected a big sob story from her about how her whole life was ruined and she woke up every morning wanting to hang herself by Gambol Shroud's big black ribbon, she had another thing coming. Blake woke up every morning the way she always had, by calculating what needed to be done that day, and how best to get it done.
Except most nights, she didn't really sleep. This wasn't anything new, but in the past she would have gotten dressed and gone to Weiss' room to watch her sleep instead. Now she just stood in the empty room, hands running over the bedposts and the bare mattress. Touching them to make sure they were real. Holding her own head in her hands, trying to sieve through her thoughts for something that made sense. Finding nothing but enjambments, fractured images, a desire to open the window and shriek at the moon.
They found the meetup point and Blake crouched down, running her fingers through her hair in agitation. Yang wasn't going to let it go. "Seriously, Blake," she said, walking in circles around their perimeter, on alert for any more Grimm but also just plain restless. "She's coming back in like two days, or whenever winter break ends. I need to know what the situation is so I can help do damage control."
"I messed up, Yang," she said, sighing into her palms. Her eyes burned, but she refused to break down in the middle of the forest. "What do you want me to say? I messed up really bad and she hates me now. She knows everything."
Yang collapsed next to her on the ground, sitting in a puff of dead leaves and dirt. Leaning close, she rested the side of her head on Blake's shoulder, rubbing it affectionately. "Everything?" she asked, softly.
Blake thought about it. Then she nodded. "Everything."
And she told her.
OoOoOo
The words hit her hard. "White Fang?" Weiss shouted, all pretext of remaining calm lost. The literal definition of livid, her face burned bright red, hands shaking with rage. "You—" she pointed at her. "You. This whole time you were a faunus— a White Fang faunus— and it somehow slipped your mind not to tell me?"
"Ex-White Fang. And why would I have told you?" Blake tried to reason with her, hands tight to her chest. How many nightmares had she had about this moment? Sweaty, fear-laced dreams that left her panting for breath upon awakening, checking the mirror for bruise marks around her neck and never finding any. They followed a similar theme: Weiss discovered the truth. Weiss didn't take it well. Weiss would hurt her. Weiss would kill her. "Look at yourself. Look at how you're reacting."
They weren't good dreams, or even very realistic, but they were intense and they were frightening and they wouldn't leave her alone as she watched Weiss, on alert for any sign of violence. She physically knew she could take Weiss in a fight. But the emotional strain might be too much for her to do anything but curl up into a ball and take it, if it came to blows. Old habits died hard, and it wouldn't be the first lashing she had taken from a Schnee.
"Because you lied to me!" she said, tone carrying an unspoken: obviously. About to say something else, she paused, eyes losing their focus. Then she looked over at Blake, eerily calm. "And you knew from the beginning. The very first time we met, you knew exactly who I was. And I didn't have a clue."
She tensed, readying herself in case she needed to bolt. "Weiss…" she started, uncomfortable. "It's not like that. Listen, I—"
"No. Don't you dare." Weiss held up a finger, silencing her. "Don't you dare backtrack now. You admitted it already, I was just another faceless human to you at first. You listen."
Blake bit her tongue.
"From day one you made me feel like garbage," she said. "Garbage. Like some ignorant, sheltered child. And maybe I am. But you had the nerve— the audacity— to tell me about how horrible my family is, about the faunus labor laws, about the pain we cause. To stand there and judge me when you know what the White Fang has done to me. Killed my friends. My family!" Her throat bobbed, voice going higher. "You know I know what pain is, and you still have the nerve—"
Blake already knew where this was leading, and kicked herself for not saying something sooner. "I never killed anyone," she insisted, ripping past her fear to try and step closer to her, beseeching her to listen. "You have to believe me. I never killed a single person. I quit before things got to that level of violence, I'm not White Fang anymore, that's what I'm trying to say! I'm not a murderer!"
"Neither am I!" she shot back, eyes flashing like cold fire. They were bloodshot, on the verge of crying, but not spilling over just yet. She had better control over her tear ducts than Blake. "But from where I stand, that seems to be how you view me, just because I'm a Schnee! What makes me any different from you? Why are you allowed to walk away and I'm not? Why am I the only one held accountable for things out of my control? Huh?" Her chest twitched towards Blake and Blake flinched, already in a defensive position. She had been watching her body language with the intensity of a fencer, waiting for a sign that she was about to attack, but she never did. "Can you answer me that? That's why I'm so furious, or do I need to spell it out further for you, you complete idiot?"
She had an answer prepared for that— she always did, when it came to this subject. Arguing with Weiss about her family was like second nature to her now. Besides that, there wasn't a single angle of this conversation she hadn't already agonized over for hours already, hours alone in her bedroom as she wondered if today was going to be the day she would come clean.
"Because I did walk away," she said, coldly. "You haven't. And you still benefit from the subjugation of innocent people. Active participant or not."
OoOoOo
Yang let out a low whistle. "Damn. How'd she take that bit?"
"Not well," Blake said. Understatement of the year. "She kicked me out of her room. And said to never talk to her again." They both sat with their back against a tree, knees pulled up to their chest. Pulling out her scroll, Blake checked for an update from Ruby. Still no sign. Yang rested against her, solid and warm, and took her hand. She let it happen, glad for the contact. "I honestly don't know what I'm gonna do when she comes back."
"I'm not gonna lie, partner," Yang said, giving her hand another squeeze. Blake responded, lacing their fingers together. "This is ten different layers of what the fuck."
Twitching her head to the side, Blake snorted. No kidding. "I should have known better," she said, lowly. "The White Fang were like my family, and leaving them was torture. What made me think Weiss would ever leave her actual family? Or take it well when I attacked them?"
"Ummm." Yang twirled a strand of her blonde hair with her free hand, a nervous gesture. "Well," she said. "…Love?"
Blake just looked at her. It made Yang giggle, though she stopped abruptly with a guilty aside glance. "OK but, seriously though," Yang kept on. "You two are a good match. You're both awkward and terrible with people and occasionally rude little brats. And you both wanna be huntresses, 100%. Once Weiss understands you're fully committed to that, and not the White Clan—"
"White Fang."
"Exactly. Once she knows you're not White Whatsit anymore, she'll forgive you. Right?" Yang looked at her, expectant. "The real problem here is, yeah, her family." Frowning deeply, Yang let go of Blake to start cracking her knuckles, one after the other. "I dunno what to do about that. They're a huge bag of dicks and they treat her awful, but they pay her tuition, and if she runs off they might take her away from us for good."
That hadn't even crossed her mind. The White Fang might have kept her wrapped around their finger, yeah, but ultimately it was emotional manipulation that kept her with them, not monetary dependence. Blake had always been self sufficient, and being homeless didn't scare her. A few well worded essays had gotten her enough of a scholarship to pave most of her way through Beacon, and loans took care of the rest. A huntress was a rigorous profession, but one that paid well, so even those would be nothing but a memory in around eight years.
"I don't want her to cut ties with her family," Blake said, a guilty pit yawning deep in her chest. "She… values them. I just want. I don't know." Groaning, she flopped over on her side. "This to not be so complicated."
Yang patted her back sympathetically. Then they waited in silence, until Ruby swung by and they could regroup with the rest of their classmates.
OoOoOo
Two days later, Beacon bustled with activity. Planes and cars and feet and noise. RBY and JNPR reunited after two long weeks of radio silence, exclaiming loudly and shrieking with laughter in their dorm room. Legs swinging from her bunk, Ruby sat next to Jaune, the pair of them threatening to tie up into cuddly knots of affection if someone didn't pry them apart soon. A few liters of soda and four disastrously greasy pizzas were brought in and inhaled at the speed of light. That's when Yang produced two bags full of marshmallows, eyebrows misbehaving.
"Alright kids, gather round." Waving the bags in the air, she demanded their attention. "Who's gonna challenge me for Chubby Bunny championship?"
Zipping down the bed faster than an eyeblink, Ruby launched herself at her sister, wrapping both arms and legs around her as she tackled her to the ground. Buzzing with caffeine and sugar, she grinned and yanked the bags out of her hands, waving them triumphantly as the rose petals settled. "Excuse you," she said, "But I am the Chubby Bunny master of this family and you would do right to remember it!"
"My parents never let me play Chubby Bunny," Jaune remarked sadly, still on Ruby' bunk. "They saw some news reports that kids were choking to death and got all paranoid."
Lying comfortably on the ground as though she did not have 90 pounds of excited, trembling huntress sitting on her belly, Yang grabbed a bag back from Ruby and ripped it open. "Who the hell chokes on marshmallows?" she said around a full mouth.
Jaune shrugged, just as confused as she was. Lost and still trying to keep up, Pyrrha opened the other bag, looking at the marshmallows critically. "What's Chubby Bunny?" she asked. "Do you just… eat candy until you're sick, or something?"
The entire room gasped, except for Blake and Ren. "You've never heard of Chubby Bunny?" Nora demanded, hanging onto Pyrrha's elbow. "Oh, Pyrrha! Say it ain't so, say it ain't so!"
Excited at the chance to play again, Ruby explained the rules. Everyone would put a marshmallow in their mouth and say "Chubby Bunny". Then they would put another one in, without swallowing the first, and say it again. Again and again, until you gave up, swallowed, couldn't say the words, or let your gag reflex betray you into throwing up.
Pyrrha stared at her, appalled.
Completely missing her mood, Ruby grinned and wiggled in place, ready to begin. "Sounds fun, right?"
"…That is a choking hazard," was all she managed to say.
Laughing under her breath and shaking her head, Blake poured herself another glass of soda. Jaune, Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, and Nora made a small circle, the bag of marshmallows between them. "Everyone grab one," Ren instructed, the very picture of a stern referee. "Now, when I give the go ahead, you all eat it at the same time. Ready? Go!"
That was when her scroll, set to vibrate, buzzed in her pocket. It lifted her out of her good spirits at once, a stone dropping into the pit of her stomach. Then it vibrated again, a second message incoming. Fumbling around for it, she heard Yang and Ruby's go off as well. Both of them had custom ring tones for the last remaining member of Team RWBY, who had not shown up with the other returning students on the last day of vacation. They, too, received three messages.
Distracted from their game, Blake saw the sisters give each other matching, concerned looks before they spat out their marshmallows into the waste bin Ren provided. Forfeiting the match to look for their scrolls, all three of them read it at more or less the same time.
All the blood drained from her body, leaving her a cold shell.
"We gotta go," Ruby said before anyone else could react, running out the dorm room and dragging Yang along with her. Blake followed close at their heels, tossing the key to their room at Jaune and curtly telling them to lock up whenever they decided to leave.
They gathered outside the dorms, tension palpable. "Ruby— Yang—" she started, eyes wide with concern. Her ears twitched uncontrollably, rippling under the fabric. "Did you also—?"
Yang wordlessly held up her scroll, displaying the text.
They know about Blake.
They're not letting me leave.
help