Adam always called them "infiltrations". Reconnaissance. Sabotage. It wasn't until she turned on the news one day to see his face plastered across the screen, the notices burglary, arson, terrorism underneath his name, that she ever considered it anything else. That was her first wakeup call. The first red flag that maybe they weren't the good guys anymore. That maybe good guys didn't even exist.
It'd been at least three years since she had done something like this. But it came as natural as breathing. Eyes passed over her form in the shadows. Locks fell apart under her hands. Through it all she felt a strange calm, though what she aimed to steal tonight was more valuable than any schematic, any heirloom, any bank account number or Dust shipping route. She didn't worry this time about getting caught. Failure wasn't an option tonight.
This was what she was made for. It was possibly the only reason the White Fang kept her around, all pledges of fraternity and loyalty just lip service to keep her compliant. Sending out a tendril of her shadow through the cracks in the window, she broke through the security system and eased herself inside.
No moon shone down on her, but starlight was enough for her to scope the room in an instant. Larger than the dorm she shared with Ruby, it was filled with bookshelves and tables, but nothing hung from the walls. No art or posters, no pinboards with polaroids or birthday cards tacked on. Once, she'd visited Ruby and Yang in their childhood home. By comparison, this hardly felt like a room at all. More like a jail cell.
More pristine than any teenager's room had any right to be, it didn't feel very lived in, but it smelled like Weiss all the same. Every part of it held her scent, clinging and familiar.
Stalking silently over to Weiss' bed, she found her safely under the covers, fast asleep.
She knew it would be awkward, at best, to see Weiss again when their last parting had been so tumultuous. But she did not expect to feel torn in half at the sight of her, looking so peaceful and so beautiful, the budding frown lines between her eyebrows all relaxed away in deep slumber. Putting one knee on the mattress, she moved to shake her awake but instead found herself curled up next to her. An inch of space rested between them, and she didn't get underneath the covers to feel her skin the way she wanted to, but Blake closed her eyes and pretended anyway.
Two minutes, she told herself. Two minutes, and then I'll go back to reality.
She had missed Weiss terribly, she realized. Not always in tune with her own feelings, she had been pushing it down and pushing it down until now, when it all came roaring out of the broken dam.
That's when Weiss stirred, turning in her sleep to face her. Startled by the movement, Blake tried to wriggle back, but this time she wasn't as careful to use her semblance to mask her movements. Waking up, and realizing very fast that she was not alone, Weiss' eyes snapped open and she tried to sit up, mouth opening for a scream.
Panicked, Blake pounced, pushing her down and clapping a hand over her mouth. "It's me!" she hissed, knowing how this must look, knowing that her eyes probably gleamed bright yellow in the dark. Like a monster, breaking into her room.
Once Weiss saw who it was, she relaxed. Then the familiar pinch between her eyebrows returned as she scowled and slapped Blake's hand away, muttering, "Oh, damn it, Blake! You nearly scared me to death."
Blake sat back, guilty as charged. Before this could get any worse, she blurted out, "I'm here to help you escape. Do you have an overnight bag or anything you need to take?"
Hearing her tone of voice, the one they used for missions, Weiss instinctively responded in kind. Giving her a tight nod, she sat up as well and scooted to the edge of the mattress, alert and ready for action. "It's here in the closet," she said, "I've been packed ever since I sent the message, though I didn't—"
Halfway to the closet, though, she paused.
Sucking in a deep breath, she held it for a few seconds before slowly letting go.
"…No," she said.
"No?"
"No," she said again, turning to face her. "I can't leave yet. There's still something I have to do here. Something important."
Letting it sink in, Blake contemplated her words, trying to search for a reason. None came to mind, except the worst possible scenarios an upset mind could conjure. Numb, she got to her feet. "It's me," she said, voice raw. "You're still angry with me."
"No, no," she said, still distracted. "Don't be absurd. I've had time to cool down."
Absurd? Was it absurd to assume Weiss hated her? Hope was too dangerous to feel. She wasn't sure if she could handle it if she allowed herself to feel hope, only for it get trampled on again. Blake shook her head, backing away. "It's okay. You don't have to pretend. I'll even— I'll even drop out, if that's what it takes for you to come back. I don't care." In case she forgot, Blake decided to remind her. "I'm good at disappearing."
Eyebrow twitching in annoyance, Weiss reached up, grabbed her by the front of her shirt. Pulled her down.
When their lips parted, Blake was quiet, though just as confused.
As usual, Weiss was all business. "I meant what I said." Cupping Blake's face in her hands, her lips twitched in another smile to see Blake lean into the touch. "I want to come home and I do need your help and I'm not mad at you." Pressing forward, she kissed her again, harder.
Falling into it for just a second, Blake covered the tops of Weiss' hand with her own, holding it tightly. "…But you were so angry," she trailed off, still not ready to believe.
"I was angry," Weiss said. A shadow crossed her face as her tone dropped lower. "So, so angry. I didn't know what to think or feel. I almost called the police."
Every hair on her body stood on end.
Weiss sensed her mood. "But I didn't. I thought about what you said, about walking away. And I started looking closer at my family's businesses and I—" This was when her voice faltered, starting to tremble again. Blake squeezed her hand reflexively, wondering if it would be too hypocritical to ask to hold her. "I went to see the quarries myself."
Muscles that used to be connected to a tail twitching in reflex. The lash marks on her back burned with the pain of a phantom limb. "…Oh, no."
Weiss laughed bitterly. "Oh, yes. All this time it was mine, and I'd never once laid eyes on it. Or the conditions the workers were kept in." Her pale blue eyes went somewhere else. Blake didn't follow; she knew where that path led, and she didn't want to revisit those quarries ever again if she could help it.
"And all I could think," Weiss kept on, "All I could comprehend, was that you knew from the very beginning who I was. And you still found it in your heart to love me, somehow." She touched her chest, the left side. "You're a good person, Blake," Weiss said. "Better than I am."
"That's not true," Blake said instinctively. "You—"
"Oh, please," Weiss groaned, snapping at her just like she used to. "Just take the compliment, Belladonna! I'm trying to be selfless here."
It made her smirk, to see her fussy teammate acting more like her old self. "All right," Blake said easily. "I'm better than you."
"Good. Jeez. Was that so hard? Idiot." Letting her hand go, she went into her closet, flicking on the light. Blake followed, silent as her shadow. It was huge, almost as big as her bedroom itself, and had more of Weiss' personality stuffed inside it. Gowns and dresses and shoes and old toys, a dusty pile of old fencing equipment, and Myrtenaster itself, reverently placed upon its own shelf. "Now that we've established that, I need to fill you in on my plan." Finding a backpack stashed away behind a pile of shoeboxes, she pulled out a wad of cash. "Find a hotel tonight, if you don't want to drive to Beacon and back. You brought a car, right?" she added, off-handedly. "I can't imagine the three of you on the Bumblebee."
Blake nodded. "But why come back tomorrow? Why can't we just leave right now?"
On her knees and still elbow deep in her backpack, Weiss tossed her loose hair over her head, grinning wickedly up at Blake. "Because I'm gonna rob the old man blind," she said, pulling out a memory stick.
Staring at her blankly, Blake retreated to her safe neutral zone, the one where she escaped to when she needed to make sure her ears wouldn't twitch. "What."
"You heard me." Zipping it up, she found another, smaller suitcase and picked it up, thrusting it into Blake's arms. "And since you have a car, I can even take my extra suitcase along. Be sure to take this with you when you leave."
The luggage hit her chest with a thump and she caught it on instinct. "What?"
She chided her. "Honestly, dear," she said, clucking her tongue. "While I could leave with nothing but the clothes on my back, it'd make more sense to take some of my valuables along, don't you agree? At the very least, I might be able to get some money off the jewelry. Some of it's worth more than my life. And no, before you get all stoic and sad about it, I mean that literally." She sniffed, dismissive. "There was a hit put out on me once, and my head was literally worth less than what's in that bag, so take care of it."
"I'm not complaining about the extra suitcase," Blake said, rolling her eyes as she set it down. "I mean, go back to that part where you're going to steal from the Schnees? Isn't that dangerous?"
"…Blake." It was all Weiss said. It was all she needed to say, considering the irony of the situation. Still, she elaborated. "Tomorrow night is a party, one my father holds every year. He's made me promise to attend, and have a good time, and tell everyone who asks and everyone who doesn't ask that I intend to give up huntressing for good and that I'm a polite, reformed young lady of high society again. One who certainly doesn't sleep around with members of the White Fang."
An alarm bell rang faintly in the back of her mind. "I'm not—"
Pressing a finger against her lips, she silenced her. "I know you're not. I believe it when you say it. But he doesn't, and he found out, somehow." A dark look returned, the same one she wore when she spoke about the quarries. "I'm positive someone has been spying on us at school, some sort of snitch. They found out about us and informed my father. There's no other explanation."
She tried to think of who it might be, if she noticed anyone watching her and Weiss too hard. Blake was a cautious individual, with a lot of skeletons in her closet. If she had felt anyone watching her, she would have known it by now. Grimacing, Blake just leaned down, kissing Weiss on her forehead with a fierce sense of protectiveness. "I'll kill them."
"Thanks, but not right now. I couldn't give you the details of my plan because father is watching my every move, tracking my scroll activity. I only just managed to use a proxy to send you those messages when I did, before he remote hacked me and deleted it." She rubbed at her temples. "Thankfully, he didn't discover what I sent. But he was very… displeased to find out I was trying to contact you at all, to say the least."
"So… what is the plan, then?"
"I intend to hit my father where it really hurts. With this." She held out the memory stick. "I'll duck out of the party after showing my face and scraping and bowing at every ass my father wants to impress, then go to his office and steal all his data. Wipe him clean. Steal everything. All his thoughts, every move he plans to make in the next five years, are either on his scroll or on that computer. And I know his password." Her eyes glittered, smile grim. "It'll be that easy."
"It can't," Blake protested half through habit and half through genuine distress. "It literally can't."
"Of course it can. He's weak here in his home, his castle. This is where he is safest, and this is where he is most lax. Rich, spoiled, powerful people who are secure in their position tend to not clean up their paper trails very well." She bopped her on top of her nose with the tip of the memory stick. "You taught me that. So once I have him by the throat, he'll either bow to my demands, or I sell it to the highest bidder. Or who knows," she added, rolling her shoulders uncomfortably. "Maybe I'll give it to you, and you can pass it along to the White Fang. You could find them again if you really wanted to, couldn't you?"
"…Yes," Blake uncertainly agreed. "That's true. But what are you going demand from him?"
"Justice," Weiss said. "Accountability. And complete transparency. And if I'm feeling generous that will be it. Unless he fails to compromise. Then I'll unleash the worst punishment I can imagine. His reputation in tatters. I'll ruin him." Out of breath from the strain of keeping a low noise level, she took a break to huff and puff, red in the face. Though her volume did not raise, the words became steadily more vicious as she kept on. "I'll burn him to the ground if he doesn't kneel. Even if it shreds my inheritance in half. I don't care! I have my own bank account, separate from his, and stocks invested in over seven dozen different companies, all of which are doing well and would only do better if the Schnee Corporation went down. I don't need him. I don't need any of them."
Biting her lower lip, Blake looked down into Weiss' eyes, even now wondering if this was all some feverish dream. "But… why?"
A pause. Brought down from the heights of her trembling rage, she looked at Blake as though she only just remembered she had been talking out loud.
"…He hurt you," Weiss said, simply.
This was real. Weiss was real. And she stood there in her nightgown, hands on her hips and her jaw set in a firm, angry line. Overwhelmed with it all, Blake did the only thing she could do: she grabbed Weiss by her face and pulled her into another kiss, deeper and hungrier than the others. Shocked by her intensity, but not enough to forget their rules, Weiss made a small noise in the back of her throat, wrapping her arms around Blake's neck. That was how it was between them- arms around the neck, or the shoulders. Never the waist, unless it was slow and deliberate. Hands never lingering too long on her back. And never, almost never, the top of Blake's head.
So many rules, so many fears. She was dismayed to find that she was still afraid of Weiss' hands. But at the same time, she was grateful Weiss didn't assume anything had changed, was still careful when she touched her. She pushed her against the wall of her closet, clothes rattling on their hangers and falling to the ground. Not liking how Weiss had to get on her tiptoes to return the kiss, she bent her knees to reach her better, every nerve ending on fire.
The memory stick clattered to the floor. Weiss didn't have as many rules about her body, always eager to feel Blake's touch. "Blake, what—?" she gasped against her mouth, back arched as she pressed her hips forward, her bare skin scorching hot as Blake pinned both her hands above her head, the other one bunched up under the hem of her gown to grope at her chest. Small and pert, not even enough for that 'more than a handful' adage she liked to tease her with, her breasts were still sensitive to the touch.
Not enough.
Blake ducked low to kiss down along Weiss' neck, always careful to never leave a mark. Excitement thrilled down her spine at Weiss' strained, tortured attempts to keep quiet. It occurred to her that she didn't know how insulated this closet was, if they were allowed to be noisy in here, if security guards would bust down the door on her midcoitus. But Weiss would have said something by now if that were the case. Panting with need, she thrust her fingers under the waistband of Weiss' panties, too hungry for this to undress her properly.
Their sex was usually a slow, fumbling thing, always sure to give and receive in equal measures.
Not tonight.
Blake needed her, and didn't want to go through their usual give and take. Her own aching desires were secondary right now; all she wanted was to make Weiss come. Breathing raggedly against her neck, she found Weiss damp already. It didn't take much more to get her slick as sin, not even needing to dip her fingers inside to get them coated up to the knuckle. She pressed her whole body against Weiss, pinning her against the wall to keep her aright. Elbow pumping, fierce but not fast. Just steady, relentless, needing this. When Weiss came, she stiffened up, pressing her face against Blake's shoulder. She snarled between clenched teeth, a choked scream.
Quiet.
Blake listened to her breathe, chest aching with love.
Pulling her fingers free, they brushed against her swollen clit, making Weiss gasp and twitch again. With one arm affectionately around Weiss' neck, holding her to her chest, she sucked her own fingers clean before using them to stroke the top of her girlfriend's hair. "You came so fast, baby," she said, nuzzling her as she tried to catch her breath. They didn't do pet names very often, but seeing Weiss vulnerable and shaky like this stirred the urge inside her to be delicate.
"I… I couldn't help it," she said, only sounding vaguely guilty as her sweat-streaked face tilted up to catch Blake's in a languorous kiss. Hazy pleasure made the usually sharp and quick-tongued Weiss into a sloppy mess, limp and hot in her arms. "That was so good." She tucked her head under Blake's chin and sighed. "So good."
It was good. Good to touch her again. Her soft, small body. The surprising denseness of her muscles. Smell her skin, her hair. Taste her sex on her lips.
But not good enough. Letting go of her only so she could yank the nightgown over her head, she let herself be greedy, touching Weiss everywhere she wasn't allowed to touch back. She sucked and licked, down along her collarbone, her sternum, down to the jutting ridge of her hip bone. Fingers digging into her flesh, knuckles white. "Hey, wait—" Weiss started, a short laugh escaping her, only to be cut short by a gasp.
On her knees, she tenderly placed her hands between Weiss' thighs, guiding them apart to kiss her sex, nothing but the drenched fabric of her underwear between her lips and Weiss. For her part, Weiss kept her hands clenched and tight at her side, arms trembling with the pressure of keeping still.
Pausing for a second, Blake sat back to undo the binding on her ears, letting them twitch free and flap, exercising some newfound freedom.
"Blake?" Weiss asked, with something close to fear in her throat as Blake took her hands and firmly placed them on the top of her head. "Oh, no— you don't have to— I know you don't— I know it's—"
"The ears are different," Blake reassured her, tickling her twitching stomach with fluttering kisses. "You can touch me there, if you want. I was only scared you would feel them and find out the truth." She bit her, very lightly. Hardly enough to indent the skin, much less break it. "And now I'm not worried about that." Leaning in, she pulled aside the bottom of her underwear, where it curved along the crease between her thigh and vulva.
Closing her eyes, she licked along her outer lips, getting rewarded with a shaking groan and a tighter grip on her head. "…Please touch them," she said when Weiss just stroked her fingers through her hair, easing through any windswept tangles. "I really liked it, that one time you did it." Frustrated at her lack of access, she skimmed her fingertips along Weiss' hips, pulling down her panties to her ankles.
Reminding Weiss of that night probably wasn't the best idea, though. "I'm sorry things got so awful," Weiss whispered, tentatively stroking the length of Blake's velvety soft ears. "I'm sorry."
In response, Blake purred deep in her chest as she covered Weiss' sex with her mouth, kissing it openly. Weiss nearly jumped away, startled by the unexpected sensation.
Unable to help herself, Blake smirked up at Weiss.
"Do you just—" She squinted at her, suspicious. "Can you do that on command?"
Wrapping her arms around Weiss' upper legs, Blake kissed her again. "Not really in the mood for twenty questions, Weiss." She flicked her ears, flapping them against Weiss' hands demandingly.
Weiss obliged, grasping them and stroking them as Blake's tongue probed between her lips, rasping against her clit. She felt Weiss shuffle out of the panties keeping her legs too close together, leaning back against the wall for support as she groaned again, low and tortured sounding.
Not enough.
She needed to be closer. Gripping her underneath one knee, Blake hefted it up over her shoulder with such force that she nearly knocked Weiss off balance. Her thighs trembled around Blake's face, hands pulling her closer to grind against her mouth and tongue. Hot. Scorching hot, and endlessly wet, a cup that filled further the more one drank from it. Chest rumbling with a happy purr, she squirmed under Weiss' hands as they pulled on her ears more aggressively, accepting that Blake wasn't going to get upset with her over it.
Glancing up at her once, Blake got upset to see that she wasn't the full focus of Weiss' attention. Cheeks flushed, with sweat plastering her white hair all across her face and neck, she kept her eyes trained on something behind Blake with unexpected intensity. Every so often she would twitch and bite her lower lip, eyes clenching shut from the pressure to keep quiet. But then her gaze would slowly return, her bare chest hitching with another startled gasp.
Blake finally broke her rhythm just to look behind her, just once. A pair of glowing eyes returned her gaze, shining eerily in the semidarkness. Doing a double take, she realized finally what it was: a full length mirror rested against the opposite wall, reflecting their every move.
She almost burst into wild laughter.
Kneeling forward and covering her mouth with one forearm, Blake tried to muffle her giggles. Realizing she'd been caught, Weiss' blush spread all the way down her neck. Torn between being horrified and trying to play it off as nothing, she just said, "Well you were the one who decided to do it in here, not me!"
Lips pressed together to contain any more loud noises, Blake just trembled at her feet, shaking her head in disbelief. "So," she said after she felt she could control herself, though her voice still sounded tight. "You like watching me get you off?" She rested one palm against Weiss' lower belly, thumb stroking her skin.
"No," Weiss lied, breathing ragged, hands trying to guide Blake back to what she had been doing.
"Ah," she said. "Of course not." Gently holding her open with her thumb, she ran her tongue along her a single unbroken motion. Weiss almost lost her balance again, a pathetic cry dying behind her tightly pursed lips.
She came again, letting go of Blake's head to clamp over her mouth, head thrown back. The leg over Blake's shoulder reflexively tensed up, stretching out in a long, straight line. Once Blake let her go, setting her foot down again, she collapsed boneless onto the floor, hands still covering her face.
Still kneeling, Blake eyed her thoughtfully as her chest heaved, licking her lower lip.
Not enough.
Wiping her mouth off with the back of her hand, Blake wrapped around her in a tight embrace, insatiable. Tangling their legs together by the ankles, she dragged her nails down every exposed inch of her body, not ready to let her go yet. Grabbing her by the wrists, she pulled her hands from her face to pepper it with kisses. Then, very gently, she trailed her fingers down the length of her, wondering how best to get her off next. "Blake, oh my god," Weiss said, twisting her thighs tight together once she realized what she was doing. "Now you're just trying to show off!"
"No I'm not." Blake had seen her at the edge of her limits before, though, and knew she could take a lot more than this. She wanted to see it again. "But you need to tell me when you want me to stop." Winding the length of her long white hair in her fist, Blake pulled her head upright, stroking along her body with the other. "Because I'm not going to stop until you do," she warned, lips brushing against Weiss' with every word. It'd been much longer than the two weeks of their breakup since they'd last had sex. Always afraid of revealing too much, and gradually trying to end things, she had weaned herself off of Weiss's body. After fasting so long, she was starving. She knew Weiss was too.
The release of her fear, of her anger. The knowledge that Weiss loved her enough to change. It was euphoric. It was orgasmic. It was better than sex.
…Well, almost better than sex.
Pulling on the back of her neck, she forced Weiss facedown onto the floor, intending to crawl on top of her and take her from behind.
And that was when she froze, all her arousal seeping away only to be replaced by a cold, furious horror.
She hadn't seen them before, with Weiss' back pressed against the wall or covered by the nightgown. But now, straddling her with her knees on either side of her hips, she did. Lash marks. She touched them without thinking, judging them to be a few days old. No longer painful to the touch, they were still hideous and obvious. Ruptured. Purple clouds and red splashes of blood hid just underneath the skin, fading away to seasickness: green, yellow, black.
Weiss stiffened underneath her at the realization that Blake had only just noticed the marks. "…Oh, damn it." Turning her head to the side, she frowned deeply. Blake followed her gaze again on instinct to see their reflection, Weiss's face pinched in frustration. "Right," she said, as though they were discussing lost laundry. "Forgot to mention. Now we match."
A belt, Blake thought, before quickly rectifying her assessment. No, a cane. Definitely a caning. Her hands shook as she traced each one. They wouldn't leave a scar- none of them had broken the skin- but they filled her with a fury so blind she thought she might never see the sun again.
Twisting underneath her so they were face to face again, Weiss just met her eyes, understanding without saying a word. "This is how I knew I needed to leave," she said. "Sorry. I suppose now me running away seems just a tad less selfless, doesn't it?"
"…Was this the first time?" She touched her face, gently. Noticing the scar over her eye with a fresh perspective. Wanting to kick down the door, find where he slept, and murder him in his sleep.
"No." A small spark of fear entered her eyes, throat bobbing. "But it was… it was definitely the worst." Shifting subtly underneath her, she sat up and rested her hands on Blake's thighs, trying to get her to focus on something else. "But, we don't need to talk about that. More importantly, what was that about not stopping till I begged for it?" Gripping Blake by her chin, she twisted her head from side to side, trying hard to remain light and casual. There were very few times when Blake thought Weiss might genuinely be on the verge of tears. This was one of them. "Or are you all talk after all, Belladonna?"
Biting her lower lip, Blake just bent down, holding Weiss as tight as she possibly could. All the carnal urgency had left her, but the need to touch her was still there. They had no trouble staying quiet after that, Blake coaxing one more orgasm from her in between gentle kisses and murmured affirmations. That's when they stopped, and if Blake felt or saw any tears in the darkness, she didn't say a word.
Exhausted, sticky, and extremely satisfied with herself, Blake rolled onto her back, palm pressed to her forehead as she looked at the ceiling. "You can pay me back with interest once we get you out of here," she said, her normal dry humor still alive and kicking. Weiss mumbled back something that sounded like nonsense, jelly limbed and mush brained from too many intense emotions in too short a period of time. "Unless you want to leave now. I won't blame you."
Tucking herself against Blake's side, Weiss shook her head. "No. But shouldn't you maybe tell Ruby and Yang you haven't been caught and thrown in jail?"
That didn't make a lot of sense at first until Blake pulled out her scroll, checking the time with a frown. She had left it on silent, but when she booted it up, roughly fifty messages awaited her from their friends.
Heat crawled up the back of her neck. "Oh, no," she said, ducking her head in shame. "Oh no." They thought she was dead, probably. To say she had lost track of the time was an understatement; the sun would be rising soon. How could she face her team mates and tell them she hadn't rescued Weiss because she was too busy screwing her into the dead hours of the morning?
Change of plan, she typed out with shaking fingers as Weiss tried not to laugh. Update later. All is fine.
THANK GOD! Yang yelled back at her. I was gonna burn the place down and look for you two. What's going on? You went inside and then radio silence!
All's fine, Blake said again, terse and short even through text messages. Be patient.
Weiss spoke, taking her scroll from her before she could text any more. "Tonight, meet me here around nine," she said, tapping and sliding the screen. "Here are the routes and shifts that the guards will be using, and a full schematic of the estate and lands. Memorize it if you can." She gave it back. "You're brilliant, dear, but an extra edge ever hurts."
"I appreciate it," Blake said. Pocketing it, she got to her feet and help Weiss up as well, noting with no small amount of pleasure that she was unsteady as a newborn deer. Holding her by her elbows, she kissed her again. "And we'll be gone, soon. All right? Everything is going to be fine."
"I know."
She did manage to haul that stupid extra suitcase out in the end, scaling the walls with it lashed to her back by Gambol Shroud. When she reached the empty lot where Ruby and Yang had waited all night for her, she tried not to show how guilty she was. "What the hell is that?" Yang demanded, storming up to her. "Our girl better be tucked into that box you got there or I'm gonna blow a fuse!"
Blake shoved it at her, forcing her to catch it. "I said be patient."
"Patient my ass! Is Weiss coming or not?"
Pausing at the question, Blake looked from Yang to Ruby, who was hovering by anxiously for news. Then a smile dawned across her face, very slow and very intentional.
It took Yang a second to get it.
"Oh, Blake!" she said, pulling at the roots of her hair. "Don't tell me you just spent the entire night making like bunny rabbits with your girlfriend while we worried ourselves sick! I'm gonna kill you! I'm literally going to murder you, right now!" She roared in frustration, making strangling motions at her partner.
"After we get Weiss," Ruby added, dragging Yang away.
OoOoOo
They found a hotel to hole up in for the rest of the day, Yang making angry eyes at Blake and not letting her get into one of the twin beds until she took a shower. ("Ya nasty!")
Freshly scrubbed, she sat on the edge of one of the mattresses and explained the situation as Ruby paced and Yang nodded along, somewhat mollified after learning Blake did not, in fact, "blow the mission for the hookup."
"So that's it, then?" Ruby asked, pausing her restless movements to hop onto the desk, legs swinging. "It sounds a little risky. How does Weiss know she'll be able to do that stuff without getting caught, or getting you caught, or…? Like there's a lot of factors here that could go really, really wrong."
Toweling her secondary ears dry, Blake shrugged. "She seems convinced. We're just gonna have to trust she knows what she's doing."
Ruby hesitantly agreed.
After that, Blake crawled under her blankets and slept like the dead.
OoOoOo
Breaking in the second night was almost easier than the first.
Hovering inside Weiss' empty room, she waited for the heiress to return. She was out, getting her dress fitted on, her makeup and hair professionally done. Only the best for a Schnee, and tonight was going to be her night, allegedly. Where she would tell everyone who was anyone that the youngest member of the family was not going to be traipsing around the wilderness with a group of riff raff and rejects, swinging her sword like a barbarian. That Weiss was giving up being a huntress and settling down like a good girl.
She hid in the shadows so well Weiss didn't even noticed Blake in the room upon her return. She bustled around, getting last minute touches finalized and affixing sapphire jewelry to every inch of her body.
Blake watched her, half entranced, half wondering if Weiss would realize she was not alone. She looked beautiful, maybe more beautiful than Blake had ever seen her. Hair tightly twisted across the back of her head to cascade down one shoulder, it left the other half of her neck completely bare.
And her dress.
Dresses like that didn't exist in the real world. Gossamer and glitter. Clinging and flowing. Dark, dark blue with sheer layers on top. It pulled on a more primal side of her, the one that was still very much a child whose first reaction to the unknown was to touch it and see if it was real.
The words spilled out before she could stop herself. Standing behind her, she rested her hands on Weiss' hips, the fabric slipping through her curious hands like sapphire dust. "You look like a changeling," she said into her ear, pressing her lips against the elegant curve of the bare side of her neck.
It earned her an elbow in the gut. Working on reflex, Weiss almost screamed for the guards before she realized it was her girlfriend doubled over beside her, arms clutching her stomach. "Blake!" she hissed, horrified and at the same time full of self righteous fury. "Stop sneaking up on me like that!"
"Ow," was all Blake could say.
Holding her by the arms, Weiss looked her dead on for once. Her heels were a force to be reckoned with, tonight, almost putting them on the same level. "I can't kiss you or I'll ruin my makeup," she said, visibly distressed. "And, oh no, I should have told you to come later, now you're just going to be waiting in my room until I find a way to leave early and-"
Blake kissed her, very carefully. She still got blue on her face, but it was worth it. "I'll watch you through the windows," Blake promised her. "I know the guard stations and I'm good at hiding. I'll never be further than a shout away if you need me at all tonight."
Despite herself, Weiss smirked at that. "Oh? And what are you going to do, break through the window? Swing in on Gambol Shroud like Tarzan on his vines, here to whisk me away?"
"Maybe I will."
A knock on the door set them both on high alert. Blake vanished; Weiss opened it. There was a lot of activity after that, and Blake didn't get a chance to speak to her again for the next four hours. She watched her, just like she promised, stalking from window to window just out of sight. She kept Ruby and Yang updated this time, making sure not to let a repeat of the other night happen.
The party was extravagant, the kind of glittering scene you only read about in the gossip rags or see in the movies. Everyone beautiful or rich or both; everyone pristine, with soft hands and soft steps and harsh laughs. Searching for Weiss in the crowd, she expected her to somehow be different, stand out as a hawk among the doves. It took her a while to note that Weiss did not walk with her usual muscular grace, the kind of gait that only huntresses had. She blended in, almost becoming just another face midst the masses, so different she seemed.
She floated, a social butterfly wisping from flower to flower. Weiss seemed happy. Unnervingly so. Everyone she met, she met with good grace and perfect manners. Grinning easily, kissing old friends on the cheek and greeting new ones with a limp handshake or another brilliant smile and a politely tilted head. She laughed, and danced in her fairy princess dress, and drank champagne from glasses with tender stalks.
It was only when she felt no one was looking that she dipped into a scowl, or sighed in exhaustion, forehead pinched in the way it did when she complained of stress headaches.
'There's the ornery little shit I love,' Blake thought more than once before the mask returned and Weiss continued to pretend to be the perfect princess they expected her to be.
At the climax of the party, Weiss stood by her father as he gave a speech. He touched the small of her back, looking down at her with cold blue eyes, the exact same shade as hers. He cracked a joke. She laughed, a real laugh. The first all night.
Intimately in tune with Weiss' true feelings, Blake quietly tucked away the knowledge that the only genuine smile Weiss held that night, she held in that moment when her father regarded her as his prized daughter, his only heir, the one he trusted more than anyone in the world.
And then she left early— "early" being around one in the morning.
Blake followed outside, heart beating faster as she watched Weiss strip away her earrings and bracelets, pausing once to sit down and take off her shoes so she could run all the way to her bedroom. Blake ran as well, excited to meet her once she arrived. Clambering into her window, she just shed her semblance when Weiss threw open the door, mincing in on broken feet. Blake was on her in a second, purring and enveloping her in a loose hug. Exhausted, Weiss sank against her. She rested her face in the hollow of her neck, dropping her shoes at her side.
"Are you OK?" Blake asked, mangling her updo as she undid the pins and ruffled it up. Weiss guided her to press in and massage, letting her feel where they had pressed tightly enough against Weiss' scalp to leave a mark. She smelled like other people, alcohol and tobacco, sweat and perfume. Blake would have to change that later; for now, she settle for kissing her all over her face. Then, only half teasing, she added, "Fairy Princess? In your little stardust dress."
She barked a bitter laugh. "More like a fallen star, after tonight."
"Good enough for me. Let's whisk you away while everyone is distracted, come on." She took her hand to lead her away, but Weiss pulled back firmly, giving her a pointed look. Blake's ears threatened to flatten against her skull. "Weiss, come on," she said, pleading with her. "You don't have to do this. You love your dad. You do," she added when Weiss' expression turned poisonous and ready to bite. "I don't want you to… break that. Not for me."
Weiss reversed their grip, holding onto Blake's hand with both of hers. "I have to do this," she said. Quiet. Serious. "He won't change until there's a repercussion for his actions. I know him. Blake…" she let out a long breath. "When we… broke up, I guess, I was so angry with you I could have broken something. I did break something, after you left. There have been so many times I was just furious, mad enough to not think straight. But not once— not once—" she said, some of the fury she spoke of returning to her words. "Did I ever think of hurting you. Not once. Not ever. And I'm just a kid. A fully grown man ought to know better. If there was nothing that kept me from hurting you the way I've been hurt, there's no excuse for why he did it to me." She grit her teeth. "Until I fix this, I'm no better than him. And I don't want to be like him. Ever again."
Blake leaned in, sniffing at her loudly. Pressing against her cheek and neck, she huffed like a bloodhound, searching for something.
Surprised, Weiss darted back, letting her go. "Excuse you? Is this some faunus thing I'm unaware of?"
"You're drunk," Blake said.
Weiss stood up a little straighter. "I am not."
"You are. One angsty confession is quite a rarity; two in as many nights needs some kind of explanation."
Weiss whapped her lightly on her forearm, the kind of play fighting that made more noise than it left any actual sting. "Jerk."
"You smell like a winery."
Muttering darkly under her breath, Weiss marched past her into her closet, pulling out her hunting outfit and Myrtenaster. Blake was familiar with that strut, it meant a silent treatment was forthcoming.
Setting her jewelry down on her vanity, she gave herself a single, approving once over in the mirror before she started undressing. Struggling with the clasps on her own clothing, Weiss looked at her once or twice before committing to her resolve and staying quiet.
It lasted about two minutes, a new record. "Come over here and unzip me," she ordered.
Blake obeyed, but not without another quip. Standing behind her again, but closer this time, she put more weight on her touch. Deliberate. Purposeful. "Well," she said. "Someone's acting really spoiled after last night."
She was rewarded by a long blush, brilliant on the pale skin of her neck. Weiss didn't have a response ready for once, tongue tied an squirming. Blake hoped she remembered every detail of what they had done as she helped her out of her beautiful dress. Touching her skin appreciatively, she tried to focus on how goosebumps arose at the contact rather than the ugly reminder of why she wanted to get Weiss out of here as fast as possible. The bruise marks were all almost gone, but still obvious to her eyes.
Seeing in the mirror where Blake's focus was, Weiss reached behind her to drag her hand across Blake's face in a rude attempt to get her attention elsewhere. "Hey, quit staring. I tried to heal it as fast I could, okay? You could see my shoulders in that dress and I didn't wanna cause a scene."
"I wasn't," she lied. "Your bra was just giving me trouble." Unhooking it to prove her point, she ducked down to kiss Weiss between her shoulderblades. Weiss shivered, leaning forward instinctively to grip the edge of the vanity. Encouraged, Blake nipped at her shoulder, hungrily wrapping her arms around her waist.
"You don't need to do that…" Weiss said uncertainly. "I'm gonna get changed so we can… I'm not sure I have the stamina for two nights in a row, dear."
"Don't worry." The fingers of her right hand started stroking the waistband of her panties before carefully creeping underneath. The left went up, palming her small, high breasts, excitement building up in her chest at how she bucked and writhed responsively. "I'm just fooling around."
After discovering her little mirror kink last night, Blake expected Weiss to play along. While the vanity mirror didn't show as much skin, it was a lot closer. But Weiss kept her gaze down now, pointedly trying to look everywhere but at Blake's eyes, glowing in the mirror. Smirking, she quit pawing at her breasts to hold her chin, directing her upwards to look at them, at Blake's hand disappearing beneath the frame, moving with gentle strokes.
Weiss gasped and jerked free, whirling around to hold Blake at a distance. "N-no," she said. "I don't like it when— I don't want you to see me too, I— I don't like it," she finished flatly, crossing her arms across her chest, suggesting she wasn't going to elaborate further.
She seemed to be waiting for a response, though. Blake blinked. "OK."
"Besides, I don't want to be indebted to you further." Reaching up, she pulled more of her hair down, finding pins that Blake had somehow missed and shaking it loose. It fell in rings and curls, shortened so that it only just reached past down her shoulders instead of down her back, like it did when straight. "I need to pay you back for last night or I'll go mad."
"You're that torn up about it, huh?"
Putting one hand on the center of Blake's chest, Weiss kept the pressure up until Blake understood. Stepping back, she let Weiss guide her down to the bed until it hit the back of her knees and she was forced to sit. Tilting her head up, Weiss kissed her, filling her senses with the taste of her lipstick and champagne. "I had a nightmare you told Yang all the gritty details of our love life. She accused me of being a pillow princess." Getting down, on one knee, she yanked off one of Blake's boots. "And it's been driving me crazy ever since." She pulled off the other one.
"You did not," Blake said, grinning.
"I did so. And even if I didn't, who are you to complain? Pants."
"Bossy, bossy, bossy." Still, she shimmied down her pants and stockings, kicking them off. Weiss proved how much she wanted to pay her back, heady from a mixture of alcohol and possibly anxiety. As she laced their fingers together and bent over double, gasping for breath, Blake hoped that Weiss could hear her, the tiny trills in her chest that she had suppressed every other time they'd made love. She didn't have to hide anymore, just feel Weiss, allow Weiss to tentatively brush her fingers against the extra ribs on her side and kiss the scars on her back. Her lipstick wore away on Blake's body, smearing across her thighs and her stomach, until it was all over and they awkwardly giggled over it, trying to wipe off the mess with a pillowcase.
They didn't have time for another drawn out session of makeup sex, though, and Weiss had to be satisfied with one out of three for now. They got dressed, consulted the schematics Blake had on her scroll, and quietly sneak through the estate. It was not hard at all, with Blake pulling her into the shadows every time she heard a guard patrolling nearby and with the party just now getting into full swing in the ballroom. She could hear echoes of it through the hallways and empty rooms, and tightened her grip on Weiss' hand every time a loud cheer went up. Each one sounded like an alarm going off, that someone had discovered intruders in her house.
But no.
It looked much like she imagined it would, Schnee's office. Lots of dark wood, comfortable chairs, expensive rare crystals on display. Also on display were a history of swords, some broken, some lovingly remastered and put on the walls to rest for the remainder of their days on this earth. The love of fencing that he had so obviously inspired in Weiss must have started here, Blake thought as she watched Weiss boot up the computer at his desk, impatiently tapping her foot. When it was booted up she rapidly typed out the password, plugging in the memory stick and starting up the program that would transfer all of his information to her scroll as well as wipe his desktop clean. He almost certainly had a backup of all this information somewhere else, but she did it more for the extra "screw you" it delivered than out of any actual hope to further sabotage him.
"How long will it take?" Blake asked, wondering why she was whispering. She paced the room, the muscles on her back twitching, hands flexing.
"Thirty minutes." She looked at the screen again. "Give or take." Less agitated than Blake, but still a bit paler than usual, Weiss went over to the imposing bookshelf nearest to her, gazing at the titles on it.
"Ah, damn! These are mine," she blurted out, unexpectedly. When Blake gave her a questioning glance, she shook her head, rubbing at her forehead. "I mean, I forgot. These books. I learned about Dust theory right here on my father's knee, from these books." Looking up at them again, she bit her lower lip. "Well, there goes that part of my inheritance, I guess."
Curious, Blake walked over to her and took a look at some of the titles herself. She recognized a few of them as just limited editions of common practice guides, but others were incredibly rare tomes, expensive and fragile on top of being obscure and hard to find. She understood that Weiss was lamenting more than just the books, though, as she saw her girlfriend open one in particular and flipped to a page with the kind of practice that came from utter familiarity.
There was a photo wedged between the pages. Three people smiled back at her, a toddler squeezed between them and trying hard to be included in the shot. All of them had her white hair, her pale blue eyes. Wordlessly taking out her scroll, Weiss scanned it before putting it back. Her fingers traced the spine, and then she went back to the computer.
Not sure what else to do, Blake looked at her own scroll to keep her fingers busy. Ruby and Yang needed to be updated, and she did so, assuring them that she was not "doing the do instead of doing the mission again." Once she was done, an idea struck her, inspired by what Weiss had done to the photo. Blake put her scroll in camera mode, taking pictures of each of the shelves. Making sure she got each title clear.
Weiss made a questioning noise from her side of the room.
"We'll get our own copies," Blake said, holding the scroll steady for another picture. "Once you're a rich and famous huntress. Fill a whole room with books, if you want." She looked over at her. "Way better than these."
Weiss gave her a smile like a broken lamp, light still shining somehow, through the cracks. Then the computer tinged and they were done. Pulling the memory stick free, Weiss paused for a second before checking the time. "The halls outside should be clear for another fifteen minutes. We should go now if we're gonna go."
"Got it."
Taking her hand again, they left, running from the room without a single backwards glance as they shut the door behind them.