A/N: So, writing for team JNPR is one of the most awesome experiences in the world. We love them so much. We hope you love them too. 3
Hugs,
Defenestrator
The Forest of Forever Fall. By all accounts a beautiful location, diverse only in terrain, set against the edge of the continent, its signature ubiquitous crimson leaves said to have pulled their color from the blood of all those slain by the endless Grimm that infested the area.
Beowolves, Ursa Majors, Deathstalkers, the occasional elusive King Taijitu, even an ancient horror known as the Rat King - all of these beasts and many more called this forest home, landing Forever Fall squarely in the category of High Risk Restricted Area. Certainly not a place where first or even second years were supposed to be wandering unsupervised.
Unless of course you were a pair of huntresses-in-training hellbent on retrieving an impossibly precious item from the forest's clutches.
Blake Belladonna glanced over at her partner in crime. Of all the unusual things that had happened in the past few weeks, she certainly never expected to be spending her final day of recovery leave taking a stroll through the forest of Forever Fall with Weiss Schnee. The heiress in question was walking right beside her, scanning every inch of the forest as best she could with sharp ice-blue eyes, searching for any sign of their target - Ruby's cloak.
They could all see it. The way Ruby would instinctively reach back for the hood that wasn't there, move to pull on the cape that wasn't covering her shoulder, each time frowning for only the briefest of moments before acting like nothing had happened. Their fearless team leader would never admit to it, but it was obvious to all of them how badly she missed her cloak.
Not surprisingly it was Yang who eventually cornered Blake and Weiss the day before, insisting that they go out as a team to find it. And yet, when the lower bunkmates woke early to surprise Ruby with the news of their intended adventure for the day, they found the sisters tangled together in a sleepy heap on Yang's bed, utterly dead to the world. Seeing no reason to disturb them, the pair had set off on their own.
Blake was beginning to regret that decision, straining her eyes to see through the nigh-impenetrable morning fog - something Yang's flames would have been incredibly useful for. The sun overhead would burn it away soon enough, though. They would manage. Familiar with low-visibility situations, the Faunus kept her ears on high alert as they walked, headed straight for the sprawling expanse of wreckage that marked the location of their struggle with the Rat King.
Falling back into an old calming habit, Blake absentmindedly rubbed her fingertips along the cool metal handles of Gambol Shroud and its sheath, both currently drawn and at the ready. She used the tip of her katana to lightly tap the blade of Myrtenaster, currently brandished in Weiss's grip, finding the sensation surprisingly solid.
"Hey."
Weiss jumped when Blake tapped her blade, "Don't do that."
"Sorry," Blake kept her voice low, just above a whisper, "can you... actually see anything?"
Weiss was about to inform her teammate that she could in fact see, but some kind of devious raised root had the gall to trip her, so she settled for growling, "Just point me in the direction of whatever needs to be impaled."
Over the past couple of days, the heiress had seen fit to at least attempt to educate herself a bit more about the Faunus. The literature in Beacon's library and... well, to be honest everywhere she could find... was a tad lacking and often filled with biases so extreme they bordered on comical. But nothing in all of Remnant would make her admit to reading up about it- especially not to Blake- so it was hard to find where to start without simply investigating everything.
She'd also, given the heinous amounts of free time the break from classes allowed her, perused several books on feline behavior on the off chance that they ever had another medical... incident.
Some of her findings had been disconcerting. She stole a glance at the shadow of her teammate through the strange morning fog. This was neither the time nor the place to discuss such mundane matters, but perhaps once they collected their prize and left the forest... "If this fog dissipates, I should be able to find the place where we laid out Ruby's cloak. Do you think we're close?"
"Well, I haven't seen any trees for a while now, and considering we've been walking for," Blake glanced up at the sky, briefly noting the sun's position high overhead, "...roughly three hours, we should be-" she stopped suddenly, taking a quick step backwards as she threw an arm out to keep Weiss from passing her. The light sound of crumbling rocks cut through the silence of the forest, tumbling, falling, but never landing. "...very close..."
Blake scowled down at the edge of the enormous all-too-familiar ravine she'd nearly stepped off of, just barely visible in the rapidly thinning fog still clinging to the ground. "Good call on taking it slow through this area."
A rotten stench hung in the air. Enormous off-white curves of bone jutted from fog that swirled half-white, half-black on the other side of the collapsed cavern. Long tangles of uprooted trees formed a natural barrier around the swaths of ground swept clear by the Rat King's tail. A layer of red leaves lay over everything, as if the forest itself were trying to heal, to forget what had happened.
Weiss's expression remained neutral. She pushed Blake's arm down, "Well. Let's start looking."
With a quick nod, Blake followed close behind as Weiss began to skirt the perimeter of the sheer drop. It made more sense for Weiss to lead at this point, considering the majority of Blake's experience with this particular section of the forest had been underground, trapped in a twisting maze of Grimm infested caverns. If it weren't for her classmates and Beacon's staff, she would probably still be down there.
Blake scowled at the thought, pushing unwanted memories to the back of her mind as she searched, running the tips of her blade and sheath through the leaves while sticking as close to Weiss as she could - there was no way she would allow them to be separated. Eyes sharp and ears sharper, the two of them combed through the clearing, slowly working their way closer to the towering carcass looming across the cavern.
After a short while, the surrounding fog finally began to evaporate under the heat of the sun, revealing a seemingly endless expanse of downed trees, their dark gnarled roots jutting up over a forest floor randomly dotted with gaping holes. A sinking sensation washed over Blake at the sight.
They wanted to find a red cloak, in this red forest, soaked through and washed clean of any scent by the recent storms, probably buried under over a week's worth of fallen leaves if it hadn't somehow fallen underground...
They might have taken on an impossible task.
Blake shook her head, refocusing on her surroundings. Red, quiet, cold. No sign of danger so far, but also no sign of Ruby's cloak. Two quick steps had her walking beside Weiss again. "Do you remember where she left it?"
"It was... somewhere in sight of that ridge," Weiss scanned the wide expanse of leaf-strewn terrain. Literally all of it was in sight of the ridge in question- what remained of the ridge, anyway. A large portion of it had crumbled away into one of the gaping holes that pocked the forest.
This was definitely going to be impossible. Even if they found the cloak, it would probably be riddled with bugs and mildew.
... but would Ruby care about that?
Yeah, no. That cape was like her security blanket. Weiss kicked through the leaves a little harder than necessary. Stupid, childish team leader.
... they had already walked for hours to get here; they may as well look around.
She shot Blake a quick inquiring glance. This being a highly restricted area, they had agreed early on to simply retreat the moment any sort of Grimm showed up. One inevitably meant more, and dedicated to their task they might be, but they weren't going to chance things getting out of hand.
Blake caught Weiss's quiet gaze, responding by closing her eyes for a moment, then opening them again one step later with a slight shake of her head. She didn't hear anything. Her eyes dropped back to the forest floor, never once pausing in their relentless search, even as she began silently considering a unique option afforded by the secluded nature of their current surroundings. As the one bearing superior hearing, Blake had put herself on high alert the entire trip, listening for any and all sounds out of the ordinary the very second they'd entered the forest's borders.
Still, naturally excellent as her hearing was, the bow covering her Faunus ears always muddled things somewhat. While she was never particularly keen on unbinding her ears when out in the open, she and Weiss were the only ones around, probably for miles - a thought that was both relieving and worrying all at once. The forest was extremely dangerous after all, and for precisely that reason, having any added edge on sensing approaching enemies could provide those critical extra seconds to escape...
Needing no further convincing, Blake temporarily sheathed gambol shroud, reached up to unravel her bow and wrap it around her hand instead, then pulled her weapon back out, all without breaking her stride. She shivered slightly as the cool air met her uncovered ears, nevertheless relishing in the sounds - or lack thereof - of the forest finally coming through with perfect clarity. Amber eyes closed once more as she made a second aural scan of the area.
"There's nothing nearby for at least... 150 feet or so - above or below ground," she confirmed aloud, eyes opening once more to glance sideways at Weiss.
Weiss gave a soft hum of acknowledgement. Her gaze stole up to her teammate's uncovered ears for a second before returning to the forest floor.
Team RWBY's dorm room grew lighter as the morning wore on. The pale gray of dawn gave way to mild, sweet colored sunshine that rendered the world entirely too bright for sleep.
"Mmmmrgg..." Ruby stirred in her sister's embrace. She tried to spit out the hair that had gotten in her mouth and prop herself up, but Yang had this thing about letting go of people, so she just leaned to see what time it was.
Almost ten o'clock. That was late. She could see Weiss's bed, empty and neatly made on the other side of the room.
Ruby collapsed back on the mattress with a groan. Having nightmares sucked, especially when you and your big sister had them at the same time. Not that Yang had said that she'd had nightmares, but when Ruby had woken up in the night Yang had sure agreed pretty quick to sharing a bunk.
Hopefully Yang had gotten a chance to tell Blake about whatever was going on with her. Ruby really did feel a lot better after talking with Blake and Weiss. Now it all just had to work through her system. No problem.
Her stomach growled. Hm. Problem.
"Yaaaaang," she poked her sister's sleeping face, "We're going to miss breakfast. Weiss already left without us."
Yang's brows furrowed more and more with each poke to the face. "wha... what are you..." bleary amethyst eyes finally blinked open, squinting back shut seconds later as the drowsy brawler bared her teeth in an enormous yawn, "talking about..."
Releasing Ruby from her grasp, Yang used her newly freed limbs to prop herself up on her elbows and stare down at the other bunk beds. "Weiss is... gone?-" she snapped to wakefulness upon seeing the empty bottom bunk, vaulting forward and crushing her little sister into the mattress as she leaned over the side of her bunk to check below. Blake's bed was empty as well.
The bed frame creaked in protest as Yang forcefully pushed herself back up onto all fours, squinting angrily at nothing in particular, hoping against all hope that Weiss and Blake were simply waiting for them in the cafeteria.
Ruby's stomach growled again.
A smile replaced the brawler's halfhearted frown. She winked at her little sister - then immediately regretted the action, hands flying to cover the beautiful shiner she'd gotten from Weiss's well-placed elbow to her face. It probably would have healed far more quickly if Yang could remember to stop winking all the time. "Let's... not miss breakfast," she muttered, still managing at least a portion of her previous smile.
Weiss and Blake were not at breakfast, but Team JNPR was.
"Hey, Jaune!" Ruby greeted the blonde with a bright sunrise-and-roses sort of smile, plunking her tray of French toast and strawberries on the table. "How's life?" she noticed the enormous, combined pile of food on the tray in front of him, around which the rest of his team was gathered. "... whaaaat are you doing?"
Jaune tried to swallow a mouthful so he could respond, but half of it went the wrong way and he started coughing.
"We're building a French toast castle," Nora explained, upending a bottle of syrup to fill in the 'moat', "to defend against the evil forces of General Hamandeggs."
She pointed to Ren's plate of normal breakfast foods.
Ren stared forlornly at his rapidly cooling meal, nodding to Ruby as the younger girl looked his way. "I can't eat this until it's been 'properly vanquished'," he explained with a small sigh, gesturing to the vaguely man-shaped slice of ham - its outline fashioned by what looked suspiciously like teeth marks - lying atop a pair of fried eggs surrounded by a protective ring of rice.
Pyrrha patted his arm, her other hand carefully placing slice after slice of soaked syrupy toast in a row, constructing one of the walls of their grand edible fortress. "Don't worry Ren, your General won't stand a chance once the battle truly begins."
Yang chose that moment to plop down beside Ruby, slamming her tray down on the table with more force than usual, shaking it hard enough for a portion of Pyrrha's wall to cave in on itself.
Ren sighed harder as Pyrrha frowned at her collapsed handiwork. Waffles really would have made for a sturdier structure.
"A breach in the defenses!" Nora cried out, grabbing a spoon and some strawberries from Pyrrha's plate, "Quick! Fire the catapults!"
"Nora, whose side are you on?!" Jaune took a strawberry to the eye in his attempt to block his part of the castle.
"Great. Now Ren's never going to get to eat," Ruby nudged her sister's shoulder with her own, sopping up syrup off her plate with a huge piece of French toast while the fierce battle carried on. "Do you think Blake and Weiss went off training or something?"
"I'm sure they're somewhere, having a great time," Yang sulked with half-hearted anger, resting her chin in one hand as she attacked her food with the other. She hated missing out on the action, but more than that, she was genuinely worried for her partner and the icy heiress.
The four of them sneaking into the forest as a team was one thing, but just those two? Blake and Weiss were certainly both competent huntresses-in-training, but after their run-in with a centuries old Grimm, she didn't trust that forest as far as she could throw it. Still, she would give them until dinner to return before she dragged Ruby with her to go find them.
A stray chunk of French toast sailed through the air and hit with a splat on Yang's nose before sliding off to land in her massive pile of eggs and potatoes. She waved off Pyrrha's apology with a quick smile, then returned to devouring her food as she stared off into space, concern marring her features. "I hope they dressed warmly at least. It's supposed to be cold today..."
Yang blinked, pausing with her fork halfway to her face. "Speaking of cold..." with their resident ice queen out of the way for at least a few hours, she finally had Ruby all to herself. Honestly, her little sister stuck closer to Weiss than dog hair on socks. A smirk overtook the brawler's face. Yes, it was the perfect time to impart some sisterly wisdom.
"So little sis," she threw an arm around Ruby's shoulders, "how are things with you and Weiss?"
"Um. Good?" Ruby shoved the piece of toast on the end of her fork into her mouth, unhindered by the way her sister was pulling her sideways on the bench. She spoke around it, "Oh! We're working on a new move! I mean I guess we kind of always are- she can do, like, a million things with her glyphs- but this one's going to be really, really cool."
"Ruby," Yang ruffled her little sister's hair affectionately, "I know you love battle tactics and all, but you've gotta have a bit more variety! When was the last time you took Weiss out on the town? Went somewhere fun together? Did something other than study in the back rooms of the library?"
Across the table, Pyrrha rapidly turned a bright shade of scarlet, completely ignoring Nora's utter destruction of her portion of the fortress as she was suddenly reminded of her most recent trip to the library.
Those back rooms really were wonderfully secluded, made it easy to study without distractions, but the second she'd removed her headphones... Do you know what people would think if they saw this...
"S-studying can be fun too," she said with a completely straight face, abandoning her demolished creation to join the sisters' conversation, "but it doesn't have to be school related. Maybe you could try learning to bake something together?"
Yang nodded in agreement, but then paused and squinted, trying to imagine the Schnee heiress covered in flour. She grinned, filing the idea away for future pranking purposes.
"Why do I need variety? We do different kinds of battle tactics," Ruby crossed her arms, hair standing out in all directions after her sister's ruffling. "And Yang's cookies always turn out better than mine anyway."
Yang beamed at the compliment, temporarily forgetting the initial point she was trying to make. Fortunately, Pyrrha lent a hand.
"But Ruby," the redheaded warrior stared at her young classmate with clear, earnest eyes, "What if Weiss's cookies turn out even better than Yang's?"
"Well, I... uh..." Ruby paused. Did Weiss even bake? Her partner didn't strike her as the good-around-the-kitchen type. Then again, she'd never really asked. She lit up suddenly, "Guys! We could have a baking party! And by 'we' I mean mostly Yang, but Ren you make really good pancakes and I would stir stuff for both of you if you wanted."
"Ahaha!" Nora cackled, making the bitten-out shape of ham dance on top of the demolished french toast fortress, "Victory is mine! Bake as much as you want, foolish humans - no wall of syrup-soaked bread will stand in the way of my quest to rule all of Remnant!"
"Noooo, I never should have bitten that piece of ham into a vaguely human shape! Now we're all doomed," Jaune despaired, gripping his hair, heedless of the sticky syrup he was getting in it.
"I'll save us," Ren deadpanned, gently removing the mangled meat man from Nora's hands and biting its head off in one single chomp. He turned his gaze to Ruby as he finished his admittedly delicious killing blow, "Pancakes are simple. I could teach you."
Nora abandoned the decapitated 'general' at once, resting her chin on her palms to listen in on the conversation while Jaune gave Ren a relieved thumbs-up for his world-saving skills and proceeded to clean up the sopping mess of breakfast food.
"OK baking is great and all," Yang cut in, trying to steer the conversation back to her originally intended track, "but how about something a bit more... traditional?"
"Perhaps a feature film?" Pyrrha suggested.
"Yeah there you go! Take her to the movies!" Yang's initial smile suddenly shifted into a stern expression. "Just never sit in the back row of the theater. Ever. The back row is off limits."
"Yay! Wait, what?" Ruby blinked, completely lost between the prospect of cooking pancakes and whatever Yang and Pyrrha were talking about, "Isn't studying and combat practice traditional for Beacon? And why would anybody want to sit in the back row? You'd be so far from the screen."
Yang laughed. "The back row is popular for lots of reasons," she caught herself before she winked again, settling for wiggling her eyebrows instead, "if you know what I mean." Pyrrha clearly did, with how she was turning redder by the second. "Actually, that brings me to my next question," amethyst eyes dipped down to meet silver, open and welcoming, "How far have you gone with Weiss? Be honest with me."
"Is- is this conversation really fit for the breakfast table?!" Pyrrha all but squeaked, utterly scandalized at the idea of such a thing being asked in a public setting.
"Relax, it can't be that bad," Yang waved off the warrior's admonishment, keeping her eyes on her little sister. "Have you even made it to first base?"
Ruby had never played baseball with Weiss but she resented the implication that she wouldn't be able to make it to first base. She rolled her eyes, "Pfft, I could make it to all the bases twice. If I wanted to."
That was a lot of bravado, she knew. She also knew that Weiss would probably never undertake the sport so she'd never be proven wrong... however… judging from everyone's expressions... something was still wrong. Pyrrha looked positively mortified and Jaune was inclined to follow her example. Nora appeared rather impressed, and even Ren's brow had risen a half-centimeter or so. Her sister, meanwhile... Ruby put up her hands in defense, the lights slowly turning on in her mind, "Oh. Um... we're... not talking about actual baseball, are we?"
Crimson immediately reverted to amethyst. "No we are not talking about actual baseball!" Yang put a hand to her heart, having nearly died of shock. Suddenly her expression darkened, features twisting into a hard grimace, as though she was staring at some unspeakable horror, "... But you're not wrong. You probably could make it to all the bases... Weiss can't say no to you! Ruby you've gotta be careful! That's a lot of power to wield!"
"Wait, what are all the bases?" one of them was kissing. Was that the last one? But then what were the others? Hugging? Holding hands? Wasn't this a thing for couples? Ruby grimaced, her breakfast now entirely abandoned, "Uh... you know Weiss and I aren't... um..."
"Did I never teach you the bases!?" Yang interrupted, brows raised in concern. "That needs to be remedied right now. OK Ruby listen up." The brawler raised a hand, counting off each base on her fingers, "First base is kissing, second base is when you use your hands to-"
Pyrrha stood suddenly. "I-I'm going to bring us... more napkins!" She dashed away, the color of her face indiscernible from the color of her hair.
"Lalalalalalala!" Jaune sang out off-key, covering a protesting Nora's ears.
"The first one is kissing? What about, like, high-fives and telling goofy jokes and holding hands and stuff?" Ruby grabbed Yang's hand to keep her from counting past two, face going redder than the tips of her hair. She squeaked, "Not that I've really done any of those things in a romancy sort of way and definitely not with Weiss but still?"
"You… haven't even held hands yet?" Yang stared, completely vexed.
"There's no rush," Ren's quiet voice carried across the table. He cut the headless ham man in half with his knife, spearing the torso with his fork and glancing at Ruby as he spoke again, "It's fine to take things slowly, if that's what makes you comfortable."
"No, I mean, we've held hands kind of," Ruby blurted. Well... did that time in that dreamscape place count? "but not really in that sort of way and I think we're talking about completely different things, and... and..." she turned suddenly suspicious as she regarded Yang and team JNPR minus Pyrrha, "...you're all just trying to tease me because of that rumor, aren't you?"
"Ruby, ruby, ruby," Nora finally shoved Jaune away. The blond toppled backwards to the floor as Nora leaned across the table to impart a helpful clarification, "We aren't teasing- we're shipping. Well, maybe we're teasing a little," she planted one hand on the oak surface, upsetting Pyrrha's plate as she gestured to the brawler with her other hand, "but seriously has Yang ever given you this much dating advice in your entire life?"
"... um, but we're not dating?" Ruby, perhaps in a tactical error, looked to her sister for help.
Yang frowned. "Oh Ruby, not you too!" strong arms crushed Ruby in a bearhug. "It's all right - I know I might have been a little rough with Weiss while we were laying out ground rules, but whatever she might have said, you don't have to hide things from me!"
"I'm... not... erg... hiding..." Ruby squirmed and scrabbled at her sister's arms, "And you played rough with Weiss? What did you do? Is that why she was acting all weird in the library?"
Yang released her little sister and crossed her arms, grinning. "Well, I was trying to teach her hand to hand combat and I mmmayyybe got a little excited... but don't worry about Weiss - she can hold her own! That's how I got this thing, you know," she gestured to her blackened eye. "Watch out for her elbows, little sis."
Ruby sat back, inspecting Yang's shiner with a new appreciation, "I wish I'd been there to see that."
Yang narrowed her eyes playfully, poking Ruby in the ribs. "Oh so you wanna watch Weiss beat me up, huh? Whose side are you on, anyway? Sisters before mister...ess..es?... Huh. That saying doesn't work as well when it's two girls..."
Pyrrha quietly returned to the table carrying a towering stack of napkins and sat down without a word, ready to flee again at a moment's notice, but content to hide behind her paper blockade for the time being.
"Thanks, Pyrrha," Jaune took one from the stack. He tried to wipe stickiness off of his breastplate but the flimsy paper just shredded, leaving little bits of napkin all over him. "Aw, man."
Ren gently nudged is glass of water over to his syrup soaked team leader.
"Thanks," Jaune dipped what was left of his shredded napkin in the water and proceeded to somehow make an even bigger mess.
Nora, meanwhile, was getting dangerously bored. "So does this mean you weren't kissing Weiss" she counted off, "One: in the tunnels. Two: during the thunderstorm. Or three: on the floor outside our dorm room?"
"Nope. Well, probably nope," Ruby found her surety leavened with a pinch of doubt. She... didn't really remember much from any of those times. But it was Weiss. Still, accidents happened? She picked her fork up and pronounced with confidence, "Ninety-nine percent thinking it's a nope."
"Just as I suspected, not even at first base." Yang rested her head in one of her hands. "That's OK little sis! We'll just say you're at... 1/2 base, or something. Totally fine with me. Stay that way as long as you like."
"Are these friendship bases? Because I would be at least at base three in friendship bases," Ruby pointed out, poking her sister in the arm.
"Oh yeah? Then tell me sis, where in these friendship bases of yours... would you find TICKLES-" Yang launched herself at Ruby, going straight for her sides.
"Eek!" Ruby vanished in a flurry of rose petals before Yang could catch her.
An instant later, she slammed into Yang's back, laughing, trying to reach her sister's stomach (a.k.a. weak spot) from behind. "Tickles would be enemy bases."
"Guys... uh..." Jaune jerked his head to indicate the folks bustling in and out of the kitchen at the far end of the hall, "I think it's almost lunch time."
Pyrrha nudged Jaune. "I'm not sure they're listening," she whispered, leaning a bit too close to her sticky team leader and getting syrup on her shoulder.
"Oh well. We do have a lot of French toast to finish off," Jaune indicated what was left of the castle. He noticed the syrup on his partner and offered Pyrrha Ren's glass of water.
"Oh no you don't!" Yang grabbed the arms trying to snake around her waist and threw them over her shoulders, hoisting Ruby up into a piggyback ride. "C'mon you, let's go run one of the obstacle courses or something. Get a bit of energy out, kill time until Weiss and Blake get back?"
"Where did they even go?" Ruby wondered out loud, perching her knees on Yang's hips and wrapping her arms around her neck, only to get a face-full of gold hair. She drew back, spitting, "Blech, you've got like a mane back here. It's crazy."
"To the lunch line!" Nora shouted, raising her fork over her head as though it was a sword and she was leading a charge.
Ren reached up to take hold of Nora's wrist and brought it back down to the table, desperate not to spend his final day off stuck in the cafeteria. "Let's go outside."
Pyrrha perked up at the idea of fresh air. "It is the perfect weather for a stroll around the gardens. What do you say, Jaune?"
Yang jumped into team JNPR's conversation to avoid answering Ruby's question. "Well, whatever you guys decide, we're out," she picked up their trays and turned to head for the exit, calling over her shoulder, "we'll see you at dinner probably!"
An hour passed. Two hours. They scoured the open ground for any sign of the red cloth. Very possibly, it had gotten caught in the branches of a downed tree and swept to the side of the clearing. Weiss estimated the distance from the ridge to try and narrow their search, but there was honestly no telling where it could have been dragged.
It was a cool, crisp sort of day. The sun rose high overhead but failed to completely dispel the chill in the air. Eventually, the pair of teammates took a break on the trunk of a large downed tree to eat the sandwiches they'd packed for lunch. A breeze stirred the scarlet leaves around their perch.
All this time, Weiss didn't even glance at Blake's Faunus ears, even when they twitched, or swiveled to catch a sound the heiress couldn't hear. However, her mind wandered to them, and by proxy the book on feline behavior she'd found back in the stacks at the library. She took another bite, her ears beginning to burn red.
Well, now was as good a time as any. She cleared her throat. "Blake? I have a question."
Blake looked up from her half-eaten sandwich, amber eyes flashing with curiosity as she caught sight of the blush slowly creeping across the heiress's pale features. She tilted her head to the side. "Yes?"
"It's... kind of about your physiology as a Faunus," Weiss repacked what was left of her own meal and brushed leaf bits from her skirt. That one night Blake had been on heavy medication had been a nightmare. The tackling, the... whatever Blake had done to her hair when she'd been pinned to the ground. Everything.
She hadn't given a second thought to the face-rub.
Then she'd read in one of her book that cats use scent-glands in their cheeks to mark their 'property'.
Needless to say, the possibility of having walked around the school labeled as someone's possession... did not sit well with the heiress.
She scowled a little to compensate for her blush as she told Blake about the cat-fact and asked, "... do cat-Faunus do the same?"
Blake stared, expression blank. A small part of her was miffed at being compared to a common house cat, but far more than that, she was impressed. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company was actively trying to learn about her Faunus heritage. Blake couldn't help a hint of a smile showing through her passivity at the extreme care the heiress was obviously taking to avoid any offense in her quest for knowledge.
Still, something was a bit off.
"That's... an oddly specific question."
Weiss just scowled harder at her hands in her lap, "If that's a 'yes', then I also need to know if that sort of mark can be removed with soap and water."
Blake arched an eyebrow, clearly puzzled and unable to shake the feeling that something was definitely up. She leaned towards the flustered heiress. "Did something happen?"
Weiss leaned away, glaring sideways at Blake and turning redder by the second. "Just... please say it comes off."
Something had definitely happened. Amber eyes searched the heiress's face, now a color nearly matching the leaves around them. After a few seconds, Blake sat back again, her expression returning to a cool neutral. Getting a direct answer from Weiss was going to be more or less impossible, so she would simply have to think logically about this.
Weiss apparently wanted to know about a very specific instance of cat-Faunus body language. Firstly, how did she even know about it? Had she read about it somewhere? That was certainly possible, but then, if she had, she would know it had nothing to do with scent glands or marking someone as property... The nuzzling gesture she was talking about certainly implied a great deal of affection, but...
A thought struck her then - maybe Weiss had seen a Faunus nuzzle someone? But then why would she be asking how to "wash it off"? No, it must have happened to her. Blake instantly went through her mental checklist of all the fellow Faunus students she knew of at Beacon. None of them were cat-Faunus though... She was the only one...
...
Oh.
Blake fought to keep her features passive, allowing only the slightest twitch of one ear to slip through. If her instincts were right, and they often were, this probably had something to do with that one dustforsaken night of medication-induced shenanigans.
The night she didn't remember at all.
The night she would probably never live down.
A steel pylon had nothing on Blake's posture as she sat ramrod straight, not daring to look at her furiously blushing teammate for fear of breaking out in a blush of her own.
Whatever book on cats Weiss must have read had clearly given her the wrong idea. Honestly, what was Weiss even thinking? If Ruby got drunk and started barking and licking people's faces, would she look up books on dogs for insight into what it might mean?
Blake stifled a sigh. Actually, that sounded exactly like something Weiss would do. Deep down, she knew this was all probably meant with good intentions, but it didn't stop her from feeling a bit miffed at being compared to a common house cat. Not miffed enough to actually be angry with Weiss... but definitely enough to warrant some fun at the heiress's expense...
Blake turned to Weiss, features relaxed in complete nonchalance. "Actually, it's permanent." She took another bite of her sandwich.
Weiss's white ponytail whipped to the side as she faced Blake, "What?"
"It's really quite sweet, the gesture you're asking about," Blake continued with the barest hint of a smile, narrowly dodging Weiss's hair, "It's not meant for marking property per say, but a mate, or significant other."
Weiss stared at Blake with a look of open horror.
Dust.
Dust.
She turned away. Dropped her head into her hands. Forget the rumors about Ruby (who she was not dating), if her father found out about this...
"It can't be permanent," she forced down her panic, "That would be insane. How does it work?"
Maybe there was a way to undo it.
"Well," Blake looked thoughtful, absolutely nothing in her expression conveying her mirthful delight at Weiss's reactions, "It's a special part of Faunus biology," she explained, mixing small truths with whatever she felt like making up as she went, "each Faunus has their own unique scent that other Faunus can recognize," there was the small truth, "but since human scientists have studied us so little, there's currently no known way to mask or remove the scent once it's been given," a nice pause, for dramatic effect... "Granted," here she smiled, "the mark can be removed by the one that gave it."
"What? That doesn't make any sense," Weiss cast a narrow glance around, briefly aware that they should be on the lookout for Grimm but honestly if one showed up she was so flushed she could probably just blend in with the scenery. She'd taken a wet towel and practically removed a layer of skin the day she'd found that stupid cat book- if any sort of mark could survive that... well... it didn't hurt to be sure. Attention back on Blake, she frowned, crossing her arms. "You're not being serious."
Blake shrugged. "A lot of things in our world don't make sense..." sandwich finished, she brushed her hands on the trunk beneath them and stared off into the distance, thinking back to the caverns of Yang's dreamscape, "but I can assure you, a gesture like that from a cat-Faunus is very serious."
"Okay. Fine," Weiss had been hoping the shower that morning after the whole cat escapade would have been enough to remove any sort of marking, but apparently it wasn't and she was going to have to deal with it. She steeled herself, refusing to look at Blake, "So how do you undo it exactly?"
Mischief sparkled in Blake's eyes the second Weiss looked away. "It's simple, really. Whoever gave the mark would just have to lick it off. There are glands on the tongue that counteract the whole thing," she threw in the pseudo-science explanation for extra credibility, miraculously keeping a straight face even as she stuck out her own tongue and pointed to its sandpapery surface.
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. Blake had to be kidding. She just had to be. Maybe this was some kind of payback for, well... everything.
Either way, Weiss had had enough. It was time to call the bluff or endure what was at this point a very necessary procedure. "Fine, then. Do it."
"Do what?" Blake tilted her head, eyes widening a fraction as she neared the information she was looking for. "...Did I mark you?"
"Don't play innocent. Have you seen me keeping company with any other cat Faunus these days?" Weiss lifted her chin, tone acerbic but face still as crimson as the forest floor, "If this is all for real, then I don't care. It was a mistake. Take it off."
Blake's face fell. "But Weiss…" She slowly leaned forward, stopping when their faces were mere inches apart. "It wasn't a mistake."
Waiting just long enough to see Weiss's features contort into a truly fascinating combination of mortification and embarrassed confusion, Blake closed the distance, rubbing her face against the heiress's burning cheek. She pulled away, quick as lightning, laughing all the while. "You're a good sport, Weiss."
"I-what-," Weiss recoiled to her feet, swiping her sleeve across where the cat-Faunus had touched. She whirled on Blake, snapping with humiliation, "You. How dare you? I can't believe you- ugh."
Turning away, she stormed a dozen or so yards down the way to take out her frustration on some of the fallen trees that could have been harboring Ruby's cloak.
Blake smiled at the heiress's retreating form. Yang was right, Weiss really was fun to tease. Within reason, of course. Brushing off a stray leaf that had fallen onto her shoulder, the smirking Faunus rose to follow her infuriated teammate.
She had barely taken her first step when her Faunus ears swiveled backwards, catching a sound in the distance. Leaves scattered as she whirled around to inspect the horizon. A dark form in the sky was moving closer.
A Nevermore.
Blake stepped back, ready to inform Weiss, but a splash of red trapped in the Grimm's talons caught her eye. She squinted up against the sunlight at the strange red thing flapping and twisting wildly in the air... It looked remarkably familiar.
Blake called to her teammate, keeping her eyes trained on the oncoming threat.
"Weiss."
Weiss looked up from thrashing the brush with her rapier. There was no mistaking that scrap of crimson. Rather, where else could a Nevermore have picked up a bolt of red cloth out here in the middle of the forest? She rolled her eyes, "... well, that would have been convenient three hours ago."
She whipped leaf flecks and bits of bark from her sword and brandished the blade, judging the best way to get the Nevermore's attention, should they need to draw it, "Just to make sure, I assume your laughing earlier means I don't have some big sign that I'm your chosen mate painted across my face."
A smile broke through Blake's tense expression. She glanced back at Weiss and waved a hand dismissively. "You're fine, there is no such mark," she turned away again, eyes skyward, "but that gesture really is a sign of affection." High above, the Nevermore turned just slightly, suddenly picking up speed. It had seen them.
"You could have just said that, you know," Myrtenaster's chamber shifted to red as Weiss readied her stance, very extremely not looking at Blake. Handy, having a giant creature of Grimm to occupy her attention during what could otherwise have been a very awkward conversation. "I vote we knock the cloak loose, grab it, and get out of here."
The smirk pulling at the corners of Blake's lips faded only slightly as she examined the Grimm. It was still a bit too high for her to reach on her own, but that wouldn't be much of a problem once the thing inevitably dove for them. "Sounds like a plan. How do you propose we knock it loose?"
"Oh, am I making all the decisions now?" That was to say, Weiss had no idea. Or, contrarily, she had a million ideas, but the Nevermore swept by, uttering its fearsome screech, and there wasn't time to decide on the best course of action. "Look, I'll distract it. You get the cloak."
The heiress called up a glyph, ready to spring up and catch the creature's attention.
"Just don't distract it by getting eaten," Blake quipped, readying Gambol Shroud.
The Nevermore circled around, bright crimson eyes hungrily surveying the two tiny creatures below. It folded its wings and dove for the white one - much easier to see against the red forest floor.
"Hmph," the edge of the heiress's mouth quirked up in a smile. She gripped her sword. Her concentration remained unbroken as the Nevermore plunged at them, looming huge and dark against the chilled blue of the sky.
Weiss's circling glyph locked into place and she leapt, intending to give it a chase it wouldn't soon forget.