Maybe

Blake breathed in, and lowered the barbell back down to her chest. Then, with an exhale and a straining of her muscles, she once more pushed it away. She tipped it back at its peak, nestling it into the hooks designed to hold it, and sat up from her lying position. A white towel rested over a bottle of water on the floor beside her, and she swiped them both up. The faunus took a few deep gulps of the liquid and wiped the perspiration from her face and neck before checking the time on her scroll.

She winced. The numbers 1:30 glared at her in bright violet, standing out against the dark color of her scroll. It appeared as though she had once again gotten entirely too caught up in working out and lost track of time. Weiss would give her a stern reprimanding if she knew. Of course, Blake didn't have much else to do, and Weiss probably wouldn't find out anyway.

It had been two days since Blake had seen or spoken to either her or her partner.

Weiss had spent the entirety of those days shut inside the personnel-restricted computer room in the sub-basement levels of the hotel, working on extracting any and all information she could from the recovered hard drives. As far as Blake was aware, she only emerged in the evenings in order to sleep in her shared room with Sun. Her bodyguard took her meals three times a day, and checked up on her periodically, though Blake knew that the rest of the time he spent monitoring her from the control room.

God only knew where Yang went. Blake had seen neither hide nor hair of her since that night on the roof. It appeared she wasn't returning to her room at night, either, as any attempts Blake had made to find her there had been returned with silence. The only thing that kept her from outright panicking and going on a crusade to find the blonde was Ren. The young man assured her that Yang was still there, that she hadn't left them again. He said he could sense her every now and then, moving throughout the hotel. It was never in the same spot, so she didn't seem to be nesting anywhere. It was just like her. Yang was not a stationary person. She never had been. She had to be moving, had to be doing things. She had too much energy to sit still and twiddle her thumbs. It had been part of what made her hunt down Cinder. A cold, brutal application of her inability to stay still.

Despite Ren's reassurances, Blake couldn't help but feel a horrible anxiety slithering through her veins and dripping poison on her heart. She had been with Yang ever since she brought her back, and she had grown accustomed to once again having the blonde's comforting presence constantly by her side. She had grown reliant on it. Now that she wasn't, it felt almost exactly like that day. The one where Blake's fractured world had shattered entirely. The one that sparked weeks and months of horrible nightmares and bleak visions. It felt like Yang had disappeared all over again, and Blake could not quell the buzzing in the back of her mind and beneath her skin that urged her to go find her, to verify she was still here, and to bring her back if she wasn't.

No! Blake chastised herself as she looped the towel around her neck. She wants some time to herself, and I can't fault her for that. It's been a rough week for her. I'd want to be alone too. A part of her didn't miss the irony of that thought. Back when they had been students at Beacon, all Blake wanted at times was to be alone. No teams, no partners, no classes, no professors, no work, no people. Nothing. Just a quiet corner, a nice book, maybe a cup of tea, and peace. Yang, on other hand, had been a veritable ball of energy. Always doing something somewhere with someone. Now, half a decade later, they seemed to have swapped places. Yang sought out solitude while Blake craved companionship. Anything to keep her from her spiraling thoughts. Her conversation with Ren from two nights previous still weighed heavily on her mind.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though everyone had been fairly busy. Jaune and Pyrrha had offered to assist Velvet in seeing if they could sniff out anymore of Roman's hideouts, and were gone for almost the entirety of both days. She had asked the Shadowswift's crew to remain on standby at the SDC's airfield lodging; she never knew when they'd need to make a quick flight. Ren had been spending the majority of his time meditating in the rooftop garden, with Nora his ever-present companion. The few times Blake had gone to talk to the Huntsman, the ginger woman had barely said a word to her, something that worried her almost as much as Yang's lack of presence.

Nora was not a silent person. She never had been, and she never would be. So the fact that she was almost broodingly so now told Blake that something was very wrong. The previous day she had tried to approach Nora to talk about it, but Ren's hand on her shoulder and a brief shake of his head dissuaded her. Apparently, whatever she was dealing with was not something she wanted or needed outside input on. Blake had a fair idea she knew what it was about, though.

She had seen the injury Ren had left on Nora's torso before it was closed up, and she had seen the scar left behind afterward. Nobody walked away from something like that without some lasting psychological effects, especially when your best friend was the one who did it. Even if he hadn't been able to control himself at the time, it didn't change the fact that the one she trusted most was the one who almost killed her.

And so Blake had two days of free time to herself that she had absolutely no idea what to do with. It wasn't that she was unfamiliar with the concept of down time. Her missions sometimes ran back to back, but more often than not she had anywhere from a few days to a couple weeks of time in between the assignments Ozpin gave her. At the moment, though, she had too much on her mind. Yang, Weiss, Nora, Ren, Torchwick, Ruby. She couldn't concentrate. She tried all her normal time fillers, but none of them worked. Catching up with friends was out, obviously. As was training, since there was no sparring facility here. Reading went right out the window when she struggled to get through even a chapter of her most recent pick. The only thing left was maintaining her equipment, and it was only when she had polished Gambol Shroud so many times she could see the blood vessels in her eyes reflected in the blade that she realized she needed to find something else to do.

A long, thorough exploration of the hotel eventually turned up several attractions that could serve as time sinks. She skipped out on the pool. Swimming had never really been her thing, and besides, she didn't have a suit. She passed on the casino, too. Yang and, surprisingly, Ruby, had always been the gamblers of the group, while their partners had remained unfazed (or positively mortified in Weiss' case) by the idea of it. The gym, though, was a perfectly viable option. It gave her a way to work off her frustrations and anxiety and keep her body fit. She had been there until midnight the previous day, and had spent the latter half of today working out as well, after checking in with her friends and the crew. It probably wasn't healthy to push herself for so long, but she was afraid if she stopped, her thoughts would consume her. So she kept at it for hours, taking the occasional break and constantly soothing her muscles and joints with Aura to keep from hurting herself.

Now, though, she was exhausted and in need of a good night's rest. After throwing a hoodie and sweat pants on over her tank top and shorts, she rode the elevator up to the top floor, already craving the soft comfort of her mattress. She stepped off the elevator and into the dimly lit lobby before trudging tiredly down the hallway towards her room. As she reached forward with her keycard, though, she froze. A small flicker of light from the end of the corridor grabbed her attention, and she turned to it. She knew the lounge room took up that section of the floor from wall to wall. She also knew that it was equipped with a small bar, a pool table, a massive wall-mounted TV and chairs and couches so plush it felt like they'd swallow her whole if she let down her guard. That had been the first place she had attempted to kill time.

Now, though, the room was dark, seemingly unoccupied were it not for the changing colors dancing through the windowed wall. Maybe someone had left the TV on by mistake?

Blake glanced at her door and bit her lip. She was really tired, but for some reason she felt she couldn't ignore this. So, with a sigh, she re-pocketed her card and set off down the hallway. As she drew closer, she sensed a familiar Aura in the room, so she already knew who she would find when she opened the door to the darkened interior.

"Weiss," Blake greeted.

The heiress didn't turn or even say anything, just raised a hand from her position on the couch, her eyes glued to the TV.

Blake sighed as she walked around the edge of the couch. "Why are you still awake?" She glanced at the moving images on the wall. "And why are you watching a documentary on the stock market?"

"It helps me relax," Weiss said simply.

Blake pursed her lips. Sleeping was going to have to wait. She hadn't had a chance to talk to Weiss the past few days, despite wanting to very badly. She needed to know her friend was okay. The faunus slid into the open space beside her teammate.

"Your Aura seems better."

Weiss nodded. "I've seen Ren the past two nights. He stabilized it."

"Good." A beat of silence passed between them while they watched the program. "I'm surprised you're not still locked up in the computer room."

A sigh escaped her lips. "The final bit of data is being decrypted as we speak. It doesn't require anymore supervision or input, so it would have been pointless to wait around. Should be finished by tomorrow morning."

"You mean later this morning."

Weiss blinked at her before swiping her scroll off of the couch beside her and looking at the time. "When did that happen?" she murmured, before looking back at her faunus companion. "What are you still doing up, Blake? You should be sleeping."

The brunette snorted. "You realize your words carry no impact when you're still up too, right? Watching what I can only describe as the most boring thing ever put to film, I might add. I, at least, was at the gym."

Weiss' brow furrowed. "The gym's open this late?"

"It's 24-hours, Weiss, so yes, yes it is."

"You say that like it's something I should already know."

"It's your hotel."

"It's the SDC's hotel."

"Which means it's yours."

"No, not mine." Weiss looked back at the screen. "Not yet, anyway." Without another word Weiss slumped over, gently laying her head in Blake's lap. Blake softly removed the tattered red cloth that held up the heiress' hair, and carefully laid it on the end table beside the couch. She would never forgive herself if she damaged it. Her own piece of crimson fabric, tied around her wrist, suddenly felt like lead, as if sensing her thoughts. They all had one, a strip of Ruby's cloak, shredded in her final fight with the forces of Grimm. They always kept them close, their last connection to their friend.

She threaded her fingers into Weiss' hair and began gently combing through her silver locks. A quiet hum of appreciation floated from the vice president's throat.

"I had forgotten how good that feels," she said drowsily, earning a small smile from Blake. Truth be told, she had missed this. It was something that had developed during the time after that Siege, when their partners and friends were gone and they were left with only each other to rely on. After the first week of Weiss waking up with Ruby's name searing her throat and Blake's pitiful attempts to comfort her, she discovered that the white-haired girl would calm down significantly if she cradled her head and played with her hair. Blake didn't know why it worked. Maybe it was the physical contact, or maybe it reminded Weiss of a comforting moment in her life, but either way, it quickly became habit for them.

"I know what you want to talk about." Weiss' voice was soft, resigned.

"I don't want to talk about anything." She let her teammate's silky tresses slide between her fingers. "I want to listen."

Weiss was silent for a time, and Blake was content to wait. She knew she needed time to formulate exactly what she wanted to say, and the faunus had always been patient.

Finally, with a sigh, Weiss began, "I'm tired, Blake. I'm so tired. Tired of this corrupt company, of the two-faced people I have to deal with, of having to look my father in the face, knowing what he's done. I'm trying to move forward, I have been for years, but I have to fight with everything I have for even the tiniest inch. And now she's come back. A clear, visceral reminder of the past I'm trying so hard to leave behind." Weiss shifted, wrapping her arm tightly around Blake's legs. "I can't forgive her, Blake. I just can't. I trusted her. I let her in."

Blake paused in her ministrations to reach out and grip Weiss' hand. She knew what the heiress was saying. For Weiss, letting somebody get close to her, letting them be a real, connected part of her life, was the hardest thing she could do. Trust issues born from a toxic home environment had destroyed Weiss' ability to form a normal relationship with anyone. Opening up and allowing people to see who she actually was behind the icy façade she presented was not something she did lightly. If you managed to earn that right, it meant you had attained Weiss' deepest trust.

It also meant you could destroy that trust if you weren't careful.

"She was like my family, Blake. Like the big sister I never got to be." The faunus winced silently at the bitter tone. She knew that despite being sisters, Weiss and Winter had never had the opportunity to act like it, because their father favored Winter heavily, ignoring Weiss almost entirely in the process. She was the perfect child, and Weiss had told her that her father once remarked on how disappointed he was that Winter was the younger child and that tradition dictated only the eldest could be named heiress. For Weiss to give Yang a place in her life that should have been reserved for her actual blood relative, and then for Yang to leave…

It was making more and more sense why Weiss was so upset with Yang.

"I suppose her abandoning me shouldn't really have come as a surprise." The hollowness in her voice resonated painfully in Blake's chest. "After all, that seems to be what family does: leaves you when you need them most."

There wasn't much Blake could say to that, her own family being fairly absent from her life. So she folded herself over her teammate and wrapped her arms around her shoulders as best she could. Weiss' hands reached up and gripped her forearms, and they sat there in silence as the documentary droned on in the background.

"Maybe…" Blake began softly after a while, "maybe it's time to stop defining your family by what's past, and start defining it by what you have." Weiss turned over in her lap to stare up at her, expression slightly confused and searching. The faunus brushed a strand of her teammate's hair out of her face. "And what you have is a broken friend, looking for your forgiveness for a mistake she made. Maybe it's time to be the big sister."

Pale blue eyes watched her, and Blake found she couldn't read the emotion in them. Eventually, Weiss turned back to the TV, and murmured a quiet, "Maybe." The heiress' eyes were sliding shut, and Blake knew it wouldn't be long before she was out. The brunette leaned her own head and closed her eyes, content to just enjoy the moment.

"And maybe it's time to stop trying to be someone you're not."

Gilded irises shot open, and Blake looked down at the woman in her lap, but she was already asleep.

"Not fair, Weiss," she whispered.

When Sun came looking for Weiss soon thereafter, Blake gently handed the sleeping heiress off to him, wished them goodnight, and finally returned to her room.

As she lay on her bed after a quick shower, sleep beginning to pull at the edges of her consciousness, her friends' words echoed through her mind.

You're too focused on the things you couldn't accomplish, rather than the things you have, Blake.

And maybe it's time to stop trying to be someone you're not.

"Maybe ," she mumbled to herself.

A/N: So, again, a little later, and a little shorter. I'm sorry for that, but again, would have been inappropriate to cut it anywhere else

What'd you guys think? Finally got a really good Monochrome scene in there. I've been itching to write this one for awhile, and it evolved into more than what I originally planned as I wrote it, so woots for that :D

Anyway, please leave me a review, if you feel so inclined. You guys are amazing :D