Valence

by Cowjump

With the end of their first year at Beacon Academy having come to pass, Team RWBY must contend with the next three months of their summer break. Follow this eclectic bunch as they are thrown into a situation that utilizes neither their combined combat prowess nor their acquired knowledge on all things battle-related during their adventures in the city of Vale.

7. Chapter 7: The Storm

I am never ceased in my amazement at the show of support I have received from this site. Just about every reviewer and those who have sent me private messages have been some of the kindest people I have ever come in contact with. At the same time, they have not been afraid to voice their opinions and concerns and that is incredible! Really, thank you all. It means a lot to me.

Without spoiling anything, I will say that the content of this chapter is a bit more…heavy-handed than the others. Nothing is written to shock or offend; some of the subjects described are merely less lighthearted than the rest of the narrative. The subjects described are the reasons why this chapter is as long as it is (for which I apologize in advance). This is just a warning in case anyone needs one.

I also ask that after finishing the chapter, you read the author's note at the end. The last part of it is fairly important.

Prepare yourselves. Chapter seven of Valence is a bit of a bumpy ride.

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Chapter 7: The Storm

Humans were a deplorable breed—rather, these humans that clustered before the erected barricades and rattled the gates with their incessant stomping and jeering were a deplorable breed. By no means was this the peaceful, exciting summer that Blake looked forward to after her first year at Beacon Academy. A harrowing, autumnal gust rushed past the younger Faunus girl and chilled her to the bone without being able to sway her volunteered resolve. Those who planned this event called it a "rally," and though it was not to be expressly peaceful if those in power had any say in the matter, Blake was young and naïve enough to believe it would be and would trust in those she called a family. With a steely gaze, she watched the crowd that slurred obscenities at her and her comrades. She watched in disgust as these people who were so ignorant of her people and so evasive to diplomatic discussions tried to end their peace rally. She hoped this wouldn't end in conflict; conflict would only dig a deeper hole for the Faunus people. Perhaps it wouldn't end in conflict. Perhaps they could make their speech, affect a few people with it, and leave in peace. Perhaps.

For the moment, all she could do was wait, watching the crowd for any signs of riot and gazing infrequently at the rolling, grey clouds that burdened the light of day. There wasn't anybody to talk to—not that she would have if there had been. These were new, forgettable faces of a lower cell in the organization—grunts if she was to be completely honest. She had been patient for some time now and her ability to wait without complaint was wearing thin. Out of all of these grunts, there was yet to be a person of higher rank able to be seen at the event. The speaker had not yet arrived and if he didn't get here soon, then their efforts would be for naught; the crowd would erupt into violent protest against an opposing peaceful protest. She had to remain calm. The others looked to her for de facto leadership.

This leadership, however, was infrequent as she was barely able to control her anger enough to consider herself level-headed. Who were they calling animals, anyway? She and the White Fang were using words to prove their point. Their response was to shake the barricades despite the pleas of the rally members. Too many had swarmed to this factory's front gates. Some must have been employees and could be justified with their anger, but there were far too many humans here. This created a problem for the younger member of the White Fang, who had to watch for any potential problem. Unfortunately for her, there were many variables to watch over.

The size of the crowd would not draw the attention of the media. There were a large number of humans present, but there was nothing historic about the crowd's size—it could be reasoned that the majority of the nearby small town's residents came to participate in this counter-protest. Still, it was enough to set the stoic Blake Belladonna on edge. She normally wasn't afraid of crowds, but between the sheer quantity of those involved and their degree of fervent opposition, she found herself worried about probability. She knew that even with her speed and hand-to-hand combat knowledge she could fend off only a few of the humans should relative civility deteriorate. There were more than a few humans here—so much so that she believed that even with the grunts there to assist her, she wouldn't be able to make it out alive if the crowd rioted. It was for this reason that she became increasingly aware of the foreign weight that burdened her hip.

She knew that she had blindly accepted the pistol given to her before thinking of the consequences of having it on her person. She had missed neither the frightened and enraged looks on the faces of the crowd members nor the slightly jealous expressions of the other White Fang members as both groups watched the firearm warily. She was not happy about it herself; taking the weapon meant that she had accidentally agreed that if the situation turned to violence, she would be ready to remedy any potential problem. Her own problem was that she wasn't ready to remedy anything involving this rally. The speaker was supposed to be here by now to assume leadership. Since he wasn't here yet, she was put in charge of the other members because she had the pistol. She didn't know why they gave it to her since she hadn't had any training with any firearm as of yet nor did she know why they had trusted her of all people to take charge of this rally for the time being. However, she had a responsibility not only to those that she called friends in the White Fang, but to the message that they were to give to the masses as well. Because of this, she blindly took the gun.

Blake's head shot up to look at the crowd at the sound of a low, rumbling noise. Fortunately, nothing had changed within the upset group of humans. Her eyes drifted up towards the subtly darkening clouds. She had originally thought the sound had been a growing murmur of discontent amongst members of the crowd—one that would incite potential violence, causing the quick reaction—when it turned out to be simple thunder.

She had been too preoccupied with watching the clouds quickly drift across the sky to notice that there had been movement on the ground. It wasn't until she heard the jeering of the humans come back in full force that she knew something was happening. Despite the insults and the palpable animosity, the crowd parted so that a long, black limousine could pass by and through the metal gate of the factory. As soon as the vehicle was inside the lot, the grunts scrambled to their posts and did everything in their power to obey the orders that Blake automatically called out. The gate was closed, counter-protesters pushed out, and a perimeter was secured. This last item on the list struck Blake as odd because not only was establishing a perimeter accustomed to more militant operations than a peace rally, but because she had no prior knowledge that those members of the White Fang whom she assumed to be grunts were capable of such an organized feat.

It seemed as though she was not the only one with these sentiments. The rattling on the barricades and the gates had quieted over time, but with the introduction of the limousine, it came back in full force alongside chants of aggression and hate. This is why the White Fang was here; the things they spewed were vile and caustic and, most of all, wrong. These humans didn't understand the White Fang's cause, judging by the fact that they became hostile at the entrance of a diplomat. However, this was prepared for. Since they seemed to not care for a dialogue, the White Fang would hold a monologue.

Unfortunately, the monologue seemed to have the possibility of not coming to fruition if the weather had any say in the matter. Thunder shook the earth on which Blake stood once again, this time overpowering the crowd and sending them to a momentary silence. It is not to say that the White Fang members were unnerved either—both parties paused for a moment as the far-off lightning made its warning evident before resuming their respective activities.

Blake could barely focus on the man stepping out of the vehicle due to her mind remaining fixed on the possibility of inclement weather and the crowd becoming increasingly prone to rioting. The insults shifted from generalities to personal remarks with terms such as "Liar," "Radical," and "Murderer" becoming common amongst the crowd's members. It wasn't the definitions or connotations of the words that concerned Blake—she knew that the White Fang's leadership was seldom the first term and never the latter two—but the ferocity with which they spat them. She could hear a group's conviction in their ideals due to her prior experiences attending White Fang speeches, so she was sure that these humans believed what they were saying. They were so pitiful, so misguided.

Two variations of the chant, "Let us in!" could be heard from the crowd. On one hand, the workers of the factory were sincerely demanding entrance to their place of work so that they could earn their pay. This was admirable to some extent; they seemed to not care about the bias against the Faunus, their lower pay, and fewer employment opportunities and were thusly not necessarily opposed to Faunus coworkers. But their indifference on the matter was precisely why the White Fang was here—so that they could make the workers care and to convert them to their cause.

However, only a fraction of the crowd was from the factory. Those who came from the town were more violent in their demands, audibly wanting nothing less than harm to befall the organization and its leadership. This is what caused the separation in tone. One group was pleading for entrance while the other was demanding entrance. The worst part was that the speech hadn't started yet. The crowd's anger was guaranteed to grow when the White Fang began to detail its purpose.

This was immediately proven evident as the speaker took the stage that had been set up before the gates. The roar of discontent became deafening on both an auditory and ideological level. How could people be so imperceptive and ignorant of an opposing viewpoint? She couldn't answer this question because humans were so different—so alien—that Faunus common sense surely couldn't apply. Her attention could not be distracted from the crowd's movements by another growl of thunder. Nobody in the crowd seemed to be phased by the weather any longer. The anger amongst the masses was so common that chants and defamation of property became frequent incidents, causing the White Fang's movements to become clockwork due to the amount of time spent practicing for an event such as this. The weather became a nonentity to both parties, unable to do anything more than the White Fang had already attempted.

Her hand subconsciously made its way to the grip of her gun as she watched the slow climb of the black-clad White Fang diplomat to the podium. She didn't know why the weapon felt right in this instance. Perhaps it was the promise of protection against an enemy out of range for hand-to-hand techniques. Perhaps it was the speed at which an offense could be halted with its utilization. Perhaps it was the fact that the firearm was the only thing keeping the crowd from killing the speaker. No matter what the cause was, Blake was severely uncomfortable with her attachment to the weapon. All of these rationalizations were fueled by an idea that she had resented for the longest time: violence can solve problems and send a message if done correctly. In this instant, she thought herself no better than those in the crowd.

Everything was relatively calm. The crowd felt at ease with their chosen diction of slanderous remarks while the speaker simply smiled and waved, unprovoked by the contained anger. Whoever he was—she didn't and wouldn't know his name due to the cell-type structure of the organization—he was professional to say the least. As he tapped the papers of his speech against the podium, he gave a conspicuously sincere smile to those that berated him. Blake felt that the situation was strangely off. The picture painted before her of the decrepit factory lot, the gates and barricades that had fallen into disrepair, and the low light conditions and humidity of the approaching storm made her unable to relax. She had believed that things would change at first, but that was before she was aware of how adamant the crowd members were in their beliefs. They wouldn't change their minds and the speech would only serve to make them angrier.

It is to say that the speech could have had the possibility of inciting violence had it the opportunity to begin. The word "unfortunate" is a rather positive description for the scene yet to play out, having connotations linked to trivialities and nuisances far too petty for the lasting effects of the actions set to unfold. So it is to say that unfortunately, neither the speech nor the reaction to the speaker could occur. Everything about these two rallies, those for and against Faunus civil rights, would be proven relatively peaceful and desirable after the intervention of a present but ignored third party.

Nobody saw the results at first, all wincing at the thought-truncating and deafening clap of thunder. Due to the varied physiology of their race, enhanced senses are a key feature of many variations of the Faunus people. Those with enhanced hearing (Including Blake, the speaker, and many of the grunts in the factory lot.) were brought to their knees by the incredible sound overhead. Blake had fallen to her knees, almost toppling over entirely at the loss of balance attributed to a momentary loss of hearing in both of her pairs of ears. The pain was only worsened by the wails of those around her and by the microphone the speaker used in order to call out in pain for either help or mercy. She had shut her eyes in an attempt to alleviate some of the pain but had only caused a voluntary blindness, causing her world to be affected by neither vision nor sound. It was in this void of pain that she could not see the fire.

The humans had recovered far faster than the Faunus had and shifted their angry, resentful glares from those in front of the factory to a sight of sheer horror that was the old factory. While the pain of the thunder was keeping a majority of the White Fang members down and out of action, the humans watched as the factory fell victim to a bolt of lightning that had gone unseen with the collective wince at the noise.

Nothing happened at first; the building retained its structural integrity and seemed to withstand what nature had thrown at it. However, just as the crowd's hopes that the factory was unscathed swelled, a fire peeked over the apex of the roof. Though the roof had been made of corrugated metal, the sheets had been attached to each other not by welding, but by a rubber-like material that was better suited for keeping out rain but was prone to catching fire. The humans stood terrified at the spreading spectacle that seemed to consume the entirety of the roof. That is, they had been standing in place due to shock until the roof fell in.

Blake couldn't remember if it was the groaning of the roof's metal dropping to the floor of the building or if it was the intense clattering and subsequent shattering of the barricades and gates that she heard first. Either way, the first thing she saw was a result of both sounds. As she reopened her eyes, she saw a swarm of humanity rushing into the lot as the brick-walled factory burned. No optical damage had been dealt to her, yet she could not register what she was seeing. There hadn't been that many people in the lot and the factory was supposed to have a metal roof. Furthermore, she didn't remember the that the sky had been as dark as it was now or that it was raining.

As she forced herself to a standing position, some part of Blake's mind told her that the current of unidentifiable, silhouetted forms cascading into the factory lot was hostile. She couldn't remember who anyone was, too shocked by the radically different sight which she had opened her eyes to. She was alarmed by the fact that the crowd had overtaken the stage and podium, but did not know why. Instead, her instincts told her to run. Without a thought in her mind arguing against it, she obeyed.

Even in her dazed state, Blake knew that running towards the crowd could not end well for her. Unfortunately, her only means of escape besides running through the front gate was to vault over the wall of the lot after jumping from a nearby parked car. What was unfortunate about this plan was that the only car sat on the opposite side of the lot. Because her equilibrium had been thrown off with her temporary deafness, Blake believed that the wall would be the hardest part of her escape. However, it was what was between the two walls of the lot that would cause lasting difficulty.

Thunder rang out again. She didn't know if the sound was not as loud as it had been before due to the possibility of the storm leaving or if her hearing had been damaged to where the thunder wasn't having the same effect. Neither the lack of knowledge nor the raucous sonority could slow her movements. What could have slowed Blake's movements, but never did, was the rain that had instantly slicked the asphalt surface, making it difficult for her to run with heels she had yet to become accustomed to. Nevertheless, she ran as fast as she could for the wall.

Another clap of thunder reverberated throughout the area, slowing Blake's progress by only a small amount due to it having distracted her from the slick pavement for a long enough period of time that she had almost fallen. Yet she did not fall and instead ran with eyes trained on her exit and nowhere else. She knew that there was a portion of the crowd chasing after her but she couldn't look at them, she had to move.

Unfortunately, sight was not the only sense at her disposal. She could hear the grunts that had fallen either to intense sound or to human violence groan in pain. However, they weren't asking for help or for the humans to relent, but instead called Blake's name.

With the calling of her name, the rational part of her mind came back into working order at a most inopportune time. The first thing she thought was not how to escape, whether or not she should use her weapon, or if she should aid the fallen White Fang members. No, in her distressed state of mind, Blake could not focus her thoughts on anything rational, instead opting for entertaining the more irrational, overly sentimental ideas. The single-most abrasive thought that ran through her mind was that she was a coward for not helping, for not using the pistol she was given, and for not aiding those who had fallen. She was helpless, a failure, and utterly incompetent. She could only care for her selfish goal of escape. She thought that the piercing wails of those in pain would not affect her if she kept her eyes shut. This would not be the case.

She could hear the roar of the crowd behind her. With her eyes closed, it didn't sound as though twenty humans were chasing her but thousands of militant savages instead. But the crowd's bellowing could not affect her as much as the wails of her allies. "Blake?" they called to her. She couldn't understand why she could still hear them. They were so far away and the noise coming from every other source was so overpowering that their voices should have been drowned out. But they wouldn't relent.

She was so close to the car and the wall when she felt an odd sensation in her legs. Had she been horizontal in that instant, she would have described the sensation as her legs falling beneath her. Yet she was vertical, causing her to feel as though her legs were giving out on her. She was so close to the car and the wall and she felt as though she might not be able to make it. It felt like she was about to trip when she heard her name called again. "Blake?" This time, it didn't come from the voice of any White Fang member nor did it come from a voice associated with autumn or a factory or the oppression of an entire race of people.

"Blake?" The dreary, frightening, autumnal scene that had played out before her vanished as Blake slowly became aware of the actual scene around her. Gone was the factory lot and in its stead was a white room, devoid of any hint of misery or grime. Rain had ceased and was replaced with the comfortably slight chill of air conditioning. There were no more crowds of people feuding over opposing ideals. There was only Blake, the intimidating hardcover book open on her lap, and the figure sitting on the side of her bed that asked, "Blake? Blake, are you all right?"

It is to say that after unwillingly falling into a flashback from stress considered post-traumatic, Blake was not at all "all right." However, this was not considered too large a problem by the Faunus who had encountered congruent visions before. Still, she could not say that she had become accustomed to the painful memories and it was for this reason she continued to feel mental and emotional anguish. But she would not show this pain as it contrasted her adherence to the school of stoicism and the belief that her past should stay in the past. Instead, she blinked a few times, focusing her sight on the concrete image of the figure in yellow before sighing and stating, "Yeah, I'm fine."

Yang shifted her position on Blake's bed so that she was no longer sitting with legs hanging off of the side. Her new position was a cross-legged one that incidentally allowed her knee to brush against Blake's leg, causing an inexplicable warmth to radiate throughout her and made it noticeably easier for her to breathe. Yang's brows furrowed at the statement. "That didn't look like 'fine.' I called your name like five times and you didn't even glare at me. You always get mad at me when I try to talk to you while you're reading."

Why did she have to be so perceptive? At the mention of her apparent "reading," Blake smoothly closed the book on her lap and set it to the side, allowing Yang to see the almost-dead language written on its cover and causing her to lose interest in the book. Though Blake had been shocked by the vision, she had not fallen into a state of immobile shock. She was haunted by the flashback but was able to retain her systematic composure and was able to not draw attention to what she was "reading." As the book had been her diary and unfortunate memoirs of times in the White Fang, she could not let Yang see it, causing the disregarding closure that evaded Yang's curiosity. She looked into her partner's eyes, intent on veiling the true reason for her unresponsiveness. "I'm sorry." She faked a yawn; she couldn't bring herself to tell the truth. "I was just tired."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Uh-huh. Sure. Yeah, I believe that." Her slight frown was changing into a smirk that was both teasing and caring, able to dismiss much of the negativity that clouded Blake's mind. "Look," she said, "I'm here for you if you need to talk. I'm not going to bug you like Ruby or the friendly princess, but I want you to know that if you want to talk about whatever's bothering you, I'm here." Her smirk broadened into a wide smile for a moment before she stood from the bed. "Anyways, I came to tell you that we're going to start up the fire pit pretty soon. I thought you'd want to know because it was your idea in the first place. Also," she scratched the back of her neck, "if you wanted to hang out with us too, that'd be cool."

With this final statement, Blake was able to momentarily forget the anguish and allowed herself to roll her eyes and smile. Even still, Yang was acting somewhat awkwardly around her despite the fact that they had been dating for a few days now. "I'll be there. Just give me a minute."

This brought Yang's sunny smile to full force. "All right! I'll see you out there. The fire should be burning when you get there."

At this, Yang left, leaving Blake to recuperate and contemplate on what had just happened. Of course she knew what had happened when she zoned out; she knew when she was having a flashback since it was hard not to recognize that sensation. But it was the quick transition from momentary shock to relative normalcy that baffled her. Usually, it took Blake at least a few minutes to overcome the visions, yet with Yang's presence, she had returned to a regular, calm state of mind within a matter of seconds. This recovery might have been due to her emotional attachment to Yang, but considering the severity of the visions, she couldn't be sure that this was the case. She believed that Yang's presence had affected her somewhat, but even then, she should be still in some level of disrepair. Yet because Yang had been there and told her that she was able to be talked to, Blake was able to recover surprisingly quickly.

She knew it was in poor form to second-guess this opportunity, but she wanted to know how it could be recreated. There was a moment just then where she thought about dispelling this idea, thinking that her studious mind was trying to regress back into an education-focused mindset. However, she did not dispel the thought because it could have been useful. These visions were not necessarily common, but happened frequently enough that an instant cure such as the one Yang induced could help. Whatever this remedy was, it had only happened once and she could assume that it would not work every time. However, the occasional assistance would be a welcome change of pace, especially if it continued to include Yang's presence.

She sighed. Admittedly, this objective that she created for herself would probably never be completed—not because of the difficulty of the task, but due to probable distractions and her willingness to be distracted. Blake had no official training in mental health sciences, Faunus or otherwise, so there was little she could do to find an absolute cure for her flashbacks. However, she could see patterns in events and could correlate one instance with another to find some way to allay the memories, if only momentarily. But the ability to find and rationalize patterns took concentrated effort—something she was finding harder to allot time to during this summer break.

These thoughts proved able to distract Blake for a small amount of time, but her gaze was eventually drawn back to that black, hardcover book with the dead language embossed on its cover that sat still on the bed. She couldn't remove her gaze from her diary. Nothing about its text was necessarily graphic or horrifying—only opinions of the events of days far in the past existed on the journal's pages. However, these opinions were what brought back the memories. There is seldom an instance where an individual can look back on writings or opinions (Or in Blake's case, both.) of years prior without being filled with a sort of disgust and elitist pride. Blake looked back upon these first-person narrations as naïve, immature, and, most of all, haunting. So rapidly had her stance on the White Fang shifted from incredibly supportive to incredulously opposed that her personality before leaving could be considered entirely separate from her current personality. She certainly thought this way after reading those enthusiastic entries about successful "peace rallies" followed by the occasional unsuccessful protest entry which always brought about terrible memories.

In order to avoid any further flashbacks, Blake chose to move the book back into the nightstand beside her bed. She needed the book out of sight because she had felt the urge to return to the act of writing her opinions on recent events down. This summer, though only having spanned a total of four days, was unequivocally important to her and because of this, she felt the need to write her opinions in the same place where prior instances of importance had been noted. Unfortunately, her desire to write in this particular book made her feel obligated to read prior entries. Once she started reading, she couldn't stop until Yang intervened.

With her diary adequately concealed beneath the small library she had brought with her, Blake was able to refocus on Yang's recent offer. In hindsight, the invitation was surprising as she could not remember any point between now and earlier in the day when she had mentioned the fire pit. It was true that she would have liked to know of its existence and possible future usage, but she had not been proactive in seeking either of these. She guessed that Yang had seen her curious expression earlier, causing the blonde to believe that she had wanted to do something with the fire pit. Blake smirked. She couldn't believe how lucky she was to have Yang looking out for her best interests even if she, herself, did not completely know what they were.

Blake moved slowly off of her bed as to avoid any potential injury. Because time had moved relatively faster with the assistance of reading and the unfortunate burden of the visions, she was not prepared to learn from the clock placed atop her nightstand that she had been stationary for some three hours. She did not have much trouble standing besides the initial sensation of her legs having fallen asleep. But even this feeling quickly faded away as circulation was allowed by the change in position.

She opted for putting on her boots from a standing position rather than having to return to the bed where she had been sitting on for too long. Due to the numbness that lingered in her legs, it took a few attempts to correctly put on her shoes, but once she did, she was confident that she needed to get as far away from the spot of her previous reflection as possible.

The house was oddly quiet. She could guess that everybody else was already outside, but this notion did not make her feel any less alone. As she walked along the silent hallway, she found the lack of banter between Ruby and Weiss and the absence of Yang's warm presence to be eerie. However, the setting was somewhat peaceful in its own way. She could admire the quaint oddities of this place without feeling the guilt of its owners watching her—though, it is to say that she never found any of these idiosyncrasies off-putting by any means. The muted sounds of her own steps made Blake realize that she was completely in control of this silence. She could be as quiet or as loud as she wanted and she knew that the acoustics of the building would adhere to her actions alone. But she felt that even this power, as small and trivial as it was, needed to be shared with the other members of her team. She had accepted Yang's initial invitation to stay the summer with a thought of an always-active household on her mind. This currently silent and vacant home was something unfortunately different from what she had expected and only served to move her towards wherever the others were faster.

As she opened the front door, she felt the cooler climate created by the air conditioning within the house seep out into the humid summer night, rushing past her uncovered arms and legs and causing her to shiver slightly. However, this sensation ceased the moment Blake closed the front door, leaving only the evening's muggy, coastal heat. As she stood on the wooden porch in front of the sisters' home, she found herself gazing at a light in the distance—what must have been downtown Vale's lights—for but a moment before turning to head for the porch.

She had expected some sort of aggressive welcome from the local community of insects, but was surprised when the night turned out to be incredibly still. Neither gnat nor mosquito harassed her skin or revealed ears. There were no glowing fireflies flying about or any moths attacking the lights in front of the house. Something seemed to be keeping the insect population—or any other animal besides humans and Faunus—at bay. She assumed that the distinct scent of smoke that prevailed in the sisters' land kept the bugs from coming out and bothering her. She was immediately even more thankful for the fire than she already was despite having not yet seen it.

Unfortunately, Blake did not realize the important connection between the noticeably high humidity in the air and the preemptive shelter of the other animals in the woods.

As she turned the corner of the house, her sight was drawn to the soft, orange glow of a beginning fire and the three silhouettes that stood nearby. With something to focus her attention on, Blake began to hear certain aspects of the group's conversation. Nothing pertaining to topics of discussion or distinguishable words could be ascertained from what she heard, but the tones of voice coming from the different speakers were clearly audible from where she was. Ruby and Yang seemed to be happy about the fire and were unfazed by Weiss' attempts at reprimanding the blonde's actions of earlier in the day. Yang didn't seem the least bit bothered by the remarks, remaining incredibly perceptive to her surroundings. Blake was caught off guard as the shadowed figure of Yang turned towards her and waved, shouting, "Hey, Blake! Over here!"

Hearing that warm, welcoming voice once again made Blake subconsciously increase her walking speed so that she could be near her girlfriend again. She didn't miss the exchange between Yang and Weiss which consisted of the heiress telling the blonde to keep her voice down and Yang's subsequent dismissal of the plea. As Blake made her way along the dark porch towards the group, she could imagine the wide grin Yang had at this instant. She was sure that Weiss would have thought the blonde's overt happiness was caused by irrational pyromania, but Blake believed that her partner's audible happiness spawned from the same reason her own walking became so rapid.

Blake had to compose herself as she descended the stairs in order to keep some level of outward aloofness. Internally, she wanted nothing more than to sit by the fire with her girlfriend who, right now, was the only person in her life keeping her from falling back into her own memories. It had been a rough three hours; she just wanted to relax and she felt that Yang would understand this. The fire still seemed to be in its beginning stages, not having yet caught on to more than the top log of the stack of wood. When Blake had walked around the house's corner, she had seen both Yang and Ruby poking at the fire, urging it to consume the fuel provided. But now that she walked down the steps, she saw Ruby continuing her actions while Yang was smiling warmly and walking towards her.

"Hey," Yang said softly. The two had slowed to a stop so that they stood before each other, grinning.

"Hey," Blake replied in much the same tone, watching the lilac eyes for any hint of hesitation. As Yang had told her, she was there for her—there was no amount of trepidation or other anxiety found within the girl's eyes, proving to Blake that she was truly ready to help her with anything and everything.

"I'm glad you came out. I would have missed you if you kept on reading. It'd be like Beacon all over again." Her soft smile changed into a slight smirk. "And I don't think anybody would want that, would they?" Blake lightly chuckled as she shook her head. As she did so, Yang moved to her side and put an arm over her shoulder. The young Faunus leaned into the embrace as they moved towards the chairs around the fire.

"I wasn't that detached, was I?" Blake felt that she had been a bit too quiet towards her other teammates at times, but never felt that she had been overly distant. Still, she wanted to hear Yang's opinion anyways.

"Nah," Yang drawled. "You were just giving those books of yours more attention than me."

Underneath Yang's one-armed hold, Blake was able to nudge her girlfriend with an elbow. "That wouldn't have been a problem if you told me you were interested sooner." She couldn't suppress her own smirk.

"Well, I would have if I was sure you wouldn't reject me." Blake could practically hear Yang's facial features contorting to a comical grimace as she gulped. "Or worse." A chuckle couldn't suffice for the humor that Blake found in that additional statement. She giggled as she leaned closer into Yang, knowing that she wouldn't have harmed Yang for any reason at all. When she looked ahead, she saw two metal chairs just in front of her. "You know, Blake," she heard Yang begin, "it took me a while to figure you out, but once I did I—"

Blake desperately wanted to hear the rest of what Yang had to say, but unfortunately, Weiss had to interject. "Oh, get over yourselves," she groaned. "You know you're not the only ones here, right? Or did you forget that our plan was to start a fire and then talk?" When Blake looked to where Weiss was, she found the heiress sitting on a chair opposite their own, glaring daggers at the two of them.

She felt a shift in the embrace and when Blake looked to the cause of the disruption, she saw Yang looking at her with a raised eyebrow that seemed to silently ask, "Really?" Blake simply rolled her eyes in response. There were only a few seconds of inactivity where Yang looked to be mulling something over before she gave a wink. "Just be patient, princess. There isn't much we can do to help the fire spread. Although," her grin widened, "I thought I heard somewhere that Dust does a really good job of setting things on fire." Weiss' eyes widened as her jaw visibly clenched. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? I'm just asking because you're the Dust expert around here."

Ruby, seeming to be blissfully unaware of what Yang had said, turned away from the fire and moved to seat herself in the chair beside Weiss. At this, the heiress' demeanor relatively softened, the impending scowl and scolding having become a look of exasperation. She sighed. "I'm never going to be able to live that down, am I?"

Though the question seemed to be rhetorical in its phrasing, Yang felt compelled to answer. "Not until you do something bigger. If you need any ideas, I was thinking that you could set the school on fire. Go big or go home, right?" Yang's mischievous grin widened as Weiss' anger visibly heightened. "Well, maybe arson would do both. You would go big and you'd be sent home. Win-win!"

Not only had Weiss taken on a look of barely contained fury, but Ruby to an extent as well; though, Blake could only notice this because of the duration of the gaze that came from the leader with a generally short attention span. Being underneath Yang's embrace, Blake felt that the glares her partner was receiving were in some way directed at her as well. This led to a series of rapid thoughts, all trying to find ways to get herself out of this situation. What she came up with was to pull Yang closer to their seats while carefully choosing her words to avoid mentioning the fact that she was trying to get Yang out of trouble. "Hey, let's sit down."

It seemed to work as Yang moved along with her towards the chairs. Unfortunately, she could not stop Yang from exclaiming, "But I never got to tell her how she could poison the school's water supply! That'd be better to make fun of than a weak forest fire."

The reason why this was more unfortunate for Blake than it was humorous was because this extra statement caused Weiss to speak up. "If you're done incriminating yourself and making me an accessory to the eventual crime you commit, take your seat." Begrudgingly, Yang did as she was told but not because of Weiss' command. Blake had all but pulled her girlfriend down into her seat, resulting in an eye-roll from the blonde that was an undisguised imitation of Blake's own. She would have laughed at this had Weiss not continued speaking. "I worked hard to get into that school and I will admit that the incident on initiation day was a mistake. However, if I am going to attend Beacon Academy and do as well as I would like to, I cannot have any more mistakes of that caliber associated with my name. I would advise you to stay quiet about that incursion or, at the very least, keep it between us."

Yang gave a short laugh. "You're acting like I've been going around telling everybody about it."

Blake raised an eyebrow at this. She knew that Yang was a fan of recalling this particular instance in the forest, even if she wasn't there in person to witness it. Blake thought that she would have told a great many people judging by the amount of times she had brought the topic up in one way or another. Weiss seemed to have similar thoughts; however, she seemed to be more vocal with them than Blake was. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"I've been keeping the story about the forest fire in-house." Blake lowered her eyebrow, remembering the majority of the times Yang had talked about the incident prior. Now that she mentioned it, there didn't seem to be many times where Yang openly talked about the fire to anyone besides those in their team. Perhaps there was a time when she told somebody in Team JNPR, but other than that, Yang didn't seem to be very open with that information around those not directly involved. Apparently, Weiss couldn't make this connection and gave the blonde an incredulous look. "I like making fun of you, Weiss, but I'm no monster. Whether you like it or not, I consider you a friend and as your friend, I'm not going to tell the world your secrets." Blake would have thought of this statement as comforting and sweet if Yang hadn't continued. "I'm just going to tell you your own secrets to make sure you understand that I know them."

This left an awkward silence to linger between the group, the only sound in the area being that of the crackling fire that existed only upon the top log of the pile. The statement was originally reassuring, yes, but the way that Yang had shaped it into what almost sounded like a threat made the other girls in the group unsure of how to react. Blake squeezed Yang's hand in a way that told her that she did a good job but in a way that she did not do good enough to receive verbal praise. Weiss' facial expression frequently shifted between annoyed, exasperated, and confused. She responded in a hesitant voice, "I was going to thank you, but now I don't know what I should do."

Ruby, meanwhile, had her attention trained once again on the fire pit in the middle of them. Blake saw out of the corner of her eye the sudden movement within the metal construct. The single log that sat atop the rest of the pile broke down the center, causing both halves and the fire attached to them to fall into the bottom of the pit. For a moment, the only light coming from the fire pit was of the plume of ashes and cinders released by the broken log, but after a few moments, fire began to spread to the logs directly above the flames. While the flame did not instantly engulf the pile, it did spread enough so that the previously dark patio became sufficiently illuminated and the awkward tension that existed between the group dissipated.

"So," Yang drawled, dismissing the inability of her other teammates to respond to her previous statement. Blake found Yang's arm coming to rest over her shoulders, causing her lean back into the limb. From where she sat, she could only just see Weiss' eyes above the fire—she was able to see the relative calm that had spread to her features. "How did you get into Beacon, anyway?" She then saw Weiss' gaze to form into a glare of sorts. Yang must have noticed this as well because she added, "I'm not making fun of you. Honestly, I'm just wondering. You said that you worked hard to get into Beacon and I'm pretty sure that you of all people wouldn't call bribing the school 'hard work.'"

However, this amendment did not cause Weiss' look to soften. "Are you implying that I habitually bribe people?" She didn't seem as though she was angry—Blake knew what an irate Weiss looked like after the first few days she had attended the academy. This was a look of annoyance; rather, exasperation at a repeated stereotype she had become associated with. Blake was intimately familiar with this sort of look.

Yang shrugged. "All I know is that when we couldn't get a seat at Flaherty's, you just walked in and suddenly we had a table." Blake felt as though Yang was unwittingly instigating an argument, but she wouldn't do anything about it. Wanting to reduce the amount of conflict that existed in her life if only by a marginal percent, the young Faunus had the urge to halt Yang's speech even though it had already ceased. Unfortunately, she could tell that Yang was sincere in her stated curiosity. There was not a hint of malice in her tone, simply unintentional disrespect.

Rather than the expected reprimand from the girl in white, Weiss rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed, looking over to the girl beside her out of the corner of her eye. "Yang, I didn't bribe anyone in the restaurant." Judging by the shift in Yang's position, Blake was sure that her partner was about to request some sort of elaboration, but couldn't due to Weiss' proactivity in supplying a further explanation. "I did, however, tell them that they were waiting on a member of the Schnee family."

Yang went back to her regular, reclined position, seemingly sated in her curiosity. Be it a show of gratitude to Yang for ceasing her accidentally rude inquiries or her own cynical desire to move as far away from the lingering pain of the visions, Blake pulled her chair closer to Yang's, closing the infinitesimal distance that already existed between them. She wanted to shut her eyes, relax by the fire, and forget about everything that could possibly cause stress. Once again, this event by the fire that was intended on being relaxing evaded its original purpose. "And," Weiss sighed, bringing the attention of Blake and Yang back to her, "I might have threatened them to an extent." Blake was able to feel her girlfriend's position change as her head shot up to look at Weiss. The heiress sighed once again, obviously unhappy with what she had done. "I told them that it would be in poor form to deny a customer who could potentially run them out of business at a moment's notice."

Ruby, who had been so entranced by the growing flame that she looked to have not been paying attention, finally perked up at this confession. "Seriously?" she asked. Blake didn't have to look across the fire to know that the young girl's eyes had widened in surprise. However, the Faunus did open her eyes to see Weiss' reaction. She had frowned and tilted her head so it could rest on her arm that had been propped on the chair's armrest.

Unlike her sister's relatively calm and concerned reaction, Yang cheered, "All right, Weiss!" The outburst had been so unexpected by everybody else that it startled even the contrite Weiss and the stoic, reserved Blake. Something about this response made Blake think that it was not Yang reacting impulsively. The shift in Weiss' demeanor from regretful to bewildered was not missed and allowed Blake to rationalize her partner's exclamation as purposefully disarming. The exclamation of her name by Ruby did not dissuade the blonde from continuing. "I knew you had it in you! Show 'em who's boss and don't take 'no' for an answer! I knew there was a reason I tolerate you."

Blake smiled. Though the other two might not have seen it, Yang was watching Weiss intently, making sure that she had remedied the problem plaguing the heiress—Ruby may have, but judging by the frequent, worried glances she gave to Weiss, she had not. For the briefest of moments, Weiss' expression looked to hint at happiness, but this was quickly masked by over-exaggerated façades of indignation and annoyance. Although, if one were to look close enough as Blake did, one would see a very faint smirk that was equally as unwanted by the heiress as it was amused. "Oh, so you tolerate me. Is that it?" This uncharacteristic quip from Weiss only served to betray her appearance of composure, but Blake doubted the audacious manner of speech was an accident.

It was apparent that Yang thought much the same. "Yeah, I think 'tolerate' fits pretty well for what I was going for." Blake felt Yang softly shake her shoulder with the arm that she had been leaning on. "What do you think? 'Tolerate' works well here, right?" Incredibly amused with the conversation but not wanting to be subjected to any potential anger from either party, she simply smiled and shrugged. "See?" Yang looked back to Weiss. "Even she agrees with me. And she reads!"

"And that's implying that you don't?" Weiss returned.

"Pffft. Not if I can avoid it."

Ruby, though a bit late with her response, finally adjusted to the flow of the conversation, no longer worried about Weiss' feelings that seemed unfazed. "And that's not fair, using Blake as your backup. Of course she's going to agree with you. She's your girlfriend!"

While Blake was comfortable with her relationship with Yang, hearing Ruby remark on it in such a matter-of-fact way made heat rise to the young Faunus' cheeks. Fortunately, Yang was there to take the group's focus off of her. "You're right that she's my girlfriend. She's the best girlfriend in the world and backs me up whenever I need help. There's nothing unfair about Blake being the best girlfriend ever." Unfortunately, as much as Blake adored the blonde's sunny attitude, the brawler's inclination towards compliments only exacerbated the blush. "Besides," she began again, "you don't see me complaining when you try to get Weiss to back you up."

Due to the orange glow cast on the faces of those sitting around the fire on this notably cloudy night, any sign of a blush or other coloration to one's facial features could not be seen. However, Blake didn't need to see any red tint to know that the two girls opposite herself were flustered. Between Weiss breaking her perfect posture by crossing her arms and slumping into her chair and Ruby's wide-eyed petrification followed by an exclamation of "W-We're not dating!", Blake was fairly certain that Yang had rendered the two speechless.

Yang had stated on many occasions that teasing her sister and Weiss was an incredibly enjoyable experience—especially so if she could tease them both simultaneously. This meant that the blonde would not show mercy. "I know you're not." This seemed to ease the embarrassment on the parts of Ruby and Weiss for a moment, but Blake knew better. "You two can't even get through a conversation anymore without fumbling over your words or getting angry at each other before running away. I don't expect you to be dating because I know you're too afraid to." She added, "Chickens."

That was a challenge if Blake had ever heard one. It was as if the two girls on the other side of the fire became frozen in time, unmoving from their already flustered state. Slowly, gradually, at an agonizingly-sluggish pace, Ruby and Weiss' respective eyes shifted from gawking at Yang to looking in directions opposite each other. Blake knew that the response only confirmed Yang's statement, causing the toothy grin that now adorned the blonde's features, but perhaps the teasing had gone too far.

The current reaction, although expected and humorous, looked to be a true point of embarrassment for the other partnership. In her own relationship, Blake knew that Yang wouldn't react in such a way whatsoever and that her own reaction would not be as severe as this. But they were not Ruby and Weiss—similar in some regards, perhaps, but never the same. This is why she leaned into Yang to get her attention before giving her a pleading look that silently asked to rectify the situation.

To Yang's credit, her ability to be quick-witted in a conversation proved to be exceptionally efficient in calming the other two down. "By the way, Weiss, you never really answered my question." The statement disarmed her previous challenge and was said so nonchalantly that it both impressed Blake and brought back Weiss' attention in the form of a wary, yet curious raise of an eyebrow. "You know," Yang implored, "'How'd you get into Beacon and stuff?'"

Weiss, having still not completely recovered from the previous degrees of flustered that she had found herself in, cleared her throat in an attempt to compose herself. She began, "How I was accepted into Beacon is not anything particularly extraordinary." This garnered a flat, goading look from Yang. She sighed. "All right, if you must know, I had to request an evaluation because I did not attend a previous combat school. When the representative from the academy came for the evaluation, I was asked a series of questions about my combat style and then was given the opportunity to prove myself. Needless to say, I passed."

Once again, the only sound on the patio came from the crackling fire, the other three girls waiting expectantly for any sort of elaboration. It quickly became apparent that there would be no such explanation, causing Yang to ask, "Is that it?"

"Yeah," Ruby chimed in, "you didn't tell us anything about the test. Was it hard? What happened?"

"Of course it wasn't hard!" Immediately after saying this, Weiss caught herself, changing her expression quickly from irritated to incredibly calm and neutral. She looked to Ruby and quickly said, "I apologize for my outburst. It was out of turn." She then turned back towards the partnership opposite herself, adopting the same disinterested look as before. "To answer her second question, he seemed to give a fairly standard test of my combat abilities. This was then followed by more specialized tests to gauge my semblance and competence with a sword. Nothing was out of the ordinary. There really is not much to tell."

"Huh," Yang began, "I never would have expected Weiss Schnee of all people to turn down the chance to brag about herself." Blake sighed. She thought that Yang would have ceased her teasing remarks after Weiss proved that she was willing to be compliant.

"Will you stop?" Apparently, Weiss held similar sentiments. The glare the heiress sent seemed to pacify the blonde. However, this glare did not falter even after Yang finished her flagrant roll of the eyes. "If you're not satisfied with my answer, why don't you regale us with your own tale of how you fought your way into Beacon?"

While Blake felt that Weiss was justified in her annoyance with Yang to some degree, it would be wrong to say that the young Faunus did not want to reprimand the girl in white for the way she had responded to her girlfriend. But, once again, Yang was there to keep Blake from saying something she would have regretted. "Fine," Yang shrugged. "I guess I deserve it after the stuff I put you two through today." Even with her acceptance of what was perceived as punishment, Yang was still able to incite a glare from her sister and an ever harsher scowl from Weiss at the mention of the incident earlier in the day.

"Never mention that again," Weiss growled.

Ruby shook her head, never disengaging eye contact with her sister. "Never ever. You're a heavy sleeper. If you talk about it again, that'll be the end of your hair."

Even Blake had to admit that the threat from Ruby was intimidating. The thought alone of Ruby's competence wielding the sharp blade of Crescent Rose was disconcerting now. Suddenly, it was Yang's turn to be speechless, her eyes having widened considerably at the statement. "Uhh," she began, "I was only kidding?" This didn't have any effect on the expressions of either girl. She tried laughing nervously and still didn't get a response. "Should I answer the question?" Blake figured it was all Yang could think of for a response that was within the bounds of her natural repertoire of conversational distractions. Ruby slightly and slowly nodded her head—an incredibly menacing and bone-chillingly out-of-character sight to say the least.

"Well," Yang began hesitantly, "it really wasn't anything special." The glares from the two girls told her to keep going. "I mean, all I did was pass my finals and they let me in." The severe looks from the opposite partnership did not cease. The unresponsiveness of the duo caused Yang to become so uncomfortable that it seemed to have allowed for the following outburst. "What do you want from me? I graduated from Signal! Everybody who goes there ends up at Beacon anyway!"

Every second that passed by in silence seemed to increase the desperation in Yang's plea of unimportance exponentially, or so it seemed to the young Faunus. Soon after Yang's rise in volume, a charred log in the fire pit crumbled, spitting embers and ashes into the obscured sky. Blake had feared that this would have acted as a trigger—a trigger that could unleashed the barely contained anger of Weiss and the uncharacteristic annoyance of Ruby. However, this occurrence seemed to have the polar opposite effect on the group. At the sound of the crumbling, Yang and Ruby burst into laughter while Weiss sat back in her seat with a genuinely happy smirk gracing her visage. To say Blake was confused would be an understatement.

"Way to go Weiss!" Yang managed to cheer in between bouts of laughter.

Ruby gave Weiss one of the widest smiles Blake had ever seen on the young leader. "Yeah! I never knew you were such an awesome actor." Blake felt lost. "I almost believed you were mad at Yang for a second there." Blake had to ask herself if they really looked angry. From what she remembered, they did, but the statement that they weren't utterly confounded her.

"You have to pull inspiration from somewhere." Weiss' dismissive and seemingly flippant response made Yang begin laughing even harder and caused Blake to knit her brows.

Now that they mentioned it, they did seem different after Yang's reference to how she found the two on the couch earlier. While Weiss did seem angry—enough to make the young Faunus believe that she actually was—she didn't react how Blake thought she would. She expected instant scolding and the conversation to erupt into a veritable yelling match. However, the fact that these were contradicted with laughter at an inside joke that she had been unaware of made her feel out of the loop and admittedly not as intelligent as she believed she was.

With her expression being a mix of both confusion and disappointment in herself, Blake subconsciously nestled closer into the warmth of the figure beside her as she watched the flames in an attempt to rid her mind of these negative thoughts. She barely felt Yang shift her position so that she could look at the Faunus' reaction. While she tried not to focus on anything else in the area, Blake noticed that Yang's exuberant, rejuvenating laughter had ceased. She moved away just enough so that she could look up and observe Yang's expression while still being surrounded by the safety of the blonde's hold. With a single glance into the lilac orbs of Yang, Blake saw the same emotions she was feeling now afflicting her girlfriend as well. However, uncertainty and self-depreciation paled in severity to the amount of worry that was communicated through Yang's unwavering gaze.

Blake did believe that the concern shown was absolutely heart-warming, but she felt that the amount shown was hindering Yang's evening. She tried her best to smile—or at the very least, smirk—to appease the blonde, but her efforts did not achieve the desired result. However, it is not to say that Blake disliked the resulting action. What had been merely an arm draped over Blake's shoulder became a one-armed hug that was otherwise unnoticeable to the other two at the fire. The girl in black quickly gave up on her attempts to pacify the blonde's concern, easing into the hold and silently thanking her for being there and keeping the action low-key.

In a matter of seconds, Ruby's laughter became infrequent snickers. Just as Blake was about to dismiss the entire situation as a simple lapse in awareness, a question was posed—one that would unintentionally keep Blake quiet and disappointed in herself. "Hey, Blake?" Ruby asked. "How'd you get into Beacon? I don't remember you saying where you went before you got in."

Ruby did not intend on causing Blake to recall more painful memories than she already had. Blake knew this, but was still affected by the insignificant question. Rather than thinking ahead for a diplomatic manner of dismissing the question, Blake attempted to speak first. However, between the uncertainty she had for how she could possibly respond and the fact that her voice had come to fail her after a period of inactivity, all she could respond with was a weak, "Umm." While it sounded as though she was going to elaborate, she did not intend on doing so. She was not particularly proud of how she had gotten accepted into the academy. With this added to the prior bout of disappointment in herself for not being part of the group, she honestly did not feel like talking.

Fortunately, Yang was there to save the day. "Hey, can we stop talking about school for a second? My head's starting to hurt from thinking about it again." Though Yang had a playful expression of feigned agony directed at Ruby, the serious gaze she was sending Weiss was not missed. Blake couldn't begin to guess what that look asked of the heiress, but she was preemptively thankful anyways if it proved to be even the least bit helpful in allowing her to avoid a question about her unsavory past.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Yang is right." Weiss, keeping an expertly calm expression, turned to Ruby. "Can we find something else to discuss?" Though the two of them might have had their differences in the past, Blake made a mental note that she would have to thank Weiss later for her diversion. Because her head was leaning against Yang and thusly caused her sight to be at an angle, Blake was barely able to see the pained, contemplative expression that Ruby held as she tried to find a new topic of conversation.

This thoughtful demeanor was quickly replaced with a grin very much similar to one of Yang's signature mischievous expressions. As Ruby tilted her head back up to look towards her sister, Yang tensed. Blake found her partner only just calm enough to seem happy and content, but the fact that the hug she had been giving had become a sort of death grip, Blake was almost certain Yang was scared of something. "No," the blonde said in a stern, reprimanding voice.

Ruby, however, was completely unfazed. "What?" she asked in a patronizingly sweet tone. "I was just going to say that I need to get some more polish for Crescent Rose. Maybe order some more ammo while I'm at it." While Blake had been unsure earlier in the day of her ability to read others, she knew without a doubt that Ruby was lying in this instance. Between the singsong voice which the young leader used to detail her plan and the hard glare that Yang was shooting her, Blake was positive that ulterior motives were in play.

Apparently, Weiss thought the same. "What is going on between you two?"

Yang didn't bother taking her gaze off of her sister to look at the heiress, choosing instead to curtly state, "Nothing," while continuing her glare. This caused Weiss to grind her teeth in frustration for some odd reason.

"Oh!" Ruby gasped, creating a blatant, false tone of surprise. "So, you don't want me to tell—"

Whether it was because Yang felt that a more intimidating posture was required for her denial or if it was due to the fact that her body temperature began to skyrocket alongside her level of anger and she became conscious of it, the blonde released Blake from her hold. Ruby was cut off by Yang with another quick, "No." This time, however, the response seemed much more defensive and almost panicked to an extent.

Blake had seen Yang distressed , overwhelmed, and in various stages of negativity—albeit only for brief periods of time—yet "panicked" was not a word she would normally use to describe the exuberant youth. But there was nothing normal about the way Yang was trying to truncate this conversation. It was evident that she was keeping a secret and Blake would have been fine with this, seeing as how she and Ruby spoke about the issue as though it was an inside joke. However, Yang was not merely keeping a secret, she was enforcing the fact that it was a secret. This is what caused the inquisitive look from Blake and the subsequent, appeasing touch of a hand that began to calm Yang.

"Fine," Ruby dismissed in a way oddly reminiscent of an exasperated Weiss. "Then I won't say what I need to get, but I need to get some stuff downtown." Yang's scowl became more cautionary, just awaiting any stimulus to bring it back to its previous levels of anger. This response from Ruby and reaction from Yang caught Blake's interest. Before, she was content to let whatever was going on between the two of them go as it seemed to be a matter pertaining to their family if she had to guess. Now she was intrigued as to what could cause this drastic change in personality. "Does anybody want to go tomorrow? I kinda want to get it out of the way before it's too late." Her emphasis on "before it's too late" caused Yang's look to harden once again—something Blake took note of.

This was the opportunity she needed. She nudged Yang with her elbow, causing the heated expression to cool and form into a single raised eyebrow at the Faunus. Blake did her best to send a hopeful smile towards the figure beside her, silently asking if they could go. Despite the crowds and the intermittent anguish of their last trip, there was something about the trip that Blake believed to have caused her and Yang to grow closer. She wanted to replicate this experience as best she could, but at the same time, she wanted to figure out why Yang seemed so hesitant at the mention of another trip.

Blake found Yang's visage to droop in resignation for a fraction of a second before it was replaced with a sunny smile. "All right," she drawled, "you don't have to tell me twice." It would have seemed to her awkward in this instance to laugh aloud at Yang's reaction and teasing, so she instead smiled and shook her head as she leaned into the warm body beside her.

"If everyone else is going, I might as well come too." Weiss, who, much like Blake, would have normally preferred peaceful solitude over being around loquacious others prior to this break from school, seemed relatively calm and level-headed. Perhaps her view on what could be considered enjoyable had changed. Blake certainly hoped this was the case, for the unrestrained happiness now emanating from Ruby's smile was something that needed to be more common. But this smile, in this particular instance, could not last. "I've read about an art exhibit here in Vale that I wish to attend. Though I've had the chance to attend before, I think now is an acceptable time to follow through with it. We are supposed to be enjoying ourselves, after all."

With a piteous, crestfallen gasp of "What?", Ruby became less than enthusiastic about her devised plan of heading into the city once again. "How can you have fun while looking at a bunch of pictures?" Blake did not miss the smug look Yang had but choose not to reprimand her for it.

Weiss, on the other hand, chose to reprimand Ruby for her reaction. "Oh, I'm sorry that there won't be anything for you to shoot while we're there. It just so happens that I like the quiet sometimes. Perhaps you could learn a thing or two from that. Until then, you will just have to gain an appreciation for the arts because you are coming with me." Between the sarcasm and the command, Blake believed that Weiss' reaction had been slightly excessive once again. But at the same time, she could sympathize with the heiress. Had Yang acted in a similar way to her request to go to the book store during their last trip, she might have acted in the same way.

Ruby groaned. What had been expected from the youngest of the group was an argument. This was the case because Blake reasoned that since she had argued earlier in the day, some amount of that animosity might still linger. However, every member of the team was surprised when Ruby said, "Fine, I'll go."

Weiss was the first to regain her composure. "Then it's settled. We will head into town tomorrow. Ruby and I will head to the art exhibit as well as take care of any errands she needs to—"

"Wait," Yang interrupted, much to the chagrin of the speaker. "Ruby, are you sure you want to go to that thing? I thought you hated museums."

Wide-eyed and sufficiently caught off-guard, Ruby began the rapid process of conversational damage control. "No! Of course not!" she assured. "When have I ever said that? I don't remember saying that. Maybe I don't remember because I was too young to!" She began to nervously laugh, causing Weiss' expression to sour in annoyance. Seeing this, Ruby tried a different method of rectifying the situation. "Weiss, I'd love to go with you to the—I mean, I'd enjoy going to the art show with you!" While Ruby was blushing through her attempt at a confident visage, Weiss seemed even more annoyed than usual.

Blake was torn between believing that this Freudian slip was intended or if Ruby was being overly conscious of everything she said when around Weiss. Honestly, she believed it to be a bit of both, but would not judge her leader's awkward attempts at being amiable towards her partner. Blake was in no place to judge either way. Whether she liked it or not, she still felt that she, herself, was still incredibly awkward when around Yang. As Blake was not one to be hypocritical, she simply smiled at the bumbling spectacle not out of malicious mirth, but out of empathy.

Rarely did Weiss seem to stray from phrasings and diction considered formal and proper; however, the uncharacteristic drawl of "Okay," could be overlooked just this once as the situation seemed to be difficult for her to deal with. "Anyways," she began, backtracking to before Yang's interjection, "Ruby and I will go to the art exhibit and run the errand that she needs taken care of. Do you two have anything planned or will you be accompanying us?"

Something about the way Weiss asked this made Blake feel as though the heiress was hoping that her answer would allow the two of them some form of privacy. Of course, this rationalization could have spawned from the fact that she had found the two sleeping against each other earlier in the day as well as the multiple, small instances during this fireside discussion that indicated their infatuation towards each other. Yet her suspicions were confirmed through the brief, relieved smile that Weiss had after Yang said, "Yeah, we've got some stuff planned. I told Blake I'd show her around—take her sightseeing and all." Though she had never asked about sightseeing in particular, Blake was fine with Yang's explanation that would vouch for her own motives for going to Vale again.

"Well, I guess it's settled then," Ruby stated in a tone so distant from her previously alarmed state that Blake humored the thought that that the panic was again but an act. "So, when do we wanna go tomorrow? I'm thinking noon is a good time. Who's up for it?"

Blake approved of the idea because it only created more similarities between their first trip and this next one. She also believed that Yang would be fine with this decision due to her affinity for sleep. Weiss, however, objected. "If we want to go to the art exhibit, we will need to leave fairly early. I'd say between eight and nine."

"What?" Yang exclaimed. It seemed as though Blake's assumption about the blonde's preferred time of departure was correct.

Weiss scoffed. "Ruby and I need to leave early if we want to get into the exhibit. If we leave at noon, we will be lucky if we able to get inside by seven." She looked to her partner. "Are you willing to leave early?"

"S-sure," Ruby stammered.

"Either way," Weiss continued, "if you aren't willing to wake up early enough, you have that thing—that motorbike—"

"Bumblebee," Yang corrected.

Blake watched as Weiss silently looked at Yang, visibly annoyed and presumably wondering if she was being serious. The Faunus knew her girlfriend was adamant about the name of her vehicle, but Weiss didn't seem like the sort of person who would name an inanimate object—in fact, she couldn't remember a time when the heiress referred to her sword as Myrtenaster outside of being asked its name. "No," Weiss said simply. "I'm not calling it that. Whatever you want to call it, you can take it into the city if you can't wake up in time to leave." Yang made a show of rolling her eyes but not disagreeing. This, to Blake, was a great show of self-restraint on Yang's part; she could see the blonde arguing the semantics of her bike's name to no end, so this was a welcome result. Weiss huffed. "I'm glad we're in agreement, then."

A noncommittal hum came from the sisters. This was followed by silence that was only broken by the crackling of the diminishing wood in the fire. With every team member's nerves calmed by the lack of conversation and accompanying arguments, they could simply watch the fire like they had originally intended on doing. Ruby and Weiss reclined in their respective seats, the heiress letting out an unfettered, content sigh while the young leader grinned widely as she watched the flame's erratic motions. The warmth around Blake seemed to intensify comfortably as Yang's undivided attention was focused solely on her.

Blake found that Yang began to lean against her, moving so that their heads were nearly level with each other. "Hey," Yang whispered. When she looked to her partner, she found the blonde to have a slight smile on her face. "Sorry that I didn't ask for your opinion on what we're doing tomorrow. Is there something you want to do instead? I mean, looking at buildings might get a little old after a while."

Blake's answer would have been in the negative had she felt the need to speak at all. Because both the figure and the fire were so warm and because she felt at ease around everyone else due in large to Yang's unnecessary apology, Blake felt as though she could just lean against Yang and doze off. To answer her question, however, Blake shrugged, earning a short laugh from the blonde. "I know you like to keep to yourself, but this has to be a record—even for you." Blake rolled her eyes at the comment. She had nothing to say; rather, she felt that there wasn't anything she wanted to say. She was happy with the way things were and felt as though talking would ruin the serenity of the moment. However, Yang's speech seemed to only improve the situation. The warm figure hummed a low, content note that resonated throughout Blake's form and almost put her to sleep.

Blake's unhindered, unrestrained Faunus ears twitched at something that was coming. Whatever was coming, however, she could not guess.

The reason why it is stated that Blake almost fell asleep is because a certain white-haired girl, in her uncharacteristic, placated daze, asked a question that caused Yang to quickly sit up in her seat and Ruby to become momentarily paralyzed. "Ruby," she began, "if you don't mind me asking, how did you two get this house? It doesn't seem as though two students with no visible records of employment could afford a plot of land this large on the fringes of the capital." While Blake could understand why such a question would otherwise be perceived as ill-mannered, Weiss' genuine curiosity came across expressly. But even the expressions of Yang and Ruby were far beyond standard reactions to any ill-mannered question.

Because Ruby had been asked the question, she had to be the one who answered. Unfortunately, in her disabled state, all she could say was "Umm…"

This caused both Weiss and Blake to sit up, both for different reasons. Blake had to sit up lest she fall behind her partner's form due to her now sitting on the edge of her seat. Weiss distanced herself from the back of her chair, her visage forming into a concerned expression that rivaled Yang's own with a noticeable amount of self-loathing introspection occurring within her mind. Instead of going on the defensive or quickly ending the conversation like Blake thought she would have, Yang sighed. "Don't worry, Weiss," she began, "the story behind it is a bit of a downer and Ruby was probably hit the hardest by it."

Because the fire obscured Weiss and Ruby midway past their torsos, Blake was only able to see Weiss' eyes widen for a second before her visage hardened and she moved her arm to do something. Whatever action she did, Blake could not see. What she could see was Ruby's expression becoming frozen for a moment before softening to the point where she was able to give a faint smile to the heiress.

"Honestly, I've been expecting one of you to ask that since we got here. I still don't think I was ready for it, but I'll try to explain as best as I can." Ruby's eyes closed and her head sunk in a small form of bow. Whatever was going on, Blake felt the mood of this friendly chat by the fire had suddenly changed into one that she had experienced only once before with the blonde.

Back in the park's alcove, when she first asked the blonde whether or not she agreed with the prospect of them dating, Yang became incredibly reflective and uncharacteristically vulnerable on an emotional level, similar to how she was becoming by the fire. Looking back on this instance, Blake called upon her memories of how she was able to allay some of the negativity that afflicted Yang. She moved her hand over Yang's, causing the blonde to smile softly.

She took a deep breath. "Okay," she began, causing Ruby to visibly tense and Weiss to look over at her. "So, we've lived here since we were kids. Back then, we lived with mom and dad." Her voice hitched just before the last three words, halting her speech immediately after the sentence. Unfortunately, her reaction was relatively tame compared to Ruby's response. The girl had slowly brought her legs up into her chair so that she could shrink into as small a ball as possible as she buried her face in her knees. She wasn't crying—rather, she wasn't sobbing, for Blake could not hear any noise coming from the normally chipper leader.

Blake squeezed Yang's hand, hoping that it would silently convey the message that she was there for her. It seemed as though it worked to some extent, but she knew all too well that memories, after being repressed and kept a secret for too long, can decimate whatever visage of stoicism and calm that are attempted once they are brought into the light be it for better or worse. In Yang's case, Blake could just see with her augmented sight that the normally cheerful, lilac eyes were becoming subject to tears.

"Yang," Weiss began, appropriately cautious for the situation, "you don't have to answer if you don't want to. I can understand if it's a sore subject."

"No," Yang sighed. "You two," she looked to Blake, "deserve answers." She took another deep breath and seemed to wipe a tear from her eye that either didn't exist or was so minute that Blake had not noticed it. "I won't go into the specifics of what happened," the hitching in her voice became a very common occurrence, "but I'll just say that after what happened, Ruby and me inherited the house. We got everything that mom and dad owned through the will and have been living here since."

Enough was enough. Blake pulled Yang into a sideways hug of her own, cradling the blonde head just underneath her chin so that she could ward off any negativity once more. But Yang was strong; she didn't—couldn't—cry while her sister was present. As Blake rubbed her partner's arm, Yang sighed. "Maybe we're acting a little childish. I mean, it's been a few years now. We should be able to get over it, but…" However, she didn't have the means to finish the sentence.

With Weiss being the member of the group sworn to efficiency and lacking in sympathy and with Ruby still curled up in her defensive ball, Blake knew that there was only one person left to console Yang. She tried to speak, but after going so long without using her voice, she was only able to get out a single, slightly raspy, "It's all right."

Though she was not confident in what she said, feeling as though it could have been more effective, Yang reacted positively, moving closer to the young Faunus at the words. While Blake might have argued against it, Yang continued speaking with a cadence no longer indicative of distress. "The reason why we're able to keep it is because we have an uncle who teaches at Signal. Because he basically lives at the school, he agreed to take care of any payments on the house until we graduate from Beacon. After that, he said he'd help a little bit, but not as much."

There was a definite solemnity behind Yang's tone, but her manner of speech seemed to show moderately rapid recovery on her part. Ruby remained in her paralyzed state, having all of Weiss' attention focused on her. She looked to be recovering as well, but much more slowly and subtly than Yang was. If Blake had to guess how she was recovering, she would guess that it was due to whatever Weiss had done with her hand earlier. She had the sneaking suspicion that this was Weiss holding the leader's hand through the painful memories, but she chose not to remark on this for their sake. Though telling Yang about the supposed action could expedite her return to normalcy, it would only worsen the night for the other partnership through Yang's inevitable teasing.

There was something wrong with the air—in the slightest change in air pressure and charge that the Faunus could only just feel. What the cause of this was could not be ascertained, yet Blake's ears twitched nonetheless. She had believed that her previous reaction spawned from the recent conversation, but the fact that her ears twitched again when there wasn't anyone in the group who wished to speak was odd to say the least. What was even more strange was that she knew this feeling in the air somehow. What it came from or why she knew it was beyond her current comprehension.

Yang nuzzled closer, shaking Blake from her thoughts. The Faunus was able to smile softly at the happy expression on her partner's face. When she looked over towards Weiss and Ruby, she found that the previously shaken girl was now jovially conversing with her own partner. The sudden shift in mood caused Blake to question whether or not the previous conversation happened or not—whether or not this was all a figment of her traumatized imagination. It is to say that the conversation that brought about those unfortunate memories did, in fact, occur and that the true cause for the shift in mood was the sisters' signature optimism and positivity shining through in times of great distress.

All was right with the group for the time being with their uncomfortable sentiments and jarring memories buried well beneath the surface of their content demeanors. However, a small shiver from Yang acted as a prelude for what was to come. This shiver was so subtle that it could not have been noticed by either Ruby or Weiss. Blake, on the other hand, was close enough to have felt it. When she looked to her partner, she found that she, too, had a similarly confused expression. "What was that?" the blonde asked. "It felt like something fell on me."

Blake's ears involuntarily flicked again, forewarning what was to come.

It was then that Ruby flinched. "Did anybody else feel that?" Weiss looked at her as though the young leader was simply imagining things when she reacted to whatever the stimulation was as well. "Weiss?" Ruby asked. "Did you feel it too?"

Before Blake could ask what it was they were talking about, she felt something land on her sleeveless shoulder and begin rolling down her arm. Instantly, she knew what it was that had bothered them. "Huh," she hummed, both in wonderment and as an attempt to get her voice back, "I guess it's raining."

It did not take long at all for those four drops to become a few more and for those few more to become many more. Before long, the four were caught outside in the beginnings of what seemed to be a simple rainstorm. "Yang!" Ruby shouted. "Why did you pick tonight to have the fire?"

All members of Team RWBY were in various states of shock as to how they could react in this new weather. Instinctually, Yang pulled her jacket off and held it above herself so that her hair could not get wet. "How was I supposed to know it was going to rain?"

Weiss' plea of "Can we just get inside?" was ignored by the sisters while they continued their argument.

"Did you even look at the sky?"

"Yeah! There wasn't a cloud as far as I could see! It didn't look like it was going to rain!"

"Well you should have looked harder!"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

"Can you two just shut up and get out of the rain?" Weiss, as outwardly caring and selflessly benevolent as she usually was, yelled this at the bickering sisters as she bolted up the stairs and underneath the very slight awning created by the house's rain gutter. There were no grumbles of disappointment following this order. Yang, unsurprisingly, was unable to complete the task before Ruby could. For a moment, the leader's eyes opened in sheepish realization before she disappeared in a flurry of rose petals that shimmered in the pouring rain. It was not a second after she disappeared that the sound of the front door closing resounded throughout the area, followed by Weiss' exasperated shout of, "Ruby!"

Blake, lacking her bow, had to force her ears down against her head so that she could avoid rain getting in them. This created an odd auditory sensation. On one hand, she could clearly hear the incessant pattering of the weather against already forming pools through her human ears, while to her Faunus ears that were effectively sealed, it sounded as if she was indoors already and hearing the storm through the roof. Unfortunately, this made the normally enjoyable pitch of Yang's voice sound uncomfortable. "Come on!" she barely heard her yell. Nevertheless, she hurried along beside Yang up to the house.

She was not surprised to see Weiss nearly panicking because of the rain making her hair wet. Much like Yang, she seemed to be somewhat vain when it came to her hair. In actuality, Blake thought that Weiss was incredibly vain when it came to her hair and clothing, but for the sake of comparison and not insulting her girlfriend, she could be said to be somewhat vain. Honestly, Blake didn't understand their aversion to rain. Other than when it got in her ears, she quite enjoyed the rain. In a way, she considered it to be universally humbling, bringing everyone under its influence into a more reserved mood. If she had the choice, she would have wanted to stand outside for a little while longer. Unfortunately, it was not the rain that halted these thoughts.

Preemptively, Blake's Faunus traits flattened themselves even further against her head to protect against the coming sound. She had been automatically following her girlfriend when a resonating boom rang through the air. This sound only caused the blonde figure to speed up but caused the raven-haired girl to become immobile. At the sounding of this noise, what had been a tolerable rainstorm instantly became a torrential downpour, soaking Blake entirely.

She couldn't move. That sound made her remember. That sound could be louder—will be louder. That sound was horrible. That sound was mortifying. That sound was death.

"Blake!"

And yet she couldn't save them. She didn't know their names and even if they were shouting them at her so that she could remember, she couldn't hear them over that blasted noise.

"Blake!"

There were so many coming after her—a veritable sea of humanity as far as she was concerned. And all she could do was wait. She could only stand in place and wait for what was to come. It was justified; truly it would be, for she had been a coward.

"Blake! Come on!"

What was the point in running? If she did, then the sound would only break her again, allowing them to catch her. Maybe if she stood still and waited for swift justice, she would be less of a coward for just a moment.

Yang growled. "All right. If that's the way it's gonna be." Her voice was closer now, but Blake couldn't hear, her mind being too focused on the thunder that had only sounded once. She was shaken from her unfortunate memories by her body being moved, not by herself by another. Yang had taken the initiative by lifting her off of the ground. Normally, Blake would protest due to the lack of control, but she was in no such state to do so now. Instead, she subconsciously threw her arms around Yang's neck as she was moved along the porch in a form of bridal carry.

As the lights of the front of the house came into her blurred vision, Blake was able to return to the realm of reality. She barely noticed the front door coming into view before it was pushed open and she was brought through. When she was finally out of the rain, her senses came back to her in full. However, this recovery coincided with Yang setting her down. In this way, her partner angled her so that Blake could stand on her own without removing the arms from her neck. The young Faunus, having her senses shocked in light of the numerous events that happened only seconds prior, found herself wrapped in a hug by the warm and oddly dry figure. "Blake, what happened out there?"

Instead of answering her partner verbally, she returned the hug with greater fervor. She was incredibly thankful that Yang had done what she had and there was no possible way to express this other than through this hug. She wanted to say something, but words couldn't come to mind. It seemed as though Yang wasn't bothered by the lack of speech because she did not relent from the hold, choosing to comb her fingers through Blake's hair. Due to her ever-present aura, whatever amount of water that had wetted her hair became nonexistent through Yang's aura-heated fingers. Blake also found that residual rain clinging to her skin and clothes evaporated with the proximity of the hold. She doubted that Yang could understand in this moment just how thankful she was to have her by her side.

Both became aware of the soft padding of muted footsteps. With speed rivaling that of Ruby, Weiss had changed into her pajamas and was now walking towards the two of them whilst drying the ends of her hair with a towel. Somehow, she looked immaculate despite the undeniable fact that she had been caught in the downpour. Without the slightest concern for cordiality, she began, "Ruby told me that you had the means to check the weather. Care to explain yourself?"

Blake broke away from the hold so that her partner could respond and so that she could take off her shoes. "The…means?" Yang parroted. It took a few moments, but soon enough, her eyes widened in realization. "Right…huh, I guess I forgot about that."

Weiss stopped her drying motions so her glare could become even more scathing than it already was. "What did you forget this time?"

"I got myself a laptop for some reason before I left for Beacon." She sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck. "I guess that I forgot that I had it." Weiss looked as though she was about to scold Yang on what could have been her incompetence, but she never had the chance because Yang continued. "And," she laughed nervously, "I never exactly opened it either."

In a word, Weiss looked to be utterly baffled by this piece of information, causing an expression that seemed to ask the questions of "What?", "Really?", and "Seriously?" simultaneously. Instead of asking any of these questions or berating Yang, Weiss simply stared at the blonde for a few seconds before saying, "Okay, I think I've had enough of today. You two have a good night. Just don't bother me—at least hold off on it until tomorrow." As she walked back towards the hallway, still drying her hair, she could be heard grumbling something pertaining to the irrationality of forgetting about owning a computer. She quickly knocked on the door of her shared room. "Ruby, are you decent yet?" She must have gotten a positive response because she headed into her room seconds later, leaving Blake and Yang to themselves.

Yang continued to stare at the hallway with a confused expression on her face. "What's her problem? It's just rain."

She was right—though, not on the desired purpose of her question. It was only raining now, so there was no reason to be on edge, waiting for another clap of thunder. Blake relaxed, if only marginally. "You're one to talk," she quipped, not entirely confident in her manner of speech, but sure enough that Yang would appreciate the banter.

"Hey, you didn't see me complaining when my hair got wet."

"I didn't get the chance to because you pulled your jacket over yourself before it could." Yang sent her both a smirk and a glare—a playfully challenging gesture if there ever was one. "What? Are you scared of a little water?" Surprisingly, Blake's mood had lightened to the point where the storm brewing outside no longer was of any current concern.

"No!" Yang argued. "It's just that if I got my hair wet, do you know how long it would take for me to dry it all out?"

If Blake had to answer, she would have guessed that it would have taken only a couple of minutes with a towel and her aura. However, answering was not on her mind at the moment. She found Yang's denial of a fear of water was perhaps too overzealous. While she did not believe Yang to be afraid of water, she knew that Yang was, at the very least, annoyed by it. This is why Blake made a conscious effort to keep her demeanor level and stoic as she assumed control of her Faunus ears. Thankfully, they had not gotten water inside them; though, there was some that could be felt on the fur outside. Yang didn't seem to notice until the last second that Blake flicked her ears towards her, sending a small spray of water her way.

Yang's reaction was indicative of definite annoyance rather than definite fear. She simply stood there, drops of water now dripping down one side of her face as her smirk dissolved so that a glare could take over her visage. "Jerk," she simply said. This was then followed by the smirk returning in full Yang fashion. "That's cheating. You could have warned me that we were going to have a water fight."

Blake smirked back. "Well, were not. It's not much of a battle if I've already won."

Yang narrowed her eyes, creating an over-exaggerated serious expression. "Just you wait, Blake Belladonna," she began, "I'll get my vengeance yet. When you're least expecting it, I'll be there to rain on your parade."

There were a few futile seconds where Blake believed that she could keep her composure. Due to her fondness for the blonde having grown immensely over these past few days, she couldn't help but feel laughter coming on at the pun. She tried to contain it, she honestly did, but she found the joke far too funny than it actually was and laughed uncontrollably in light of the shared mirth between the two. It was odd for her, laughing. Normally a small giggle or occasional short chuckle could represent her amusement adequately. However, in this moment, hysterical laughter was unavoidable and fortunately contagious.

Soon enough, both girls were laughing together at a joke both circumstantial and unfunny. Blake couldn't remember the last time she laughed this hard but found the experience utterly rejuvenating. After that brief moment of phobic paralysis, it felt good to laugh and relieve the tensions that had amounted all throughout the day. She found that Yang's laughter only kept her going. She rationalized the scene as potentially unbefitting for her regular personality, but she would not complain. It just felt right to laugh.

Their amusement slowly came to a close with neither knowing why they found the joke so funny but both being rid of whatever negative sentiments had managed to linger. With smiles stuck to their faces, they simply looked at each other. Out of the corner of her eye, she could faintly see the time on one of the television room's boxes. While she could not be sure what the specific hour was, the fact that it was in the double digits told her that her day had come to a close too soon once again.

Yang, still recovering from the mirth that winded her, didn't have time to react to Blake approaching and wrapping her in a hug. This action caused the joviality to taper off into a simple, comfortable happiness that was solidified with Yang eventually reciprocating the embrace. "What's this all about?" Yang asked.

"Nothing," Blake sighed. "It's just getting late is all."

"It can't be that late," Yang mused as she looked over to some unseen clock that had not been in Blake's vision. Whatever she saw seemed to cause her shoulders to slump ever so slightly. "Yikes," she said, "I guess it is late." Despite this apparent epiphany, neither moved, causing Yang to remark with a smirk, "What? Do you want me to walk you to your room or something?"

Blake shook her head amusedly and disengaged from the hold. "Thank you for tonight, Yang." She wanted to say more, to elaborate on why she was thanking her, but she couldn't yet. There were some things she was better off not knowing. "Have a good night." She smiled waited for her partner's response.

"Yeah, you too, kitten." Yang smiled softly back at the Faunus. Before Blake could turn away towards her room, Yang began again, "And Blake?" Said girl turned around, a confused but not at all oppositional expression on her face. "If there's something you need to talk about, you can come to me." Blake smiled. "I mean it; I'll be there if you just want to talk about whatever." Yang's expression had taken a solemn, yet hopeful expression that conveyed her absolute conviction in this statement to Blake.

"Thanks," Blake managed to say. "I'll be sure to keep that in mind. Good night, Yang."

"Good night, Blake." At this, the young Faunus retired to her room, weary from the day but rejuvenated by recent experiences.

In the grand scheme of things, today seemed to have gone fairly well—not amazingly well, but a little better than adequately. As she changed into her nightwear, Blake took comfort in the hope that the arrhythmic sounds of the pouring rain against the roof would allow her to sleep somewhat peacefully. She resigned to her bed, turning off the lamp that sat atop her nightstand and voluntarily becoming shrouded in still darkness. As she drifted off into a quick, shallow, but much-needed slumber, she strained to focus on the hypnotic sounds of the weather, hoping to drown out the memories that still attempted to resurface. To some extent, she was successful as she had managed to fall asleep rather peacefully with a vacantly optimistic expression remaining on her features.

---

Every individual knick and cut could be consciously felt as Blake tumbled through the wild hedges and brambles that formed the side of this jagged hill. She was deafened once more, the storm having overtaken her position and bringing her to experience a pain that had never been felt prior or would never be paralleled again. She had escaped from the mob of counter-protesters at a cost far too great for her conscience to deal with. Because she had escaped, she was alone, broken, and scared while on an uncontrollable descent down the wounding slope of the hill on which the flaming factory still burned.

She would tumble many feet down this cliff, unable to grasp at anything or even attempt to slow her descent. The obstacles of varied sizes and the whims of unbiased reality were the only forces that could slow her descent. And they did, abruptly.

On a small, unfortunate landing did the younger Faunus land, bruised, cold, and with a sickening copper taste lingering in her mouth. Yet, she could not pay these worldly ailments any mind. Her spirit and mentality had taken the brunt of the fall. Even as the thunder shook this small platform, she could only remember the terrible wails of her compatriots and the ravenous shouts of the humans. She writhed in agony, not because of the numerous cuts left on her body but because of the haunting sounds that would not give her ears reprieve. Through the ringing and white noise, Blake's ears were able to pick up the faint cries of the other White Fang members still at the factory.

She hadn't come to fight and now she was the only one remaining as far as she knew. She was alone with no soul left to talk to—no one left to ask for assistance. The rain was freezing and her mind did not fare much better. Because she was alone and because she had been the sole survivor, she knew she would be recognized—merited—for what she had done at the factory. But what did she do? A searing amalgam of cowardice, incompetence, and insubordination was her own answer.

Thunder crashed once more, bringing the Faunus back to unbearable reality. The weather had been so strong that it physically shook any dislodged pebbles and stones that happened to be out in the open. Blake rolled onto her back, staring up at the grotesquely grey sky and the unrelenting precipitation that fell from it. Her breathing had become shallow and her mind could not keep from wandering. She could only try to make sense of the situation in her shock but she would never be successful in this endeavor. Lightning streaked across her vision but did not cause her to wince. What did cause her to react was the sound that followed the bolt.

She clamped her eyes shut at the sound. It was a gunshot that never occurred. It was a gate's lock being broken instantly. It was the deafening stampede of humanity running towards her. Thunder was all of these sounds in one to her mind now. No amount of rationalization or repression could deny this fact. A phobia was set in stone and her mind had resorted to a state of shock.

Remnant shook again, causing Blake to turn onto her side and curl into her knees. She was alone. The quick drops of rain stung at her already inflamed flesh. She was cold. The terrible sounds would not leave her alone. She was crying.

Fourteen is an age far too young to be expected to take leadership for a militant protest, control a crowd, and deal with such repercussions for failure. Blake did not see it this way. She saw this instance as both a monumental failure and a squandered opportunity. It had been a chance to take charge and make a difference for once. Her endeavors to add to the reasons for integrated workplaces for the Faunus people had seemed so practical and so possible, yet they were in vain. In this tumultuous world that she volunteered to be a part of, all she wanted right now was to go home. The thunder, however, thought otherwise.

She didn't want to move, but did so instinctively despite her best efforts to remain stationary and afraid. She crawled so piteously towards the hill, hoping to find some sort of respite. As yet another clap of thunder hammered the landscape, she found herself backed up against a low, rock overhang in the hillside. She was safe for now—or so she thought. The storm sounded again, bringing with it a deluge of new irrationalities.

From where she sat huddled against the stone wall, she could only just see the distant, small town through the veil of torrential rain. She needed to see the town at this moment—she needed to see something concrete and undeniably based in reality. Unfortunately, this state that could have allowed for recovery to occur began to inhibit it instead. The overhang disappeared, causing Blake to look up exasperatedly at the unhindered rain. When she looked back to the town, she found that no longer was she on the side of a hill but on top of a cliff. She knew this cliff and the marble bench that sat atop it and this was absolutely disquieting.

The grey sky became black and that small, chimney-dotted town grew to a size rationally incomparable. Blake cupped her Faunus ears as thunder rang out. After opening her eyes from her unintended wince, she saw Vale in the distance. Vale—the city she had wanted to be and the place where she could find a home of sorts—was now completely dark, vacant, and able to exponentially increase the moans and wails that Blake heard from her fallen White Fang comrades. When she looked behind herself, she found a horrific version of Beacon Academy. All of it, from spire to pond, was shrouded in a silhouette of which seemed to be impossible due to the lack of any visible light source. There didn't look to be any windows; if there were any, whatever lights existed in the rooms had been extinguished. It was sickening to see this place that had been founded on a doctrine of justice for all creatures of Dust be subverted by the darkness of the mind. Whether or not it was Blake's mind or the collective minds of a malevolent crowd that was this described darkness, she could not be sure.

She did not care which entity caused her distorted vision, for her attention was focused on something she thought she heard. A slight shift in tonality of a few of the wails caught her attention. A long, loud roar of thunder broke her attention for a moment. However, by the time it ceased, there was no mistaking that she had heard something very different and very disturbing.

Ruby and Weiss were somewhere in pain. Wherever they were would be the same place the groans of the fallen members of the White Fang protest came from. She tried to call out to them, to ask where they were, but found that she could not speak. Her expression was stuck in a wicked parody of her normal stoic demeanor. No matter how hard she tried, she could not convey any sense of emotion other than the slow dripping of tears that were lost anyways amongst the falling rain. The two began chanting her name in much the same way the White Fang members had been.

Had she caused them pain as well? She had warred with the Schnee family for too many years; perhaps she had managed to personally injure Weiss. And Ruby—the innocent, idealistic girl had been nothing but kind to her and all she could manage to do in return was avoid her.

All thoughts ceased with a new voice crying out in pain.

Now Blake wanted to scream. Yang was in trouble; she just knew it. She couldn't tell where her partner was and she needed to help her. She couldn't let Yang of all people become another victim to her incompetence and cowardice. Tears flowed faster as the screams became louder. She could not speak, so she had to search. Blake stood from the bench, braving the storm and the amplified gravity which begged her to stay in her seat. The thunder had become a constant, deafening growl but Blake could deal without her sense of hearing. It only let her know how much pain Yang must be in. She only needed her eyes to search and as she walked towards the edge of the cliff, she peered down into the abyss of darkness. She needed to find Yang.

In a final, titanic show of nature's power, a clap of thunder rattled the sisters' home and caused Blake to awaken in a cold sweat. The first thing that she realized when she came back into cognizance was that her breathing was rapid and shallow. Focusing on a stationary point on the ceiling, she began taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down. Eventually, she was able to breathe easily enough that she could afford to pay attention to other attributes of her shaken state. She quickly realized that she was alone—Yang was not there and she could no longer hear her crying out in pain. She noticed that she was cold, or at least she was shivering uncontrollably. Finally, she felt an odd sensation hit her human ear and when she touched whatever it was with her hand, she found that she had been crying.

Blake sat up in her bed, trying to come to terms with the fact that what she had seen was only a dream. Despite it being some time during the night, a soft light came in through the curtained windows of her room. She figured that the rain that continued to fall was reflecting some sort of light source into her room. She didn't know what the light source was, but she needed to try to think of what it could be if only so she could get her mind away from the dream.

Unfortunately, instead of figuring out the source of the light, she simply sat still with her hands folded in her lap as she gazed vacantly into nothingness. She was bewildered, yes, but even that word doesn't begin cover the amount of shock she was being subjected to at this moment. The cries of her teammates—especially Yang's—sounded all too real to her. How could her unconscious mind even come close to replicating sounds that she had never heard before? Yang had never cried out in pain—at least, never around her. The fact that she had heard something impossible and yet sounded so real made her feel ill for a moment.

There was no more thunder, not any more. A gentle rainstorm was all that remained of the storm system that had awakened her and altered her sleep. While the injuries had long since healed, she could still feel the effects of the rapid descent down the hill. She was worried, anxious, and thoroughly uncomfortable for a reason she could not fully comprehend. From this, she knew that she was scared, something she had not been for a long time. However, she was not scared for herself. She was scared for her blissfully young and innocent leader; her promising, skillful, and level-headed teammate; and, most of all, her infinitely important girlfriend. And even worse, she was still afraid for the White Fang. Even though she had separated herself from the organization, she couldn't help but feel sorrow for their transformation into a militant group.

She made a conscious effort to try to feel her surroundings so that she could be sure that a tactile sensation grounded her in reality. She gripped her sheets tighter than she had intended. She knew that these linens which she felt and the tears that ran down her cheeks were very real; she knew that the world she inhabited now was very real.

Blake reasoned that she should be happy in the knowledge that her teammates were safe and unaffected by her previous act of cowardice, but she cried nonetheless. She knew that what had happened in the past could not be changed and she knew that she was doing her best to prevent a similar event from happening, but the fact that she was able to so intricately imagine the screams of her teammates was terrifying.

These memories could not be ignored, no matter how hard Blake tried to focus on the sound of falling rain. She had tried to go back to sleep by forcing her eyes shut and suppressing any and all thoughts that could come to mind. Visions of the factory, the shrouded city of Vale, and her fallen comrades presented themselves as her eyes closed. The wails and cries of teammates and former associates alike destroyed any chance of quiet slumber that she could possibly hope for. When she opened her eyes, these stimuli ceased, leaving her painfully awake in a cold, empty, and foreign room. The thought alone of her teammates being in trouble due to her actions tore away at her usually calm demeanor. The possibility of Yang being in pain was far too crippling to ignore. She had to know if she was all right.

Through her bleary vision, Blake was able to see the faintly lit numbers on her nightstand's clock. It was almost three in the morning and this disappointed her. She knew it was late, but she needed to know for sure that Yang was safe.

Blake took the sheets that restrained her and pulled them off of herself, becoming subject to the chilling effects of air conditioning on an already cold sweat. Standing proved to be a challenging task at first with her legs not wanting to cooperate with her intended actions. She felt faint and thusly wanted to return to her bed but she knew that doing so would only bring about the memories once more.

The dull crunching of her own footsteps on the carpeted floor was incredibly awkward to her. While she knew that the other members of her team lacked the enhanced hearing that she had been born with, she felt that even the smallest sounds could disturb their sleep. For a person so used to stealth through efficient speed, Blake found the slow movement of her room's doorknob to be painfully noisy. Fortunately, this pain was tolerable and welcomed in relation to the anguish caused by her memories.

As she stepped into the dark hallway, Blake could hear the muted sounds of restful breathing coming from the occupants of the room to her right. She closed her eyes in lieu of sighing in relief. Ruby and Weiss were safe. Yet still, she was not willing to let go of the idea that what she had experienced was more than a dream. While the two were valued teammates, they were secondary to the importance she had assigned to Yang. She who had become a prominent figure in her life in such a small amount of time was beyond the thin obstacle of wood, hopefully safe.

What if it really was too late to bother her? The pain in her voice had sounded so visceral. Ruby and Weiss were all right; why couldn't it be reasoned that she would be as well? Blake needed to know. But what if her dream was only a simple nightmare? Would she be bothering Yang over something relatively inconsequential?

Blake then remembered what Yang had told her before inviting her to the fire and before wishing her goodnight.

Straining to keep the metallic whining of the door's hinges from being too noticeable, Blake slowly managed to peer into her partner's room. The layout, the furniture, and everything that wasn't her girlfriend did not matter to her. Her vision was instantly trained on a form that lay on its side and she knew it to be Yang. She could see the subtle rise and fall of her arm from time to time, so she knew that she was only asleep. The relief felt in this sight was enough to call for an audible sigh of relief.

Relieved though she was, Blake did not want to leave. Seeing that her girlfriend was safe made it easier for her to breathe and drowned out the oppressive memories. She simply stared at the immobile form for a few seconds before she hesitantly whispered, "Yang?" There was no logical reason for her to wake Yang, she just needed to hear her voice and know for certain that she was all right. "Yang?" She had been prepared to call her name a few times with the knowledge that her partner had a reputation for being a heavy sleeper.

A wonderfully alive sound came from the bed's sheets as the form became tangled in them to look towards the door frame. "Blake?" came the slurred, groggy voice of the room's occupant. She sounded tired and Blake immediately felt that she had made the wrong decision. Yang shifted so she could get a better look at the timid figure that peeked through the small gap in the door frame. "Blake, what's wrong?" She was rubbing her eyes, seemingly trying to wake herself up.

Blake was at a loss for words. It really had been a dream and she had been too dense to believe it. She wanted to say something—perhaps an apology for her intrusion—but the words could not come to her. This momentary lapse in speech did not dissuade her from attempting to say something anyways. "Nothing. Just…" She never finished the sentence, simply choosing to allow silence to settle between the two for many long seconds.

It wasn't until Yang spoke again that Blake was able to move. "Blake? Is everything all right?" The answer was no, but instead of saying this, Blake entered the room, not bothering to close the door on her way in. "Blake, are you crying?" She knew the blonde could not see in the dark, so she had to wonder how she had noticed this fact. It didn't take her too long to realize that she had been unintentionally sniffling. The moment she stopped this sound, Yang sat up in her bed, apparently awake and alert. "Blake," she began softly, "did you have a bad dream?"

"Bad" was an understatement for the horror she had felt being trapped with those sounds. Yang, having exhausted her repertoire of calming methods that would normally used on her girlfriend, had resorted to tactics proven over time to deal with a distressed Ruby. Blake could guess that this was the case due to the phrasing of the lattermost question's phrasing similar to something one would ask a child. Yet she could not argue that she wasn't a child in this moment. She couldn't reply verbally, a small nod conveying the scope of how "bad" her dream was.

Instantly, the sheets and covers on the bed were thrown out of the way so that Yang could spring to her feet and rush over to Blake. The Faunus was quickly lost in a warm embrace that she could not yet return. Yang didn't say anything, choosing to merely hold her as close as possible. Blake felt her feet moving without her conscious effort and before she knew it, she was seated on Yang's bed while being kept in a tight embrace from the side. In her tired and distraught state, she could only now begin to hear Yang's repeated assurance of, "Don't worry. I'm right here."

She hugged back tightly. If Blake had any say in the matter, Yang would always be there. She felt the need to cling to her partner so that any possibility of one leaving the other became impossible. She felt a hand running up and down her back. The room was still and she had become relaxed.

The combination of Yang's body heat, the soothing sensation of the hand on her back, and the gentle sound of the rain caused Blake's hold to weaken but not relent. However, Yang must have felt this as she stopped her motions before saying, "It's getting late. Let me help get you back to your room so you can get some rest."

Blake shook her head and tightened the hold she had on Yang. She didn't want to be alone. Not anymore. She had been alone for far too long and now she needed to know that Yang would stay safe. Yet she was too embarrassed by the alternative she wanted to suggest, causing her to try to convey the message through the head shake and tightened grip. Perceptive as ever, Yang whispered, "All right, just give me a second." She then pulled away from the hug, giving Blake a reassuring smile before standing. Without her partner to hold onto, Blake found herself cold and at a loss for what to do. That is, she had been at a loss for words before she looked at the nearby, standing form of Yang who whispered, "Just lay down. I'll take care of everything."

Blake dutifully brought her legs onto the bed, finding this mattress to be far warmer than her own in an incredibly comfortable way. As she adjusted to this sensation, she felt the previously discarded linens placed overtop herself. Looking to the culprit, she found the mane of golden hair moving to and closing the door before returning to the opposite side of the bed.

Yang gracefully slid into her bed. As she did so, Blake was not at all ashamed for the instantaneous reaction of feebly grasping onto her. Thankfully, Yang did not remark on this action, choosing instead to continue where she left off on rubbing her back.

The inexplicable feeling of comfort that Blake found from forcing herself to be as close as possible to her girlfriend was able to dry her tears entirely. To make sure that Yang wasn't going anywhere, she had locked one of the blonde's legs in place with both of her own, she used her arms to create a tight hold around her back, and she had her ear resting against her chest. She wanted to replace the screams and wails with peaceful sounds of Yang. These sounds came in the form of a fairly rapid heartbeat that was clearly audible and would be easy to keep track of. Yang was safe.

She felt a light, quick chuckle from Yang. "We're just a couple of hot messes, aren't we?" Blake agreed wholeheartedly through a rueful smile. They both had their memories that were able to bring such indomitable warriors to their knees—that were able to shatter their façades of normalcy into millions of pieces. But when they came together, it was easier to pick up the pieces. Yang stopped rubbing her back to pull her closer. Her head rested atop Blake's as she whispered, "Good night, kitten." But Blake was already asleep with a tranquil smile on her face and tears of joy having only started to accumulate at the corners of her eyes. She was safe.

---

During the group's conversation by the fire, I made an attempt to limit Blake's dialogue entirely, making it so that the other three members of the team could have the narration focused on their conversation. I felt that in this way, Blake's temporary muteness could act as both relaxation and an attempt at mental and emotional recovery. Honestly, I had to keep reminding myself of this self-imposed challenge and removed quite a few of Blake's interjections that made it into the story due to my apparent obliviousness. While the fact that I couldn't allow my protagonist to speak was, at times, inopportune, the amount of fun I had writing the banter between Yang and Weiss more than made up for this.

I also took a bit of liberty in how Blake's past played out. The only two instances in canon that have expressly shown Blake involved with the White Fang were in the Black Trailer and the flashback in Episode 16 that shows Blake as more or less of a child protesting with the White Fang. I figured that in the Black Trailer, Blake was either 16 or 17 years of age as she did not look too different from how she does in the series. Between the young age of the canon flashback and the older age of the trailer, I assumed that she stayed with the White Fang for the time between those two events. The flashbacks that I included were at a young enough age to where she was still convinced that the White Fang was perennially correct and old enough to feel emotional anguish—a pain that could start her objection to the actions of the White Fang.

In these flashbacks that I included, I had to change the diction choice, tone, and narrator style to fit the scenes. I hope the transition between the rest of the story and those scenes was not too jarring.

And now for the important part of this author's note.

It is with a heavy heart that I must say that I will be unable to post a chapter every week from now. This is not an announcement of a hiatus by any means. The reason for this announcement is due to my inability to keep up with my own schedule. I knew that this would happen eventually with a chapter taking roughly 1.5 weeks to complete, but I didn't expect it to be this soon. I am sincerely sorry.

This does not mean that I am cancelling, postponing, or moving away from Valence—those notions are contradictory to my desires. I am simply doing away with the weekly schedule as I will be unable to create a chapter of the same quality in such a time frame. Instead, I will post chapters as they become complete and go through a three-day revision process. This means that a chapter could come out on any day of the week but at longer intervals between. I am sorry for the inconvenience, but I'd rather not release a haphazard chapter that was rushed through to meet a weekly deadline. Instead, I will try my best to get them completed quickly, but I will never sacrifice chapter quality for word quantity.

And for those of you who may worry that my promise to continue to work is an empty one, know this: writing, for me, is more than a hobby. I have stopped watching television, playing video games, and even reading just so I can write more. I have come to enjoy writing more than most entertainment mediums in existence. Valence is my top priority in terms of emotional attachment and while side projects with deadlines may interfere from time to time, I devote any and all free time I have to writing this story. I am sorry that I am unable to keep up my regular upload pace—truly, I am.

If I was to give an estimate of when the next chapter will come out, I would say two weeks as a minimum and a month as a maximum. I will do my best to give updates on my progress on my Tumblr.

Once again, I am sincerely sorry. Thank you for reading and giving your support. I feel as though I have let all of you down, but I intend to make it up over time with consistent quality in chapters. I hope I haven't let anyone down.

Stay safe and stay tuned.