Sun wasn't sure how long they remained embraced upon the bed. Few words were exchanged in their time together, instead replaced only by the gentle sounds of early evening and even gentler squeezes and shifts. Over time, Blake changed position to take up the place of little spoon, and Sun was more than happy to cradle against her back with his arms around her and her hands atop his. He took one last inhale of her raven-colored hair, and stole a glance out the window near the balcony door. The sky was growing dark, and the first stars were barely visible as dim points over the horizon.

"Hey, Blake… how long d'you think we've been here? Your dad ordered me to explain what's going on tonight, and I kinda… don't want him upset with me."

Blake rubbed her thumb atop the back of one of Sun's hand, and tightened her grip upon it.

"I don't know. It feels like days and minutes, at the same time." Blake let out a wistful sigh as she shifted her body to face him, while remaining close. Sun loosened his grip to allow her to turn, and Blake ended up with her hands clasped to his as their eyes met. "Dad's going to have a fit if we just stay in here, but I don't want to be alone. Go to him, and I'll meet you in your room afterward?"

Sun fought back the urge to agree immediately, though it took some serious effort. "Is that really a chance you want to take? He's already fuming that I was in your room with the door closed."

"And repetition will help him get used to it. He's got my best interest in mind, but he also doesn't know what I need right now. He barely knows me, anymore. I started to bridge the gap a little more this morning, but it's going to take time. He's a good guy, underneath the grumbling and threats. Just don't back down, and he'll warm up to you. Probably," Blake finished.

"Probably? Considering he could palm and probably crush my head, that isn't much comfort," Sun retorted.

"Well, nothing's ever easy, is it?" Blake let her hands slip from Sun's, and in the absence of her icy skin, he somehow began to feel colder. He squeezed his fingers into his palms as he moved to sit up, already missing the sensation of her touch.

"Not when it comes to situations like this, no." Sun pushed his palms down into the mattress and vaulted to stand. He lifted his arms high above his head in a lengthy stretch with a noise of effort, and felt a cold hand creep up to his side from under his shirt. With a hint of confusion, he looked down to see Blake sitting up beside him and caressing his side.

"You'll do fine. After all… you managed to convince me to keep you around, after I practically threw you overboard for following me halfway around the world. Dad's nothing, in comparison."

Sun snaked his hand downward to pat the top of Blake's, before he moved for the door while rolling his neck. "At least I know where you got it from. See you in a bit?"

Blake nodded, and Sun pushed his way through the door before turning to push it closed behind himself.

"Two hours," a low, unsatisfied voice rumbled from behind Sun. He felt the light dusting of hair upon his neck stand on end as the growl came again. "A bit more than two hours, in fact."

Ghira stood against the wall, unmoved from his previous position outside of Blake's bedroom. As Sun turned to look him over, he was both shocked and utterly unsurprised that the Belladonna patriarch had indeed stayed close for the duration.

"I'm sorry, sir. It was impo-"

"Do not apologize. You told me that it was a situation you needed to deal with personally. You need only apologize if that was a lie. Now, your job is to convince me that it was not. Let us hope that you succeed." Ghira turned and began to walk through the darkened halls, and Sun jogged forward to match his pace.

"I lost my scroll at the market. I have a feeling it was lifted out of my back pocket, while I was looking through the stalls." Sun slowed his pace as he caught up, and worked to make a mental map of the way between Blake's room and what he assumed would soon be Ghira's office.

"…was this before, or after my daughter began receiving messages that caused her to leave our conversation earlier today?" Ghira inquired with a bit of interest in his voice.

"Before. That's… actually what started this whole thing. Someone started sending her things using my scroll, and they were… uh… a little dirty." Sun chanced a look up at Ghira, and found the elder male looking down at him as they walked.

"…do you have any idea who could be responsible?" Ghira asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Not really, no. Not with any solid proof. I met someone at the market, and I thought it could've been her, but… it could've been anyone." Sun's mind ran through Ilia's words once again, and he found that he was still suspicious of her, despite her insistence of innocence. Suddenly, Sun was struck by a pleasant thought. "…you actually believe me?"

Ghira grunted as he pushed his massive palm into the door that Sun had seen the previous evening. The portal was emblazoned with the Belladonna emblem, and the wood swung open to reveal Ghira's office once again. The paperwork atop the desk had barely gone down in size, and the papers were all arranged in neat piles. The rest of the floor space was taken up with foliage, much like the rest of the house, and plush, velvet-covered furniture in deep purples and greens. Ghira moved to sit upon a couch, and Sun took up residence upon its twin, across from him.

"Your story adds up, given the timing of events. As much as I would like to have something to hold over you, I will not do so unfairly." Ghira gestured toward a shelf on the nearby wall- between two other shelves of books was one packed tightly with bottles of various colored glass. "What is your preferred alcohol?"

Sun tensed as he tried to determine Ghira's intentions, before defaulting to honesty. "I don't drink."

"Good." Ghira retorted, while folding his arms. "You're not of age, to begin with."

Sun merely offered a slow nod, unsure of what to say. He decided to see where the situation would go if he didn't carry the conversation for once, and leaned back into the cushions of the couch. Sun rested an arm along the back of it, and propped one foot atop the knee of his other leg as he waited, tail lightly dusting the wooden floor in silence. After what seemed like an eternity, Ghira finally broke and shifted in his seat.

"…so. What exactly went on that required your personal attention? Surely, Kali and I could have consoled her."

As though it was planned, a soft knock came at the door of the office. Without waiting for a reply, Kali poked her head through the doorway and smirked at the sight of Sun.

"Oh," she began with a sultry tone. "I had a feeling you wouldn't be alone, but I expected Blake. Did you find her, Ghira? Is everything alright?"

Ghira unfolded his arms and let his forearms rest awkwardly upon his thighs as he turned to face his wife. His tone softened to an almost unrecognizable degree as she slipped into the room and began to approach, carrying a tray with a jade teapot and four matching cups.

"…darling," he offered. Sun fought back the urge to snicker or even smirk, as he knew that to do so would incur Ghira's wrath later. "Blake was… well, our guest got to her first, and spent some time consoling her. Things seem well, at the moment."

Sun watched with interest as Kali sat the tray down, and wondered where she would elect to sit. Something about her mannerisms and suggestive glances made him half expect that she would plant herself next to him, but she instead sat down next to her husband and snaked an arm around his own.

"Good. How is she doing, Sun?" she asked, while looking him over.

"Not great, but better. Someone's using my scroll to send her things. Dirty things."

Kali's grin began to show teeth. "Ooh, how fun," she lilted.

"Kali!" Ghira said in protest, with an exasperated tone.

"What?" she replied. "If it was me, I'd simply try to out-dirty them. Why not have a little fun with it?"

"Because she's our daughter!" Ghira roared, and at that, Sun couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"It's not a bad idea, Mr. B. It might get them to stop."

"Just give her scroll to me, and I'll take care of it. It's been a while since I've had an opportunity to talk dirty to strangers." Kali's smile grew wider as she relished the idea.

Ghira chose to ignore her, and busied himself with taking a cup and pouring himself some tea. Kali gave him a pointed, venomous look, and a silent conversation occurred between the two of them. With a slow, hesitant movement, he outstretched the cup and offered it to Sun instead.

"…tea?" he asked, with a significant amount of pain in his voice. Kali looked rather pleased, and rubbed Ghira's shoulder at the gesture. Sun blinked in surprise, and gingerly accepted the cup.

"Uh, sure. Thanks, sir."

Kali giggled and rose a dainty hand to her mouth as she accepted the second cup from her husband. "Don't 'sir' him. He'll take it to heart, and start lording you over."

Ghira grunted as he finally got to pouring his own tea and pulled the cup toward himself. He took a sip and let out an exasperated sigh. "It is our home, Kali."

"And he is our guest, Ghira. Treat him like family. Blake certainly does."

Ghira's grip upon the teacup tightened, and Sun quietly sipped at his own while avoiding both sets of eyes upon him. An awkward silence fell over the room, and Sun decided to take a chance to break the tension.

"…this tea is still really good."

He earned a laugh from Kali for his efforts, and the ghost of a smirk from Ghira. Though he tried to hide it with his cup, Sun caught on and couldn't help but feel a little proud of himself for turning his earlier ineptitude around.

"So," Kali said, "Blake is improving a bit? What did you do to fix it?"

Sun's cheeks tinted pink as he took another sip. "We, uh… we mostly uh, we cuddled."

"Cuddled? For two hours?" Ghira balked, looking as though he had been told that he was being evicted from his home. Kali dug her nails into his arm in response, and drew a surprised hiss from him.

"Is that really so strange? They're young and emotional. Don't you remember how we used to be?" she inclined with a knowing wink. It was Ghira's turn to blush lightly, and he began to look as though he wanted to die for doing so in front of Sun. "And how we'll likely be tonight?" The blush deepened.

"Mr. B, I swear, we didn't do anything more than that. She just needed… someone to hold her, let her know everything's okay. You know?" Sun leaned down and poured himself more tea. "Besides, you were right outside the door. You would've heard if I was lying." He lifted the cup to his lips and took another drink. Ghira looked uneasy, but said nothing as he took another sip as well.

"That all sounds about right, unless they somehow had the quietest sex in the universe with you mere feet away," Kali interjected. Both males choked at the same time. Ghira had the sense to set his cup down, while Sun quite nearly spilled his as his chest heaved while he was subjected to an embarrassed coughing fit.

"Kali!"

"What? It's my job to call you out when you're being stupid. That's a big part of why our relationship works." She seemed entirely unbothered by the idea as she leaned her entire weight into Ghira's side. Sun set his cup down as well, and held his chest as he sputtered. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," he coughed. "You really don't have a filter, do you?"

"That's part of why I married her," Ghira cut in with an uncharacteristic smoothness. Sun quirked a brow as he finally got control of his throat. Slowly, he was beginning to see how the dynamics of their relationship worked. Even more slowly, he was starting to feel welcome in the Belladonna home, thanks in no small part to Kali breaking the tension.

"And the other reasons, he won't say in front of you. Maybe if you marry in, someday." After the relentless teasing from Kali, Ghira merely rolled his eyes and leaned back as he rested his gargantuan arm over Kali's shoulders.

"Thank you, honey, for so thoroughly derailing this conversation and nearly choking the boy to death."

"It's what I'm here for."

"So," Ghira followed up, "is Blake really going to be alright? You said something about unpleasant memories." He paused, and looked Sun over. Something about his gaze had changed, and become softer. "…Adam, I would assume?"

Sun nodded and sat up straight as the conversation took a more serious turn. "Yeah, Adam. She mentioned the name, but… I honestly don't really know much else, yet."

"He's a dick," Kali offered with uncharacteristic venom. Sun looked over to her only to find her eyes narrowed and full of hate. It was Ghira's turn to calm her down as he rolled her shoulder within his palm.

"In terms of his involvement with my daughter, you know as much as I do… though I knew him as a man. He once saved my life, though he took another to do it," Ghira said with a heavy sigh.

Sun looked between the pair of parents, confused.

"Wait… how did that happen? I thought the White Fang members in Kuo Kuana were a fringe group? What happened?"

Ghira grimaced and looked down to the table between them, deep in thought. Kali jumped into the conversation, though her tone struck Sun as odd- she had become more serious and reserved, rather than the sultry flirt he was used to hearing.

"My husband was once the leader of the White Fang. In the old days, when they were simply a passive resistance group rather than what they are now, Ghira was at the helm, calling the shots. Adam Taurus was one of his guards. Their caravan was attacked by a group of humans, looking to assassinate Ghira. Adam managed to stop them, but killed a human in the process. It wasn't our way. More and more of the White Fang began to gravitate toward that line of thinking, and so, Ghira stepped down and ceded control to Sienna, their current leader."

Sun looked to Ghira as he began to speak, and felt his stomach starting to knot.

"Violence begets violence. Too much of the White Fang was angry with the attempt on my life to listen to my words of warning, and so, I left to run Kuo Kuana instead. Adam Taurus was the start of violent resistance, and he accrued many followers who began to see his way as more effective than mine." Ghira paused. "Blake was among them."

The words seemed to pass through Sun as he tried to imagine Blake as a ruthless killer. Despite her cold nature and passionate feelings for the faunus, he just couldn't see her taking a life willingly. He tried his best to understand how she might have felt, but came up short.

"I… don't understand. How could Blake endorse something like that? She's been fighting to protect everyone for months, now."

Kali sighed. "An attempt was made at her father's life. Something like that changes people. How would you feel, in her situation?"

"About the same," Sun replied automatically, and a little too quickly. He stood, put his hands into his pockets, and looked toward the door, trying to avoid the couple's eyes as Ghira and Kali exchanged quizzical glances. The room went completely silent as his tail stopped moving, and it was nearly a full minute before Sun spoke again. "Hey, so I should probably get back to Blake. She was still pretty upset when I left. Is that cool?"

Ghira opened his mouth to protest, but silenced himself as Kali leaned against him and placed a palm against his shoulder. She gently pushed her hand along his pecs and began to entwine his chest hair around her fingers.

"Let him go, love. It's day two of their stay, and there will be plenty of time to talk more, later. Can't you see that Sun is uncomfortable?"

Sun personally thought that 'uncomfortable' was in the running for understatement of the year. His entire posture had changed as soon as the question about his parents had been asked, and he found that he didn't even have the energy to stand straight anymore. Ghira made a contemplative noise and offered the young man a nod.

"Go. Tomorrow morning, you and I have some… affairs to attend to."

"I'll be there," Sun replied with a deflated tone. He offered a halfhearted wave, and slipped out of the office. Kali watched him go with a hint of worry.

"…so. His parents are off limits, as a topic of conversation."

"So it would seem," Ghira replied. "Hm…"

Sun stood before the guest bedroom door and heaved a weary sigh. Once again, he tried his tactic of thinking of Blake to cheer himself up, but it rang hollow. All he saw was her face with tear trails, her ears flat, and her wounded heart. He knew that he had to be her rock, especially then, and grumbled to himself. He took a deep breath and forced a smile. All he could do was pray that it would be convincing enough for her.

As he pushed his way through the door, he found Blake sat upon the bed in her familiar nightie, sitting in much the same position as she had been the previous night with her scroll in hand. Her expression, however, was completely different, and her face and ears reflected the same troubling image that he had visualized only seconds before.

"Sun? We have a serious problem."

"What? What happened?" He approached her in a hurry, and Blake once again held out her scroll to him, but this time, she looked sick rather than angry.

"Take it. Look through it," she said in a shaky, uncertain voice.

He did, and his eyes widened as he began to scroll up through the messages with his finger. The one harassing Blake was no longer sending words- they were sending pictures. Impossible pictures.

The series started with a picture of Sun from behind, brushing his teeth in the attached bathroom. Somehow, the photographer wasn't visible in the mirror. The next few were of the same theme, but from slightly different angles. His heartbeat picked up as he realized that someone, somehow, had been in the room the night before.

The next series of pictures featured both himself and Blake- she was atop him, working through the heavenly massage during which he had fallen asleep. Several others simply showed the pair talking, and all were taken from the vantage point of the balcony. Sun looked over the scroll to meet Blake's eyes, and found that she looked exactly as he felt.

"Blake…" he began. "When you… left last night, did you open the balcony door? It was open when I woke up."

Blake shook her head. "I can't stand the cold, and I wouldn't have done that to you while you were laying atop the blankets shirtless."

Sun offered the scroll back to her with a shudder. "Then… someone was in this room, last night. How else would they have gotten these pictures? They must have taken them with their own scroll, sent them to mine, and sent them to you, now."

"Did you check your pictures anytime between last night and when you lost it earlier today?"

Sun hesitated, thinking back. He'd taken one of the tuna, but he hadn't checked through his own photos before that. Why would he?

"…you think they swiped my scroll and used it to take these while I wasn't looking, even before it got lifted in the marketplace?"

"It's possible. They… could still be in the house. I'm going to get my weapon." Blake slid toward the edge of the mattress, but Sun held out a hand to stop her.

"No. We go together, to be safe. Hold on a sec."

Sun began a slow walk to the bathroom door. As he reached it, he pushed against the wood and stepped inside, only to find something very out of place.

There upon the counter was the pink Passione shampoo bottle with the golden top, oozing a thick green liquid down into the sink from where a dagger had been plunged into the side. Atop the hilt of the knife was a small note written in hot pink pen and fancy script.

Both of you, leave Kuo Kuana. This is your only warning.

The note was capped off with a little heart, and signed 'Ilia'.

Sun hated when his gut feelings were right.

Author's Note:

Ever notice how in Like Morning Follows Night, it's alluded to that Sun has some of his own issues, yet in the show he's written as nearly flawless and as though nothing could ever really bother him?

Yeah. No.

Next update on Friday the 8th.

-RD