The slow, rhythmic ticking of the second hand on the wall clock was the only noise that dared to break the silence in the hospital room as Sun and Blake waited together quietly. The pair sat next to each other in chairs against the wall, while Blake leaned her head to rest upon Sun's shoulder. Both of them watched Ilia, who lay prone on the bed before them, with mixed emotions. Her left arm had been put into a cast, an I.V. was hooked up to the back of her opposite hand, and an oxygen mask covered most of her face as she slept.

Blake shifted slightly as she took Sun's undamaged hand in her own.

"Do you… want to talk, yet? You didn't sound good, when you called."

The corner of Sun's mouth twitched slightly as he kept his focus on Ilia and the numbers on the monitor beside the bed.

"…no. There's no point, yet. It's just going to get worse, and I have a lot I need to do."

Blake frowned, and traced the hand upward from Sun's lap and onto his bare chest.

"Sun… waiting for the ideal moment is just going to make you more frustrated. I'm here for you, and I want to know what happened in the forest… but I'm also not going to force you, if you're not ready," Blake finished with a sigh.

"I'm not," Sun replied. "I… have to slow down and get my thoughts in order, so things don't… come out wrong. That, and like I said, there's a lot to be done. I want to talk to Team RWBY together, I need to go and see Sage, and we need to figure things out with Kali in terms of where to go from here."

Blake took a deep breath as she stood, and folded her arms. "I have no idea what's going on with my team. It has something to do with a relic, or… relics, and it looks like things are a lot more complicated than we thought. When you're ready, we'll go together and discuss it with them."

Sun looked up at Blake with heavy, bloodshot eyes, and spoke in a deadpan voice. "When I said 'together', I meant you, me, Ilia, and Neptune. I'm not going anywhere until Ilia wakes up and I know she's okay."

"It's been a day, Sun. She's going to need time, based on what the doctors said, and it's time we might not have. Mom will watch her while we meet with RWBY, after she's done dealing with Claw affairs. I've talked to my team a little, but not enough to really get any details. There's… also the problem with Yang…" Blake explained as she began to pace.

"Fuck Yang," Sun said almost immediately. Blake gave him a worried look, but didn't bother to protest. Sun ran his hands through his hair as he rested his elbows upon his knees and stared down at the floor. The strands had become greasy, wild, and dirty over time to the point of feeling totally unfamiliar.

"…time we don't have," Sun mumbled after an uncomfortable silence. "What, you want to leave Ilia here, and just go off with the others?"

"No!" Blake shot back without hesitation. "No, we're… we're not going to leave Ilia behind. We all have things that need to get done before RWBY and JNR make their next move, and I'm not letting them leave before we're ready, or without us in tow. That being said, we need to keep communication open. We can't just hole up in here and expect them to wait on us without knowing what's happening."

Sun's expression pulled into a frown.

"…whatever. Just… whatever. I don't know what to do. I'm… scared, Blake. I don't say that lightly."

Blake's ears collapsed as her face fell. "What are you scared of…?"

Sun took a while to reply, though Blake waited patiently. "Everything. The future, Ilia not waking up… myself. From what little you've told me about what happened inside of Haven, it seems like there are things bigger than us in play, and I don't know if w-"

"Stop," Blake interjected. She walked over to Sun and knelt, before taking both of his hands in her own. "Even if this isn't going to be 'us talking', I want you to listen to one, simple thing. Sun, there is nothing bigger than us. Period. I love you, and no matter what's going on inside that head of yours, that fact isn't going to change. I'm not going anywhere without you, and we come first, now. I need you, and you need me. Without that as our foundation, we have nothing."

Sun raised his weary eyes to meet Blake's, and had trouble fighting back a small smile. A light fluttering sensation broke through the weighty hopelessness in his chest, and for the first time in a while, he felt something other than despair.

"…you're my world, Blake. I'll be ready soon, but… I need time. If she's not awake by tomorrow, we'll work something out, okay? You know I won't be able to rest or focus on anything else while this is still fresh. It's just... how I am," Sun finished.

"I know, and I love that about you. You care, more intensely than anyone else I've ever met." Blake leaned forward and cupped Sun's cheek as she gave him a soft, tender kiss. "Do you want some time alone? I can go and check in on Mom, and I'll understand if you do."

Sun's eyes flicked downward, before rising again to meet Blake's.

"…I think I do, yeah. Sorry."

Blake shook her head, and gave Sun one more kiss before standing. "Don't be sorry. I've been there, and you did the same for me. Just… try to rest, soon? Please? You really need to shower, eat, and get some sleep. It's been almost a full day, and the night before that, we were still in Kuo Kuana…"

"I don't understand how you've slept at all," Sun offered as he leaned back into the chair.

"I just lay back, close my eyes, and think about you," Blake said as she made her way to the door. "I'll be back tonight, and I want to see you showered and changed, at least. Start taking care of yourself again, before I do it for you."

Sun shook his head, and stood from his chair.

"…alright."

"Thank you. Call me if anything changes," Blake said before giving Sun a small wave and slipping out of the room.

Sun looked up at the clock once again as the ticking filled the void left by Blake's absence. He let out an annoyed groan and cracked his neck before walking slowly to the bathroom inside of Ilia's suite. Sun flicked on the lights as he entered the room, closed and locked the door, and then walked up to the mirror to look himself over.

The faunus staring back was different enough from what Sun expected to see that he found himself surprised by his own reflection. A thick, padded bandage was taped firmly over his broken nose, and another bandage covered the wound at the base of his hairline. Short, visible patches of stubble had formed a light chinstrap around his jawline, and his hair looked even worse than he had imagined it might. Dark circles marred the flesh under his eyes, and the whites themselves were almost pink with bloodshot veins.

Sun bit his lip and looked down as he braced his hands along the rim of the sink, both embarrassed and worried by the sight. He licked his lips and found them uncomfortably chapped and dry, before shaking his head.

"Blake's right. Not that that's unusual," he mumbled to himself. "And I need a new shirt. Again."

Sun busied himself with undoing the clasp of Ghira's belt, and then let his dirty cargo shorts fall to the floor. He halfheartedly removed his boxers and kicked them off as well, before rolling his socks off his feet and into a messy ball. Slowly and carefully, he peeled the large bandage off his side and threw it in the trashcan, before checking himself over in the mirror once again from a distance. A nasty cut was in the process of healing along the right side of his torso, and he could feel the painful reminder of Adam's blade every time he twisted and moved.

Though he felt compelled to look his body over more closely for other damage, Sun tore his gaze from the glass and pulled back the shower door before gathering up the various bottles and cloths to take care of himself. With one last, heavy sigh, he turned the water on and got to work.

Sun was in the process of drying off one of his legs when he heard the creak of the door to Ilia's room. Whoever had entered was careful to close it slowly, before speaking in a small voice that Sun could barely hear through the bathroom door.

"Hello? Sun…?"

Somehow, the voice seemed both familiar and not, as though he hadn't heard it in a very long time. Sun wracked his brain to try to figure out who it belonged to, before he gave up entirely as he came up with nothing but fog and thoughts of how badly he just wanted to sleep. Sun hastened his efforts at drying himself before wrapping the towel around his waist as a makeshift skirt and heading for the door. He unlocked the portal and gave the knob a twist, before stepping into Ilia's room proper and finding the intruder standing over her bed.

Weiss Schnee turned to look at Sun, and seemed surprised by his appearance. She wore a muted grey dress that faded to an ombre of white trim along the bottom, along with her signature hair ornament and heels. In her hands was a cardboard coffee carrier with two styrofoam cups.

"Sun? Are you… alright? Do you need help with your bandages…?" Weiss asked, her voice incredibly tense and lacking all the confidence that Sun had come to expect from her. He hiked a brow in response, and shook his head.

"…I look that bad, huh? I'm… good. Well, as good as I'm gonna get, right now. It's nice to see you, Weiss," Sun offered with a small smile. Though it was all he could muster, the genuine warmth intended carried through the gesture. Weiss tried to return it, but found herself unable to manage.

"Is it?" she asked, as she slowly approached him.

"What do you mean? Of course it is," Sun replied, confused.

It was Weiss' turned to look at the floor as she closed the distance between them. "I just… wasn't very pleasant to you, at Beacon. That's actually one of the many reasons I'm here- to apologize. Formally," she added as she looked back up at Sun. His brow only climbed higher as he looked her over, and shook his head.

"Weiss… I've been stabbed, slashed, burned with both fire and electricity, used as a hostage, emotionally manipulated, lied to, had my scroll stolen, and seen two people I think of as family get hurt in the last two months. That's about the last thing on my mind, and really not a big deal. We're cool."

Weiss sighed heavily in reply, and her tone regained a bit of its conviction. "Even so, that doesn't make it right. I was… incredibly ignorant. Shamefully so. You and Blake helped to open my eyes, as well as… other, more recent things. So, please, consider this the start of a new chapter between us. I'd like to try again."

Sun found himself growing frustrated as Weiss spoke, and took a few deep breaths as he reminded himself that she meant well. "Yeah, sure. That'd be good. I could use all the friends I can get, right now."

"It certainly seems like it," Weiss replied. "I… brought you coffee? I have no idea if you drink it, but Neptune told me you've been standing vigil here for going on 24 hours, with no intent to stop. It was the least I could do to try to help."

Sun watched with curiosity as Weiss pulled one of the sytrofoam containers from the carrier and offered it to him. For whatever reason, Sun tried his best to accept the gift in a natural way that seemed fitting of someone who did indeed appreciate coffee, instead of a faunus who had never touched it in his life.

"…thanks. I could definitely use it, right about now. I'm not sure if I could fall asleep on the spot, or if I'll never sleep again, at this point."

"I know the feeling," Weiss offered as she took her own cup and deposited the carrier upon a nearby table. "I could watch her for a few hours, if you'd like to try to get some sleep?"

Sun let his gaze drift once again to Ilia as he took a long, slow sip. The steaming liquid did serve to wake him up a bit, though he utterly hated the taste.

"…no. I need to be here. I need to make sure she's okay."

"Ilia, is it?" Weiss asked. Sun nodded slowly, and looked back to Weiss. "Tell me about her?"

Sun took another long sip, and moved to sit back in his usual chair. He pulled gently at the towel around his legs to make sure that he was fully covered, as Weiss looked away with a small blush.

"She's… my little sis. Not by blood, or anything, but… I'd do anything for her. Ilia's one of Blake's old friends, but they had a huge falling out when Blake left the Fang. We were on opposite sides for a while, but once I got to know her… we got close. I don't know if that answers your question, but it's all true."

"It tells me exactly what I wanted to know," Weiss said as she walked over to sit in Blake's former seat. "Have you heard anything, yet? From the doctors, I mean."

Sun licked his lips once again, grateful for the moisture provided by the shower and the coffee. "A flaming tree fell on top of her, and she's… not exactly huge. It broke a few ribs, her left arm, and she's got a few burns. She should wake up within the next few days, but the internal damage… I mean, aura can only work so fast, and they're pumping her full of drugs."

Weiss hesitated for a moment, and brought her cup to her lips.

"…Jaune unlocked his semblance. He can amplify aura, and maybe speed up the healing process. He did it for me."

Suddenly, Sun felt much more awake. "He can? And… he did? What happened?"

Weiss scooted back in her seat just a bit to show off a section of the side of her dress that had been sewn back together.

"Cinder happened. I took a glass javelin to the side. If Jaune hadn't been there, I wouldn't be here."

Sun looked over at Ilia once again, and gripped his cup a little tighter as his blood began to boil.

"We're… just teens."

"I'm sorry?" Weiss asked.

"Why are we dealing with this? Why are we getting hurt, and suffering, and throwing ourselves into all of this? You never should have gone th-"

Sun tensed as he felt a frigid hand grip his forearm. The sensation was almost familiar, though the flesh was even colder than Blake's.

"Because that's the job. That's who we are, as huntsmen and huntresses. The fact that we're still standing, and Haven is still standing, means we're doing it well. You, especially, were built for this. Though we haven't gotten to talk much just yet, everything Blake's told me about you leads me to believe that I was completely wrong in my first impression. You're the kind of man that everyone else on Remnant is lucky to have protecting them. I pray that I can be as selfless, genuine, and passionate as you, someday. Don't let these setbacks get you down, Sun."

Sun jumped slightly as a soft knock came at the door. He and Weiss exchanged looks, before Sun made a move to get up. Weiss forcefully transferred her hand to his shoulder, and gave him a stern look.

"You are hurt. Allow me."

Weiss stood and made a quick gesture to realign her ponytail before walking briskly toward the door. With practiced grace, she pulled back on the knob and stepped aside to look over their visitor.

"…I… hello. May I help you?"

The confusion clear in Weiss' tone caused Sun to get up, and pins and needles took hold of his neck and back as he recognized the voice of the visitor.

"Weiss Schnee… of all the people to be here, right now…"

Weiss offered an unsure curtsey, and looked briefly to Sun.

"I'm sorry, do I know you…?"

Cinnamon's eyes blazed with fury as she looked down at the smaller woman and stepped past her, into the room.

"You will."

Author's Note:

No, there can't be a second of downtime without something going to shit. That's just now how Sun's life works.

One quick hit from the reviews- in terms of Blake's arc, this one might be drawing to a close... but she's about to get another really, really quickly, as will some other characters. Details on that will start to come to light next chapter. If it seems like things are starting to get too big to wrap up by the end of Volume 6... good. There's a reason for that, and we'll get there eventually.

Next update on Friday.

-RD