Chapter 7
After some time spent moping around their apartment, Yang gets tired of Blake's attitude and extends her an unexpected offer.
"You should come out to Junior's tonight. You could use the break."
"You know I don't really like drinking, and I'm not really in the mood."
"All the more reason that you should try to get up out of that Belladonna funk that you have going on."
"I'm not in a funk. I am sad and confused. Which is not the same."
"Just come by and have one drink. I will mix you whatever you want." Blake huffs out a breath of defeat.
"Fine." Yang perks up at Blake's concession. "But just one drink."
"Maybe two."
"Just one."
"Perfect. I am going to head out now, so go get ready and I will see you there in a little bit. Just come to the bar when you get there."
"Yeah, yeah." Blake grumbles as she makes her way back towards her bedroom to get ready while Yang leaves for the evening.
—
"Can, can you make another one of those for me?" Blake points to the empty glass that she just slid across the bar towards Yang. "Please?"
"What happened to 'just one' drink?"
Originally, Yang was in support of Blake coming out to Junior's, having a drink or two and letting some of those worries go. But now Blake was on drink five or so and things weren't exactly going according to Yang's plan.
"You're right." Blake's admittance garners Yang's attention. "I think I'll just head home. I don't need another one."
"You good? I can get you a car to take you home."
"No, no. It's fine. The walk will do me some good." Blake slides off the barstool and leaves some lien on the bar to pay for her drinks, and a tip for Yang. "I'll see you at home."
"Call me if you change your mind and need help getting home."
"No, Yang I'm fine. Thanks though."
As she makes her way down the sidewalk, it's a short walk home, but it is just enough time for Blake's intrusive thoughts to win. And before she knows it, she is calling Weiss, only to reach the same voicemail message that she has gotten for the last few weeks.
But that liquid courage provides a little too much courage and she sends Weiss a message, telling her that she was coming to her apartment.
The walk to Weiss' was a little further. But Blake was not deterred in the slightest. And by the time she makes it to stand in front of her door, a majority of the alcohol had been filtered from her veins and the same familiar sadness had reclaimed its place.
She looks down at the mat below her feet. It's plain and uninteresting. Which makes sense. When she looks back up at the door, there are tears in her eyes. She raises her fist, but can't bring herself to knock. Instead hanging her head in defeat.
"Why won't you talk to me, Weiss?" Her voice is shaky and small. "What did I do wrong?" She lets out a heavy sigh, trying to gain control over her emotions before she starts to cry. She places her palm against the door and leans forward until her forehead rests on it. And she says one last thing before she turns around and begins the walk home, resolving not to bother her anymore. "I miss you."
What she doesn't know is that Weiss hears everything, as she listens silently on the other side of the door.
Later that night, Weiss cries herself to sleep on her bed, knowing what she is doing hurts Blake.
—
The winter holiday comes and goes. Blake decided not to return home, opting to spend the three weeks alone in the apartment. Not feeling quite happy enough to enjoy the holidays with her family.
Weiss, on the other hand, went home to spend the holidays with her family. And had returned two days before classes were set to begin for the semester.
She should've known. That's the only thought going through Blake's mind when she steps into her anatomy and physiology class on the first day of the semester and sees familiar white hair sitting in the corner seat of the back row.
Weiss' aid gives Blake a polite wave as Blake settles into an empty chair towards the opposite end of the row as class begins.
As the professor calls roll, Weiss becomes intensely alert when she hears Blake's name.
Knowing that Blake was in the room with her but hadn't said anything to her felt terrible. But she knows she brought this upon herself.
The misery she had felt over her entire holiday break from being without Blake weighed her down like a ton of bricks. Being without hearing her voice, or the warmth she got just from holding her hand, it was awful.
Maybe Weiss had been wrong. Perhaps she made the wrong decision. But then again, she hadn't made the decision for herself. She made it for Blake.
When class ends, her aid returns to her side, and Weiss asks if Blake was still in the lecture hall. And when her aid tells her that Blake was already gone, Weiss feels the heaviness return to her chest, tenfold.
—
A week passes, and the flow of classes still hasn't managed to shake either one of the girls out of their respective funks.
Blake is miserable because Weiss basically ghosted her, while still physically appearing in her day to day life.
Weiss is miserable because she thinks she may have made the worst decision of her life.
As Blake walks out of the lecture hall, she gives a curt nod to Weiss' aid and heads back out into the light misty rain that has settled in over the campus.
As she moves to put in her headphones to distract her from the pain in her heart, she hears someone calling her name.
"Blake!" Blake knows the voice and feels it catch in a lump midway down her throat. She hangs her head and returns her headphones to their case. "Please wait!" Weiss pleads in Blake's direction as she stands a few yards in front of her aid, the misty rain catching on her hair and clothes.
Blake moves a few steps closer, to stand perpendicular to Weiss on the sidewalk they share, facing out towards an open lawn where students usually study or relax on sunnier days.
"What is it, Weiss?" The sound of Blake's voice rings hollow in Weiss' ears. It feels empty. The warmth that had always been behind it is missing.
"Would you, could we talk? Just you and I?" There is a sadness familiar to her own in Weiss' voice and it breaks Blake's resolve.
Blakes shoulders fall and her gaze with it. Everything inside of her just wants to walk up to Weiss and hold her, but she can't and she knows that.
"I, I have class now." She sees the defeat in Weiss' posture and she forces herself to continue. "But I would be free after three. My last lecture ends then. So if you would like to talk after that, I would be able to."
"We could meet at the cafe on campus at four o'clock?"
"I'll be there."
"Okay." Blake rocks back and forth on her heels.
"I'll see you later, Weiss."
"Have a good class."
"You too." Blake mumbles as she puts her headphones in her ears and steps back out into the rain to make her way to her next class. Not even bothering to pull her umbrella from her bag.
As she walks the rest of the way, a shiver runs through her body. But she attributes it to the cold rain drops that soak into her clothes as she makes her way across campus.
Blake had gone directly to the coffee shop after her last class. In an attempt to get some homework done while she waited for Weiss.
She had always made it a point to get somewhere earlier than Weiss, so that she never left Weiss waiting on her. Especially if it was raining.
So when she sees Klein hop out the driver's side of his car and hold the door for Weiss, she packs her books back into her bag and walks outside to go meet her, heart beating a little harder than she'd like.
"Hey." Blake says softly so that Weiss knows she is there.
"What time should I return to pick you up, Miss Schnee?" Klein asks politely, while giving Blake his usual nod to greet her.
"It's okay, Klein. I will make sure Weiss gets home safely." Blake interjects. And Klein nods in acknowledgment after receiving no rebuttal from Weiss, getting back into the car and leaving them to stand silently in the misty rain. "Do you want to go inside, for a coffee?"
"Would you mind if we just walked instead?"
"Okay." Blake waits, unsure about offering her hand for Weiss to hold. "Do you want to hold my arm?"
"A-As long as you are standing beside me, I should be fine."
They begin walking down the side walk and as they round the first corner along the street Blake feels like her heart can't take any more silence.
"Weiss, can you please say something?" The distress in Blake's voice pains Weiss.
She lets out a heavy breath and closes her eyes. She hears Blake turn in place to stop walking, moving to stand in front of her.
"I'm sorry." It's shaky. And it's the first thing Weiss can force from her mouth. Blake figures that's a good place for her to start. And clears her throat to let Weiss know she's listening. "I know you have no reason to even be here listening to me right now with what I did. But I had a reason. Even though I now know my reason was stupid and I couldn't possibly have made the right choice."
"What could your reason have possibly been to just leave me alone without saying anything? You basically faded out of my life and didn't even tell me why. And it hurt." The tears are beginning to fill Blake's eyes. "I don't understand what I did to make you do it. And I wanted to fix it, to make it right. But you just left without saying anything."
Blake wipes the tear from under her own eye as she watches them begin to fall from Weiss.' A light rain has started. The mist is slowly getting heavier and forming true droplets of water.
"I wanted you to be with someone that was good enough." As Weiss says it, she chokes back a sob. Blake's expression softens from the sound. "I know how difficult it is to be with someone like me. Always having to worry about things. Feeling like you need to take care of me. And you don't deserve that. You are so much more than that. Than being stuck with someone like me."
Blake shakes her head, as if to force what she heard from her ears.
"I was never stuck with you, Weiss. Being with you was never something that was difficult. It felt like breathing." The rain starts to steadily fall. Not heavy, but enough to need an umbrella. Which Blake removes from the side pocket of her backpack and opens to cover them. "And even if it were difficult, it shouldn't matter. Everyone can be difficult at times. And because I love everything about you, I don't care if you are the most difficult person on this earth. And not once did I ever feel like I had to take care of you. All I wanted was to be with you."
Weiss wraps her arms around herself as if she's still trying to shield herself from what Blake is saying.
"I don't see how you can love anything about someone like me. I feel as though I can't possibly be as good to you as you are to me. You are so careful, so respectful, just so amazing. And I don't think I'll ever be able to be that, and it's everything you deserve."
"Every day when I wake up, I feel like I'm not living anymore. I just exist. I see colors and I see people, but they don't have meaning. When I was with you, I felt whole. Like no matter how awful anything else ever was, I knew I would be able to make it if I had you with me. And then you were gone and I had nothing but the emptiness."
"I'm so sorry. I never should've left. I've felt absolutely awful for it every day. I'm so stupid." Weiss knows there's no way Blake will ever forgive her for what she's done. She turns to walk back the way they came, pulling out her phone to call Klein to pick her up.
"Please don't leave me behind twice." The voice she hears calling out to her reminds her of when they first met. Weiss stops walking but doesn't turn around. "This is the only thing I can't say I love about you, when you leave. Although the view is nice." Weiss can't hide the blush on her face. "Please don't leave me without you again, Weiss. Don't make me walk home without knowing if I can hold your hand in mine tomorrow. Or go to sleep every night missing the way you run your hands through my hair when you get bored. Or the way you try to kiss me but always miss, or how your hair smells like vanilla and lemons. Please don't make me miss you as much as I love you."
By the time Weiss has turned back around, and when she reaches her arms out for Blake, she's already there. The umbrella has fallen to the ground, for sake of Blake being able to hold onto Weiss with both hands. Blake just looks over Weiss' face as she rests their foreheads together.
"I won't leave you again, I promise." Weiss whispers as she places a light kiss to the side of Blake's nose.
Blake rubs her thumb over the scar below Weiss' left eye before looking into the light ice blue eyes she finds waiting for her.
"I love you." Blake says again quietly. Not so that Weiss will say it back, but just because it's true.
"I started to fall in love with you since the day you came to find me in the rain outside the library. I knew from that day that anytime it rained or if I were scared, I would be safe if I was with you." Thunder rumbles far off in the distance. "Would you like to walk me home in the rain right now?"
"As much as I do love the rain, getting struck by lightning isn't really my thing, so I would love to walk you home now." Blake can't help but let go of the first laugh she's had in weeks.
Blake picks the umbrella back up and takes Weiss' hand, leading them down the street towards Weiss' apartment.
—
The semester comes and goes.
Blake and Weiss decide to stick around for summer semester.
When Blake had offered for Yang to stick around with them and take a few classes she received a much anticipated response.
"Yeah hell to the absolute no." So needless to say, Yang had left and went back home to spend the summer with her dad and sister.
It's their weekly date night and they decide to keep it chill and just stay home and watch a movie at Weiss' apartment.
They're about three quarters of the way through the movie and Blake is laughing at something dumb on the screen while Weiss plays with Blake's hair. Weiss had chose to pay more attention to the sound of Blake's laughter than what was actually making her laugh.
She can feel Weiss' attention focused on her so she pulls her focus away from the movie.
"What's so interesting?" She asks through the end of her giggles from the scene she had just watched.
"I just love listening to you laugh." Weiss places a kiss below Blake's ear, making her eyes fall shut.
She feels Weiss' hand reach up her neck and cup her face, turning Blake's face towards her. Weiss places a slow kiss to Blake's lips. Blake reciprocates as Weiss slides her tongue across Blake's bottom lip. Moving her hands from the sides of her face, she grips onto the collar of Blake's shirt, pulling it to the side and almost off Blake's shoulder, as she moves to kiss down Blake's neck onto her now exposed collarbone.
Blake grips tightly at the bottom of Weiss' shirt and the top of her jeans at her hips. Not wanting to be too forward.
So when Weiss shifts her weight back, pulling Blake down onto her as they fall backwards onto couch, Blake slides her hand up the inside Weiss' shirt, causing her to shiver.
Blake realizes what she's done and begins to remove her hand from where it's wandered, fearing she has gone too far.
"Don't." It's all Weiss says when she pulls back just enough from their kiss, guiding Blake's hand back from where it came.
Blake waits a second, searching Weiss' face for any signs she needs to wait. But is only met by Weiss pressing their lips back together.
When she breaks the kiss once more, it's to whisper 'I love you' against Weiss' lips, before trailing light kisses across her face and the scar over her eye.
She hears Weiss breathe out an echoed response, her voice breathy and heavy. Eventually making her way to the pulse point on her neck. As she presses a kiss there, Weiss lets out a small moan. Which urges Blake to continue.
"Please." Weiss' voice is still breathy, and she begins to pull upward on the hem of Blake's shirt.
"Are you sure?" Blake asks before allowing Weiss to remove her shirt.
"Yes." Weiss says before pushing Blake carefully to sit up again so that she can pull the garment the rest of the way off and toss it to the floor.
Where the rest of their clothing would eventually end up.