That night, Blake dreamed.

She knew it was a dream right from the start which was an unusual thing. Usually discovering that what you are experiencing isn't real is what brought you back into the waking world but not this time. No, the faunus girl knew this couldn't be real because it was too good to be true and yet she remained, basking in the 'what if' and taking comfort from it.

Even if it was all just in her head, the wistful desires of a simple girl.

Her parents were there, their warm eyes watching over her fondly and with love but that wasn't all. Even though they were on Menagerie, the familiar buildings holding so many memories, every person she had ever cared about was present; human, faunus, her mind made zero distinction any longer. Team RWBY, hale and whole – Ruby, Weiss and Yang, all smiling at her as she showed them around her home, regaling them with tales of her childhood. Team JNPR was also there, Jaune walking in front while Pyrrha, Ren and Nora trailed in the rear, their eyes drinking in the island that was both a blessing and a curse.

Just that on its own wouldn't have been able to tip her off but the fact that Ilia was amongst them certainly was. The young chameleon faunus showed no reaction to humans being there, instead walking with them and engaging happily, a genuine smile on her usually stern countenance. She couldn't hear what they were talking about but she had struck up a conversation with Yang, their happy voices blending together in an unknowable jumble. Ilia's skin often changed depending on her mood and Blake had it on good authority that certain colors meant different things. The deepening of her natural skin tone meant only good things, a contentment deep in the girl's soul.

But that wasn't even the biggest thing.

Adam Taurus was there. The Adam Taurus, a senior member of the radical White Fang. The man who had led her wayward compatriots to attack Beacon alongside the creatures of Grimm, who had attempted to claim her life and that of her friends.

Her former mentor, best friend and ex-lover. Without his mask, his face was unmarked by the disgusting brand the Schnee Dust Company had gifted him, his handsome features as they should be. Blake knew that even more than Ilia, he hated humans with a singular passion to destroy and subjugate. It had taken her too long to notice, caught up in the pretty words he showered her with about equality and peace. Adam wouldn't settle for peace between their two species, not in a million years.

And yet here he was, a smile pulling at his lips as he spoke with Jaune. Just like Ilia and Yang, Blake couldn't hear what they were saying, their voices no more than a mixed blur but she could see their expressions clear as day

They chatted like old friends, catching up after a long time apart. It was just too unbelievable for her to ever accept, these two contrasting individuals. If Ilia hadn't already tipped her off that something wasn't right then Adam surely would have. The smile he wore was one she saw very rarely and not in a very long time. It was a smile that he carried in the old days when despite all that had happened to him, he may still have believed in one Remnant for all.

This was an impossible dream.

And yet isn't this exactly what she yearned for most? Looking around, it was then that she noticed there were more people, people she had met in her life; some she knew the names of, some she didn't, some that she had only seen in passing on the street. Humans and faunus, together, going about their daily lives. There was no hatred here, no divide.

This was her most sacred wish. For humanity and faunus-kind to come together as one. For there to be no fracture between them, to live together in harmony without fear and suspicion, for no prejudice to exist between them. This was the world that the White Fang had been created to strive towards, the ideal her parents had fought so hard to bring about. Not through fear or force, but through understanding.

It might not have been real. It might have simply been a figment of her imagination, a desperate illusion to soothe her weary soul – but she embraced it wholeheartedly. Blake felt tears spring to her eyes, a great feeling of affection swelling in her breast as she observed her friends, both current and former, and her mother and father, all together, happy, content.

This is what she wanted more than anything in the world.

When she woke, it was a sudden thing and she lamented the loss of this comforting fantasy. She tried to reach for it again but it slipped through her fingers like smoke, unable to be contained, tendrils on the wind. The emotion and feelings it invoked in her remained, however. At once she noticed that her cheeks were wet and she reached up to rub at her face, sniffling quietly.

It was then that she realized the position she was in.

Warmth.

Blake felt only warmth. A large, solid body rested against her back, enveloping her slighter frame protectively. One of his arms was curled around her, hand splayed on her sternum and with mild embarrassment, she felt his fingers against the underside of her breasts. They were spooned perfectly, not an inch between them and when she wiggled, Blake felt something hard and long pressed into her pert butt.

She froze.

She wasn't so naive as to pretend that she didn't know exactly what that was but she also wasn't so naive as to believe it was anything more than a simple bodily function, unmired in emotion or desire. Morning wood was a perfectly normal, common occurrence that men had no control over. Even if she hadn't been encased in his embrace, it would have still existed. It didn't mean anything. It just was.

And yet even knowing all of that, it didn't stop her own body from reacting. A hot flush spread up her neck, across her cheeks and human ears. The hairs on her arms rose, skin tingling pleasantly as she bit her lip. It may not have meant anything but feeling his cock against her, hard as steel – well, it wasn't something that could be so easily ignored.

Jaune was very handsome. She had always thought he was cute in his own boyish way but by the end of their first year, cute no longer cut it. Any remaining youthful fat had been chiseled away from his features, revealing a strong jaw, long, defined cheeks and a very attractive face. Not only that but his body had undergone an impressive transformation as well, from a tall, somewhat lanky boy to that of a powerful warrior, lean and strong; the body of a man. While she never saw Jaune as anything more than a precious friend, someone she trusted deeply, it was difficult not to feel something when he was pressed against her like this, where his most intimate part poked at her so aggressively.

Blake knew she should have pulled away at this moment. Not only was it embarrassing and eliciting a response from her body but if Jaune woke up, he would be mortified. They were just friends, after all. If they were dating then the situation wouldn't have been anything strange but they weren't. They were spooned together to keep each other warm, that was all.

She didn't have feelings for Jaune Arc and he didn't have feelings for her. No – the only girl he had ever shown a liking to was Weiss.

She should move.

But she didn't.

Blake didn't want to break the comfortable warmth his hold provided. It wasn't just the physical side but the emotional. Now that she was awake a little more, she recalled their situation. Stranded, alone. Dozens dead, a ship in ruin. A friend lost; maybe two. Blake had experienced some horrible days in her life but yesterday was definitely up there. Maybe not the worst but it was close.

Having Jaune with her like this helped to calm her mind and frayed nerves, and provided her an anchor to rely upon. One that she was hesitant to relinquish.

Just a little longer, she mused.

But as much as she tried to ignore his not-so-little problem, it was impossible. It jabbed into her insistently and when she tried to wiggle into a better position, it followed her. Even though her pants and his jeans, she could feel it throb and that, more than anything else caused her tummy to tremble as an ember of desire uncurled inside her.

Arousal was a difficult thing to manage. You couldn't simply will it away. The more you focused on it, the greater it grew. She tried to find a better spot without breaking his hold but then his arm tightened on her, his head tilting down. His face pressed into her hair, his hot breath gusting across her cat ears. A thrill raced up her spine, an involuntary feeling as her ears stiffened, perked up. Her entire body shivered, alert.

"Hmmn," he murmured, his chest vibrating against her back. "Stay."

So she did.

At some point, she managed to fall back asleep. The next time her eyes fluttered open, Blake immediately felt his absence. Blinking blearily, she noticed that the sun was beginning to peek over the horizon, the ocean a mixture of orange and red. Slipping out of their makeshift shelter, Blake looked around in confusion.

Jaune was nowhere to be seen.

A brief flash of panic overtook her before her rational mind gained control. A quick glance showed that he had equipped his armor and had taken Crocea Mors with him. Fresh tracks in the sand led into the forest and so Blake followed them, picking up the spear on her way just in case.

His name was almost on her lips when he suddenly appeared, stepping around a tree. She yelped and Jaune jumped, startled, his blue eyes widening in surprise. His hand had fallen to the pommel of his sword, about to draw when he realized it was just her.

"Shit, Blake, you scared the hell out of me," he exhaled, an awkward chuckle escaping him. "Are you okay?"

Blake felt stupid.

"Sorry, I just – I woke up and you weren't there," she explained, shaking her head. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine. I was just – uh, you know – bathroom," Jaune grimaced.

Oh, right. Now that the panic had faded from Jaune's unexpected absence, Blake felt her own bladder scream at her for relief. Giving Jaune an apologetic look, she hurried by him and into the forest to relieve herself. Feeling much better for it, she returned to camp to find him down by the water. Walking up beside him, she gazed out at the beautiful sunrise.

"We don't get this in Vale," he said.

"No," she replied. "No, we don't."

In Vale, the sun set over the ocean. Here, that is where the sun rose. It was magnificent and they stood there for some time, just watching as it ascended fully above the distant horizon and climbed further into the sky.

"I thought we should explore our surroundings today," Jaune said, breaking the silence. "Find out how big this place is."

Blake nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

"If we get lucky, then maybe this island was used for something once – or still is," Jaune's finger tapped against the hilt of his blade as he thought. "Fishermen might stop here or – well, something. Who knows what the kingdoms get up to outside their walls. If we are really lucky, Mistral or Vale uses this place for research and people are here. Or maybe there is an old fort from the Great War, an old port between the two continents."

It was optimistic but it was possible. Especially that last one. So much land had been lost and reclaimed by nature and Grimm after the war. It wasn't so unusual for an invading army to have supply stops, either. They'd learned all about it at Beacon, Doctor Oobleck was rather passionate on the subject.

"And I thought we should probably attempt to signal for help," he continued, looking up. "Something big like a fire or something, create enough smoke so they'll see it for miles..." he trailed off, his voice tinged with confusion. Blake quickly glanced at him and saw him still focused on the sky so she followed his line of sight, blinking.

Smoke.

There was smoke.

Jaune turned and followed the trail with his eyes, and Blake copied him. Further up the beach, beyond their sight, black smoke rose into the sky.

They both stared for a moment, unsure.

And then Jaune was moving, boots pounding across the sand. Blake joined him, racing up the beach. It was further than their search area, much further. Running as they were, almost at a full sprint, it took them almost ten minutes to lay eyes on what was causing so much smoke. Even with aura, their lungs burned from the exertion, sweat beading on their brows. This far along the beach, sand dunes grew high, the sand covered in shrubbery. Small bushes, clustered low to the ground and thin, long stalks similar to wheat made up the majority.

Much of which was on fire.

"This can't have been natural," Jaune said at once, searching wildly. "This was set."

Set by who? That was the question.

Blake ran further, scanning the area. Her eyes almost passed over it in her desperation but then the flash of white registered. Turning, she froze in surprise – and then jubilation raced through her, almost crippling in its intensity. Her heart leapt into her throat, making it difficult to call out.

"Weiss?" Jaune breathed.

And it was. Weiss Schnee stood on the beach, her white combat dress stained and her hair a mess, but she was alive.

"Weiss!" Jaune roared and they saw her jump, spinning in their direction – and then Blake was flying across the sand, her feet barely touching the ground as she flew into her friend's arms. They collided so hard that the smaller woman was knocked off her feet, and with a yelp they both tumbled onto the sand.

"Weiss," Blake almost sobbed, her emotions overwhelming and getting the better of her. Blake engulfed her in a bone crushing hug, eyes stinging. "Weiss – oh god, Weiss!"

"B-Blake," the heiress wheezed. "Let up – you're crushing me."

Jaune made it to them a second later, dropping down beside them on his knees. Without a care, he flopped on top of them, his arms encircling the pair and Weiss grunted as even more weight was applied.

"Weiss," he said as if in prayer. "Thank the Gods you're well."

She spluttered something intelligible but Jaune must have understood it for he immediately got off. He gently pulled her, trying to get her to release her hold but Blake refused, tightening her arms instead.

"Blake, come on," he said with a laugh, a hysterical edge to it. "You're smothering her."

Slender fingers wiggled between their bodies and pinched; hard. Blake yelped and retreated, hand immediately falling to her belly where Weiss had gripped. The white haired woman gasped for breath, eyes narrow as she attempted to sit up.

"I'm happy to see you too," she finally got out, eyes blazing. "But could you try and be a little more delicate!"

Even her angry voice was such a welcome balm, soothing the hurt Blake had felt at thinking one of her teammates had perished. Weiss could yell at her all she wished. She didn't care. Weiss was alive. That was all that mattered.

"This is your handy work, I take it?" Jaune gestured around. Several hundred meters of shrubbery burned, belching thick, black smoke into the air.

He offered a hand and Weiss took in gratefully, stumbling as he pulled her up. Catching herself on his side, she peered up at him in thanks, hand resting against his chest plate.

"Of course it was me," she said. "Who else would it be?"

Blake stood up and this time hugged her friend more gently, drawing a startled sound from Weiss.

"You have no idea how worried we were," Blake said thickly. "We thought you were dead. We didn't find you on the beach."

After a second of hesitation, Weiss returned the embrace, nuzzling into her.

"I thought I was alone," Weiss muttered. "When I washed up, I got caught on the rocks further out to sea. I used my semblance to get to shore."

They untangled themselves from one another and then Jaune took Blake's place, enveloping Weiss into his powerful arms. He lifted Weiss effortlessly from the ground and it was a testament to the situation that Weiss didn't complain, simply hugging him back with the same amount of effort. They remained like this for several long moments before Jaune placed her back down on her feet.

Weiss' eyes were a little watery, her smile shy.

"What happened?" she asked.

Seeing as Jaune was the last of them to fall overboard, he told the story.

"Ren was still onboard?" Weiss asked when he finished.

Jaune nodded. "Yeah – I sent him to the last remaining cannon, to protect it and use it if no one else could. As I was falling, I saw it fire at the Kraken. I – it was point blank, down its throat... I'm fairly confident that it was destroyed."

"Well, good riddance," Weiss said emphatically.

"As for the ship," Jaune shrugged. "It was pretty banged up. I don't know if it sank or not."

If it did, that meant Ren may have perished or was out there like them, stranded. It was not a nice thought.

Now that Blake got a better look at her teammate, it looked like the heiress hadn't slept a wink. Bags weighed down her face beneath eyes that were bloodshot. Her already pale skin was chalk white and she wondered if Weiss had been out in the cold all night.

"Have you slept?" she asked.

Weiss grimaced. "Not a bit."

"Have you eaten?" Jaune then asked.

"Yesterday," Weiss pointed back at the trees and like their part of the beach, coconut palms flourished. "I've been eating those."

"Come on," Jaune gently touched her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. "We've set up camp a little further down. We can all have breakfast and then you can get some much needed rest. No buts," he said sternly when Weiss opened her mouth to argue. "The fire was smart. We were thinking about doing something similar, creating a signal – but you need to regather your strength, Weiss. You'll be no good to anyone if you collapse."

Weiss scowled but Jaune's logic was sound. She caved.

"Fine," she huffed, her exhaustion bleeding through. "Lead the way."

Like Blake, Weiss didn't have her weapon, meaning that Myrtenaster was lost at sea. That meant out of the three of them, Jaune was the only one that still retained his weapon. What Weiss did have, though, was dust. Her pouches were filled with cartridges, color coded and arranged in Weiss' typical pedantic manner. Fire, lightning, ice, earth, wind, gravity and more – so much more. If nothing else, it gave them some fire power if the Grimm should come knocking. Weiss didn't need her blade to work dust magic and her semblance was highly suited to the task.

When they got back to their camp, Blake raided the rocks for more oysters and mussels while Jaune climbed the palms to shake loose some more coconuts. The tide wasn't quite right for their fishing method of choice, so they settled for molluscs. Weiss didn't complain, eating enthusiastically as Jaune shucked them as quickly as he could.

Blake handed her one of their bottles of water and Weiss drank it greedily.

"Did you have a look around at all?" Jaune asked.

Weiss nodded. "Not far. I went inland but didn't find anything noteworthy. I expected Grimm but none appeared."

It was a little unusual that they hadn't encountered any considering their emotional states. Their negativity should have drawn in the vile creatures but so far, they had been suspiciously absent.

"If we're lucky, there aren't any Grimm on this island," though Jaune said it, he didn't look convinced.

When Weiss was finished eating, Blake showed her into their little shelter. As soon as the white haired girl's head touched down, she was out like a light, her breathing even as she drifted off to sleep. Blake watched over her for a few minutes, eyes taking her teammate. To think that she may never have seen her again if things had been only a little different.

Blake pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling a little emotional. A hand settled on her shoulder and she jumped, startled.

"Sorry," Jaune whispered, keeping his voice low so he didn't disturb their sleeping beauty. "I'm going to collect some wood. We'll need a bigger shelter."

Blake nodded, standing.

"I'll help."

"You don't have to," he tried.

Blake shook her head. "Please. I need to do something."

As much as he she wanted to keep staring at her friend and ensure she didn't vanish into smoke like her dream, Blake felt restless. She needed to do something physical and bleed off any unnecessary energy.

"Okay," Jaune replied. "We also need more firewood."

Using Crocea Mors like an axe wasn't ideal but with aura, it was more than sharp enough to slice branches free of trees with ease. They both made their way into the forest and Blake watched as Jaune focused his aura into the Arc family sword, the steel gaining a shroud of energy. As he went about lopping branches off that were long enough, Blake searched for any dry wood that was to be found.

They worked in silence, going about their work until she had gathered a rather sizable pile. She stacked it all next to one of the coconut palms until it was about waist high before helping Jaune haul his branches out onto the sand. Removing any smaller twigs and knots with the edge of his blade, Jaune maneuvered everything into place while Blake collected more palm leaves.

He constructed another a-frame but this time it was much larger, driving the ends into the sand to help stabilize the structure. It was beginning to get hot again and so he stripped off his armor and hoodie, leaving his shoulders and arms bare. Blake had seen him in a singlet before but she found herself watching him closely as he worked, admiring the way his muscles tightened and rolled, flexing as he lifted things into position. With a start, she realized she was checking him out.

"Could you just hold these together?" he asked and she hurried over to aid him, shaking her head to clear her mind of such thoughts.

"Like this?" she asked, keeping the two pieces crossed. He nodded and then started lashing them together, tying them with thin strips of cloth he had fashioned from some of the clothing they had found. Now that she was closer to him, she could smell that undeniable musk of a man hard at work; a mixture of sweat, the salt water that had touched his skin and something deeper, something appealing.

She clamped down on her thoughts immediately, feeling ridiculous. This no doubt stemmed from this morning when she had woken up, feeling his morning wood pressed against her.

Jaune was her friend. Nothing more.

"Thanks," he said. When they both stepped away, it remained upright and stable. "Okay, same thing over here."

They went through the process again, Jaune driving the wood into the sand at angles so they crossed before Blake held them together as he tied them. While it wasn't perfectly in line, it was more than good enough. The ends of their new shelter complete, he then tied two branches to extend its length before lifting it up onto the frames, creating a connection between the two at the apex.

Jaune really was quite capable, wasn't he?

Strong and reliable, and a good man; a good friend. Blake recalled his words to her back on the ship, easing her worry about seeing her parents again. It seemed so silly now, considering the situation they found themselves in but she'd be so scared of how they would react to her. Jaune had understood.

Blake groaned.

What was wrong with her?

It had to be the sun. The heat was cooking her brain.

"After Weiss wakes up, we should do some exploring," Jaune said, drawing her attention. "I think we should stay together until we get a better idea of what we're dealing with here."

Blake agreed.

"When she wakes," she confirmed.

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