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Requested By : Polemoduke

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After the dance, the next few days passed… Quietly, although not lazily.

Early Valean summers were always wet ones, even by Menagerie standards, and this year was proving no different. No sooner had the dance been cleaned up did the Vale Weather Service send out a warning for another huge cold front, sweeping in from the Atlesian ocean and carrying a twenty degree drop in temperature. And rain. Two days now of constant, heavy rain, so bad that Banesaw told her some of the poorer districts were already having flooding issues. No one was sick yet, luckily, but…

Standing water meant pests, and the weather dip played hell with people's health every time, too, so it was expected.

But at least they were catching water to keep… Mid-summer droughts were common, too, and the better off districts would get the first call for relief when the time came. Rather than the warehouses and docks.

"The more things change…" She hummed, sitting in the quiet, dimly lit library and tapping a finger on the table in front of her. It was late, so the library was mostly empty, aside from a handful of people working on this or that scattered across the huge library so sparsely it may as well have been.

Which let her enjoy the quiet, and the rain…

Or, try to, at least. Somehow, the quiet made her… Anxious. Distracted. She couldn't focus on the book she was trying to read, instead listening to the noise of the storm. The muted wind, whistling through gaps in the buildings around the library and the trees and everything else. The thunder, rumbling deep from the distance in delayed time to cracks of bright light that split the night, colorful and vibrant to her more sensitive eyes. Her mom had always told her, when she was little, to listen to storms. To look. That they'd… Talk, sometimes.

She'd never listened, of course, while she'd been with the White Fang, with Adam, traveling and fighting - it always sounded… Superstitious. Now, though?

She felt it, the rhythm, and her drumming finger slowly fell into it. A gentle, rolling 'bum, bum, bum' that echoed quietly as she started to more breathe old words she barely remembered rather than singing them, "I set upon the sea… Searching for phantom sails from mother's tales… A gallion ghostly, filled with gold, journeys there, f'ever alone… No crew, no cap'n's hands… Sun and horizon met, I weighed anchor, set to sail… M'course was set, my crew conspirin' with the stars our guide… They point the way through perils fraught, and lead us to the one they call The Shadow. None can tame the one the sailors call The Shadow…"

"I didn't know you could sing." She flinched and sat up, ramrod straight, as she spun, ears flicking anxiously. Ren just smiled, setting a cup of tea on the table in front of her and sitting across from her with his own. "I also did not know I could sneak up on you…"

"I was… Distracted."

"By your singing?"

"In part…" She sighed, turning to watch another distant flash of lightning. "I was also just…"

"The quiet isn't quite as comforting anymore, is it?" Ren asked, chuckling when she shot him a look. Shrugging, he took a slow sip of his tea, sighed, and explained, "Being with Nora is… Not without its challenges. And, after a while, you do learn to enjoy the quiet. But, as early on as you are with all of this and with Nora…"

"Yes…?"

"It's called a 'honeymoon phase', here in Vale." He explained, seeming to shift tactics, somehow, in the span of a breath. "It's all new and fresh, whereas the silence you were so used to is old. Give it time, though, and you'll enjoy the peace again."

"Because the chaos is new?" Blake raised an eyebrow, "That's your explanation?"

"Am I wrong?"

"I…" He wasn't, she supposed, when she analysed it with a more objective view. As much as she could actually do that, that was. Conceding quietly with a sigh, she complained, "I'm going to fall so far behind on my reading…"

"True enough." Ren chuckled, "But is that a bad trade?"

"No." She smiled, watching lightning flash in the distance again. "Not at all. Nora is… Frighteningly passionate, but not in a bad way. Not in a way that makes me prefer my books to her, at least."

"I'm glad." Ren smiled, wider and warmer than she'd ever seen him smile before. Running a finger along the rim of his cup, he said, "She was… Terrified to come here, you know."

"To Beacon?"

"To Vale." He nodded gently, that warm smile fading into something more… Withdrawn. Happy, but subdued. Melancholy. "I don't know the specifics, and I know she doesn't want me to, but… I know what her life was like, while we were growing up. Enough to understand the sorts of things she probably had to do. Coming to Vale, she risked a lot…"

"You wanted to be Hunters." She realized, earning a contemplative look from the man. "Nora went along with it, but… It was your passion."

"There is so much darkness in the world…" Ren nodded, "The how never mattered to me, honestly. Not after everything we'd been through."

"I can sympathise…"

"I know." He smiled and nodded, shaking his head and going on quietly, "I didn't know how we could do it, what fate would show us to, but… I felt driven to… Bring some light into it, somehow, as Nora did into my world. And, now," he smiled and bowed his head towards her, "into yours as well."

"Y-Yeah…" She stammered, feeling heat rocket up her neck and stealing a moment of safety by taking a long drink of her tea. More lightning flashed outside, casting wicked shapes into the sky and just as gnarly shadows around them, and Blake sighed. "It's a beautiful storm, isn't it?"

"I suppose." Ren sighed, "Storms aren't something I tend towards enjoying terribly much, though."

"On Menagerie…" She paused, flicked him a furtive look, to see if he cared, and nodded when he just smiled and sipped at his tea. The picture of polite interest, the kind she remembered learning to show back when she'd been home, with her family. The 'not pushing you or acting disinterested and being insulting' kind of look. Taking it for what it was, and avoiding letting her more paranoid side take hold, she sighed and went on, "Storms are constant, back home. Typhoons, thunderstorms- It's a tropical place, and carries all the weather of it."

"And that's beautiful how…?"

"Water, for one." She smiled, "Faunus are… Used to living on the edge. Storms mean water collection. And the dark of a storm means we can see better than most things."

"Night vision." Ren hummed, "Wouldn't the lightning…?"

"For some, it can cause blindness." Especially felines, if they were staring at the wrong spot at the wrong time. "Usually, we operate in teams for lookout duty for that reason. They face different directions, so both can't be blinded barring an act of the gods. Some kinds of Faunus, though, don't have the problem as bad."

"Interesting." Ren muttered, sounding more genuinely intrigued than she'd actually expected. "But I'm afraid I still don't see why you like storms… Rain, certainly. The dark, definitely. But storms?"

"Menagerie is an island." She shrugged, "Some of our love of storms is just that a good storm means coming to menace us is harder. Mixed with all the rest, it sort of… Works together, I suppose, into its own sort of appreciation."

"I see…"

"That," she chuckled, "and if we collectively hated storms, we'd go collectively insane. Two thirds of the year is nothing but storms, and the humidity and wind building up to the next one."

"Gods, I can't imagine that…" He murmured, shaking his head warily, "Southern Mistral was bad enough for it in early fall. But it being like you describe? Near constant? The mere idea of living there sends a shiver up my spine…"

"Rude. I may not have been there in years, but that's still my homeland you're talking about…" Ren just shrugged and she rolled her eyes, fishing out her Scroll when it chirped quietly. It was a message from Illia, of all people, and she smiled as she opened it.

Before her gut dropped and she sat up straighter and nearly shouted, "What the hell?!"

"Shhh!"

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Vale's streets were partially flooded by the next day, when they headed out to Vale. Not badly enough to be dangerous, she was sure, or people wouldn't be out. But it ran up over Nora's ankles whenever they went down a hill, and pooled enough in the streets that cars had to drive slower than normal, even for in the city, and threw waves up onto the sidewalks when they did. Which meant not a lot of those were out on the road. None of it was as bad up around the Bullhead airport, of course, or around the nicer offices and apartments nearer to it, but they were definitely not anywhere near there now.

No, they were back down near the docks again…

"I should have packed my swimsuit." She muttered as they walked, earning a derisive sigh from the woman in front of her.

"You didn't have to come, Nora…"

"And miss meeting other royalty?" Nora guffawed, fanning herself and frowning at the way Blake's shoulders stiffened and her head dipped. She was more than just nervous about all of this but, trying to relieve it, a bit, Nora kept up the humour and dipped closer to her, careful to keep their umbrellas from smacking together too hard while she hip bumped Blake and said, "Hey, you're just lucky Yang needed help sandbagging her workshop."

"You're insufferable…"

"Only when I wanna be." Nora smiled, hooking an arm around the Faunus' waist and hugging her closer. Quietly, more gently, she said, "We could stop to eat if you need time…"

"I… No." She shook her head, leaning against Nora as a car came by and threw water their way. Nora used her umbrella, mostly useless now with her under Blake's, to block the worst of it but they still ended up getting water up to their shins for a moment. Shivering a bit, Blake said, "I'm just… We haven't spoken in years."

"It's a lot." Nora nodded, "I get it. Er, well, I don't. Orphan, ya know? But I understand why you're nervous about something like that. You know, brain-ally."

"That isn't a word…"

"It's a mouth sound I used, and you understood it, so…" Nora grinned and leaned over, pecking Blake on the jaw, right below her lips, and then smiled when she blushed, touched it, and turned to glower at her. "What?"

"Why would you do that?" Blake hissed, "This is not a romantic moment!"

"I know, but…" She shrugged, "You don't look as anxious now, ya know?"

"Because I'm flustered!"

"Flustered is cute."

"I will push you into one of these big puddles."

"I'll drag you in after, and cats hate water~"

"I am not a cat!" Blake growled, rolling her eyes and sighing wearily as the warehouse they'd been to before came back into view and she frowned. Blake grabbed the hand holding onto her waist and squeezed it gently. "Thank you… For coming. They'll want- We'll have to, you know, explain things, but- But it's nice, not being alone."

"O 'course, Blakey." Nora smiled, "You know me. Real ride and die kinda gal."

"Nora…" She sighed, "it's ride or die…"

"That's weird…" Nora hummed as they got to the door and the waiting man outside once again, who sat on a stack of crates under a tarp and miserably waved for them to go in. "Everybody dies, so even a good ride ends up with everyone dying eventually…"

"That is… Incredibly morbid." Blake groaned, "Thanks. I hate it."

Nora just laughed and followed the woman into the warehouse proper.

Here, like in most of the shops, the Bullhead port, and everywhere else they'd been, the people who worked there were hard at work. Some were mopping up water from a handful of tiny leaks in the roof while others worked at nailing boards over them way up high in the rafters, while others were busy laying out thick sandbags heaped against the walls and in small semi circles around the couple of boarded up old doors that let straight out of the warehouse, the windows, and the dock doors at the far end. Still others were working in some of the semicircles, under the windows, with huge funnels and pipes running into kegs, barrels and crates filled with tarps to collect water.

"Why…"

"Rations." A deep voice cut Nora off as they reached the stairway up, to the office complex sections along the ceiling. Banesaw was sitting on the stairs, blocking them and waiting. He looked up to meet Nora's gaze as she turned to meet his. As best she could through the mask anyways…

"We sterilize it, bottle it, and ship it." He went on, "Out to Menagerie, sometimes. When years are bad. To Fang cells across the continent when they aren't."

"Water is gold when you're out in the sticks…"

"You know it?"

"Lived it." She nodded, frowning, "I wasn't bluffing, when we first met. I mean, I was, a bit, with… How I treated it, but, you know- I-I'm an orphan, from Mistral to boot, so… I get how precious water can be."

"Hmph." The giant rumbled, turning to Blake and grunting. "Your parents are here."

"I know…"

"Good." He nodded, standing and stepping to the side to let them by. As if he'd been waiting just to warn her, just in case. Which… Holy shit, she'd thought he was mostly just playing it up back then, but was the big man actually acting like some noble knight or something?

Somehow, the image kind of clashed with the huge honking chainsaw he hefted across his shoulders as he left.

"So…" Nora started as her partner turned to her, one brow raised. "Time to meet the King and Queen?"

"Chieftain and…" Blake paused, frowned and cocked her head, "Chieftess? Is she the Chieftain too? Does she have any power…?"

"We could…" Nora waved a hand at the stairs, "Ask her?"

"Ask- What? No!" Blake shook her head, "I'm not going to ask my mother how our government works the first time we're back together…"

"Fair, fair, but…" Nora bounced on her heels, grinning as a spark of nervous energy started creeping up her spine. "We have to actually go up the stairs to see her, so…"

"Look, I'm just…." Blake flailed with a hand, "I'm nervous, alright? I-I mean there's a lot to explain, between Adam and… All of that, and my new girlfriend and-"

"YOU HAVE A NEW GIRLFRIEND!?" A male voice suddenly cut in, shouting from up the stairs a moment before the door right at the top, on the landing, creaked open and a pair of ears with little gold studs poked out. Followed briefly by…

Well, Blake with wrinkles, mostly.

"H-Hi Blake…" She smiled sheepishly as a massive man stepped out past her, arms crossed and a scowl on his face for Nora. Chuckling, the woman said, "You… Do know we can hear you from just a staircase down, right?"

"...Damn it!"

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Unknow Man :

Menagerie IS at that subsistence, survival level of economy. Like, they can mend boats, make more as needed, fish, and defend themselves RELATIVELY well. But that's all. Vale, meanwhile, has a powerful enough industrial base to attempt to EXPAND. It failed, sure, but that from what I understand wasn't REALLY their fault.

I do like the idea of an 'independence debt' though. May look into it for this, but in canon, I doubt it's an issue.

Malkor :

All I'll say is that the Nora here IS self conscious of all these things. She's just coping with that and keeping it quiet because she feels a need to do so. That's all lol.

Moniesdamerch :

Different timeline. Cinder never got to her for various reasons, some of which are explained here (Qrow being a better guard), and THAT is why she isn't in Vale. It's just a nod to that, is all.