Catching Up

"Hmmm?" Blake hummed as she looked to her left, her arms rested on the wooden railing of the ship. There she found Sun, leaned against the wall staring at her with that classic smirk that never seemed to leave his lips. She felt his eyes all over her but all she could do was smile. It no longer phased her anymore, the way he looked at her. She had grown quite accustomed to it and, not that she would ever admit it, she had actually begun to be proud of it. "Oh," she sighed happily as she looked back out to the waves, the sun setting in the distance, lighting the sky up radiant shades of pink and red and orange. "Hey Sun."

"Everything all right?" He asked as he threw his hands up behind his head, resting it upon them as he slowly walked to her side and looked out over the horizon.

"Ya..." she smiled to herself as her eyes drifted shut and she took in a long breath through her nose, taking in the sea breeze. "Actually I'm doing great."

"Really?" He asked in disbelief as he looked down at his friend with a gasp.

"Ya..." she swooned as she looks up to him, watching his golden hair blow in the soft breeze. "Everything is going great right now...and besides...you've really helped me lately."

"Awh I didn't beat THAT many guys up. You could've handled it."

"Not like that," she giggled softly before nudging him in the side. "You...make me laugh and smile...You care about how I feel. You ask if I'm okay and if I'm doing well. It's nice."

A blush began to spread across both of their cheeks and Sun's smile returned to his face. "Hey no problem," he said as he gave her two thumbs up.

"Sun really..." she sighed before taking his hand in her own, looking back out to sea. "You treat me really well, no matter how many times I tried to curb you. Even after I turned you down for the freshman dance and all the times I told you I wasn't interested you stayed. You settled for being my friend when in reality you deserved a lot more than that..."

"Well I mean...I like being friends with you," he said as he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand nervously. "Obviously ya know, I like you more than that, but you've made it pretty clear that you don't want more than that."

"Well that's...not entirely true..." she replied quietly to herself as she squeezed his hand and looked down over the side of the boat.

"What?..what do you mean?" He asked quickly.

"I mean I was only turning you down because I was with Yang...I...I like you a lot Sun I just...didn't have the heart to break up with her until it was way too late. And once we got to Menagerie everything happened so fast that we didn't really have any time to breathe but...I can breathe now...and being happy is a lot easier with you around," she smiled brightly as she tucked her hair behind her ear and moved his arm around her. "If you're still up for it anyway."

"ARE YOU KIDDING?!" She began to feel him jitter. "That's amazing!" He yelled excitedly.

Blake jumped a little as her ears twitched, his high volume outburst taking her by surprise for an instant before she started to laugh. "Don't get too excited. I'm not saying that we are going to jump into anything. I want to take this one slow. Savor it...not like back at school..." she sighed as she leaned into him, resting her body into his side as both of them looked back out toward the sea.

"Yeah, you got it," he smiled softly.

Later that night Blake returned to her room on the ship, finding Ilia right where she had left her, on the bunk above her. As Blake entered the room she found that the chameleon Faunus had barely moved. It had been hours since she had left the room and it seemed almost as if Ilia had spent the entire time staring down into her lap struggling with her own thoughts.

"Hey," Blake said shyly as she knocked on the open door, snapping the red head out of her trance as she breathed in sharply before replying.

"Oh!" She said as her vision jolted up and found Blake staring back at her questioningly. "Hey...Blake."

"Are you okay? You've been sitting there all day..." She asked as she shut the door behind her and walked to the bed.

"Well I...I don't know if I would call it okay..."

"Well what's wrong?" Blake asked as she hopped up onto the second bunk and sat beside her. "You can talk to me."

"Huhhh..." Ilia sighed as her breath hitched in her throat several times, trying not to cry. "I just...I just don't feel like...i deserve to be here with you guys...I'm surprised you let me come."

"It's never too late to change. I believe in you okay?" Blake smiled as she took her friend's hand, forcing her to look back into her eyes. "I know that you want to be more than friends and I'm sorry that I can't give that to you but...that's no reason to not be a good person...You know? It's worth it to stand up for what you believe in."

"I know...gosh," she smiled as she laughed quietly. "You've changed a lot Blake."

"Ya well," she rolled her eyes, "When you meet my team mates you'll see why. They have that effect on people."

"I'm sure it wasn't just them," Ilia raised her eyebrows coyly.

"Okay ya Sun did a lot too," she laughed. "Probably the most."

"Well...he seems like a nice guy Blake...and clearly he cares about you a lot..." she said with a somber tone as she looked back to her own lap. "And well..." she began again quietly before looking back up into Blake's eyes with a small smile across her lips. "I hope he makes you happy."

"Thank you Ilia," Blake breathed out in surprise as her cheeks lit up. After a moment she smiled back at her friend and pulled her into a quick hug. "I know you'll find someone who makes you happy too."

"How can you be so sure?" She asked as they broke the hug before Blake laughed, pointing to the book on her bedside table.

"The hero always gets the girl in the end. At least in the books anyway," she added as Ilia laughed.

"So...these friends of yours...what are they like?"

"Well...that's...a long story," she chuckled nervously before beginning to tell Ilia of her time spent at Beacon Academy.

"Mirror...Mirror.." Weiss sang softly, breath hitching in her throat several times as she fought back tears, trying to focus herself. She was trying to keep quiet as she sat against the back side of her cell, facing away from the camp. She could tell that the bandits were beginning to head to sleep and silence was taking over the camp.

She had begun to softly sing to herself to try and calm her nerves after learning that no one knew where she was or that she needed to be rescued. But it hurt even more knowing that she did need to be rescued. She had spent hours beating herself up for getting into a situation where she needed to be rescued but had very recently realized that there may be a way out.

As everyone in the camp fell asleep she focused down on her palms and began trying to summon her white knight. After she had done so she began to formulate her plan. However she knew that she would not be able to put it into action today, too worn out from the crash to fully concentrate.

She found herself slouching down against the iron bars of the cage, her eyelids getting heavy before she finally allowed herself to fall into an exhausted sleep.

"Hey..." She whispered as his ears perked up, picking up the low voice from his partner. They lay beside each other in their bed in the dark of the night, only the moonlight from the window lighting a small portion of the room.

"Ya?" He asked. He had known she was awake, and clearly she had known the same was true about him. They both lay there beneath the sheet, staring up at the ceiling, both with their hands behind their heads.

"Do you think we can really do this?"

"Do what?" He asked worriedly as he tilted his head over to look into her eyes. However she kept on staring up away from him.

"Beat Salem...do you actually think it's possible?"

He sighed, partially in relief now that he had the rest of the question. "I really don't know to be honest but...does it matter?"

"Of course it matters," she shot back at him as she looked over to her wolf. "We could be sitting on a beach somewhere in paradise doing whatever we want whenever we want if there's no hope of actually beating her. Right?"

This caused the wolf to laugh, bringing his hands from behind his head over his heart. As he calmed back down he began to speak again, "Ya I suppose we could huh?"

"Hm," she smiled, knowing full well that his semblance would tell him that she was kidding of course. "So is that a no?"

"Nah," he chuckled. "Even if we can't beat her, we gotta try right?"

"Why do you say that? If we knew for a fact that we couldn't actually beat her or delay her in any way from taking over the world and wiping out humanity...you'd really keep fighting?"

He was silent for a long time as he began to think to himself. He thought on all the people he had lost. However, after several seconds his thoughts shifted to one person in particular. As her innocent and hopeful smile shone brightly in his thoughts he felt a smile of his own creep across his. "Ya I would. Red would right? Why not?" He asked as he turned his head back toward her.

Now she too began to smile, before she rolled over, laying her head on his chest and wrapping her arms around him. "Good," she sighed in relief. "Glad we are on the same page."

"There are worse ways to go," he mused as he kissed the top of her head. "Death in combat ain't so bad."

"Ya, try to hold off on that until our kids grow up okay? I Don't want them to not know their father."

"Ya there's enough of that going around already I'll do my best," he chuckled as his vision returned to the ceiling.

"There certainly is..." She sighs out. "You know my parents consider you their own kid at this point right? They love you."

"Ya I know but...don't like, take it the wrong way, but it's not that simple. I love them too, they are very supportive of us and what we do but...it's not the same thing ya know?"

"Ya I know...it's not like I understand. I could never understand how you feel...but I at least get it..." Ambur fell silent for a few moments before speaking again. "But at least you two have each other now. I'm sure that helps right?"

"It helps me that's for sure...god she's so different than I ever imagined when I was a kid. I expected to hate her and I actually didn't want to meet her. Without ever knowing my mom I just automatically assumed that Ruby would want nothing to do with me. But there she was...running right up to me in the hallway and begging to see my weapon...with that goofy ass smile plastered on her face," he began to chuckle.

"I'm sure she feels the same. It must make it easier on her to have you around...even if she doesn't feel the same about your mom or Qrow as you do."

"Well...she does seem to enjoy talking about her feelings with me so I guess I must make it easier ya," he shrugged. "I don't really do anything I feel like. It's not like it's difficult."

"Well that's the thing Myd, If you care about somebody, those kinds of things come very easy. Just having someone who cares about you and is willing to listen to you bitch and moan makes life a lot easier," she said as she tapped his chest. "And I can vogue, you're very good at it," she giggled.

"Gee thanks," he continued to laugh as he rubbed his hand along her shoulder and down her arm. "I just don't understand how Qrow can live with himself..." He sighed quietly.

"...I know...I agree honestly I just...I don't get it..." She sighed back as she shook her head. "His semblance isn't THAT bad...I understand that Ozpin needed him out on missions all the time too but still...I don't know...I could never separate myself from someone I care about like he did...makes me sick to think about."

"Ya same...I know I'm trying to forgive him but...he doesn't make it easy."

"You have been doing very well, sorry I shouldn't have brought it up. I don't wanna spoil all your hard work."

"It's alright don't worry...I know he's done some pretty awful things, and a lot of things I don't agree with but...it's not paying off to be mad at him for the rest of my life right? Might as well try and get over it...staying mad isn't gonna change what he's done or who he is."

"True enough," she agreed as she closed her eyes and nuzzled into his neck as she pulled the blankets back up to around her lips. After a few moments she spoke up one last time. "Do you think we can do this?"

This time she knew exactly what she meant and he didn't even hesitate to answer her. "Ya...I know we can," he says softly as he kissed the top of her head again.

"Good...Because I can't imagine myself with anyone else..."

"Well if things go our way then you won't ever have to...I got no plans to die any time soon," he chuckled lightly.

"Hm," she hummed happily as she starred to drift off into sleep. "Good," she whispers.

"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked, snapping him out of his stupor. He had been sitting on the couch looking up at the ceiling, spacing out for so long he had lost track of time. He felt the couch shift as Ruby sat down beside him as he lazily let his head roll to the right to look at her.

"Ya kid?"

"Uhm.." she began as she twiddled her thumbs nervously in her lap, looking away from him.

"Go ahead Ruby, what is it?"

"Why..." she started before looking back up into his eyes. "Did you know that my mom had had Mydnight?"

Qrow was shocked, sitting bolt upright on the couch and beginning to run his hands through his hair, unable to look down into Ruby's face. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know I just...want to understand why I didn't grow up around him...you know?"

"...Fair enough...Ya. She and Mydnight's dad had been dating since we graduated from Beacon. They got pregnant pretty soon after we left the school. She was my partner of course so ya I knew."

"So why did she give him up?"

"To be honest Ruby I don't...really know," he sighed. "I tried to understand but in the end I just couldn't...When they broke up she just didn't think that she could deal with her life as a huntress and as a mom so she just let him go."

Ruby was silent for a long while as her memory was cast back to her own childhood. She had always known that her mother wanted to be more than just a mom and always yearned to be back out on adventures. Of course when she finally did go back on an adventure again she had never returned.

"And he just...lived on his own?"

"That's what he told you huh?" Qrow huffed. "Can't really blame him I guess, you just met and everything."

"What do you mean? Was he lying?"

"He was alone ya, but in an orphanage. His father had no family left and Summer wouldn't take him. He was put up in the orphanage in Vale. When he was old enough to go to school I got him into Signal and he lived on campus."

Ruby again was silent as she lost herself in thought. She knew her mother wasn't a perfect person but she couldn't believe what she was hearing. She told herself mentally that she would need to confront Mydnight about it later when they had a chance. "Okay," she let out, giving her uncle a smile. "Thanks for telling me."

"Sure..." he sighed as his gaze rose back to the ceiling as he went back to what he was thinking about. Ruby left the room in silence and headed to her bedroom.

"Guess I can't blame him for lying to me about it," she shrugged as she closed her door behind her, heading to the closet and stripping down before putting her pajamas on. "We just met and he was nervous that I would hate him...plus," she thought out loud as climbed into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin.

"He didn't want me to think any less of her," she smiled as she closed her eyes.