So, holy crap this has an omake now! I can't link to it because FFN is a goblin about that, but it's The Scent of Blood by Clockwerkchaos over on AO3. If you want an awesome what-if story from Blake's POV, go check it out!

Weiss was very lucky her teammates were the sort of people to run towards a commotion. She had over an hour alone in their dorm, once she managed to drag herself over the threshold. Something had to be done about the bleeding—if it showed through her coat, there would be no avoiding the infirmary. She raided the first aid kit in their bathroom for bandages, layering them over the wound until she stopped seeing red. After that, all it took was a safety pin, and she was free to put on the bindings and a set of spare clothes.

...And it also looked like she'd murdered someone in their bathroom.

After a lot of frantic scrubbing and accidentally pulling at the injury, the only evidence was her bloodied dress and jacket. She held them up, frowning, trying to think of an easy way to dispose of them. Before she had the chance, she heard the familiar click of the door unlocking. Weiss dove for one of her suitcases, shoved the clothes inside, and kicked it under her bed an instant before Ruby came barreling into the room.

"Weiss!" she blurted. "You won't believe what just happened! Penny just fought off a White Fang attack by herself!"

Ruby dragged a reluctant Penny into the room by her wrist, with Blake and Yang right behind them. Weiss found she couldn't quite look them in the eyes. She feigned surprise as best she could and asked about the attack. Penny seemed reluctant to talk about it, but Ruby eagerly filled in the gap, bragging on her behalf and practically vibrating where she stood.

"I can't believe I missed it!" Ruby waved her hands wildly. "I went to the bathroom and when I got back you were both gone!"

Blake's brow furrowed. "Wait, Weiss, you were at the dance?"

"Only for a moment," Weiss said, fighting to keep her voice steady. "I said hello to Ruby and then I left. I looked for you and Yang, but I couldn't find you."

Yang flushed. "I'm gonna—uh—makeup! I should take that off!" She ducked past them and into the bathroom. Blake watched her go, the corners of her mouth twitching in amusement.

Ruby groaned. "Ugh, Weiss, you suck! Why didn't you wait for me? We could have gone with Penny and stopped the break-in together!"

Weiss looked Penny square in the eye—but she didn't dare quirk an eyebrow, because quite frankly she'd give much better odds to Blake figuring out what that was supposed to mean than Penny. "I wasn't feeling well," she said.

Looking utterly miserable, Penny shifted from foot to foot and said nothing.

"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?"

"I'm better now. Just a bit of an upset stomach, that's all."

Penny glanced from Weiss, to Ruby, then back again. Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again—

"Weiss?" called Yang's voice. "Did you clean the bathroom?"

Drat. "Yes," she admitted, trying to sound bored as her heart thudded against her ribs. "Why?"

"How is that doing something fun during the dance?" Oh, thank the gods.

"I never agreed to that."

"Right," Yang sighed, as she walked back out of the bathroom. "Stupid me thinking you'd actually take care of yourself."

Penny fiddled with the bottom of her skirt. "Are you okay?" Ruby asked her. "Oh, no! Should I stop talking about the break-in? I guess that would have been really scary."

Weiss shot Penny a warning glare. Blake noticed, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. Penny looked back at her, squared her shoulders, and said, "I am sorry."

"Huh?" Ruby frowned at her. "Penny, why? You did amazing!"

"I told General Ironwood that I noticed an intruder inside the building. And that I fought a White Fang operative inside, who escaped by breaking a window. All of that is the truth, but there is other truth that I did not tell the General."

"Maybe we should talk about this tomorrow," Weiss interjected. "Clearly Penny is exhausted—"

"Go on," said Blake. "What happened?"

"Weiss was with me."

Her teammates' baffled exclamations jumbled together, until it was hard to tell who had said what.

"She was injured. I was not supposed to talk about it." Penny looked up, meeting Weiss' eyes with her wide green ones. "You told me the secret was more important, but I do not agree."

"You don't agree." Weiss' voice came out so cold and flat she hardly recognized it.

Penny's shoulders hunched a little, but she stood her ground. "You are hurt."

"Oh, really? I hadn't noticed!" Weiss took a step forward, and Yang's arm shot out to block her. She shoved it roughly aside, then snarled when it pulled at the wound. "I must be so stupid that I can't see what's right in front of me. Clearly I need someone good and wise to protect me from my own decisions!"

Ruby stepped in front of Penny, glaring fiercely at Weiss. "Stop it!"

"No."

Her head was spinning. All this time, all this effort, less than six weeks before she could finally be free, and it was crumbling right before her eyes. There was no escaping it now—her teammates would never let up once they knew she was injured, and no one could get a decent look at the wound unless Weiss unbound her wings. Her future was ruined. And all to help her.

Because of course it was. Of course Penny was right and she was wrong. Of course she had Weiss' best interests at heart. She'd see that someday, when she was older, when she'd grown up enough to understand the true complexity of the problem. Penny knew better. Penny had done her a favor. Penny had saved her from herself. Weiss should be grateful. Didn't she know how hard it was to argue with Father?

To hell with grateful. If she was going to lose everything, she was going to make it hurt.

"Maybe I don't agree with you keeping secrets, either," Weiss spat. "And that means it's my decision now, is that it? I get to tell whoever I want that you're a machine."

Shocked silence followed. Yang was the first to recover, just enough to say, "Huh?"

Penny didn't flinch. "I am the first artificial being capable of producing aura," she said, the words stiff in a way that suggested she'd had time to plan them. And then, softer, "I'm sorry I lied."

Blake and Yang just sort of... stared. Too baffled to speak.

Ruby didn't say a word, either. She rushed forward and threw her arms around Penny's shoulders, standing on her tiptoes so that she could reach. Weiss watched Penny's face go rigid with surprise, then relax into a sort of dumbstruck wonder.

"I... don't get it," Yang said. "What do you mean artificial?"

"I was never born like you. I never grew up. I was made, just like this." Penny gestured at herself with her left hand, because her right was still trapped in Ruby's hug. "I'm not a real girl."

"Hey, now." Yang threw an arm over Penny's shoulders, drawing her and Ruby into a sideways hug. "Don't talk like that, okay? Of course you're real."

Blake watched the scene, her bow twitching slightly. "I'm not going to pretend I understand all this... but it's pretty obvious to me that you're a person, whatever else is going on."

Ruby finally pulled away long enough to grin at Penny. It shook a little at the corners—she was hurt, but the softness in her eyes made it clear it was for Penny, not by her. "You're just as real as we are. We're made of gushier parts, that's all." She filled the words with a certainty worth killing for, a promise that deserved to be coveted, guarded with jealousy and with greed.

And then Ruby turned to look at Weiss. Waiting for her to say something.

She stayed silent, because you can't give what you don't have.

Penny left soon after that. It was late, and she had to get back to General Ironwood's ship before someone noticed she'd slipped away, because she wasn't technically supposed to be here. In her absence, the room was very quiet. Weiss stood there, looking from one teammate to another, waiting as the silence congealed.

Then, very softly, "I don't understand." Ruby's shaky smile fell away, revealing raw disappointment underneath. "How could you look at her and not see that she's alive?"

Weiss scoffed. "She has an aura, obviously she's alive. There's not much point debating philosophy when we can literally see her soul."

Ruby made a noise vaguely reminiscent of a teakettle. "Then why didn't you tell her that?!" she burst out, throwing her hands in the air. "Especially when it's your fault she's upset in the first place!"

"I don't know."

"You know, I feel really stupid now. Every time I think you're finally making progress, something like this happens again. I don't even know why I still care. You've been horrible to everyone I care about, and you don't seem sorry about any of it. The only thing I don't understand is... why?" Ruby's eyes flashed, as all that hurt and disappointment mixed with something hard and sharp as steel. "What is wrong with you?"

Weiss had never been one for giving up when she was backed into a corner. She wouldn't have gotten to Beacon if she was. Maybe it was the animal in her, or maybe it was proof she really was her Father's daughter, but she preferred to bite and scratch and fight to the bitter end. She was injured, and her team knew about it—but would they really go to Ozpin over it? Even Yang probably wouldn't bother forcing her to get treatment after tonight.

She turned her back on her teammates and faced the wall.

It was selfish, she knew, but she didn't want that. She didn't want to be the only one too foul for Yang to take care of. The only one too cruel to support Blake. Weiss could live with the animal who'd torn her parents' marriage apart... but not with the monster who finally broke Ruby's hope in other people.

She unbuttoned her jacket and shrugged it off her shoulders.

Didn't she owe them this much? Ruby was right. Weiss was horrible by nature and by habit, but normally she spent all her time with her family, who already knew that. Her team deserved some explanation, at least.

She undid the pins that held the end of the bindings in place.

Her fingers started to shake. What was she doing? It didn't matter what her team thought of her. It didn't matter what they deserved. She'd waited too long and endured too much to be free of this curse, and she couldn't give it up less than six weeks from freedom. She couldn't.

But it was too late. She was already here, poised on the edge of insanity, and in that moment of weakness she felt a familiar pull. That inner magnetism urging her to jump, because it wanted. She wanted. She craved what Penny had, what Blake had, what didn't belong to her and could never be stolen or taken by force. The wanting gripped her like gravity, and she fell.

The bindings landed on the floor at her feet.

Weiss had turned so that she couldn't see their expressions. She only heard the punched-out sound Blake made, as she choked on a cry of anguish so that all that came out was a hoarse croak. Their eyes burned into her back. Her wings prickled and tried tried to twitch, and another cramp seized her. She doubled over, and might have fallen if someone hadn't rushed forward and grabbed her arm.

"Don't touch me," she snapped. As she jerked away she pulled at the wound in her side, hissing through gritted teeth and pressing her hand against it. Yang backed up, keeping her arms still at her sides.

"Sorry."

"Stop apologizing!"

"Why?" Blake asked softly. "Did you think we were going to be angry?"

"Aren't you?"

Her eyes flicked over Weiss' shoulder, narrowing as they fell on her twisted wings. "Who did that to you?"

"No one. They grew wrong."

"Because you tied them down." Blake's hands started to shake. "Since you were a child, right? He told you to hide them, and he must have seen how badly it was hurting you, and he didn't put a stop to it. So, yes. I'm angry. But not at you."

"I am, a little," Ruby admitted. "You didn't have to do that to Penny. But... I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have yelled." She wrapped her arms around herself. "Um. I'd give you a hug, but I don't think you'd like that. So just... it's okay. We have to talk about some stuff, but we're okay."

Weiss bristled. This was it, wasn't it? They were angry for her. They didn't hate her. They were bending over backwards to make her feel better. And she hated it.

"Oh, just shut up. All of you! I'm not some victim, and I've already told you I don't want your pity." She grit her teeth through another cramp. "Let's get one thing straight. No one is making me bind them. Believe it or not, I'd rather not be a faunus bastard in the eyes of the world. I'm not one of you. I don't want them."

Blake looked like she wanted to be sick. "Hiding them doesn't make you human."

"I know. I'm not a child anymore, and I didn't tell you this so you would treat me like one. I told you because this is why I can't go the infirmary. That's my decision. If you want to go behind my back because you don't like it, I can't stop you. But don't you dare tell me it's for my own good."

"Okay," Ruby said softly. Yang and Blake both turned to stare at her. "We won't force you into anything," she insisted, "because we don't have to. It's not infected yet, so we'll start by making sure it's clean and bandaged right. Does anyone know first aid?"

Yang wiggled her hand back and forth. "A bit."

"I do," said Blake. "I was out of the kingdoms a lot as a kid, traveling, and not everyone had an aura."

"That'll help." Ruby perked up. "Oh! And we can get some of that cream Qrow uses when he doesn't want to go to a hospital."

Blake squinted at her and Yang. "When he what?"

Yang waved a hand. "He's stubborn about weird things sometimes."

"If that goes well, Weiss, and it doesn't get infected, you won't have to go to the infirmary. And if it does..." She took a shaky breath. "You must have seen a doctor sometime, right?"

"He doesn't know." Yet. "But... I could go to him. If I had to."

Ruby took a deep breath. "Okay. What now?"

"We should redo the dressings," said Blake. "And see if it needs stitches."

It did, as it turned out. Weiss sat on the edge of her bed while Blake knelt in front of her, wincing every so often. Not so much from the pain as from the feeling of warm hands at her side. The closeness. It made her wings prickle and twitch. Then it was over, and time to redress it. That used up the last of the bandages from the first aid kit.

"I'll grab some supplies in the morning," Yang offered. "I have some medication I'm supposed to pick up anyway."

After that... they brushed their teeth. They changed into pajamas. Yang fell asleep first, snoring while Ruby tossed and turned and eventually went still. Blake read by moonlight for a while after the lights went off, then set it aside and closed her eyes.

Weiss lay awake. She shifted slightly, taking a few deep breaths as her chest strained against the bindings. Even with the secret out, she still couldn't bring herself to leave them off in front of other people. But they itched, and her wings kept cramping worse than ever, and her mind was whirling. This... didn't feel right. It was too normal to be real.

She was pulled from her thoughts when she heard rustling from the other side of the room. Blake sat up in bed, her fists clenching against the blankets. Her breathing was fast and shallow. Weiss shut her eyes and feigned sleep, but she couldn't help listening.

"Yang?" Blake whispered.

A snore cut off with a snort. "Hm?"

"Can I come up?"

"'Course." Weiss heard bedsprings creak. "Nightmare?"

A shaky breath. Then, "My ears. They were all... all..."

"C'mere." There was more rustling. "Breathe with me. Nice and slow, that's it. You're safe."

They didn't speak any more after that—and Weiss didn't get to sleep for a very long time.

Never feed an animal, she remembered. It will only ever want more.