Morena stares at the bare interior of her room from her seated position on top of her bed.
It has been a week since the expedition returned back to the World's End. A week the shek warrior has mostly spent confined to the bedroom rented for her due to the injuries she sustained in her fight against the cannibal chief.
A week in which she has nothing to do but rest and contemplate her own shortcomings.
There are many of them, to the point that if she has been serving under a shek battlemaster or a warchief, she would already have her horns shorn and sent to work in fields or mines.
Instead, she is serving under Wolf.
That fact alone would be enough to earn the disapproval of many veteran warriors back home. After all, her people see flat skins as weak and cowardly, bereft of honor.
But again, none of them has seen her battlemaster in action. They haven't seen his loyalty or skill at arms. They haven't seen his wisdom.
They haven't seen him overcome the odds, again and again, which would have seen them fail and perish.
"When did I start thinking of death in battle as a failure?" Morena asks herself. For the shek following the way of the warrior, dying in battle is the most honorable death one can wish for.
Yet when she thinks about her fight against the red-skinned berserker that smelled of blood and how close she came to death at its hands, she can see no glory, only failure, and defeat narrowly avoided.
It is thanks to Wolf's master, the girl with white hair, that Morena managed to survive that fight. It was Chief Weiss who drove the blood-soaked butcher away before it could slay the shek warrior.
Another shortcoming added to her list.
Then there is Healer Valentine who held of an entire horde of enemies on her own. Even though she used what other shek may call dishonorable methods, Morena only finds it admirable.
And lastly is her battlemaster. He was the one who resisted powerful magics of the cannibal king and slew him. It is thanks to his actions that many were saved from the cages of the flesh eaters and were brought to safety.
Morena has no doubts that if Wolf had died back there, Kral would have welcomed him to his side. Yet she can't help but feel restless at the thought.
She doesn't want her battlemaster to perish.
Which is another thought that Morena finds unusual.
And it frustrates her, having all these new thoughts and feelings yet not being able to understand or explain them.
In the end Morena is more suited for action than thought like most Shek are. It is how her people deal with things, through action. Any thinking, brief and direct, is usually done in order to define the course of action that needs to be taken.
Not having a clear course of action, she finds herself in need of guidance.
But the one who she can trust explain such things, the one she calls battlemaster, is deep asleep in a recovery coma.
She doesn't doubt that he will wake up. Her battlemaster is tough.
She just hopes that she doesn't have to wait for long.
Valentine checks the vitals of her patient for the tenth time today.
On the medical bed prepared for him, Wolf lies motionless except for the rise and fall of his chest that accompanies each breath. He is completely naked aside from the bandages covering his wounds and the thin bedsheet spread over his legs.
Ignoring her patient's state of undress, Valentine checks Wolf's breathing first, idly noting the stubble that has grown over his chin along with the length of his hair. Then she checks his pulse followed by his heartrate, and body temperature.
For patients under heavy risk, such frequent attention isn't unusual and considering the ordeal Wolf went through, he should definitely qualify.
Except he doesn't.
The full check-up she performs on Wolf every day tells her that her patient is not only stable but actually recovering from his injuries, at least physically.
Honestly, at this point, Wolf doesn't even need her attention anymore. She can safely delegate him to one of the medics and go do something useful with her time.
But she doesn't.
Instead, she checks up on Wolf every day, several times, personally.
One part of the reason is that her employer, Weiss Schnee, demands so. Except it is not really a valid reason since as the trusted medical expert, Valentine is pretty confident she can convince Weiss that Wolf doesn't need her personal supervision.
The real reason is much more simple.
Valentine is fascinated by Wolf.
Wolf is unique, both physically and mentally.
At their first meeting, Valentine had thought Wolf to be yet another dumb brute led by his lusts. So she had decided to string him along and see how long it took to frustrate him enough to reveal the animal she thought he was.
She had basically piled all the work she had onto him which Wolf had done without complaint. Seeing that he was more patient than she expected, she had rewarded him with candy, believing it would be enough to break that patience.
Instead of getting angry as she had expected, he had simply made his intentions more clear. This had been the first sign that Wolf was different. Not a big or a clear sign, but it was enough to pique her interest.
So she had rewarded him according to his desires, deciding that trying to figure out what kind of person he is to be an entertaining enough endeavor for her free time.
The second hint Wolf was unique presented itself when he faced the mutant chieftain on his own early in the journey. He displayed skill and discipline far above the most animals that called themselves humans did. But it was the blow he took to his hand that indicated at his inhuman capabilities.
No broken bones, only split skin whereas anyone else would have had every bone in their hand shattered.
The third hint came at the ambush at Stoat.
Valentine's skill at combat was one of the reasons why she was picked for Weiss Schnee's request. Last Hope saw a valuable ally in Lady Schnee thus they had tasked their best with her safety on top of performing duties of a medical expert. So Valentine had shadowed the young noble when she had left the safehouse in stoat, only taking along with her a handful of armed guards including Wolf.
When all the mercenaries in the bar had turned on her employer, Valentine had fully expected Wolf and others to step aside except perhaps the shek.
Wolf hadn't. He had been preparing to cut his way out when she had made her presence known to him. She gambled.
Wolf didn't disappoint her then.
Watching him cut through the enemies standing his way, taking them apart with precision and strength. It had been an impressive sight, one that got her blood pumping and turned her interest into something much more.
That day Wolf proved to her that he was different than common animals that made up the rest of the human race.
Which is why she was royally pissed when he returned from a fight against some dumb land sharks with a crushed leg. When she learned the injury was the result of another act of accident from the shek girl, she had even entertained the thought of arranging an 'accident' for the clumsy oaf.
It was only when her anger had cleared that she realized that Wolf should have lost that leg rather than only suffering a minor fracture. Despite her lack of a brain, the shek girl was strong enough to strangle a bull and she had swung her plank with enough strength to punch through high-quality steel.
Such a level of resilience was above human.
Just like that, Valentine had found herself truly lusting after someone for once in her life both as a person and as a doctor. And Valentine knew how to get what she wanted.
She also learned that even with a leg injury, Wolf is capable of outlasting her.
Afterward, she had offered Wolf personal lessons on basic medicine and human anatomy when he showed interest, figuring it to be a good way to learn more about him.
She had discovered that Wolf was actually intelligent, enough at least that teaching him wasn't a chore.
Things had settled into a sort of normalcy after that as the expedition made its way through Okranite territory and to the Cannibal Plains. Between her and Wolf, Valentine didn't really think there would be any situations that they couldn't get out of.
Then they learned that Lady Schnee's friend was held captive inside the cannibal capital.
At first, Valentine didn't expect anyone to join Weiss Schnee in her suicide mission. Of course, Wolf once again proved her wrong much to her frustration.
She didn't really have any obligation to follow those two into certain death at that point. If she had stayed behind, no one, not her superiors, not even Wolf and Weiss would have blamed her. Moreso, it would have been prudent and logical.
Except, Valentine had grown attached to the adorable and suicidal puppy named Wolf. Therefore, it was off to the Cannibal Capital.
That decision had led to her discovering the supernatural capabilities Weiss Schnee held. There were many she took notice of, from some sort of forcefield like barrier that had protected her from harm to the giant ethereal warrior she had summoned that had covered their escape.
She had also done something while Valentine was operating on Wolf, trying to sew together an eviscerated lung and a grazed heart and along with slashed intestines.
Such injuries should have had killed him, despite his inhuman resilience. He had simply lost too much blood while Weiss and Valentine along with the help of a prisoner had carried him out of the ruins of Deadcat.
There simply hadn't been enough time left to stitch him back together when Valentine had started operating.
It was then, Weiss Schnee had put her hand on Wolf's cheek and started reciting a chant. At first, Valentine had thought that Lady Schnee was saying her personal goodbyes or perhaps some sort of prayer. Then a blue glow had covered both her employer and Wolf and under her very hands, some of Wolf's minor injuries had started to close on their own with supernatural speed. It was nowhere near enough to fully heal him, but it bought her the much needed time for her to stabilize the wounded ex-samurai.
What she had seen then has been plaguing Valentine's mind ever since. Curiosity has been slowly burning her from the inside, only tempered by her self-discipline and sense of professionalism.
After all, she has to nurse her suicidal puppy back to health first.
Then she can indulge in her own desires.
Loneliness is something Weiss Schnee is intimately familiar with.
Being a child of the Schnee family, Weiss had lived an isolated life inside her family's mansion for much of her early childhood. She had been educated by the finest private tutors money could buy and had her needs tended to by servants in her family's employ.
She had lived like a fairytale princess.
Except those tales never mention how lonely such a life is.
Unable to make any friends, Weiss had turned to her family to deal with her loneliness. For a long time, it had been just her, her older sister Winter, and her mother Willow. Her father, Jacques had been distant at best, spending most of his time managing the company and she had been unable to establish a close bond with Whitley, her little brother.
The situation hadn't been ideal but it had been tolerable up until Weiss's tenth birthday when her father had revealed that he had only married her mother to gain control of the Schnee family company. Her mother had turned to alcohol to cope with her grief and two years later, Winter had left for Atlas Academy to forge a life for herself free from her father's control.
Weiss had been truly left alone then, with only her family's faithful butler, Klein, providing her with a positive source of companionship.
The loneliness she had endured through those long years had been cold and painful until she had found her second family in team RWBY who had given her the companionship she had never realized she so deeply craved.
And Wolf had done the same, much like team RWBY had.
She had hired the ex-samurai to have someone watching her back, someone she could at least rely on not to betray her at the first sign of profit.
Wolf had done far more than that. He had not only put his own life on the line several times for her sake but he had also stood by her side when no one else did.
Without him, Weiss couldn't have rescued Blake. For that alone Weiss owed Wolf a debt that she couldn't even hope to repay.
But more than that, Wolf had also saved her from her solitude. She hadn't realized how much she had been suffering until Wolf came into her life and started worming his way into her heart.
It had been gradual, their relationship starting purely professional. Then, Wolf had begun carefully pushing the boundaries, bit by bit. At the start, Weiss had tried to accommodate him as much as she can, allowing him certain privileges like nicknames and some amount of casualness, but had kept a certain distance between them.
Then came Stoat and Wolf proved Weiss that he is someone she can trust, dispelling any doubts she had about him. As such when her bodyguard started to push into her personal boundaries, Weiss had allowed him. She had begun to open up, sharing with him bits of her own past.
It hadn't taken long for their relationship to grow beyond that of an employer and employee. Wolf had continued performing his duties with competence and professionalism and on the surface, everything had looked the same but things had changed between them nonetheless.
Even though she finds herself unable to point exactly when, since none of them had ever bothered to openly acknowledge it.
Regardless, this past week has shown Weiss just how important Wolf has become to her. His absence hurts just as much as Yang's or Ruby's. Wolf's and Blake's current conditions occupy Weiss's every waking thought to the point that she can barely focus on her own duties as a leader.
Too busy with everything that is on her mind, Weiss doesn't even notice the door to her office opening until one of the medics that are working under Valentine steps inside.
"Lady Schnee. My superior has sent me to inform you that your bodyguard has woken up."