I don't own anything.
With the fighting over, the weariness began to set in, and with it came the nerves that had curiously been blocked out in the fighting.
"Jau-" Blake began, but I wasn't having it.
"Stop." I cut her off. "We'll talk later." I told her, studiously not looking at her as we rode the elevator up to Ozpin's office. I was angry. Not because she had gone into a fight like that on her own, or because she hadn't told me about her past or her heritage, though those certainly stung too. No, in the end, all of those issues stemmed from one bigger problem. She didn't trust me.
Even after I forgave her, even after talking with her about the White Fang, after spending hours upon hours scouring the library for clues to find out who had killed her friend, she still didn't trust me. And that hurt.
I didn't have time for that, though. As much as I wanted to rant and rave and scream at her, I needed to keep it together for now. If the staff found out what she had done, and more importantly, why she had done it, she'd be in serious trouble. Sure, I wasn't happy with her, but I wasn't about to let her be suspended or expelled.
So, I was about to lie my ass off to Ozpin. Yeah, not my greatest plan.
Ding!
The elevator doors slowly opened into the hallway outside the headmaster's office. The hall was plain, with a single window on each side to let in some light during the day and a couple of chairs to wait in. On the other end was a wooden door with a brass doorknob with a clock design on it.
"Come in!" The call came from the other side, and I took a deep breath to calm myself as I walked in.
The office was spartan. That was an understatement, actually, the office was basically empty. The top floor of the 'Clocktower' of Beacon only had four pieces of furniture. A large desk upon which stood a singular coffee mug and a computer terminal, a couple of wooden chairs for us to sit in, and Ozpin's chair. A large, white thing with strange bits sticking out of the back and plenty of padding in the front, and on it, Professor Ozpin himself.
The man didn't look very old, despite his gray hair and cane. His skin was smooth with the exception of some crow's feet near his eyes, from laughter or stress, I couldn't tell. Aura was truly a wonder. The passive healing effect it had on most people made wrinkles and scarring from things like acne a non-issue, leading to an ageless kind of look in most aging huntsmen and huntresses.
The man was dressed in his customary black and green suit, though his scarf was absent, and so were the black glasses that usually obscured his piercing hazel eyes. I had seen the headmaster before, of course, in the halls and at initiation, but never from this close. The man cut an imposing figure.
"Ah, Mr. Arc, Ms. Belladonna. Take a seat." He pointed to the wooden chairs set up in front of his desk. Blake gingerly lowered herself down into hers, almost as if ready to bolt at a moment's notice. I didn't do it half as gracefully, simply too tired for anything else, as I just dropped myself into my own chair.
For a couple of moments, none of us spoke, and I felt almost like I was locked in a staring contest with the other man in the room. Gold measured sapphire, and it found something, whether it was good or bad, only time would tell.
"It would seem that the two of you had a rather interesting night." He finally began, and I could feel a wry smile coming over my face, even through the nerves that bubbled in my stomach.
"You could say that again sir."
"Hmm, indeed. A nighttime battle at the docks, White Fang and Roman Torchwick on the loose and hundreds of thousands of lien in property damage. Certainly not something I expected to be woken up for today." The man calmly took a sip of his coffee as he let us stew for a moment. Despite how calm he sounded, I knew that the man couldn't be too pleased with us.
"Now, I would like to know how all of this happened." It wasn't a question, it was a command. I saw Blake open her mouth, but I put a hand over hers, shelving my anger for a moment.
"We were investigating a murder sir." I said, drawing a raised brow from the man.
"Oh?"
"I don't know if you've heard, but a bookstore owner was killed recently, Tukson from Tukson's Book Trade." I continued on when I saw the man nod. "He was a friend of Blake's. We'd heard that there weren't many leads from the police, so we felt we had to do something if only for out peace of mind." I wasn't actually lying yet, so it all came out quite naturally.
"And how, pray tell, did that lead to an all-out brawl at the docks with a man like Roman Torchwick?" Now for the hard part, the actual lying.
"We had found a lead that the White Fang might have been involved in the murder, and we found a little evidence that there might be something going on at the docks tonight. It wasn't enough to alert the police, but we couldn't not check it out." I said, taking a deep breath before going on. "When we got there, the plan was to simply watch from a nearby rooftop and call the police if we saw anything. When they arrived, Blake tried to take a better look and slipped off the roof." I told him, and his eyebrow rose just a little higher.
"So, I used Professor Port's beacon to call for help and I went down there to stall for time. As much as we didn't want to get involved, sir, I couldn't just let a teammate fight her way out of that on her own." I told him, mixing both half-truths and lies into the story. The bit about just watching and alerting the police was an outright lie, I hadn't even known where we were going before we arrived at the docks. And while I hadn't wanted anything to do with the fight, Blake certainly had.
"Hmm, an admirable trait for a leader to have." Ozpin hummed, nodding as he took another sip of his coffee. "Well, I cannot fault you for an accident, so just this once, you are getting off with a slap on the wrist." He said, and I almost deflated from relief, but he wasn't done. "Rest assured, though, that if this happens again, I will not be so understanding again."
I tensed for a moment, and I felt Blake do the same next to me. If Ozpin noticed, though, he didn't show it. Simply lifting his mug and gesturing towards the door with it. "Off you go now, students. Have a good night." The man dismissed us.
As we walked out, I never noticed the video on the man's screen. It was a CCTV recording of Blake jumping down into the docks.
"Jaune…" Blake started again, having been completely silent as we walked back to our dorm. We were about halfway there, but it seemed that we would be doing this now. I could see the music room up ahead, and I knew that it was never locked at this time of night. So, I walked over to it and pulled the door open.
"In here." I told her, holding the door open for her. The girl froze for a second, at my tone of voice, or the fact that I was finally talking to her, I didn't know, but I wasn't really in the mood to care either. I closed the door behind me and sat down on one of the stools arrayed around the room. Blake stayed standing.
For a moment, we just sat there in the silence. Oh, so she wanted to talk all the way here, but now that we could she didn't have anything to say? "You wanted to talk? So talk!" I snapped, my patience running thin.
"I… I'm sorry." She said, continuing after a moment. "If you want me to leave the team, I will. I'll apply for a transfer to a different academy or something, anything. But, I'll leave if you want me to." She said, her voice hitching slightly as she spoke.
"What?" Perhaps not my most eloquent answer, but it had been a long day. "Why would I want you gone? I just lied to Ozpin of all people to get you out of trouble for Gods' sake!"
"But I'm a Faunus, Whit- Ex-White Fang even." She almost stuttered in response, shocked at my reply. I could hear my blood pounding in my ears as my anger spiked. She thought I cared about that? She obviously wasn't with the White Fang anymore if she'd literally just attacked them! And why the hell would I care if she was a Faunus. I asked her as much.
"Then why are you so angry!?" She snapped, her confusion turning to frustration.
"Because you don't trust me!" I snapped back, standing up as she took a step closer to me. "I put in time and effort to help you find Tukson's killer, I did my best to help you every step of the way! And still, you decided to go out alone, no backup and no plan! What if you had been injured? What if you had died? What the hell would I have told our team? Even now, you stand here and you don't trust that I would still care just because you're a Faunus or because you USED TO be part of an organization!" I shouted, and we were almost nose to nose now.
"I…" Blake began quietly, but she leaned forward instead. And suddenly there was something warm and soft on my lips. It was so sudden that I didn't even kiss her back, I just stood there, a hint of strawberry on my lips when she pulled away.
She turned her face to the side, away from me, taking my inaction as a rejection. My hand came up, lightning quick and turned her head back to me before I leaned forward and smashed my lips into hers. I wasn't the most experienced kisser, but passion made up for it, and anger made for good fuel.
We stood there for a while, relishing in the taste of one another, but eventually we needed to breathe. We pulled away from each other, but I didn't let her go far, and wrapped her in a hug.
"I'm angry because I care." I whispered into her hair. It smelled of vanilla and wildflowers, the scent calmed me as I continued. "You're my teammate, my friend, hell maybe even more than that. I don't want to see you hurt. And I want, no, I need you to trust me."
Blake pulled back a little, gold met blue. "I do trust you."
"Do you?"
"I do now." She said, and she leaned forward again.
We stayed there for a little while longer, simply basking in one another until we finally had to go back to our dorm. When we got to the door, though, I couldn't help but give Blake a wry smile.
"You know, you're going to have to explain this to Pyrrha and Weiss, right?" I asked, and the deer in headlights look that she gave me only made my smile widen. I leant forward and idly pecked her on the lips before opening the door and walking in, leaving her in the hallway, stunned.
Wow, 1k follows is much more than I expected on this story, tbh. It's kind of fitting that this is the chapter that hits right after that milestone, though. This last scene has been planned since Chapter 1, but it was going to be a lot more explosive. I don't know why or how, but the relationship with Blake became a lot more tender than I planned. I like it though, what do you guys think.
Also, I'll respond to a couple of reviews here. First off, the White Fang members did all have aura. I rewatched the fight from the show and they didn't bleed or die when they got hit by Sun's staff or Penny's swords, so they should have aura.
Also, the plan was originally to have one of them die to Jaune and him having to deal with that realisation, but I scrapped the idea because I have a better idea planned for his first human kill.
Anyways, as always, have a good one!
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