I don't own anything.
"Little black submarines, operator please put me back on the line
Told my girl I'd be back, operator please, this is wrecking my mind
Oh, can it be, the voices calling me, they get lost and out of time
I should' a seen it glow, but everybody knows, that a broken heart is blind
That a broken heart is blind
Pick you up, let you down when I want to go to a place I can hide
You know me, I had plans but they just disappear
To the back of my mind
Oh, can it be, the voices calling me they get lost and out of time
I should' a seen it glow, but everybody knows, that a broken heart is blind
That a broken heart is blind."
"That's a beautiful song, you know."
I glanced up, meeting Blake's eyes as she walked into the music room.
"Oh, so you're talking to me again?" I asked, unamused.
It was evening now; the day having passed by in the blink of an eye with all the things I'd had to do. Not only did I get my weapon upgraded, but the team had gotten together afterwards to map out the rest of the city and come up with a schedule for the patrols we would do.
And all throughout that, Blake had been giving me the cold shoulder. I knew why, of course, she was angry that I wouldn't let the team fight the White Fang directly. I could even understand her frustration, she felt that it was her responsibility, as an ex-member to clean the organisation up.
The fact that I understood why she was mad didn't make it feel any better, though.
"It's not like that."
"Isn't it?" I asked, strumming the guitar tunelessly as I heard her move closer. Honestly, I wasn't even sure how I felt about the whole thing. On the one hand, she was clearly upset, and I wanted to help her with that. On the other, I still stood by my reasoning for making the decision that upset her in the first place. If I had to pick between her being upset at not getting to fight the White Fang or her dying because Torchwick didn't feel like joking around a second time, I would pick option number one every single time.
A hand landed on my shoulder, and I stilled at the touch.
"It isn't."
"Then what is it li-" A pair of lips landing on my own cut me off. It wasn't a tender kiss like those we had shared before, it was angry, full of fire like that first spark we'd had here. Come to think of it, that had been during an argument as well.
There was no time for thinking now, though, and I pushed back. At some point, I had stood up, but I couldn't remember when. The guitar I'd been holding had clattered to the ground as well, but I couldn't bring myself to care as I put my hands to work, pulling Blake closer as our lips stayed locked.
After a moment, I pulled back.
"Blak-" She interrupted me again, and I couldn't stop the feeling of annoyance rear up as she did so. It was quite obvious that she didn't want to talk about it, but she could have just said that instead of trying to distract me from the argument. I pushed back harder. Her hands settled in my hair, and as we hit the room's wall, she bunched them up and pulled on my hair. In surprise or for some other reason, I couldn't tell, but while it stung, it didn't feel bad.
I wasn't sure how long we were stood there, pushing and pulling at one another as our lips remained locked, only separating for a brief gasp of air before ramming back into one another.
"We should get back to the dorm." Blake said in a breathy voice during brief moment of separation. I nodded, even if my body screamed at me for it, desperately wanting to continue. I ignored it, though, if we wanted to get started patrolling the city, we'd need to go now.
The walk to the dorm was made in silence, neither of us really in the mood to talk. The moment of intimacy had done little to fix the issue we'd been having. If anything, it had made it worse. Despite how much I had enjoyed it, it was more than clear that Blake had done it not only to work out her own frustrations, but to distract me so we wouldn't have to talk about the issue.
The doors clicked open quietly, and inside, both Pyrrha and Weiss were already sat waiting for us. They were sat on Pyrrha's bed, a scroll projecting a holographic version of the map we'd marked into the air between them. As we walked inside, they turned to us, but after taking one look at us, Weiss' eyes narrowed.
"What took you so long? You went to get Jaune half an hour ago."
"Couldn't find him." Blake said quietly, sitting down next to her partner as I did the same with Pyrrha.
The redhead gave me a smile and a nod, even as Weiss went off on me for not staying where I'd said I'd be on such an important night. A smile crossed my face, though, as I thought of what Weiss might do if she ever discovered why we were actually late. It was an amusing thought, and a good way to block out the rant. Would she grow red and splutter, or would she get angry that we'd wasted her time? Or would she grow angry that I was 'tainting' her partner or something along those lines.
Evidently, she noticed the smile on my face and instead of continuing to berate me, her hand slapped into my shoulder. That only made my smile grow wider, though, when the hit barely took a sliver of aura.
"Shouldn't we get started?" Pyrrha interrupted the byplay, smiling all the while.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want to waste too much time, would we?" I asked rhetorically, only getting a huff from Weiss.
"Alright, let's go over the plan one more time." I said, gesturing at the map. "There are 489 sectors to check. We need to look at each one and make sure that the companies who own the buildings are on the up and up before moving on to the next. We start here-" I pointed at the furthest part of the map, all the way at the northern docks. "And work our way closer to Beacon."
Weiss, Blake and Pyrrha nodded along as I outlined the plan, chiming in every so often to add something to it. Eventually, we got to the last issue by the time the clock struck eleven.
"So, who's coming with me first?"
I had expected both Blake and Pyrrha to jump on it. Pyrrha, because she was my partner and Blake, well, either to spend time with me or just to try and put a stop to the White Fang as fast as possible. And while both of them spoke up, Weiss was the real surprise.
"I will go." She said simply, getting weird looks from both of our other teammates. "What? Is it so strange that I would volunteer to go first?"
"No…" Pyrrha said, though she still remained sceptical.
"Look, I just want to get this over with. And besides, I need to talk to Jaune about his Dust casting training."
That was the end of it, it seemed, and soon enough Weiss and I were out of the door and headed into the forest.
"So, where was this path again?" Weiss asked for the third time as frozen leaves crunched underfoot.
"It's just along the cliff." I pointed at the overgrown path that ran along the stone wall. It was neither maintained nor was it used enough to combat the growing weeds and grasses that now covered it. So, unless you knew it was there, it was virtually impossible to tell it was there.
"How did you even find this place?"
"If you go into the forest nearly every night, you kind of start to get to know it." I said in a dry voice.
A growl coming from my left alerted me to a danger, and I quickly spun as I heard it move. Weiss had her hand on Myrtenaster and was halfway to drawing it, but I hadn't even bothered.
Beowolf
Level 14
As it flew at me, I stepped out of the way of its charge and kicked it in the back as passed me. When it fell to the ground, I simply stomped down onto its head as it scrambled to get back up, crushing its skull and faceplate underfoot.
+ 1560 Dust
"You really have come a long way." Weiss noted, giving me an appraising look as the Grimm corpse dissolved. For once, there was no biting tone and no hidden insult that I would have to return. It was all in good fun now, but it was… nice to have a regular conversation with the white-haired girl.
"Thanks."
It was quiet for a while, and we reached the wall of Vale without any more trouble. As we did, I looked over to my partner for the night.
"Need a boost?"
"Ha! As if I'd give you a free show." She quipped, gesturing for me to go first. Instead of hopping up and grabbing the top of the wall to pull myself up, I just jumped straight to the top, landing on it with only a slight stumble. Looking down, Weiss seemed to have the same idea, landing hopping up and landing on the wall with an inordinate amount of grace.
How she made it look that easy in a pair of heels, I would never know.
As per usual, the residential district was nearly empty at this time of night. But, a quick check on my scroll revealed that there were apparently still busses running for those few that were still up. So, I walked to the nearest bus stop with Weiss in tow, checking what line we needed to get to the northern docks.
"We're taking a bus?" Weiss asked, and the look on her face told me that she wouldn't be accepting a 'yes' here.
"It's a four hour walk to the docks."
"Then we can take a taxi, but I am not taking a bus like some kind of peasant!"
"Fine, then order a cab, but you are paying."
Arguing about it would be useless, and a cab would probably be faster and more comfortable anyways. If the heiress wanted to spend her money on that little bit of extra comfort, then who was I to judge.
It only took 10 minutes for a cab to arrive, and we got in quickly. I quickly listed the address we'd be starting at and soon enough we were on our way. This late, there was little traffic on the streets, and it didn't take us long to finally arrive at the northern docks.
What followed was, well, incredibly boring.
A mission to stop the White Fang from using an Athlesian superweapon sounded exciting, it was anything but. There was no fighting, no subterfuge not even sneaking around to avoid their guards. No, there was just a lot of walking and looking into the various owners of the warehouses and office buildings that we passed.
As I crossed off another sector on the map, the buildings inside of it having belonged to a fishing company that had apparently had a scandal with underpaying their Faunus staff, we got to talking again.
"So, when do you plan to get started training your dust casting." Weiss began as we walked to the next city block.
"As soon as I can, I guess." I replied as I noted the name plastered across the side of the warehouse we were walking up to. "It sort of depends on when you have some time. I have a lot of free time during the day since I do so much of my schoolwork at night."
"Lucky." I gave her a smirk, of only she knew. "Maybe this weekend then? I can take some time to make sure you don't blow yourself up."
"Hey! I'm not that bad."
"Ruby managed to blow herself up in her first hour at school, and I don't exactly expect much more from you of all people." Weiss deadpanned.
"I mean, weren't you the one who shook a vial of volatile dust in her face in the first place?"
"Shut up!"
The work may have been boring, but the banter kept us awake, and I would be lying if I said that the thought of training on dust use with an expert like Weiss didn't get my blood flowing.
Hi everyone! What did you think? Some unresolved issues with Blake, a nice scene to show Jaune's relationship with Weiss and the start of the Paladin incident.
BTW I just crossposted this to AO3 under the same username and story title.
Anyways, have a good one!
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