Early evening had rolled in faster than anticipated. Sun and Blake had spent the remainder of the afternoon together, wasting away the hours with all sorts of intimacy ranging from sexual to simply holding each other beneath the sheets. The two faunus were both utterly exhausted and content to remain in each other's company for the remainder of the night, but eventually, realization hit Sun. He looked to his side where he found Blake nestled up against his chest, her head atop one of his pecs and her arm slung across his stomach.
"…I said I'd pop in and see Yang sometime tonight. We were supposed to try to get back to meditating…"
"Go," Blake replied, though she made no effort to move herself from atop him.
"That eager to get rid of me?" Sun teased, rubbing gently at Blake's upper arm to try to spur her from her half-asleep state.
"Not at all, just… Yang needs us right now," Blake offered as she tightened her grip around Sun. "She's going through a lot, and I think we should try to have someone with her whenever possible."
"Are you worried about her?" Sun asked, furrowing his brows. "I mean, obviously, but like… worried that she might do something? Like…"
"I know what you mean," Blake interrupted as she opened her eyes and looked up at Sun. "But no, not like that. Yang's too… Yang to turn to self-harm. I'm not so much worried as… I guess, cautious? I don't want her to go through something like this alone. I tried to force myself to do it when Adam showed up at Beacon, and until you intercepted me on that boat, I was just miserable 24/7. Yang's too good of a friend to let her go through something like that."
"Well, fortunately, she's surrounded by friends… and also Neo," Sun mused. "We'll have her back, and hopefully she'll be more willing to open up about it over time to at least one of us. Maybe she already did with Corsac last night."
"Maybe," Blake agreed before taking a moment of silence as she stared into Sun's eyes. "Hey, before you go, should I cut my hair?"
Sun blinked, unsure if he had heard Blake correctly as he held her gaze.
"…uh, what?"
"I just… feel like making a change," the huntress continued, her feline ears flattening. "Not in the stupid anime-protagonist-cuts-their-long-hair-off-and-lets-it-blow-away-in-the-wind way, but just… something new. I think I'd look cute with shorter hair, and Vacuo is hot…"
"I think you'd look cute in anything," Sun replied as he brought his hand up to stroke Blake's hair. "But you're not wrong- Vacuo is hot. I think that if you want to get your hair cut, you should do it."
"What if it sucks?" Blake asked. "What if I end up looking stupid?"
"Then I'll cut mine too, and we can both have shitty haircuts," Sun offered.
"Don't," Blake said, her voice full of menace.
"Uh… okay, I won't…" Sun said, feeling as though he had just crossed some invisible line.
Blake took a deep breath and rolled off of Sun's chest, staring up at the ceiling.
"…sorry, that was a little intense. I just… really like your hair, that's all. It's one of my favorite parts of you. You can change it if you want, of course. It's just… I really like it all shaggy and wild. I wouldn't actually put my foot down or be upset if you did. That's… I'm not like that. I hope."
"I don't think you are," Sun reassured as he rolled to the side to cuddle into Blake. "But I won't change it, if it's really one of your favorite parts of me. That's a new one. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Because it's weird to say!" Blake complained. "Now I just feel stupid. Go see Yang so I can brood about my own social anxiety in the dark."
Sun chuckled and slipped off the bed, stretching and reaching for the ceiling as he took a moment to locate the clothing the two of them had haphazardly discarded all around the room.
"Sure this isn't just an excuse to get a look at one of your other favorite parts of mine?"
"I am completely entitled to look at your ass any time I want," Blake asserted, doing exactly that. "Dress more slowly, damn it."
Sun rolled his eyes as he followed the command, slowing the speed at which he pulled his boxers back on and making a show of it. He let the waistband linger just below his butt and gave Blake a little wiggle.
"Better?"
"Much better," Blake praised. "Now take 'em off again and start over."
"As much as I'd like to, you said it yourself. Yang needs us," Sun reminded as he grabbed a new pair of mesh shorts amid the pile of recently purchased clothing left atop the dresser.
"I was kidding," Blake admitted. "Mostly. Keep your scroll on, though? I might get lonely and text you."
"Of course," Sun replied. "Think it'd be weird walking around the house without a shirt? I mean, we're all cool, right?"
"Do you actually care if anyone has a problem with it?" Blake asked. "Besides- you hardly ever button the shirts you do wear. I doubt you even covered up in Solitas unless you were out in the snow."
"…good point," Sun admitted as he opened the bedroom door and stepped out into the hall. "See you soon."
Sun made the short journey out to the main living room in silence, half expecting to find the room empty. Instead, he found Yang in the kitchen alone, tapping away at her scroll.
"I'm gonna guess you're not burying yourself in some shitty mobile game?" Sun said, more to announce his presence and avoid startling Yang than anything as he sat on one of the bar stools at the free-standing counter.
"Talking to Qrow about Ruby," Yang said flatly without bothering to look up.
"…oh," was all Sun could think to say as his tail hung limply behind the stool.
After a few more taps, Yang set her scroll onto the countertop and pushed her palm into her eyes with a weary sigh. Soon after, she set her hand down atop the marble and shook her head, giving Sun a defeated look.
"Everything sucks, man."
"Just about," Sun agreed. "There's some good here and there, but… I doubt that's what you want to hear right now. Anything I can do to help?"
"You already do enough for everyone. Just… small talk would help if you're not busy, I guess," Yang suggested while cracking her neck to one side. "Distract me. I can't keep getting buried in this situation over and over between Dad, Qrow, even Jaune… you just had sex, didn't you?"
Sun didn't even try to guess at Yang's logic… and for once, he didn't feel particularly embarrassed by her brashness, either. Something about simply being alone with her and knowing that they had something so taboo in common was oddly reassuring in a way that he couldn't quite explain.
"I mean, yeah, but how can you tell? I already checked my chest for scratch marks, and Blake was actually pretty gentle this time…"
"You're clean in that department," Yang confirmed. "But your hair is a mess, and you're practically glowing. That's all I need to be able to tell."
"She does like pulling at it," Sun replied with a grin. "Maybe that's why… never mind. How was… you know. With Jaune, earlier?"
"It was good, but are you really up for trading details about our sex lives?" Yang asked with a raised brow. "I've got no problem with it if it stays between us and it might actually be kinda fun, but you don't strike me as the type."
"What makes you say that?" Sun asked, though he knew immediately that she was right.
"You may be content to wear everything on your sleeve, but you're also surprisingly wholesome and incredibly protective of other people you care about at all times," Yang explained. "I just don't see you being the type to talk about the details casually, given that it involves sharing personal stuff about Blake. The fact that it's about a mutual friend probably doesn't help, either."
"I… yeah," Sun agreed. "Not that I don't trust you or anything like that, I just… I'd rather not. If it was just about me, I wouldn't really care."
"No offense taken," Yang insisted with a wave of her arm. "New topic. How's your head?"
Sun reached up and pressed his hand to his hairline as if to check himself before answering.
"Not bad. Not great, but not bad. Maybe it's all just stress, and not some monumental oncoming thing with Ozpin… but I feel like the odds of that are slim, given our luck."
"Yeah, you and me both," Yang agreed. "Good call on considering the possibility it's him, by the way. We'll handle it better if we're all prepared. No matter what happens, though, you're still our leader. Not him."
Sun's tail began to move once again, gently brushing the wooden floor from side to side as he shifted in his seat.
"…you'd really listen to my calls over Ozpin's? He knows more about what we're dealing with than I do…"
"The dick completely screwed us over," Yang said angrily. "He was clearly withholding information this entire time, not just from us, but from Ironwood, too. Who knows how differently things would've gone if we'd have known that Salem is unkillable from the start. Even if he did come back and start telling us things now… he could still be hiding more. I wouldn't trust him for a second."
"And what if it starts getting hard to tell whether you're talking to him or me?" Sun asked. "Even in the brief time I knew Oscar, it was sometimes kinda hard to figure out."
"Sun, no one could imitate you," Yang answered. "Or at least, Ozpin couldn't. He doesn't function the way you do. He clearly doesn't have our best interests in mind… and I don't know what the hell his priorities actually are. No matter what, though, we can't worry about it until he shows his face again. We've got bigger problems, like getting to Vacuo."
"And getting you another arm," Sun reminded. "The safest move is to stay here until you're kitted out again, and then we can start making progress. We need to try to relax and clear our minds while we have the time. Are you still up for meditating?"
Yang let out a long sigh and put her hand on her hip.
"Gonna be totally honest with you, my man… I think it'd be a waste of time. Don't think I could get my head to stop buzzing right now. I need sleep. I need to get tired, first, and then I need sleep. I'm totally wired and stressed out, and I don't really know what to do with myself."
"I know the feeling," Sun said. "Like your body is tired and worn out from stress, but your mind is wide awake and if you tried to lie down, you'd just stare at the ceiling."
"Exactly," Yang agreed. "Feel like going for a run?"
"Feel like I might keel over if I try," Sun warned. "I'm pretty… heh, physically tired, too, to be honest. I did just get a lot of exercise…"
"You must've really let Blake have it, huh?" Yang asked with a smirk.
"I am not answering that," Sun replied. "Speaking of Blake, though… why not come hang out with us for a bit? I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Maybe we can all just make a pile of exhaustion on the bed and find a stupid movie or something."
"That actually sounds amazing," Yang agreed. "You sure it's fine? I don't want to get in the way of anything if you two had some cuddling planned."
"Yang, you're one of my closest friends at this point," Sun let on as he slipped off the stool and headed back toward the hall. "There are very few situations in which you could be 'in the way', and I don't think Blake would be too upset to cuddle with both of us. I mean… I wouldn't mind, either. C'mon."
"If you're sure," Yang resigned as she followed along. "I honestly could go for cuddling up between you two on a comfortable bed. That might even be enough to let me fall asleep."
"If you do, we won't move you. Promise," Sun replied before reaching the bedroom door. It was cracked, and he could hear a faint buzzing noise from within that caused his shoulders to tense. "Uh, maybe she's busy…?"
"What do you…" Yang began before hearing the noise herself and giving Sun a confused look. "…you don't think…?"
Sun bit his lip and peeked inside the bedroom, half expecting to see his partner in a compromising position upon the bed. Instead, he found the bed completely empty, and the buzzing slightly louder inside the room.
"Blake…?" Sun tried to no avail before stepping inside.
Sun followed the unusual sound toward the attached bathroom, where the door was wide open. Upon entering, he did indeed find Blake standing before the mirror with an electric razor in hand and more than a little hair on the floor around her feet. The faunus' eyes met in the mirror, and Blake's cheeks turned a furious red as Sun looked her over.
"I-I didn't know you meant you wanted to cut your own hair right now!"
"Well, uh…" Blake tried as she ground her teeth together and ran her hand along the side of her head. "Surprise…?"
Author's Note:
What exactly Blake did to her hair will be revealed in a bit… along with a large commission of the Vacuo crew in updated "Volume 9" outfits. Sun, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Harriet, ad Neo will all have completely new designs that last from here to the end of the story. Corsac's has already been posted on the AO3 upload, but he'll be included as well and keeping his 'monk' look.
-RD