41

Chapter 41Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"... I'm not going to say that I'm happy about this," Weiss started, standing before Blake at a comfortable distance, the heiress having taken an entire hour long shower while Ruby had pinned Blake to her bunk and prevented the black cat Huntress from jumping out of the window and running into the night in the wake of her reveal. "Because I genuinely… I don't know… I didn't… expect any of this."

For someone so small, Ruby was astonishingly good at making sure someone was entirely immobilized- though, a large part of that was just because Ruby had tackled her and wrapped her cape so securely around Blake's body that not even her shadow clones would get her out.

Either way, she had the opportunity to run now, since Yang and Ruby were taking their shower and sink bath respectively, but… she had to talk to Weiss. To… to try and clear the tense air that had erupted once the white Huntress had stood up in a huff and all but stormed into the bathroom in the wake of Blake explaining her checkered past. The protests, the riots, the assassinations, the robberies, the arson, the terrorism- all of it. Not a single detail left out from the moment she came out to her parents at nine, transitioned from age ten to twelve, ran away from home, and joined the White Fang from there- all the way to the point that she joined Beacon as a student. 

"I wouldn't expect you to be. For… for what it's worth, I'm so-" Blake found herself cut off in the middle of her apology as a delicately manicured fingertip came to rest on her lips. "Huh?"

"I wasn't done talking," Weiss huffed, tapping her fingertip against Blake's chin before continuing. "I'm not happy about this reveal being so late , but I understand why you told us almost an entire month into the semester. It takes time to build trust, and it took me time to unlearn my bigotry and instinctive hatred of faunus. Without Ruby pointing me your way, I would have blown up at you by now. As it is… I'm sorry. I can't do anything to stop the SDC from treating faunus like slaves. I can't force my father or the board of directors to be less awful. I can't make them stop exploiting the land and draining it dry of all it's worth. I miss the family I lost, the people who left and never came back. The people who I thought I could trust but still stabbed us in the back- but I know that… not all of them were the good people I once thought they were. And as much as I disagree with the methods… I'm not going to fault you for doing what you thought was the right cause at the time."

She paused, then gave Blake a lopsided smile as she rested her hand on the taller girl's shoulder, her gaze softening slightly as she raised herself up slightly to get a better angle. "Besides- you're the one who taught me the most about why I was wrong to believe what I did. To put it more vulgarly than I'd like… fuck cops. I don't trust most White Fang members as far as I could throw them, but you… you're Blake. Our Blake. I trust you. And… thank you for trusting us as well."

Blake sighed, matching Weiss' smile with a decidedly lopsided and wobbly smile of her own, as though trying to force down her own emotions as she leaned forward and swept Weiss into a gentle, slightly awkward hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I- I almost panicked when you got up and just left like that… Ruby had to hold me down… and then Yang sat on both of us. I'd say it was excessive but I almost did run… whatever- the point is… I really wish I hadn't hid that part of my past from you all as long as I did. It… wasn't right of me to do that. And I'm sorry. For…"

"Stealing an entire train full of Dust for a terrorist organization that assassinated some of my cousins and continuously blows up anything branded with my family name on it?" Weiss deadpanned, rolling her eyes as she raised her hand up and awkwardly bapped the back of Blake's head in gentle admonishment. "As much as it… sucks that you did that, it's in the past. I don't blame you for not wanting to tell everyone your secrets the moment we all came together, nor do I blame you for doing things that you thought were right at the time. Neither of us can change that, and you're a good person and a good friend now . Just… maybe don't do it again unless it's necessary?"

"I'll save the train robbery for another day, I suppose," Blake laughed, pulling away slowly from Weiss before sitting down on her bed and shaking her head. "It's almost surreal, how much… lighter it feels now… just… knowing you all accept me for who I am. I'm… I'm glad. And also not used to talking this much. I don't know how Ruby calls herself the antisocial one when she's better at talking than me."

"She's not antisocial, she just has social anxiety," Weiss answered, tossing Blake a water bottle from the minifridge under Yang's desk (and politely ignoring the twelve pack of cheap beer that the blonde had stuffed in the back for a "rainy day") before moving to sit on her own bed. "If not for her crippling lack of learned social skills, she'd be a never ending word vomit of interesting weapon facts and bullet designs. Trust me, I know. We all know. Yang better than either of us, I admit, but still."

"Mmm… speaking of- weren't you going to ask Ruby about an upgrade to Myrtenaster? What were you thinking for it anyway?" Blake asked, taking a sip from her bottle as she snuggled under her covers, having changed into her pajamas after deciding it was late enough that casual clothes weren't the way to go. "I can't imagine there's a lot of ways to upgrade something with so few moving parts as yours."

"That's why I'm going to ask Ruby about ideas- she knows I'm more of a supporting fighter at times with my glyphs, so I might ask her to help me bolster my combat power in case I ever need to fight solo… like day three of Professor Port's class." Weiss grimaced, looking away and trying to hide her rather annoyed expression.

"You mean the class where you volunteered to fight a Creep and got your ass handed to you until you actually stopped focusing on the grimm and instead listened to what Ruby was yelling from across the room?" Blake asked, raising a teasing eyebrow at Weiss, who responded with an indignant huff to try and salvage her pride, stomping her foot petulantly before turning away and grumbling.

"I did not get my ass handed to me! I merely made a simple tactical error-"

"Which made you drop your sword, at which point you nearly got rammed through a desk-"

"-I had it handled! And I killed it in the end anyway!" Weiss spluttered, glaring at Blake with about as much vitriol and heat as the snow she was named after, both of them chuckling a moment later. "But yes, in case that happens again, I'd like to be able to fight more evenly with something larger and stronger than me, even if I already have my glyphs."

"Maybe you should also get a holdout gun, just in case?" Blake suggested lightly, making a finger gun and miming a shot at Weiss, who just shrugged in response.

"Maybe. I'm not entirely comfortable with handling firearms at this point in time. I know we have to be certified in at least one gun before we can graduate Beacon but… it just feels too awkward to have a rapier and a pistol. And sometimes I need both hands free to channel the Dust in Myrtenaster, and I can't do that if I have a gun in my other hand," Weiss sighed, shaking her head. "I'm willing to bet Ruby could make it work somehow … but I have a few doubts overall. Not that I doubt her skill at weaponsmithing… just… my own skill to be able to quickly and efficiently adapt to such a new form of fighting."

"You'll be fine- as long as it's not too different. I took to my new Gambol Shroud just fine in the last few days, didn't I?" Blake hummed, picking a book from her shelf and leafing through to her last bookmark. "Same principle, in theory- and even then, if you have to learn a new fighting style, who better to teach you and make you a new weapon than the girl who's literally full of them?"

"Thank you for reminding me once again that we sleep in the same room as an approximately four hundred kilogram ball of shrapnel, grimm flesh, high explosives, and potentially unstable Dust mixes," Weiss groaned, palming her face as she shook her head again. "And now I've reminded myself that I'm in more danger than you because for some gods forsaken reason, Ruby sleeps in Yang's bed more than hers, which means she's directly above me!"

"Best of luck, then," Blake hummed, snickering to herself as she started reading her book properly, all but ignoring Weiss now to signal the more or less end of the conversation.

Fortunately, before Weiss could go on, Yang opened the door to the bathroom with a very much snoozing Ruby in corgi form tucked in her arms like an adorable bean shaped baby. 

"Right, Ruby tuckered herself out and fell asleep under the warm water tap so it's bedtime. We're going into Vale bright n' early tomorrow, so probably best for us to sleep too," Yang stated, easily climbing the ladder up to her bunk as she settled in without a care in the world, already halfway falling asleep as she snuggled into her sister and the myriad pillows she always kept on her bed.

"Well… alright then. Goodnight Yang. Goodnight Blake," Weiss nodded and settled into her covers herself, eyes already closing as she let out a quiet yawn of sleepiness (and somehow seeming quite at ease despite the previous rant about how many explosives Ruby had tucked away in her body). Blake nodded silently, shutting her book and flicking a playing card into her hand from seemingly nowhere- throwing it across the room until it perfectly knocked the light switch into the off position, plunging the room into comfortable night time darkness.

Blake sighed, leaning back and into her half-nest of pillows.

"Goodnight everyone."

[I need you all to know that every time I draw Yang, my first thought is always "I need to get across visually that this woman has the FATTEST girlcock you've ever seen"]

[Also, yes, her belt says XIAO LONG]

[And her leg is, literally, just Yang Xiao Long (Sun/Small/Dragon)]