6

Chapter 6: Good Morning

"...and that's pretty much it. After that, we just kinda... " Yang made a wave motion with her arm. "Go'd with the flow."

Blake smiled as Yang finished speaking. She looked at the sleeping heiress, reaching over to brush a strand of hair from her face. "So… did she like it?"

Yang smirked. "Oh, yeah. Took her a little while to get comfortable, though. Weirdly, I think Ruby being there helped her a bit."

Blake nodded, smiling back at Yang. "I think that was really sweet, you helping Weiss get through that."

Yang blushed a little at the praise. "Yeah, well, I think she just needed someone to vent to." Though she tried to laugh it off, she raised her arm a bit, resting her hand on Weiss' head, fingers over white hair.

"Really?" Blake said, an idea forming at the rather tender act. "Sure there wasn't any... other reason?" she asked with a smirk of her own.

Yang sent her a joking glare, well aware of what Blake was going for. "Yeah, actually, it was all an elaborate ploy to get into Princess' pants. You cracked the case, Sherlock Blake," she said sarcastically.

Blake giggled a bit. She glanced towards the wall clock. Nine a.m. "So, should we wake up Ruby and Weiss?"

Yang thought about it for a minute, then shook her head. "Nah, let 'em sleep. Besides, it's Saturday. Perfect day to laze around in bed."

Blake rolled her eyes at her partner's laziness. Although, with the way the sunlight was shining on her, and how warm and soft Ruby was on top of her…

"Works for me," Blake said, closing her eyes, feeling like she could go back to sleep herself.

She relaxed for about ten minutes, just listening to Weiss and Ruby breathe softly in their sleep, her ears twitching whenever one of them gave a particularly loud snore. After a while though, she started to get the feeling she was being watched.

"Something wrong, Yang?" she asked, her eyes sliding open.

Yang blushed at being caught. "Sorry, it's just... " Her eyes drifted to the top of Blake's head.

Blake blushed in kind. It was only then that she realized that, aside from the night before, this was the first time Yang had seen her ears. Actually, this was the first time anyone outside the White Fang had seen her ears. Now that her heat had passed, there was nothing occupying her thoughts, nothing to distract her.

If anything, it made her feel even more naked than she already was.

"Yes…?" she asked hesitantly, feeling wary.

Yang glanced up at her ears again, before giving an awkward smile. "Can I?" she asked softly.

Blake swallowed. If it had been anyone else, she would have taken that question as an insult. Her ears were not some novelty to be gawked at and fussed over. That kind of attitude made her blood boil fairly often.

But… this was Yang. Blake knew her, how she thought. There was no ulterior motive, no underhanded reason. Just simple curiosity.

With a little trepidation, Blake nodded her head. Nodding back, Yang raised her free hand, gently cupping Blake's ear.

"Soft…" she whispered as her fingers rubbed lightly against fur. She carefully traced her fingers from the tip of Blake's ear to the base, feeling the subtle shift from fur to hair.

Blake tensed at her touch. It had been so long since someone had touched her ears so gently, haze of heat notwithstanding. A small shiver went down her spine as Yang trailed over the point where her ears met her skull.

The rumble in her chest was sudden, involuntary. With a sharp intake of breath, she stopped, eyes wide as she flinched away from Yang's touch.

Yang pulled her hand back, worried. "Did I do something wrong?" she asked.

Blake looked at her in shock. Yang thought she did something wrong? Blake was the one who… did she not just hear what Blake did? The very obvious, very un-human sound she had made?

"D-didn't I just…?"

"Purr? Yeah." Yang cocked her head to the side. "Isn't that… a good thing? I thought that meant that you were happy?"

Blake felt a blush forming. "Y-yes, technically… but…" She gave Yang an odd look. "You don't think that's… weird?"

Yang just stared back, confused. "Should I? Is purring a bad thing?"

Blake was utterly confused. "You don't think it is?"

Yang raised an eyebrow, baffled. "Why would I? You were purring a lot last night… among other things."

Blake's eyes widened. "I was?" she whispered, mortified.

"Pretty much every time we took a break. You'd curl up next to one of us and start purring. We thought it just meant you were happy." She frowned. "Were we wrong?"

Blake looked back into her questioning eyes, a slurry of emotions forming in her gut. "It's… complicated."

Yang's eyes narrowed slightly, a rebuttal on her lips. Blake spoke quickly to explain. "Look, it's just… I haven't let myself purr in a long time." She swallowed. "I'm not really comfortable talking about it."

Yang's look grew sympathetic. She was quiet, before asking, "Do you want to, though?"

Blake glanced away. After debating in her head, she gave Yang a long look. "I'm not really… supposed to."

Yang furrowed her brow. "Why? Is it a Faunus thing?"

Blake gave a stiff nod. "...Faunus have been trying to prove to humanity that we are no different from them for decades. But… we are, in certain ways. Purring, growling, barking, just… things that we instinctively want to do… but when we act like… like animals... " she said the word with disdain, "we tend to get treated as such."

Yang's eyes widened. "Blake, I… you know I'd never…"

Blake shook her head at her. "I know you wouldn't." She looked down at the sleeping Ruby, then over to Weiss. "None of you would. And... " She smiled at Yang. "You have no idea how happy that makes me."

Yang smiled back. "No problem." She paused, her voice growing softer. "Y'know… You purring wouldn't change that."

Blake tensed at the thought. She knew Yang was telling the truth, and… hell, after last night, purring seemed rather tame by comparison. Still…

Blake took a breath, forcing herself to relax. She looked nervously at Yang. "Could you… scratch my ears again?" she asked, blushing.

Yang gave her a small smirk. She reached up gently, just barely ghosting her nails over skin.

Blake practically melted at the touch. She leaned towards Yang, prompting the blonde to scratch harder. Her lips quirked at the feeling.

Deep in her chest, Blake could feel the trembling sensation building. For a few seconds, she held back, but Yang's words played in her head. With a shaky breath, Blake purposefully let go for the first time in ten years.

Yang's grin grew as Blake's rumbling filled the room. A look of contentment formed on the Faunus' face, a true smile stretching across her lips.

Blake had been so tense and guarded the last few months. Even after getting outed, she always distanced herself from the rest of them, even though Yang was starting to suspect Blake didn't even realize she was doing it. It made Yang feel like a bit of a failure that Blake couldn't even let herself trust her own partner.

So seeing Blake so undeniably, honestly happy put a warm, fuzzy feeling in Yang's chest.

First Weiss, now Blake. If this Huntress thing doesn't work out, maybe I should be a counselor… nah, too boring.

Blake's purring held steady as the minutes ticked by. Yang was starting to think that she could stay there all day, listening to Blake purr and Weiss snore on top of her.

"...uh?... wazzat?"

Yang stopped scratching at the noise, causing Blake to pause in her purring. Their attention was drawn to the head of red-tipped hair raising itself from Blake's chest.

Silver eyes blinked sleepily up at Blake's surprised face, Ruby smiled. "Oh.. morning Blake."

Blake recovered quickly. "Good morning Ruby."

Ruby tilted her head slightly. "Are you feeling better now?"

Blake smiled softly at the concern in her voice. "Much, Ruby, Thank you."

Ruby just nodded happily back. "That's good." And with that, her head fell back onto Blake's chest, eyes closed.

Now Blake tilted her head. "Did… she just fall back asleep?"

Yang snorted. "No, she just wants us to think she did. Don't ya, sleepy head?"

A single silver orb slid open at the blonde. Ruby's only response was to stick out her tongue before closing her eye again.

Blake and Yang chuckled at her childishness. Blake turned her gaze towards their last still-sleeping team member. "Think we should wake Weiss up now?"

Yang looked down at the girl in question. "Yeah, we are three for four. Might as well complete the set." She gave Weiss' shoulder a small shake. "Weiss? Oh, Weiss…!" she whispered. The heiress groaned a little, but stayed asleep. Yang shook her a little harder. "C'mon Weiss. I know I'm comfy and all, but it's wake up time."

This time worked. Weiss gave a groan of discontentment. "Uh… Yang…" she muttered, half-asleep as she pushed herself up, lifting her head from what she thought were pillows. "What is so importa-" She cut herself off as she opened her eyes, head still down.

Those weren't pillows.

She slowly looked up, finding Yang's smirking face inches from her, laughter in her eyes.

"Morning, Snowflake."

Weiss' face tinted pink, the color growing deeper and deeper as the rush of memories came flooding back.

Ruby opened her eyes again at the lack of response. "Is Weiss okay? She's turning really red."

Yang stifled a snort, glancing briefly at Ruby. "I think her brain's melting."

Weiss' eyes slowly panned across the bed, Blake stifling a laugh as her face grew redder and redder as she observed Blake and Ruby's position and their lack of clothing. The topper was when she slowly looked down at herself, and the look on her face as saw nothing but skin. She tilted her head up mechanically.

"Yang?"

"Yeah?"

"...we're naked."

"Yup."

"And we all…?"

"Uh huh."

"Oh. Oh. Ooohhh, dear." Weiss' head slowly lowered itself down onto Yang's chest, her face a deeper shade of red than Ruby's cloak. Weiss' face was almost disturbingly blank as she just stared off into nothingness.

Yang chuckled. "Aaaand we broke her."

Ruby, however, looked concerned. "Weiss?" she asked, lightly poking Weiss' cheek. "You okay?"

Blake grew slightly worried when Weiss' only reaction was to dimly focus on Ruby's finger. But then Weiss closed her eyes, taking and releasing a deep breath. She opened her blue eyes, the makings of a smile on her lips. "I'm fine, Ruby. Just… wow." She let out a nervous laugh. "We, uh, we actually did that… didn't we?"

"Yep," Yang said, brushing a strand of hair from Weiss' eyes. When Weiss looked up at her, she smirked. "Pretty fun, wasn't it?"

Weiss rolled her eyes a little, though the smile never left her face. "That's one word for it, I suppose."

"So… can I say, 'I told you so', now?"

Weiss lightly punched her shoulder. "Don't push it," she grumbled, still smiling. Then her eyes trailed back to Blake. "Are you, um… back to normal, Blake?" she asked awkwardly.

Blake nodded, her never-ending grin widening. "Yes, Weiss, I feel much better. In fact," she let out a happy sigh, her head falling back to the pillow, "I feel wonderful."

Yang laughed at the look of contentment on Blake's face. "Wow. Girls, we are good."

"Oh, hush," Weiss chided, slapping Yang's arm. Though, she did feel rather accomplished at seeing Blake's happiness. She looked at the clock. Almost ten. "We should probably get up soon."

"Aw, c'mon Weiss, it's the weekend," Yang pouted.

Blake resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Sorry Yang, but I agree. Nice as this is, there are some things I want to do today."

Yang shot her a half-hearted glare. "Traitor…" she groaned. She turned her attention to her sister, who had once again closed her eyes. "Rube, I think we've been beat. Get up."

Ruby opened a single eye, and stared at Yang for a second.

"No," she said tersely, reaching behind her and pulling the covers over her head.

Yang rolled her eyes. "Ruby, get up."

"No."

"Ruby, get off of Blake."

"But she's waaarm…" Ruby whined, eliciting a blush from Blake.

Yang deadpanned at the covered bundle lying on top of her partner. She looked at Weiss, then at Blake. She smirked.

And promptly shoved Ruby off the bed.

"Wha-?!" THUD.

Yang chuckled, only to start laughing as Weiss frantically tried to cover herself, as the sheets had followed Ruby right off the bed. She shot Yang a glare.

"Oh, lighten up, Princess. Ain't like we didn't see everything last night." Weiss' only response was to glare harder, blush deepening.

Ruby popped up, finally untangling herself from the sheets. "Yaaang! No fair!"

Yang just laughed. "All's fair in love and war, Sis."

Ruby pouted. Then she smirked. "Well, in that case… dibs on the first shower!"

"Wait, wha-"

In a blur of red, Ruby flashed to the dresser, then the closet, then to the bathroom door. She stopped after opening the door, a bundle of clothes in her arm, giving the three a mock salute.

Blake pressed a hand to her mouth, stifling a laugh at the leader's antics. But then, just as Ruby was about to enter the bathroom, Blake noticed something strange. For just a second, she could have sworn she saw something red and purple on Ruby's left shoulder. Her eyes widened.

Was that…?

Ruby disappeared into the bathroom, the click of the lock echoing in the dorm.

"Oh, she did not just do that!" Yang yelled as she pushed herself up, Weiss sliding off her to the side. Blake leaned back as Yang climbed over her, watching as the blonde ran to the door and tried to open it. "Wha- I thought I broke this last night! Ruby, today's my day to shower first!"

"I can't hear you!~"

"LIAR!"

"And just like that, we're back to normal," Weiss grumbled, pulling the sheets up from the floor to cover herself. As she leaned down, her hair fell to her right side. Blake looked at her, and gasped.

No.

Weiss froze at the sound, looking to Blake in alarm. "Blake? What's wrong?" Blake said nothing, just staring at Weiss with wide eyes. Confused, Weiss followed her gaze-

"What the…?"

On Weiss' left shoulder, just beside her collarbone, was a spot of deep purple two inches across, around which was a ring of what were unmistakenly teeth marks.

Weiss tentatively place her hand over the mark. Her face scrunched up in confusion as she ran her fingers on the raised edges of the bite. "When…?"

"Whoa," Yang said, having noticed the pair's reactions. Weiss looked over at her, eyes widening as she pointed.

"Yang, you have one, too!"

Blake's head snapped towards Yang right as the blonde looked down. Sure enough, Yang had a twin of Weiss' mark in the exact same spot.

No no no.

"Hey, guys?" Ruby called uncertainly from the bathroom. "Do any of you have a bite mark on your shoulder?"

Yang looked towards the room. "Yeah, Ruby. We do, too." She then raised an eyebrow as her eyes panned over to Blake. "Except Blake," she added.

"Oh. Okay." Ruby went silent as the shower turned on.

Blake just stared dumbly at the marks, head swiveling between Weiss and Yang. "I… I don't…"

"Heh." Yang let out a laugh, suddenly smirking. "Didn't peg you for a biter, Blake."

Blake's cheeks tinted horribly, still stunned. "I… I…"

Yang giggled. "Relax, Blake. It's just a little love bite. It doesn't even hurt." Her expression then turned thoughtful. "Weird, though. Don't really remember this from last night."

Blake swallowed, Weiss shooting her a look. Weiss then grumbled a bit about how she hoped she could hide the bite with her clothes collar.

Blake mustered up a smile, her ears tilting back slightly. "S-sorry. Must have been a… 'heat of the moment' thing."

Yang blinked at her, before laughing. "Dang, you stole my joke!"

Blake laughed back as Weiss rolled her eyes. "You and your puns…" she muttered as she got off the bed, walking to the dresser holding the sheets around her. "So, what do you think the lockdown was for last night?"

"I dunno. They'll probably tell us later today."

Blake held her smile as she watched Yang and Weiss get ready for the day, catching the shirt and pants that Yang suddenly threw her way. As she slipped them on, however, she kept her eyes glued to the two bites on her friends, contrasting against their clear skin, mocking her.

On the outside, she smiled.

On the inside, she panicked.

This… this isn't right… it's… it's just like Yang said, just a few love bites, nothing more… they're not… they can't be… I couldn't have given them…

With growing dread, Blake flared her aura slightly, just a tiny pulse that no one would notice. Her stomach dropped when both marks faintly glowed purple, Yang scratching absently at hers.

...a Mate's Mark.

Professor Ozpin's Office

Professor Ozpin frowned down at the scroll in his hand. On his desk sat a cup of coffee, cold and forgotten.

He looked up across the desk. Glynda Goodwitch stood on the other side, looking grim.

"You're sure this is all the information they took?"

"Yes, sir," she said, frowning.

Ozpin let out a sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Whoever broke in is long gone by now. Lift the lockdown."

Goodwitch nodded, spinning on her heel as she left the room.

Ozpin looked out of his window at the morning sun rising in the sky.

"Who are you?" he asked himself, looking towards the city of Vale off in the distance.

Unknown Location

He watched the video for the hundredth time. Little Red zipping across the docks. The cat Faunus fighting off White Fang like it was second nature. Monkey boy making a mockery of his efforts. And the orange haired girl…

What kind of kid can shoot laser beams?!

Roman threw down his scroll in frustration. Things used to be so easy. Run around town, smash and grab, make a quick buck. And the White Fang had seemed like such a good idea, too. More people, more hands, more money in his pocket, more guns if things went south. Perfect!

And then Little Red and her freak parade showed up.

Roman slumped into his rolly chair, rubbing at his nose. He glanced at the clock.

She should be here by now. Where the heck-

Creak…

Roman's head popped up, smiling slyly as his favorite partner in crime walked through the door, clad in bright pinks and dark browns, a parasol perched on her shoulder.

"Neo!" he called out happily. "My favorite little thief-slash-hitgirl! Did you get it?"

Neo rolled her mismatched eyes at his overreacting. She reached into her blouse and fished out a flash drive.

Roman's grin grew. "I knew you could do it! Now.. come to papa!"

He made a grab for the flash drive, only for Neo to pull it away, holding it over her head. She raised an eyebrow, before rubbing her fingers together with her other hand.

Roman pouted, but dug into his pocket. "Oh, fine," he grumbled before tossing a yellow packet at Neo.

Neo caught it easily, opening it. She pulled out a stack of Lien, flipping through it lazily.

Roman rolled his eyes. "It's all there. Twenty thousand, just like always, ya little bloodsucker."

Neo smirked at him, tossing over the flash drive. She then sighed as he fumbled his catch, nearly dropping it. Finally, with a cry of victory, he caught it, excitedly scooping up his scroll as he plugged the drive in.

He smiled gleefully at all the new information pouring across his screen. Names, pictures, weapons, skills, team names, everything he could ever hope to know about the students of Beacon Academy.

"Okay, Little Red," he said to himself. "Just who are you?"