11

Chapter 11: Emoting

Earlier…

Spin. Lightning Dust. Click!

BOOOOM!

A robot exploded.

Spin. Fire Dust. Click!

BOOOOM!

A robot melted.

Spin. Ice Dust. Click!

BOOOOM!

A robot froze in its tracks. Literally.

Weiss' body moved like it had a mind of its own, dodging and leaping around the room. There was no thought, no strategy. Just straight instinct. Like a girl possessed, she felled training bots left and right, though not a single one was cut or slashed by her rapier. Each one met its end in a violent, spectacular explosion of Elemental Dust, which Weiss' thumb kept changing the type of every shot.

The room was nearly empty of students. Most had fled the room after a particularly excessive blast of Earth Dust sent a robot flying so hard and far across the room that two freshmen nearly got crushed in its path. The few who were brave enough to risk the heiress' wrath had wisely retreated to the upper stands, so they could watch the unfolding carnage in relative safety.

Not that Weiss noticed. Truthfully, she had yet to have a coherent thought since entering the room, her mind distracted by its needed reliance on motor control. Still, certain words and phrases kept springing to mind, even as she evaded strike after strike.

...mates… in heat… animals… White Fang… no better… took everything… tired of… pushed around… don't want to force you… biting one another… betrayal… no less… loved…

Spin. Ice Dust. Click!

BOOOOM!

Spin. Earth Dust. Click!

…

...Spin. Lightning Dust. Click!

…

Weiss looked down at Myrtenaster.

The Dust chamber was empty.

She spun the cylinder all the way around.

All of the Dust chambers were empty.

Instinct screamed at her to duck. She did so, just avoiding the metal fist that passed through where her head had just been. With an upward slash, Weiss decapitated the robot, sending its metallic corpse skidding across the ground.

Realizing that that had been the last active robot, Weiss' hand automatically moved towards her scroll, strapped to her hip, ready to call for more. With a jerk, she stopped herself.

She blinked.

As if seeing for the first time, Weiss looked around her. What had once been a training hall had now become a scrapyard. Disembodied robot limbs were everywhere, and the whole room smelled of ozone and burning metal.

Weiss took in the carnage. She was breathing hard, and her arms suddenly felt like lead. She placed Myrtenaster back in its sheath, and her shoulders slumped. She suddenly felt very tired. She turned away from the destruction, not even having enough energy to spin on her heel. She walked across and out of the room, never noticing the flabbergasted and, in some cases, terrified faces watching as she left.

As if they had a mind of their own, her feet carried her down the hallways. She passed a few students, none of which she said anything to. She thought she heard someone try to say something to her, but she didn't seem to notice.

A cool breeze made her dimly aware that she was now outside. Her head, which had never once stopped staring at the ground, lifted as she came to a stop. In front of her was a tree.

Weiss looked away from Ruby, who was chatting away about some new weapon modification she had seen, not having realized that Weiss had tuned her out a few minutes ago. Weiss' eyes scanned the groups of student, when she spied a familiar bow. Looking closer, she could see Blake sitting under a tree, enraptured by a large novel in her lap.

Apparently sensing eyes on her, Blake looked up. She blinked as she and Weiss made eye contact, before giving a kind, if awkward smile. She sent a little wave at Weiss.

Weiss, surprised, gave a smile and wave of her own.

Blake's smile widened a little bit, before returning her attention to her book.

Weiss stared at the tree. Without thinking, she moved underneath it and sat down.

She just sat there, listening to the crickets chirping as the sky darkened. Words kept playing in her head, the voices that had said those words starting to blur together. She tuned them out.

She felt… tired. And angry… though, whether by time or exhaustion, the utter rage she had been in earlier had bubbled down to a simmer. Not even nearly gone, but… at least she could think straight again.

"Why, Blake?" she asked aloud. When only the crickets answered, her thoughts turned inward. I was trying. I was blocking it out; I was blocking him out. The words, the thoughts… I had a lid on them.

Brown ears and a yellow tail flashed into her mind.

Velvet and Sun… I'm almost there. I see them nearly every day, but I'm almost to the point… They're not Velvet the Rabbit Faunus and Sun the Monkey Faunus, they're just Velvet and Sun. No different than me… at least, not in the way that matters. I was so close to that point…

She closed her eyes as tears trailed down her face.

So why do this to me?!

Five minutes. In five minutes, Blake's words and revealed actions had utterly destroyed Weiss' month-long attempt of mental reworking. The carefully, painstakingly crafted barrier she had erected around her thoughts and actions had shattered, every repressed thought surging forward in a single moment.

Blake… made me her mate.

Mates.

Humans do not have mates.

Animals have mates.

Faunus are nothing but-

"NO!" Weiss shouted aloud, before slamming her hand over her mouth. After a moment, her eyes slid closed, her hands clenching into fists.

No, she repeated in her head. No, they are not animals. They are not less than human. Those are not my thoughts, not my ideas. Those are his ideas, his views. I. Am not. Him.

Dust damn it, I'm crying again.

Weiss quickly wiped away her tears. She glanced around the grounds, finding herself completely alone. She let out a long sigh, wrapping her arms around herself.

Why, Blake?

Why do this? Why make us your Mates? Why all of us?

Why me?

Weiss knew very little about Faunus Mates. The little bit of research she'd managed to do between schoolwork and training had not gone very far into that aspect of Faunus culture. She knew of the history, from the first meeting of Men and Faunus, up until the Faunus war. She learned various Faunus customs, mostly political and social necessities. Faunus Mates, however, were apparently saved for later volumes than the one she'd been reading.

Still, what little she did know, mostly from passing references or cues for social gatherings, was that Mates were an important concept to Faunus kind. Though she'd apparently not fully understood how important until recently.

And apparently… she was now Blake's.

Why? she thought desperately. How? Why would she do this to us? And why now? Why not later? Is it…

Is it because of last night?

Weiss could feel the heat rushing to her face as memories replayed in her mind.

The previous night was… an experience. One that Weiss had never imagined herself having, never even given it a thought. Now it was all she could think about.

It had been... Nothing like what she'd thought. As she'd gotten older, Weiss had always had a rather clinical view on sex. The act of reproduction, of creating life. From her earliest teachings, that was all it was, a sentiment her private teachers planted in her no doubt on her father's orders. Of course, as she aged into her teenage years and began to discover the world outside the bubble she'd been placed in, she'd realized there was much, much more to intercourse than she'd been taught. However, between lessons, training, and the duties of an heiress, she'd never had the chance to look into anything. There wasn't the time. It wasn't important. It was something she would learn about later in life, in the far future.

Leave it to her team to shatter yet another of her world views.

It was… Dust, how could she even describe it? Like Ruby, it had been her first sexual encounter… and her second… and her third…

Weiss' face burned crimson.

Definitely not a typical first time.

And yet… she didn't regret it. Not even remotely. Why?

Because of what she'd learned. Not so much about the act (though she had learned some rather… interesting things about female-female sex), but rather, what she'd learned about her teammates.

Ruby was shy and bashful, yet at the same time, firm. Her nervousness had been obvious, but not cripplingly so. To Weiss' embarrassment, though they were both inexperienced, Ruby had, likely without realizing it, taken charge, and Weiss couldn't help but follow. Though, even with the situation, Ruby was still Ruby, so caring, compassionate and considerate, that Weiss never felt uncomfortable with her.

Yang had been gentle and patient.

Yang. Gentle and patient.

Those three words shouldn't be able to exist in the same sentence… not without the words "is not" separating them.

Yet, that's exactly what she'd been. The girl was made of solid muscle and her hands were rough with callouses, yet her touch was feather soft. She let Weiss set the pace, which was obviously much slower than Yang would have liked, yet Yang never once complained. She simply smiled with an almost alien softness, one that Weiss couldn't help but return.

And Blake…

Blake was… beyond description. The whole time she never said a word, which Weiss had learned was what usually happened when a Faunus purposefully gave into their heat. But she didn't need to speak. It was almost as if she could read Weiss' mind. Like Yang, Blake let Weiss set the pace, but it was more than that. Whereas Ruby had taken charge, Blake had given it. She gave Weiss total control of the situation and the soft smile on her lips said why: she wanted Weiss to be happy. That was all there was to it.

And there was no denying it; Having Blake curl up at her side, purring loudly as she rested her head on Weiss' shoulder, was simply the cutest thing Weiss had ever seen.

The main thing Weiss had learned, however, was this: throughout the night, no matter who she was with at the moment, Weiss felt the same thing… safe. Whether she was with Ruby, Yang, or Blake, she felt safe, happy… cared for.

Weiss had, through complete chance, learned the difference between having sex and making love.

And last night was definitely the latter.

Which made the current situation all the worse.

Weiss lifted her hand, reaching into her shirt collar until she could feel it: the small ridges of scabbed teeth marks. Its existence baffled her. At no point in the night did she remember Blake ever biting her, Ruby, or Yang. Past that, though, she was more confused as to how it was still there.

If Blake had bitten her at some point after she'd fallen asleep (which must be what happened, it was the only thing that made sense), then, even asleep, Weiss' aura should have healed the wound by now. There shouldn't be any bruising or scars; her aura should have…

Weiss' eyes widened.

"In order to create that bond, two Faunus have to give a portion of their aura to their partner…"

Blake's aura. She… she injected me with her aura. It must be keeping the bite from healing.

There… there's a piece of Blake inside me.

Weiss suddenly felt very ill. Aura was a Hunter's life. It healed them, protected them. Some even believed that aura was a person's soul, made tangible to protect the body it inhabited.

And now Weiss had a piece of Blake's floating around inside of her.

Weiss' hands clenched again in a desperate attempt to calm her skyrocketing nerves. Calling on her lessons, she closed her eyes and looked inward.

As important as aura was, it came with weakness all its own, though few seemed to realize it. From Grimm blood to poisons to even rare Semblances, there were several, if rare, ways a Hunter's aura could be compromised.

And a Hunter without aura was as good as dead.

As such, Weiss knew how to scan her own aura for defects or oddities. It was a lesser-known skill, but with the money her father had shelled out for private tutors, Weiss had easily found someone who could teach it to her (along with a myriad of other obscure skills her father had deemed 'necessary' for her to know).

So it was little issue for Weiss to scan her body, searching out her own aura. Like a reflection of the frigid personally she sometimes showed, Weiss' aura was a well of uniform white, clean and pristine.

Well, except for the pitch black shadow floating near the center of it.

Weiss crinkled her nose. It was one thing to see and feel the bite on her shoulder, it was another to see a piece of foreign aura hovering in the middle of her own. What was strangely disturbing was just how obviously alien it was. Despite the wispy, almost fluid way her and Blake's aura appeared, the black shadow of aura stayed uniform, despite it looking like it should mix and fade into the sea of white aura surrounding it.

Weiss 'stared' at the piece of aura for what felt like an eternity. The foreign aura was obviously what was keeping the bite from healing fully. So maybe if it was removed…

Weiss frowned. Something felt… wrong when she thought about expelling Blake's aura from her body, but she couldn't explain why. Like a lingering feeling in the back of her mind, so close to being remembered, yet remaining forgotten. Weiss shoved the feeling away.

I didn't ask for this, Weiss repeated in her mind. Yet curiosity lingered in her mind. I wonder… She mused as she 'looked' at the wisp of black aura.

Not quite sure what she was doing, Weiss tried to 'reach' for the foreign aura. She knew how to manipulate her own aura to focus in different parts of her body, so it shouldn't be too difficult to-

Weiss inhaled sharply, her eyes flying open. She took a slow, shuddering breath.

It was faint, an echo weakened by time and distance, but Weiss felt it all the same.

When she 'touched' the aura, a wave of emotions washed over her. A soft sort of happiness, an urge of protectiveness, and a very tender emotion that Weiss didn't feel comfortable naming.

Weiss felt them all.

And yet none of them were hers.

Weiss sat there, absorbing it all. Her feeble attempts to explain or deny what she was feeling petered out quickly.

Is that really what she feels? Weiss asked herself. She huffed in frustration, feeling even more conflicted. Her eyes slid closed, focusing back on the extra aura inside her, questioning what to do.

…

...huh?

Weiss' eyes blinked open. She looked around in confusion. There was no one around, nothing that could have disturbed her. She frowned at the ground. Maybe…

Her eyes slid closed again. A few moments later…

Her eyes opened, her brow wrinkled in thought. There it was again! Almost like a… tugging sensation? On my aura?

Determined, Weiss shut her eyes and purposefully focused on the phantom feeling. It was weak, but distinct. Like her aura was being… pulled… in two different directions. Curious, Weiss, eyes closed, turned her head towards one pull, upwards and a little to the left…

Weiss' mouth popped open in shock.

It was a second mass of aura. That… shouldn't be possible. Yes, there were individuals who could sense other people's aura, but Weiss was not one of them. And even if she was… this was nothing like her textbooks had described.

Someone else's aura… how could I…? That's when she noticed the color. This mass of aura… solid black, surrounded by violet… just like…

She 'looked' at the aura inside her.

Blake…

Weiss felt the tug again, a little stronger than before. A small wisp of white aura stretched outward, towards the mass of black. Weiss focused on stopping it, but…

She 'looked' at her aura, then at Blake's, then back again.

I wonder if…

Back in the dorm, Blake was curled up on her bed. She chewed her lip nervously as she tried to focus on the book open before her. Ever since Ruby had left to find her sister, Blake had poured over every book she had on Faunus relationships, even resorting to searching the web with her scroll, trying to find a comprehensive way of explaining to her potential Mates exactly what that meant. However, she kept hitting the same roadblock.

Humans.

Outside of that single book, she could find almost nothing, but NOTHING, about Faunus/human mating. Oh sure, there were plenty of references to human and Faunus relationships, from social interaction to dating to even Faunus/human marriage. But when it came to a Faunus taking a human Mate, from Mate's Mark and beyond, there was absolutely nil on the subject. As for taking multiple human Mates? Forget about it.

Not to say she had found absolutely nothing. She was able to piece together a few coherent points from some of the books and a couple web sources. But the information was so barebones that Blake still felt like she was going into this blind.

The most infuriating part, however, was simply how simple it should be. As she read each book, everything just made sense. Everything clicked for her, even the most minute obscure details. But it was when she took a step back and looked at the information from a different angle that she realized just how much trouble she was in. Specifically, that of a human.

When she read a book as a Faunus, everything made sense.

When she read the same book with a human mindset, one who knew next to nothing about Faunus or the basic life lessons that you would only learn growing up as a Faunus, everything fell apart.

Scent marking? Pack hierarchy? Aura pacts? How could Blake even begin to explain any of this to her Ma- her teammates.

Get a grip, Blake. Nothing's certain, yet. At best, you have one maybe.

Blake sighed, falling backwards. Her cat ears twitched when they were smashed against her pillow, making her run a hand over her head to straighten them out. As her fingers passed over her left ear, she tugged at it gently, making her flinch.

I've made such a mess of everything.

This time yesterday they were all goofing off and playing in an arcade, the best of friends. Now they were separated, at least two of them in emotional turmoil, all because she couldn't keep her teeth to herself.

Blake tensed as her instincts kicked in once again, this time telling her to get up and move. As always, Blake ignored it, for multiple reasons. The main one being that she knew this feeling. It was one she'd felt numerous times over the years, every time she was uneasy or conflict arose:

Blake wanted to run.

She let out a huff, frustrated with herself. That's always my answer to a problem: run from it. But I can't this time. This is my fault, my choice. I will not run from it, from them. Not again.

She pulled herself up to a sitting position, lifting one of the books into her lap. Okay, maybe if I look-

She gasped.

Confusion. Frustration. Curiosity.

That feeling. Emotions not her own, yet felt just as clearly. And each one was tinged with an air of slight cold, like… frost.

Blake closed her eyes, pushing out her aura, needing to 'see' what she felt.

There it was: a thin trail of white aura grazing against her own. Blake followed the trail it made, inner eyes landing on a familiar cloud of snow-white aura.

Weiss…

Is she reaching out to me? Blake couldn't help but feel hopeful at the thought, but shoved it down to think clearly.

Easy, Blake. Maybe… can I answer her?

With a bit of focus, Blake stretched out her own tendril of aura.

Weiss was amazed. She could feel it, a well of emotions. Like the small piece of aura before, only this was fresh, raw.

Frustration. Sorrow. Hope. Happiness. Guilt.

With a gasp, Weiss snapped back to coherency.

That… that was… Weiss looked down at her hands. They were trembling.

She tightened them into fists. She took a few breaths, trying to bring her now thundering heart back down to normal.

That was… something, she finally settled on. They… they felt so real… just as real as my own emotions, but… different. She tried to remember exactly what she'd felt from Blake.

...does she really feel that bad?

Weiss shook her head. No… no, I don't know enough about this… whatever it is. These feelings could… be faked, or… exaggerated, maybe. I need more information. Maybe if I… what is…?

As Weiss closed her eyes to attempt finding Blake's aura again, she was surprised, and a little frightened, to see a thin string of black aura reaching towards her, just inches away from touching her own. Before she could react, the two tendrils of aura met.

Curiosity. Heistance. Hope. Questioning.

Weiss fought the urge to blink. That felt… different from before. The emotions she'd felt before were unfocused, ambient. These ones, however, almost seemed to be concentrated, like they were being directed. Directed… towards herself?

Weiss thought it over. If these are really Blake's emotions, and this is how she feels at the moment… and she's purposefully directing them towards me… is she trying to… communicate?

New emotions bubbled up. Relief. Happiness. Fear. Apology. Sadness.

Weiss frowned. Apology? She feels sorry? Her frown morphed into a scowl. Does she think an apology will make up for… all this?!

Unbeknownst to her, her emotions reflected her thoughts.

Blake's brief joy at having Weiss 'hear' her emotional call was quickly wiped away by Weiss' emotions after she tried to transmit a feeling of apology across the link.

Surprise. Anger. Betrayal.

The last one cut the deepest, but Blake could not refute Weiss' feelings. After what Blake had done, Weiss had every right to feel betrayed. All Blake could do was respond as best she could.

...seriously, how could Blake believe a simple apology could make up for such an underhanded, possibly life-changing action? What could possibly…

Weiss' thoughts paused as new emotions trickled through.

Sadness. Resignation. Understanding. Acceptance. Apology.

Weiss felt her scowl soften as she tried to put the new feelings into context. Resignation, understanding… she knows that I'm angry and… accepts it? Sadness… my anger makes her… sad?

Weiss' expression turned thoughtful. Blake, she… you really feel that way?

Confusion. Comprehension. Nervousness. Questioning.

Blake let out a sigh. She was fairly confident that Weiss got the message, but, Weiss being Weiss, she needed to be sure.

Yes, Weiss. You have every reason to be angry. I'm so sorry.

Understanding. Acceptance. Apology.

The same feelings as before, only stronger, sharper.

A small voice in the back of her head (a distressingly familiar, deep voice) kept whispering doubt to Weiss. How does she know this is real? What if she's being manipulated? What if Blake is faking these so-called emotions?

And yet, the more Weiss felt, the quieter that voice became. Even considering that the emotions she was feeling from Blake were fake just seemed… wrong. And what scared her was that she had no idea why.

Weiss thought over the last things she'd felt from Blake, a simple confirmation of her feelings. No malevolence, no ulterior motives, just a genuine regret of what she'd done.

While some part of Weiss was relieved, she mostly felt more confused and conflicted.

Then why, Blake? If you are really sorry for doing this to me, why do it at all?

Relief. Confusion. Anxiety. Frustration. Questioning. Need.

Blake grimaced at the onslaught of new emotions. The brief sense of relief had calmed her a bit, but everything else was almost overwhelming. It was the last two that bothered her the most.

A sense of questioning and need.

The meaning was obvious. Weiss wanted an answer, needed an answer. The problem was that, while she knew Weiss wanted an answer, Blake wasn't sure what the question was.

Confusion, frustration. Anxiety… that could mean a lot of things. Confusion… Everything about this situation would be confusion to her… Weiss, what…

A new emotion trickled through, though not as prominent as the others. It was in the background, white noise against the stronger of Weiss' emotions, like an undercurrent beneath everything Weiss was feeling.

Betrayal.

Much as it hurt, Blake focused on that weak feeling, adding it in with everything else. After a moment, it clicked.

Betrayal, mixed with confusion, anxiety, a need for answers… she's asking why I betrayed her.

Tears pooled in the corners of Blake's eyes. Weiss, I didn't mean to betray you. I never wanted to hurt you. I just… Blake's thoughts trailed off. Her mind was getting jumbled, unable to put what she felt into words. She brought her arms around herself, her ears pinning back as she lost herself to her own emotions. She tried to focus on Weiss, Ruby and Yang coming to mind as well. As she thought of them, and of Weiss' unspoken question, she did the only thing she could: let the Link say what words couldn't.

Weiss waited for some form of response from Blake, a wait that slowly stretched on for minutes. All she could feel was a vague sense of… indecision, maybe? Weiss' impatience was slowly shifting to anger the longer she waited. She was so close to getting some form of explanation as to why Blake would… mate to her like this, and why her of all people. And when she was on the cusp of being answered, suddenly now Blake became tight-lipped, or tight… whatever the emotion-sensing equivalent of tight-lipped was?

Blake, just tell me. Tell me why. Tell me why you did this to me, to Ruby, to Yang. You should have known how I feel about this. How I…

…

How… I…

I… oh my…

One emotion. Just one emotion came across their linked aura. Just one emotion that said more than any words ever could.

To Weiss it felt like multiple emotions, all wrapped together. Affection, Conviction, Protectiveness, Happiness, just to name a few. They were so many… yet, they seemed small, just parts, pieces of a larger whole. And put all together, the final product was… it was so clear. Blake lo-

Weiss' eyes flew open.

The connection between them shattered, Weiss' aura retreating from Blake's like it had been burned. Weiss was breathing heavily, her heart a jackhammer against her chest.

Weiss stared ahead, her eyes still facing the same direction they had been when closed. She was able to pick out exactly which window was their dorm.

That… Blake…

Weiss swallowed reflexively. She felt a drop of water hit her hand, dimly aware of the tears trailing down her face. With a deep, shuddering breath, she forced her eyes away from the window, looking down at her hands.

Weiss knew that feeling. She knew it. It was slightly different, but similar enough… to what she felt for her sister… her mother…

She shook her head. No… no, if… if that's really how Blake feels… if she really thinks she feels that way towards me, she's not going to tell me through some… Faunus mate ability that I don't fully understand. She's going to… I want her to say to my face, in her own words.

With a shuddering breath, Weiss pushed herself to her feet, wiping away her tears as she did. With new purpose, she marched away from the tree, and back into the school.

Betaed by Covert Weapon

Old A/n: A/n: I warned you.

Why did this chapter take so long? Well, as it turns out, out of all of Team RWBY, Weiss is the hardest one for me to write. I'm fine when she has someone to bounce off of, but when she's by herself, I struggle. If anyone has any tips on how to write her more believably, y'know, keep her in character, by all means, I need all the help I can get.

Plus, writing a conversation where neither party can hear any words, only feel what the other is trying to convey? A lot harder to put to words than I thought. I'm still not sure I did a good job. It feels kind of heavy-handed at times, but after two weeks of editing, I am DONE with this chapter.

I'll see you all again in the hopefully-not-too-distant-future!