Year Two of Beacon

Blake drummed her fingers on the windowsill, staring out into the storm which battered the window pane mere inches from her face. It had been raining for nearly two weeks, and to her sensitive nose the entire academy smelled of petrichor. She was sick of smelling mud.

The problem, Blake decided, was that there was nothing to do. Ruby and Weiss were working on their assignments from the professors, and Yang was off in the city. She had offered for Blake to come but, as usual, Blake had declined. The overpowering scent of earth got old, sure, but the smells of gasoline, rotting food, trash, and other scents of the city were not her choice of reprise. A trip into the Emerald Forest would smell the same, and Forever Fall, while within range of a day trip, held bad memories.

The repetitive smells made the world feel stagnant, as though time was a quicksand and life was trying to slog its way out of it. During that time, though, aging was not slowing, and time was wasting.

Blake shook herself. I need to stop reading so many trashy pseudo-philosophical novels.

"Blake!"

At the sound of her name she turned, spotting Ruby approaching her with a smile on her face.

"Blake! Let's go to Vale!"

"Pass."

"The forest."

"It's raining."

"Cafeteria?"

"We ate breakfast two hours ago."

"Library."

"Yang and I finished all of our work." Seeing Ruby was about to suggest something new, Blake quickly added, "Isn't that where you should be? Working with Weiss?"

Ruby puffed her chest out in pride as she pointed to her chest with her thumb, declaring, "Yours truly is all done with her work!" Dropping her voice, she added with a smile, "I beat Weiss for the first time ever and she wasn't too pleased with herself, so I decided to escape a bit early. Now," her voice became stern, "you, Blake Belladonna, have been doing nothing for days except sigh and stare out the windows, so WEEEE'RE gonna do something!"

Blake pursed her lips, not sure whether to be touched or annoyed by her friend's concern. "I'd rather not just this moment, Ruby, thanks. We can read that story later, or something."

The younger girl rolled her eyes and heaved an exaggerated sigh. "Blake, Blake Blake Blake BlakeBlakeBlakeBlakeBlake. The 'later' excuse is sooo played out. You'll never escape me that easily."

Blake couldn't help but smile as she saw the good humor dancing in Ruby's silver eyes, and she slowly began turning one foot away as she shifted her face to a challenging smirk. "Are you sure you can catch me so easily?"

Ruby struck a heroic pose, closing her eyes for a moment to declare, "No one can out run Ruby Rose!"

She opened her eyes to see one of Blake's clones disappearing around the far corner, easily a few seconds' run away. With a small gasp of surprise, then a grin of determination, Ruby's semblance activated as she bolted after the raven haired girl.

The world blended and twisted as Blake raced, her breathing accelerating and her heart pounding furiously in her chest. A desperate flight, an escape. From what? The world warped and melted, and she found herself in a new place.

Her feet pattered across the hardwood floors, a laugh escaping her lips as she ran from Adam. "You can't catch me!" Blake taunted him in the friendly manner only bright spirited children can; challenging yet friendly.

Adam laughed in return, his voice a bit hoarse as he shouted back, "Bet you tonight's jello cup I can!"

They ran around the hallways in a close chase, but eventually Adam's hand caught her wrist as she turned a corner.

"Haha, hey, you got me!" Blake tried to get her wrist loose, but the hand holding her tightened, refusing to let go. "Adam? Adam stop, it hurts!"

Blake leaned around the corner to look at Adam, and her heart caught in her throat.

Their caretakers were dead on the floor. Adam was hurt, and his eyes were staring at her. They were red as a Grimm's, but not nearly as emotionless. They were deadened with pain, filled with accusation, overflowing with grief.

"You left us."

Blake tried to jerk her hand away, trembling. "No..."

"You betrayed us."

"No!"

"You're responsible for more and more deaths!"

"No!" Blake yowled as she wrenched her hand out of his grip, falling backwards and downwards as if the floor wasn't there.

"NO! NO!"

Someone was shaking her, but she kept her eyes sealed shut, willing them to go away.

"No more!"

"...ake! Blake! Blake!"

Blake's eyes flew open as she recognized the voice talking, and she found Ruby bent over her, anxiety shining in her eyes.

"Blake! You're awake! Are you alright?!"

Blake sat up slowly, holding a hand over her left eye and trying to calm her hammering heart. She measured her gulps of air as she looked around warily. They were in Beacon, sitting on a cold stone floor. Of course. She was with Ruby. They had been running.

What's happening to me?

Blake shook herself, shuddering violently as she remembered her dream. Was it a dream? I wasn't asleep. A day dream? Or a delusion? What's the difference?

"Blake"

Blake started as she heard Ruby speak her name quietly, and blushed as she realized she was caught in a tight embrace by the other girl. She tried to gently disengage herself, but Ruby firmly held on to her.

"Blake, what happened?" Ruby's eyes were unusually serious, as if she were trying to stare through Blake and understand what she wanted to know.

Blake shook her head mutely. How could she offer an answer if she didn't know herself? For that matter, would she have answered even if she knew? Maybe. All she knew was that her heart was accelerating at an uncomfortable rate and her cheeks were on fire, so she escaped Ruby's arms as quickly as possible without literally shoving her leader away. She muttered a quick "I'm fine, Ruby," but the younger girl looked thoroughly unconvinced. Blake couldn't blame her, but also didn't want her company at the moment. She needed to think, alone.

She quickly walked away, hoping Ruby would leave her be. Of course there would be no such luck, as she immediately heard Ruby's boots hitting the stone floor beneath them as she tailed Blake. The storm outside had ceased, so the sound of their footsteps rang out in the silence.

Blake pressed onwards, heading up one of the spiral staircases towards the roof. Ruby continued her pursuit, but didn't call out to Blake. The faunus sighed through her nose and sped up her gait, bursting out onto the rooftop at a fair jog. She was not, of course, winded from jogging, but her heart was still fluttering. Her stomach felt weird as well.

What the hell?! She screwed up her eyes and leaned against the parapet, wishing desperately for the cacophony of emotions swirling around inside her to silence themselves. They were largely insubstantial compared to her confusion, but she could tell there was at least one other dominant emotion. What it was, she wasn't sure.

She opened her eyes and looked around, searching for Ruby. Her friend, hell, her best friend, was no where in sight. With the realization that Ruby wasn't on the roof with her came a jolt of surprise and hurt, and with that jolt she finally pieced together the vast emotion lurking in her chest.

She had pushed herself way too hard with her semblance, so far she had begun hallucinating. That was natural, when one relies too strongly on fuel directly from their souls the energy gradually bleeds into their mind as well as their body. Now that she was calm she remembered this, and had no problem with it. The problem was the memory. She had been playing tag with Adam in the dream, not dissimilar to her chase with Ruby in the present. She had been imagining the person she had been closest to in her old life while being with the person she was closest to her new life. Were her feelings just as strong for Ruby as they had been for Adam? She suspected they were.

... Were they platonic feelings, as they had been with Adam? She was less sure of this, but she worried they weren't.

Most concerning. Was she destined to betray Ruby the way she had betrayed Adam? Would Ruby morph into a beast of darkness to shove Blake away, or would Blake be the one to change this time? The former seemed impossible; Ruby could never become anything less than the height of good. But she would have said the same for Adam, once upon a time. More than anything else, it was this thought which frightened her. She found herself clenching her hands violently, her nails digging into her palms to the point breaking skin.

"... The hunter who was strong as stone strode boldly through the battlefield, smiting Grimm after Grimm as he came upon them, protecting of his comrades as best he could whilst his partner, the huntress who was quick as wind, flew about the battlefield so quickly the soldiers thought her an entire battalion of otherworldly beings..."

Blake's ears twitched and she slowly turned her head to stare. Ruby was standing beside her, holding a storybook open in her arms. The large book was unwieldy for the small girl, but she was propping it up on one knee, her boot resting on a low section of the parapet in front of them.

The story was one they had been reading together for a few days. Ruby had insisted quite strongly and Blake, while always very wary of disturbing the peace she held in reading, had eventually caved. She had insisted it would be just the one story, and so far Ruby had tried to make it go as slowly as possible.

But now she was reading to Blake. Was this her way of being comforting? Was she as confused over the situation as Blake?

No, she's probably even more confused. She doesn't understand what happened at all. Blake felt exasperated with herself. She slowly turned around and sat on the parapet, gesturing for Ruby to join her. She did, but she kept reading the whole while. Blake listened in contentment, playing a perfect audience for the reading.

I'm sorry Ruby. I'm not ready to explain to you. But for now... We can enjoy this.

Blake leaned her head back as Ruby read to her, looking up at the sun shining weakly through the clouds, which were finally breaking. The smell of earth was still strong, but a comforting breeze was sweeping across Beacon.

A/N: Not sure I have too much to say about this one. It's less of a cute chapter and more of a development chapter and yeah, it might seem weird to have development chapters when the entire point of this story is I can skip wherever I want, but you know... I do what I want.

Plus that timeline I'm keeping track of for this story needs development put on it, it's barren and lonely right now.

Please leave a review or send a PM if you liked it (or if you didn't I still want to hear your opinion!), your words matter a lot to me! For anyone who also follows ADN: I AM currently working on a new chapter, so don't worry. It just takes some time to reread the entirety of my own story to make sure I don't fuck it up is all. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a chapter for that posted before I move on to the next Relationships chapter.

Man I'm not a fan of long ANs but look at this write up right here. Word count padding, wazzup?