Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY

Cover art by RWBY_fanartnest

Blake's eyes fluttered open as the bright rays of sunlight shining through the window made contact with her face.

As her eyes met the light she quickly shut them with a groan as she turned over in her bed and pulled the covers over her face.

Whatever time it was, it was too damn early for her to want to even take a step out of bed.

Blake tried her hardest to go back to sleep. After failing to accomplishing her task for another twenty minutes, she decided she might as well get out of bed, and begin what was sure to be another shitty day.

Begrudgingly she threw the covers off herself, the cold air tickling her skin, and making the hairs on her neck stand on end as she got up.

As she stretched out her sore muscles she looked at her surroundings.

Her dorm room looked the same as it had the night Beacon had been attacked one month ago. From all her books on the shelves to Weiss's school supplies and textbooks open on her desk in the corner. Even the small things, like Ruby's sleep mask hanging on her bed post, and Yang's workout clothes strewn on the floor because she never did get around to doing her laundry that month.

Yet there was one thing that Blake was very aware of that was different about the drom this past month.

She was the only one there. No Weiss to yell at the group for not studying, or for being too loud while she tried to get her own school work done.

No Ruby to constantly ask people if they wanted to play video games with her, or her begging her team if she could test out their weapons for herself.

No Yang to constantly yell out annoying, lame, and tasteless puns that made everyone who heard them cringe.

None of that was there anymore. It was just her there, and she hated it. She never would have thought the idea of being alone would create such a painful knot in her stomach. It was her fault though. She had no one to blame but herself for her current situation.

She had run. Run from her team, run from her partner, and run from her friends. All because she was scared.

She told herself It was because she was scared of what Adam would do to them. "I will destroy everything you love." His words echoed in the back of her mind everyday, like a constant buzzing that wouldn't go away.

That was a part of the reason she had run. The other reason was much harder for her to admit to herself. She was scared that her friends, especially her team would hate her.

Deep down there was a fear she just couldn't get over. No matter how much she told herself it was stupid, that there was no way her friends would abandon her, the fear ate at her as she sat in Vale that night waiting for the evacuation chopper.

The fear that when Yang woke up she would blame her for the whole ordeal with Adam, and never want to speak with her fear that Weiss would also blame Blake for the condition of her team mate, and for all the damage that had been done to the school. After all it was the White fang who attacked the there was the fear that even Ruby would hate her. Blake was the reason her older sister got hurt. She didn't know if Ruby was even capable of hating anyone, but if the young girl ever had needed a reason strong enough to, Blake was sure she had given it to her.

So she did the only logical thing her mind told her to do. She ran, she ran and didn't stop running until she had ended up back here in this very dorm crying, hugging herself like a small lost child. Something that seemed to be a regular occurrence ever since then.

Letting out a long sigh she decided to look at the clock on the wall to she what ungodly hour she had woken up at.

"10:30, great another day of only getting two hours of sleep. Well, this will be fun."

She sighed once again as she made her way over to the bathroom to get ready for the day.

Surprisingly the water was still on even after a month, though she expected that to change any day now. It was somewhat nice though. For once there was never a fear of running out of hot water. As she got undressed to take a shower she looked at herself in the mirror.

"God I look awful." Her hair was a mess, as she hadn't bothered to brush it for the past few weeks. Her eyes were in a constant state of dropping from how poor her mood had been as of late.

Her eyes had large bags under them form the constant lack of sleep, and they were also a puffy red from all the crying she seemed to be doing these days. Her skin was paler than it normally was, probably from having been hold up inside for the past few days. She finally decided she had enough of looking at herself and tore her eyes away from the mirror as she hopped in the shower.

Once she was done, she got dressed and went to pick out a book from her shelf. She decided it was better to at least read something than sit on her bed and mope all day. At least this way she could mope while enjoying some quality literature.

She looked through her bookshelf twice before she huffed in annoyance. She couldn't find a single thing that she wanted to read. Something that only served to worsen her already dismal mood.

She decided to look at Weiss's bookshelf to see if there was anything there she may want to read. Weiss did have the second largest collection of books in their dorm, so maybe there was something there she would enjoy.

Sadly she couldn't have been more wrong.

"Weiss, how do you get any enjoyment when all you have here are books about dust application, and sword fighting techniques. Do you never read just for the enjoyment of it?" She said to herself as she picked up each book before quickly putting it back after finding it was just another training book.

Blake's mood was slowly becoming worse as she realised today might just be another day of going out to look for food and then coming back to just sit here and think. She knew there was no other books on Yang's desk other than whatever textbooks the girl had for her classes.

She sighed as she flopped down on her bed. "I guess I'll just lay here for another few hours till I get hungry, like yesterday." She thought as she turned over on her side and looked across the room.

She looked at the set of beds next to her. The beds that Weiss and Ruby had used not even a month ago. They were still only held up by haphazardly tied together rope. she shook her head, and a small smile came to her face. "I still don't understand how these bunk beds are even stable. I guess it's one of those things that is better to just not questions."

That is when she noticed something on top of Ruby's bed. Suddenly she remembered that up on Ruby's bed laid a book. She had found it there when she first arrived back at the dorm, but like everything else, she had just left it in place.

Her ears twitched as curiosity got the better of her, and she got up off her bed to inspect the book, in hopes that it was something that she would be interested in reading.

As she came up to eye level with it she suddenly recognized the book that currently lay on top of her team leader's old bed. "Is that where this has been?" She said as she excitedly snatched up the book to inspect the title.

"I was wondering where this has been." The book she was currently holding was one of her personal favorites. "Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" The same book she had read her first night at beacon. It had been missing from her shelf a week before the tournament started, and not matter where she looked she hadn't been able to find it. Yet, here it was.

"Why was this on Ruby's bed?" Blake opened the book to the where she found a bookmark.

It was near the end of the book. She looked at the bookmark and noticed it was actually a sticky note with something written on it.

"Mission: Finish this book so I have something to talk to Blake about." Was scribbled in tiny handwriting on the note. Blake's eyes widened upon reading the note. Blake and Ruby never really talked much ever since they had become a team. Now that she thought about it, everything she knew about Ruby she knew because Yang had told her whenever she brought her sister up. It wasn't that Blake didn't want to get to know her leader. It was just that neither of them seemed to have the time, outside of classes, workouts, homework, and getting to know their own partners to really sit down and get to know one another.

"Is that why she took this book? To have something we could talk about?" Blake felt a slight heat rise to her face as she smiled at the thought. She quickly wiped the tear she felt coming to her eyes away as she decided that this is what she was going to read today. She stuffed the note into her pocket as she got down from standing on top of Weiss's bed.

"Maybe today won't be so bad after all."

She smiled as she hastily went over to her bed and began reading. She quickly got lost in the story, remembering exactly why she loved this book so much.

She didn't stop until she felt her stomach start to clinch in annoyance, and give off a low rumbling sound. Letting her know that she should probably stop and go out to get something to eat.

She quickly took the note back out of her pocket, and put on her current page before closing the book and setting it down on her bed.

As she got up and walked over the where she had Gambol shroud kept she noticed her bow laying on top of her bed. Ever since she started staying here alone she had kept it off. She saw no real need to continue to wear it. After all it wasn't like someone was going to catch her with it off. The only things she encountered these days were the grimm that were congregated around the school whenever she went out to get food, or other supplies.

She decided against taking the bow with her once again.

Even though winter had settled over the land and it was colder outside, she didn't feel like putting on the normally comfortable article of clothing.

After she grabbed her weapon and checked that she had everything she needed she left her dorm room through the window, and quickly made her way towards the city being particularly careful whenever she passed by a group of grimm as to avoid any unnecessary altercations.

After a few hours of searching, Blake had found everything she needed, and quickly made her way back to her dorm room. Lucky without getting into any fights with the numerous grimm. Although she did notice that there seemed to be less grimm near her dorm than when she had left. "I guess today really is a good day."

As she arrived in front of the door to her dorm she noticed something was wrong.

The door to the room was slightly ajar, as if it had been opened recently.

"I didn't think that I forgot to close the door." She pushed the thought aside, as she pulled out Gambol Shroud and slowly entered the room.

She let out a sigh of relief as she noticed that there was no one actually in there. She let her weapon fall down by her side as she walked over to her bed. She couldn't wait to get back to reading her book, and finish of what would be her first good day all month.

As she looked at her bed she suddenly tensed up and went into a panic.

Things had been moved. Her bow was no longer sitting on the edge of the bed, and the book she had been reading was currently lying open and was on the opposite side of the bed than she had left it.

Her ears twitched, and her heart rate skyrocketed when she heard a door starting to open behind her.

Whipping her head around she quickly found that the door to the dorm's bathroom was starting to open.

A million ideas shot through Blake's mind.

Should she surprise the intruder and start attacking, or should she run out of the room and pretend like she was never there?

Sadly, without time being on her side, her immediate reaction was to quickly hide behind the closest thing available to her within the confines of her room. She dove under her bed.

She did so just in time as the door opened and someone walked into the room.

Blake had no idea who it was, all she could see from under the bed was a pair of boots that seemed like they would fit someone around her age. The size of the feet clearly suggesting that whoever it was female. After closing the bathroom door the person began walking around the room, it seemed like they were looking for something as they keep going back and forth to different parts of the room.

Blake heard things being taken off of the desk, and moved around. She was about to come out from under the bed when the front door to the room opened.

"Great! there are more of them" She thought, trying to ignore the rising feeling of panic in her chest. Whoever had entered had Black shoes, and bright white pants. These footfalls, and feet were much heavier than that of the other person. Suggesting that the newcomer was male.

Blake had to think of a way out of here.

Maybe if she was fast enough she could get both of them before they could react to her.

"Ruby, you have been in here for over an hour. Is everything ok?" The newcomer said. The voice was calm and deep enough to confirm her suspicion that it was a man who had entered the room. The voice sounded strangely familiar but Blake's thought process had stopped as soon as she heard the mention of her former leader.

"Oh, yeah Ren. Sorry I was just…..thinking about a couple of things." Came the unmistakeable voice of Ruby Rose.

Blake felt her heart race as her mind started asking a million questions.

"What is Ruby doing here?"

"Was she looking for her?"

"Why is she with Ren?"

All these questions were floating around in her head, and she barely registered that Ruby's boots were directly in front of her bed.

"Like what?" She heard Ren ask

"Well….I think Blake was here."

"What makes you say that?"

Ruby seemed to pause for a few second to gather her thoughts. "Well, this is her favorite book. I was reading it, and left it on my bed before I left for the tournament the last night we were here. Also this bookmarker I had was near the end of the book. Not in the middle like when I found it on Blake's bed today."

Blake saw Ruby's walk around to the other side of the bed. She could feel the sweat that slowly started to slide down her forehead.

"Calm down Blake, just calm down. They don't know you are here right now. Just be careful and don't make a sound."

"I also found her bow here. Blake never went anywhere without this."

Blake saw Ren walk around to where Ruby was. What they were doing she could only imagine. They were probably looking at her bow if she had to guess.

"Well it does seem likely that she was here. Do you think she still is?"

She heard Ruby sigh as the girl sat down on Blake's bed.

"I don't know, nothing has been moved other than the book since the last time I was here, and there isn't really any evidence of someone living here at the current moment." To Blake's surprise, Ruby sounded upset that she hadn't been able to find her.

"Wait does she…...does she actually want to find me?" Blake wanted to come out from under the bed at that point, and she certainly had begun to make the movements to do so. Then suddenly a familiar feeling made it's way into her chest.

That crippling fear took hold of her as she suddenly froze in place, unable to move.

"No…..no she can't be. If she is looking for me it is probably to just yell at me for getting Yang injured." She thought, trying to justify her staying in her current location. That same feeling of fear she was all too familiar, it was constantly nagging her, urging her to run away. Yet she knew she couldn't. Her only options were to get caught, or stay hidden. She chose the latter.

"Maybe she was here for a little while and then left in a hurry." Ren theorized as Blake saw him sit down on the edge of the bed with Ruby.

There was silence for what seemed like forever to Blake, she could feel her pulse in her ears as the two other teens sat there.

"I wish I knew why she ran Ren." Ruby finally broke the long silence. "I wish I had some sort of clue. If I had gotten to know her better, maybe I would have an idea." Silence once again filled the room.

"That is why I borrowed this book. Because I wanted something to talk to Blake about, because we never got to talk that much as friends. I was always too busy trying to get along with Weiss, and to study so I could be the best leader I could be." The young girl sighed before Blake heard her continue.

"In doing that I failed to do one of the most important things as a leader. I failed to get to know one of my teammates."

Blake was surprised to hear what Ruby was saying. It seemed like she had matured so much. Yet it had only been a month since she had last seen her. "Don't feel bad Ruby, it was partially my fault as well."

Blake's hand immediately shot over her mouth, she didn't mean to whisper that. Once again she felt the sensation of her heart pounding mercilessly against her chest.

Blake did her best to control her breathing as she waited to see if she had been heard. She had to remind herself not to sigh in relief when Ren started talking. Seemingly oblivious to her slip-up.

"Well there has to be a reason that she ran."

Blake's head hung low when she heard Ren's input her situation. "Yeah… a stupid reason." She thought, careful this time not to whisper.

"Yang doesn't seem to think so, she said that sometimes bad things just happen. Every time I tried to bring Blake up Yang would get upset, and just, stop talking. I think she is mad at Blake."

Blake could feel tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. She had been right. They hated her. Yang especially it seemed. Although she couldn't blame them though. She hated herself for doing what she did, why wouldn't they?

Blake's hand went back to being over her mouth as she tried to bite back a sob that she felt rising in her chest. The tears started to flow free from her eyes.

"Well what about you? Are you mad at her?" She heard Ren ask.

Blake put her head down against the ground and tried to cover her ears. She didn't want to hear the younger girl's response. Even though she knew what answer was about to come she didn't think she could handle knowing that she had truly caused her team to hate her.

"Nope."

Every thought, and movement within Blake stopped at that moment.

"What did she say?"

"You don't?"

"Nope, I may not know Blake well enough to truly understand why she ran, but I know her well enough to say that she wouldn't just abandon her friends without a good reason."

Blake felt tear flow faster down her face at the kind words of the younger girl.

"Blake is strong, kind, beautiful, and I know she wouldn't just leave us. Yang might be mad at her, and fail to see that Blake might have a reason for all this, but that isn't the way I see it."

"I know she will come back one day, and when that happens I'll make sure I help her with whatever it is that bothered her enough to make her leave."

Blake wanted to get out from under the bed. She wanted to get up and hug Ruby and cry into the girl's shoulder and thank her for everything she was saying. To thank her for believing in her and wanting to help.

Sadly her body still refused to move. No matter what she tried to make it do all she could manage was to lay there on the floor.

"She doesn't hate me, she really doesn't hate me." A feeling of relief came over Blake for the first time in what seemed like forever.

She was drawn out of her thoughts by a chuckle from Ren.

"You know it almost sounds like you have a crush on Blake."

Blake felt a flush rise to her face as the boy teased the younger girl.

"Wha….I...I mean…." Ruby was stuttering, Blake could only imagine the look on Ruby's face right now. Ruby's face was probably as red as Blake's.

Another chuckle out of the normally quiet boy.

"I'm only teasing you, now come on. Jaune and Nora are waiting for us. We still have a long way to go, and we have been here long enough."

"Alright. You go one ahead I still have one more thing I need to do. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

Ren must have been fine with the request, as Blake watched him get up off the bed and walk out of the room. Once again Blake felt the urge to get up. To come out from hiding and go talk to Ruby. The same fear still had a grip on her heart, and she couldn't get her body to move.

It had immobilized her, so she waited as she watched Ruby walk over to the desk. Whatever she was doing she was there for about five minutes before she walked back over to the bed.

After that the girl ran out of the room. Blake could hear her yelling down the hall.

Blake didn't really know how long she sat there under the bed. Thinking about the events that had just happened. It seemed like hours after Ruby had left before she finally felt safe enough to get out from under the bed. Blake slowly looked around the room. Ruby had obviously taken some things, as clothes and books were scattered on the floor now. Ruby's sleeping mask no longer hung on her bed post.

The room surprisingly felt more empty than it had this morning.

Blake felt drained, physically and emotionally.

After everything that had just happened, all she could see herself doing was crawling into her bed, and reading until she fell asleep. She would deal with all these questions, and feelings in the morning.

As she turned to do just that she noticed something about her bed, or more the lack of something's on her bed. Both the book she was reading, and her bow were gone, and in their place was a piece of paper that read.

To: Blake

Picking up the letter she opened it and began reading to to herself.

Dear Blake,

I have no idea if you are ever going to read this, but I hope that you will be able to. I stopped by our dorm in Beacon, and I know this is a long shot, but I am leaving this letter here just in case you are actually staying here and I just happened to miss you.

I found a few of your things here, so I took them with me (I am not a crook). If you left them here, and never find this letter I'll be sure to give them back to you when I see you again, and I promise I'll finish up the book I borrowed so we can talk about it.

If you were staying here and I took your stuff….Well it looks like you will just have to come to Haven, and find me if you want to get them back ;).

I hope to see you again soon Blake. Be safe.

With best wishes,

Ruby Rose.

The letter slowly became harder for Blake to read as her tears blurred her vision and hit the paper smudging some of the words.

Blake slowly smiled as she finished the letter left to her by her friend. She slowly folded it up as not to crumple the piece of paper and placed it in her pocket.

The fear that had consumed her ever since she had entered the room had gone away, and was replaced by a warm happiness that began spreading throughout her body.

A feeling that she hadn't felt since the night her team had accepted her being a Faunus and forgiven her for running from them. Thinking back on it now it seems like that moment was years ago. Even though it had only been a few months since the end that semester.

"I…..I think I'm done running away from this." She murmured to herself. "I need to go catch up with Ruby."

She no longer felt scared at the thought of confronting her teammates, especially when she thought about how Ruby would be there to help her when the time came.

Even the thought of Adam coming after them didn't scare her anymore. She wasn't sure why, maybe it was the thought that they could handle themselves, or maybe it was the fact that together they would stand a better chance than her alone.

After all, as she began to think about it, whether or not she was there wouldn't make a difference to Adam. He would go after them anyway, and at least if she was there, they would have a better chance against him than if they were separated.

She looked at the clock that hung on the wall, and saw that It was only around eight at night.

Now seemed like a good a time as any to go to bed.

She would need plenty of rest to start on her way to Haven in the morning. Ruby and her group would have covered a lot of ground by morning, and she would have to move pretty quickly in hopes of catching up.

Climbing into bed the full feeling of exhaustion finally hit her, and in no time she could feel herself falling asleep.

As she closed her eyes to get the first good sleep she would have received in the past month one final thought came to mind.

"Thank you Ruby."

Alright well here is my second story.

I got the urge to write this one day, and decided that I would sit back and type it out, and here it is.

I hope you enjoyed it.

If you did please leave a review, and let me know what you though.

If you hated it, please leave a review. Let me know what I need to improve on as a writer.