Title: Virtues

Characters: Blake Belladonna + Sun Wukong

Summary: Good friends are hard to come by. Blake counts herself lucky that she has at least one by her side.

Menagerie's market district was bustling with more Faunus than usual. It wasn't odd - it was nearly midday, and the sky was clear, the sun beating down mercilessly overhead. It did, however, make Blake's walk back from the shoreline a little longer, and as she buried herself in her thoughts, she found herself glad it was one she didn't have to make alone.

"The jury's still out on that one. But I'm leaning towards 'earnest'."

At first, Blake wasn't sure if her way of thinking about those she surrounded herself with would confuse or, worse, offend her unlikely companion. It always felt a little shallow when she said it aloud. Of course, she knew there was more than one way of describing everyone; more than one trait they possessed. But a word - a single, beautiful word - always ended up stuck in her thoughts.

Ruby was purity, and that was a rare one. Even the day they properly spoke for the first time, Blake could see it. It was in her posture, her words, the determined way she spoke of her aspiration to be a Huntress; not for the fame or the glory or the money, but to truly, genuinely help people. Out of the simple goodness the young girl's heart was steeped in. In hindsight, Blake reckoned that's what had made her so easy to follow. She knew what she wanted, and she remained undeterred by all that sought to derail her, including her own friends. That kind of raw spirit was something Blake wished she possessed.

"Sun?" she said softly. Absentmindedly, her hands moved, the fingers of her right curling around the forearm of her left - a distinctly vulnerable position. At her voice, Sun's seemingly endless, enthusiastic remarks about the island petered off.

"Yeah?"

Weiss was defiance, as steadfast as the cold she was named for. Of course, that made her stubborn, and arrogant to no small degree. It had taken Blake longer to see that there was more to it than that, mostly because of their original animosity towards each other. That was warranted, from both sides, as she could see far clearer now than she had then. But Weiss was far from the prissy Schnee company heiress she had believed her to be. She stood against what the SDC had become and sought to find her own path in the mess her father had created. Blake respected, maybe even admired, her for that.

"Hey," Sun gave her shoulder a gentle nudge, and Blake realized she hadn't spoken. "You okay?"

She nodded and tried for a reassuring smile. "I'm fine," she said. "Just… thinking."

Another silence fell between them. He didn't push, but slowed his pace to match hers, patiently waiting for her to continue in her own time. Tact, thy name is surprisingly Sun Wukong, came her thoughts, unbidden. She gave a small, quiet snort before her expression fell, and she bit her lip.

"Sun, why… did you follow me?"

He seemed taken aback, and though he recovered quickly, his cocksure grin wasn't as bright as normal. She would have had to have been blind not to see the worry in his eyes.

"I told you, didn't I? I-"

"No, I mean-" Blake's voice rose higher than she had intended. She forced herself to take a breath. "I mean, why did you stay? After everything… after I ran from Vale, after I left my team behind, after I- I hurt you! After getting you mixed up in all," Blake gestured to their surroundings with a jerk of her arm, "this. Why stay when I-…?"

When I left you. When I left them. What makes me so special?

She closed her eyes and shook her head. Behind closed lids passed a flash of gold. Yang. Yang was strength. Unwavering, like a fire that refused to be doused. She'd resented that at first, tried to distance herself from it. She'd been burned once, and she was hesitant to be enticed by a flame again. But, like the sun, her partner's brilliant light wasn't something she could easily hide from. She had grown grateful for it, borderline dependant on it.

Blake squeezed her eyes shut tighter. She saw red.

I'm sorry.

"Did you expect me to leave?"

She blinked in surprise, finally turning her head to face Sun properly. His gaze was focused on the road, and his voice was soft, but there was an edge to it; a tension in his posture that she couldn't quite understand.

Earnest. Sincere and intense conviction. To her, of all people. No… this is exactly what she had expected. And that's why it felt so wrong.

"No," she admitted. "But-"

"But you want to know," he glanced at her, raising an eyebrow. Blake cast her gaze back to the crowd, pressing her lips together in a firm line. After a few moments, she sighed.

"I want to know why you keep coming back."

"Because you're worth it," the response was immediate. Despite how his tone rung genuine, Blake couldn't help the laugh that bubbled from her lips. It sounded wonderfully corny, coming from him.

Sun pouted indignantly, crossing his arms. "Hey, I'm being serious. You're- I-" he gave a frustrated groan and threw his hands in the air, very nearly knocking the basket from a passing woman's arm. "I dunno how to explain it."

In the stretch of silence that followed, Blake smiled in spite of herself. He was so, so wrong, but it was a sweet sentiment.

"Righteous!"

Blake started, heart jumping in her chest. Her expression was one of utter bewilderment. "Huh?"

"That's the word!" he announced triumphantly. "You asked before if I ever looked at someone and thought that they were the embodiment of a word? Righteousness. That's you."

Blake wasn't sure if she was confused or flattered. She certainly didn't have enough time to react to be angry.

"I-…"

"Look," Sun began, calming himself enough to explain. "For as long as I've known you, you've always been tryin' to do the right thing! Whether it's with all this stuff with the White Fang, or your team, you've pushed yourself to do what you think is the right thing to do, whether people agree with it or not. It's inspiring."

His voice had gone low, with a gentle sincerity that Blake recognized by now as entirely honest in its intention. He smiled at her, softly for a moment, then with his usual gung-ho flair. "But that can get you into trouble. And that's where I come in!"

Blake returned his smile. "Yeah. I guess it is."

They walked quietly for a minute, nearly shoulder to shoulder in the thick crowd as if daring someone to try and pass between them. The throng of the market was comforting in its own right, Blake decided. Almost as much as the young man who strode beside her.

"Hey," he said at length, smile wide. "I meant it, you know. You're a good friend, Blake, and I don't want to see you get hurt because you think you deserve it. That's why I keep coming back. You're worth so much more than you think."

Masked as a flick of her hair, she rubbed the all-too-familiar pinpricking sensation from her eyes. She shook her head, even as her words contradicted it.

"Thank you, Sun."

Maybe one of these days, I'll start believing it…

A/N: Hey, don't look at me. It's shipping either way if you squint. Anyways, better late than never! I hate my work schedules. Day 3 will be up along with my proper Day 4 tomorrow!