Chapter 26: Taking Responsibility.

In a time of universal obsession with rights and freedoms, one seldom remembers that none of those come for free.

Un. Believable.

To think a Silva of all people would go chasing tails… Or ears, I suppose.

"'Before I stoop to your level?' Really, Weiss?"

Snapped back into reality with utmost disrespect, Weiss slowly turned her head to the left, steeling herself for further confrontation, as nothing about the intonation in which that singular phrase was flung at her suggested her teammate was in an amicable mood. As a matter of fact, taking in the sight of Yang's knuckles growing pale from the immense force with which she clenched her fists, her jawline accentuated into almost angular, likely very painful extreme as her teeth ground together with a faint but nonetheless nerve-racking noise and her eyes, slowly but surely, enwreathed in fires of smouldering hot rage, only further reassured Weiss that, perhaps, the unpleasant part of the day was yet to begin.

"Are you gonna try and make me feel bad about this?" Continuing the turning motion, Weiss readjusted herself so as to show Yang her left side only, slowly reaching back down to her hip with her right hand. Although not immediately hostile, her movement was more than indicative of her willingness to escalate the stakes… if that is what her teammate wanted. "'Cause I'm not going to."

"Are you serious right now!" Yang uttered, her tone aimed less to actually demand an answer from Weiss, and more to properly express the toxic mix of complete disbelief and maddening, mind-shattering frustration, all delivered in a lovely growl barely an inch away from screaming at the top of her more than sizeable lungs. "This is the first thing you say to me after threatening to kill my friend? You know, not to mention the fact that she's my partner of five months."

"Maybe up your standards. A criminal, an extremist and a terrorist all in one person. Terrible company."

"Assumptions much?"

"Hopeful optimism, more like. This is the bare minimum of what being a White Fang member entails. In her case, it's probably much, much worse."

"Alright, that's it, I'm punching you!"

As Yang raised her arms to her chin with her hands balled up into fists proper, a heavy clang could be heard as the metal bracelets around her arms came to life, with the outer bracers sliding down to cover her wrists, while the main construction unfolded around her forearm, both gauntlets feeding a shell into their respective chamber with a synchronized and clear click.

Responding in kind, Weiss' eyes narrowed, immediately taking notice of the subtle changes in Yang's centermass, while her hand reached down and grabbed Mondtulpe in reverse. Giving its barrel just the barest amount of spin with a movement burnt into her muscle memory, Weiss didn't have to take her eyes off her angered teammate for so much as a millisecond to know that it stopped on Wind, just as she intended. With her right side still obscured to Yang, her thumb depressed the trigger and locked it into place as the blade began flowing through the air, compelled by her deft wrist into a intricate weave of a dormant glyph…

"Enough!"

A mere second of further hesitation would probably have sent the situation into an uncontrollable downward spiral of broken friendships and massive property damages, caused by Yang pouncing at Weiss with great fury, to which Weiss would have responded by blasting a gale-force wind gust straight in her face… were it not for an outside variable so inconveniently entering the fickle equation of the brewing conflict, that being Ruby stepping in between the two girls, both on the verge of erupting with violence.

"We are not fighting in the middle of the street! Seriously, the police just left!" Shaking her head in complete disbelief, Ruby first turned towards her sister, scolding her in an eerie juxtaposition of age and rank.

"Were you actually going to punch Weiss with Ember Celica, Yang? In the open, in the middle of a crowd?"

"I..."

"Put it away, Yang!" Rapidly transitioning from an aggressive stance to a defensive posture in the face of the overwhelming threat that was her enraged sister, Yang extended her arms towards Ruby in a silent plea, struggling to come up with a justification for her, admittedly, rash decision. One of said arms was immediately slapped upon its plated wrist accompanying Ruby's demand, causing her to immediately retract her deadly arsenal and scratch her temple, staring at her leader with clear guilt from underneath her bowed head.

"You too!" Ruby proclaimed, turning towards Weiss. Making sure Yang was rendered as harmless as a young woman at peak physical condition could be without dimeritium chains, Weiss flicked the trigger lock away and once again sheathed her dagger as the glyph's energy, left unreleased by the force of auric resonance, slowly dissipated into the air, rendering it a speck of dust quickly blown away by the wind. She sighed.

That's twice I've wasted good Dust today.

"You two calmed down?" Though the situation was fairly self-evident, with Yang shamefully averting her eyes into the concrete, already bereft with guilt for overreacting in such egregious manner before her younger sister and with Weiss' features frozen in an unmoving expression of unwilling perseverance, Ruby made sure there would be no further attempts to escalate the tension. At the very least, nothing involving piercing or crushing implements.

"Alright," Ruby breathed a sigh of relief, as she herself was brought to tension she really was not comfortable with maintaining. "Anyone see where Blake and Darius ran off?"

"Somewhere thataway," Yang pointed roughly westwards, where the street took a sharp turn to the left, disappearing behind the corner. "But beyond that, who knows. They could be a good two blocks away in any direction at this point. Not that it matters."

"What do you mean 'not that it matters'?!" Ruby exclaimed, already raring to take off in chase. "We gotta go get Blake back!"

"That's why Darius took off, dummy," Yang slightly chuckled, lightly tapping her ever so clueless sister on the forehead with her index finger. She then muttered: "Fuck'n playboy."

"And you think she'll listen to him?"

"Anyone will listen to him," the blonde shrugged. "And if I learned anything about him to this day, he'll probably just wax philosophical in front of her for like, ten minutes, to calm her down. She seemed like the type to be into that. Far as I'm concerned, we got ourselves a much bigger issue on our hands."

"Huh?.."

"See, Darius only has to get Blake to calm down a little and think with her head. Fairly easy, especially with that long tongue of his, right?"

As Yang's suddenly narrowed eyes shot yet another murderous glare in Weiss' direction, the latter could only sigh once again, rubbing her forehead with her palm, preparing herself for yet another bout of verbal warfare.

And to think the day was beginning so nicely…

"We, on the other hand, have to convince this here asshole to stop being such a shitbag!"

"Yang!" Alas, even Ruby's indignation failed to quell the anger stoked within Yang. So did her inordinately sharp elbow slamming full-force into her side.

"It's true, though!"

"Well…" sheepishly glancing at Weiss' resolute expression, Ruby shimmied further towards her sister, lowering her tone. Not that it rendered her any less audible. "...Yeah, but you don't have to be an asshole about it? You know, the whole 'pay evil unto evil' thing?"

Having completely resigned to her fate of being this week's viral sensation all over the net, Weiss didn't even seize the opportunity to call Ruby out on such heinous accusations; at this point, she was willing to simply wait until this entire farce was over.

"...Suppose."

"Ya-a-ay… So, can we go and talk it out somewhere with… you know... less people?"

"Oh, so now you want to get away from people," Weiss remarked dryly, nonetheless falling in line and taking after her leader.

I'm going to be very surprised if this trainwreck doesn't show up all over the Pipe by tomorrow.

"I don't know what it is you want to talk about, Ruby, but it's not going to get me to change my mind."

Finding a suitable spot to conduct some much-needed counseling didn't take long, which might have had something to do with the exorbitantly low criteria of what would qualify: quite literally anywhere but that blasted intersection. Having singled out an unpopulated patch of tables with a pleasing view of the shoreline, the three girls took their spots: the two sisters sat shoulder to shoulder, two pair of eyes converging on Weiss, who maintained her stoic expression of impartiality. As far as she was concerned, she went overboard of her daily emotional allowance somewhere halfway through today's first exchange.

For whatever reason, that fact was in no way conducive to prevent her current spending, much less the future transactions.

"Okay, but why, though?" Ruby asked, gripping her head in both befuddlement and exasperation.

"Is it not self-evident?"

"But…" Turning to Yang for assistance yielded only disappointment, as she seemed more than content to simply continue give Weiss the meanest of stink-eye. With that option exhausted, Ruby sighed, scrapping the approach altogether. "Okay, this isn't working."

"Clearly."

She could feel Ruby strain all of her will to suppress a groan of pure exasperation. As frustrated as she was at the relentless backhands fate was doling out on her today, Weiss nonetheless retained enough rationale to avoid irreparably damaging her relationship with her own partner. Thus, she decided to tone down the snark and allow her leader to concentrate enough to at least attempt to make a point, determined as she was to mediate this sudden rupture in the cohesion of her charges.

"Look..."

Strong start.

"I get that you're angry."

Still silent, Weiss felt her right eyebrow jerk up ever so slightly, perfectly mirroring her general demeanor of 'you figure?'

"And, realistically, in some respects you're right to be angry."

In any other situation, it would be a fascinating experience to observe Ruby speak with such precision and nuance, clearly painstakingly considering every word coming out of her mouth. Devoting all of her mental resources towards this new, uncharted aspect of hers, it was clearly taking its toll on her. Even through her agitation, Weiss couldn't help but give credit where it was due; weary as she was – as everyone was, really – from today's debacle, Ruby was resolved to sort this out.

"...But you're probably angry at her for the wrong reasons."

For a brief instant, her left eyebrow joined her sister sky-high upon her forehead, before immediately converging in scorned grimace as Weiss tried her best to skewer Ruby with her gaze alone, failing miserably. Try as she might, she just could not get properly mad at her partner. Especially now that her blind anger began to slowly subside as its object vanished from sight, giving way to both bitterness and the ice-cold Atlesian reasoning in equal measure.

"Look, you're not the only one who's mad at Blake right now… or Darius, for that matter," Ruby placated. "Blake really should've known better hiding something this big from her team. And..." she shuddered. "Well… I'm not gonna blame him for not telling us a secret that wasn't his… but I think Darius took today way too close to heart."

Agreeing with the notion completely, Weiss too couldn't help but notice her breath break pace as shivers ran up her spine, settling, strangely enough, in the form of a lump somewhere in her throat, almost exactly where the Silva's sickle almost cleaved her head clean off. Frankly, if she had to choose, Weiss wouldn't be able to determine which one of her compatriot's... aspects had disturbed her more today: the tidal wave of unmitigated, downright unhinged vitriol at the, in retrospect, entirely unremarkable display of petty crime in the docks, the lack of so much as a gram of hesitation as he took her life and put it within not even a hair's breadth from oblivion… or the fact that, after everything was said and done, the net outcome of the day was that the person she thought she'd understood best, with whom she felt a very tangible, if unspoken, kinship, had opposed her in virtually every way and then, with great haste, fled to console someone whose default behavior, in any other circumstance, would be to try and kill them both. In fact, jogging her memory revealed that one such attempt on Darius' life has already taken place, back when he was first assigned to the newly formed Team RWBY. Such violent overreaction should've made her suspicious even back then, she thought.

All the more damning for one of them, if, despite that, they have found themselves at odds with each other.

"But that's not why you're angry at them, is it?"

As her musings came to their logical conclusion, Weiss' only option was to shake her head in defeat as Ruby, in a stunning display of outright sagely insight, saw right through her.

"Then why?"

The answer was simplicity itself, really. A truly elementary concept, easy to both comprehend and wrap into words.

Weiss knew it.

Ruby probably knew it as well, judging by her looking at Weiss with less wonderment… and more anticipation of the obvious.

But it clearly took a stronger person than her to say it out loud.

And while one such person sat right in front of her, Weiss wasn't quite sure if she was grateful to Ruby for saving her the effort, or dismayed for shaming her with her very own thoughts.

"Is it because you think he's right?"

"Could we… not bring him up?"

From her deflated tone, devoid of even a trace of its former snark, it became fairly obvious to every party involved it was the latter.

"Look who's talking," Yang grumbled, slightly shifting in her chair and dialing down the animosity, seeing as there wasn't exactly anyone to confront by now. "You seemed content bringing his family up every chance you got. What's the big idea, anyway? You seemed more offended on his behalf than the guy himself."

"You'll have to ask him on why that's the case," Weiss retorted dryly, shooting Yang an unamused glance. She then sighed. "Though I suppose this does warrant backstory. I'm not gonna bore you with Atlesian corporate 'ethic'..." she had to suppress a powerful urge to spit on the ground just by saying that. "But the gist of it is that it's a complete cesspool of flimsy truces and backstabbing… unless you were Julius Silva. If you got involved with him, odds were he'd either crush you without mercy and take everything you ever owned... or you'd get a friend for life who'd keep you afloat no matter the expense or effort, not to mention actually doing the whole 'friendship' thing that regular people do. I have no idea how he could afford this kind of policy, but it seemed to work out for him. The Schnees were no exception. As it happens to be, I actually knew the late Julius in person."

"Yeah, we gathered this much."

"I can imagine," Weiss frowned, steeling herself against a wave of embarrassment washing over her. "What you couldn't possibly have gathered was the extent of it. I… I actually have worked under him for an extended period of time as an assistant - and maybe a subject - to his research. Story for another time, really. Point is, I got to learn more than a little bit about him."

Her expression sharpened again in an unnervingly swift fashion, and scorn shone clearly in her eyes as her thoughts inevitably returned to the present.

"The man deserved better than to die to a bunch of animals who look at a tree and fail to take notice of other trees around it, nevermind the forest behind them. I don't know how Darius spent the last seven years, but we're clearly on much more different pages than I initially thought. And honestly, it doesn't even matter. Even if he's not wrong, Blake's still a convicted criminal who'd spent the last semester lying to our faces and fucked off to Light knows where the moment she was found out."

"If memory serves right, you personally told her to get out of your sight," Yang retorted as her clenched teeth slowly but surely morphed from a regular frown into an outright scowl.

"Not the point, Yang!" Ruby intervened, driving a very noticeable elbow into her sister's side, having sensed that the situation was this close to spiraling back out of control. She wearily rubbed her temples, then looked back at Weiss.

"What do you propose we do?"

"How about we turn to people expressly equipped to deal with her kind? The police, that is."

"Just you try..."

"YANG!" turning to Yang at once, Ruby gripped her sizeable shoulder and jerked towards her, pulling her in. "This isn't easy. You're making this even harder. If you don't wanna help, please just sit still?"

"Sorry..."

Still clutching Yang's arm in her hands, Ruby slightly leaned forward, momentarily resting her head on it, letting out a muffled groan. With that moment's rest out of the way, Team RWBY's leader once again turned her attention to Weiss. Speaking for herself, seething with anger as she still was, Weiss really didn't want to make it any harder on Ruby. So, she listened.

"Have you considered..." clasping her hands together and pointing at Weiss with both index fingers, Ruby mounted another argument. "That maybe Blake thinks you're right, too?"

Despite Weiss' absence of any sort of expectations as to which way this conversation was heading, the question nonetheless blindsided her completely, causing her to just stare blankly at Ruby for a couple seconds or so, before just managing to stutter an uncertain "Excuse me?"

"Think about it: if it was so peachy-keen for her in the White Fang, why is she here? I don't know what it's like in there, but from personal experience I'd say that fighting Grimm is way harder than humans. So what's she doing here?"

A small part of Weiss wanted to quip that Blake's presence in Beacon was a covert infiltration op by the White Fang, but there wasn't enough aluminum foil in all of Remnant to make even her take this theory seriously in any way, shape or form. And Ruby could definitely be spared unnecessary snark. So, she conceded the point, nodding in acknowledgement.

"Really, the fact that Blake's been allowed to be here for as long as she was should speak volumes," Ruby continued with growing confidence. "Like, don't take it the wrong way, but if Darius managed to figure it out before all of us, then Ozpin probably has known from the beginning. I don't think he'd let her enroll if he thought she was any danger."

"What does it even matter if she's dangerous or not?! For Light's sake, I can apprehend her myself if need be. The point is, she's a criminal. She doesn't belong here. She belongs on trial and..."

"Weiss," Yang groaned, gripping her forehead and stretching in her chair before leaning in. "Don't take it the wrong way, but honestly who gives a shit?"

"What is that even supposed to mean?!" Weiss sneered, eyes wide in both disbelief and anger. "Are you seriously asking me whether or not I care about justice being d..."

"Weiss."

"What?!"

"Watch the hands, princess," the blonde cracked her knuckles. "I don't blame you for things you're not responsible for, but surely even you realize that, say, the shit people like your own family pull is only legal because they also just so happen to if not be directly writing the laws that define what's legal or not, then they at least have enough strings to pull to make sure they're written as benefits them?"

"Your point being?"

"My point is: do you honestly believe it's just for someone with Blake's talents and skill to be rotting in a cell instead of applying them for good just because somebody with lots of money and influence decided it should be so? Do you really want to fight - or have somebody else fight - the Grimm she could've fought but doesn't because your preconceptions of what's right demand she be locked up? Huntin's a dangerous trade, as you've probably learned by now."

"You're just saying this because she's your partner."

Try as she might, Weiss completely failed to come up with a craftier refutation in the brief window of time it took Yang to take another breath.

"I'm not gonna say I'm not. I am invested in keeping her around, as I'm sure you would be in keeping Ruby," Yang shrugged. "But it's not the point. Look," she gestured towards Weiss. "I'm not saying she's innocent. She probably isn't. Whatever messed up things she's done or was complicit in, that's on her. I give it to you. But it's not like doing however many years she's due will undo any of it. It won't. Yet here she is, risking her freedom and life with us virtually every day doing the most dangerous job on Remnant. What if she does it because she agrees with you? What if she didn't want to be a part of… what was it? 'A bunch of terrorists targeting civilians'? And redeem herself if not in the eyes of the law or the people, then at least in her own, in the way she's best at? Do you really want to deny it to her that badly? And, more importantly, are you willing to let - or make - someone else take the risks she otherwise could have taken?"

Weiss sighed.

"That's a nice sentiment, Yang," she whispered. "But as you correctly pointed out, hunting is a dangerous trade. One that taxes the individual in every conceivable way and where their life is just one mistake away from ending. Trainees spend years honing their body, mind, soul, and teamwork. A team of Hunters trusts one another with their life, because out there, no one else is gonna protect it but they themselves."

Narrowing her eyes, she speared Yang looking at her with ever more grim demeanor, already guessing where this was going.

"After everything that's happened today, can you honestly tell me you trust Blake? Or that you can go back to trusting her ever again?"

Yang didn't answer.

For some reason, Weiss didn't feel any triumph in what was essentially an argument won. Only bitterness and grief.

Suddenly, Ruby spoke up:

"I want to believe her," she said, and although at this point exhaustion was very clearly setting in, judging by her face slowly turning an unhealthy pale hue and her eyes setting just that bit deeper in their sockets, the resolution burning in them was absolute. "But… you're right. This is something we're gonna have to sit down and talk out together as a team once she comes back."

If she comes back.

"Would you do at least that much?"

Weiss remained silent.

It's not like she herself was oh so eager to dismantle Team RWBY. While they technically wouldn't have to wait for reinforcements at all, she, frankly, struggled to picture Darius as a full-fledged replacement for Blake. As sensationally able and disciplined as he was, whosoever drilled him definitely trained him for solitary action, and it showed in every deployment they've been in, despite his best efforts… not to mention that fighting alongside him was still a nightmare, possibly posing a greater danger than the Grimm they were trying to kill.

And of course, she'd be foolish to ignore the fact that a fairly sizeable part of her, the one that broke the same bread with Blake for a good five months, simply refused to write off somebody she had already shared so much with. She suspected it was the very same part that made her heart ache so much, still reeling from the perceived betrayal, steadily pumping something very bitter in her chest.

"I… I don't know," she stuttered, lowering her eyes. "I'd like some time to sort this out in my head… if that's alright."

"Well…" Ruby nodded, propping herself up on the table. "I don't know when Blake's coming back… if at all. For now, you've got all the time you need. Honestly, I could use a minute, too."

"Thanks... " Weiss sighed. She still had one more thing to say. "And I'd like to apologize for the temper tantrum. I've caused way more ruckus than was necessary. Please forgive me."

"Don't worry about me," Ruby smiled weakly. "Sorting us out is kinda my job now..."

"Alright, come 'ere!" With a decisive gesture, this time it was Yang reaching out to grab Ruby's shoulder and basically tilting her into her lap with virtually no opposition.

"So… now what?" Weiss inquired, allowing herself a moment to stretch and surveying the surroundings in the meanwhile.

"We get Ruby some shut-eye, then get back to the dorms and wait for the rest of us to get back," seemingly the only one who'd remained unfazed, Yang casually took over the conversation. As a bleep somewhere in the depths of Ruby's outfit disturbed the silence, Yang fished out her scroll and opened it… immediately exploding in profanity.

"This motherfucker!"

"Is it Darius?" Weiss inquired.

"You bet it is!"

"What's he say?"

Yang just tossed her the device. The message log read:

'Found Blake. Talked her down. Be back by tomorrow. How's Weiss?'

"The second those two get out of my sight. The second!"

Clearly, Yang did not approve.

"What do I write back?" Weiss leaned over, trying to catch a glimpse of Ruby. In a drowsy, lethargic voice, she replied:

"Tell him I'm working on it."

Weiss shrugged and typed in the answer.

'She's working on it.'

Allowing himself a quiet chuckle, Darius stowed away his scroll after his dutiful report on the state of affairs and raised his eyes to meet Blake's, who sat across from him at a table, indulging in some dubious beverage by the name 'Crystalline dream', courtesy of himself. To the left of them was the entrance to the cafe whose hospitality the two chose to exploit, while the right side afforded a sensational view of the bay in all its glory. For whatever reason, the situation seemed oddly familiar to Darius.

"Well?" Taking a break from her drink, Blake shot him a glance of curiosity, as well as subdued bemusement. Having somewhat recovered from her breakdown, minute by minute he could see color returning to her face and a devious, playful undertone to her voice, which brought him great relief, even if it took him considerable effort… and some things that really shouldn't have been said.

"I'm told that Ruby is handling the issue, bless her soul," he responded, grabbing his own glass and taking a hearty sip of orange juice.

"You can say that again," Blake echoed the sentiment, raising her glass in faux toast to their dear leader. "Honestly, we got so lucky with her."

"Agreed wholeheartedly," a small half-smile etched itself into the side of Darius' face. "I shudder to imagine what would happen if we ended up with a leader who cared any less…" after a second's consideration, he decided this thought warranted continuation. "...Or any more, come to think of it."

"Care to elaborate on that part?"

"Anything for you," he shrugged. "Imagine, for a second, that instead of Ruby, Weiss was the one that Ozpin appointed to lead us."

It didn't take long for understanding to manifest in Blake's eyes, while a nervous swallow made it clear that his prompt got the initial point across. Calmly gesturing at her with his hand, Darius proceeded:

"Pretty much. A leader is always in this precarious position where no matter how strongly they feel about a subject matter, they can't let it get in the way of their direct responsibilities, that being keeping the team together. This kind of requirements inevitably rejects those who can't keep their emotions in check… or those from whom those emotions are expected."

"Sounds to me like you have someone particular in mind," Blake smirked, staring him down with exactly the necessary amount of mockery for the both of them to understand the person in question. Yet beneath the surface-level snark, Darius could see her gaze sharpen just that little bit that clearly conveyed to him that it wasn't just her humoring his ramblings.

"Ya got me there," he nodded in concession. "Contrary to what the rest of the world thinks, Atlesians are, in fact, not just one person cloned over and over again, and can even hold opinions distinct from one another. And as much as I like to tout my heritage, it comes with certain expectations..." he paused, further considering his verbiage, as well as taking a second to inspect the surrounding tables to make sure nobody would overhear anything they weren't supposed to. Satisfied, he continued. "Like the ones I have dashed so rudely back there. Frankly, I'm not sure who Weiss is angrier with: you for being White Fang, or me for siding with you. I am pretty sure, however, that she wouldn't have listened to a word out of my mouth after this."

He sighed.

"You know, Ruby actually asked me once how I hadn't become a team leader, the flatterer," he swirled his hand in a vaguely circular gesture pertaining to all the complicated facets of their team's current predicament. "Honestly, this is as good an answer as it gets. I am, by nature, just too polarizing a figure to ever be leadership material."

"And you're fine with this?" Blake's eyes narrowed and her features grew stern as the two arrived to the crux of the issue. "You're fine with being judged for what, not who, you are?"

"Most of the time there is very little fundamental difference between the two, Blake, as the latter directly originates from the former", he retorted, shaking his head. "Like I said, such is the nature of things. You, me, we're all products of our upbringing; much like we only have one body, we only have one past from which our current self has inevitably grown. The only say we get in it is whether we take it in stride, or reject it. You have always been a Faunus, yet, like Weiss correctly pointed out, you chose to stay with the White Fang even after you got a taste of what they really were about, and then you chose, again, to abandon them once you've realized this was going too far."

He paused for a moment, taking another sip of juice. Receiving no interjection from Blake, he took it as a sign to continue.

"For one's claim to be something else than a direct product of how they've been brought up to be true, there must be evidence of their actions that actively defy their nature. And while, granted, there were more than several opportunities over the years to do just that, I didn't. I have always been a Silva, and had I been raised by anyone else, I would probably be a very different person. Almost definitely, even. It logically follows that it's up to me to deal with the consequences of that choice and any preconceptions people might have about what a Silva should and shouldn't be like…" a grim chuckle left his throat. "...If only because no one else will do that for me. So, should Weiss still want to confront me about that, I'd be more than happy to reiterate my reasoning to her. And maybe tell her about the merits of not piggybacking on other people's tragedies."

"Honestly, that last part says more about you than it does about her," Blake remarked, eyeing him up with her head tilted slightly to her right. "Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for you speaking up for me back there, but… I can't help but get the impression you cared more about Weiss trying to bash me over the head with what happened to your family than about the fact itself. Repression much?"

"With your permission, I will be the only one spouting undergrad psychology here," Darius responded, his face a stone-etched mask of dead seriousness, yet his eyes looked back at Blake with the same mischievous spark. He then continued in a more somber tone. "In all seriousness, though, I do care. Plenty. Just… not in a way you expect me to."

As a groan left Blake's throat, accompanied by her rolling her eyes ever so slightly, Darius allowed himself to briefly celebrate this 'gotcha' moment by snapping his fingers at her and quietly chuckling to himself.

"Should've known better than to set myself up like this," Blake mused, attempting to drown her disappointment in what little was left of her beverage, only technically succeeding. "Do enlighten the dumb ol' me: in how many ways can one care about something like this?"

"Less than you may think," he shrugged. "And, to be fair to Weiss, in the beginning I thought pretty much the same as her. But while she, it would seem, continues to view herself as a victim of the White Fang's conflict with her family, I, uhhh… ditched, this mentality a while ago."

"Adopting, instead?.."

"That of an involved party."

"Darius, you were what, ten when it happened?" eyes narrowed, Blake shook her head, staring at him intently. "How involved could you be by then?"

"Eleven, actually," Darius corrected before moving on. "But that's beside the point. What isn't, however, is that my father's strife with the White Fang wasn't simply a prolonged fit of xenophobia. However drastic his measures had been, however… ruthless the methods, they were aimed against a very specific problem that he had foreseen from the White Fang's very conception, maybe even before that."

Looking directly at Blake, he continued:

"The same problem that made its once devout followers into apostates because they wouldn't turn radical enough, and the same problem that I, once I'd grown enough to understand it, would inevitably join him in combatting."

He sighed.

"Regrettably, for all his foresight, it seems he didn't expect the White Fang doing what they did before this actually happened. Or maybe he did, and failed to prepare for it. Our family paid the price regardless. But to say I wasn't involved would be disingenuous at best."

They sat in silence for a bit, ten seconds maybe, each grappling with their own thoughts on the matter, before Blake spoke up:

"That's… very cold, Darius… Yet somehow unsurprising, coming from you."

There was something in her voice that puzzled Darius greatly. A certain… wistfulness, one that he couldn't attribute to any kind of emotion that would be applicable in this particular exchange, nor any that would be typical of his interlocutor. This kind of ignorance irritated him greatly. And so, in a manner ubiquitous to him, he went about remedying it by asking Blake directly:

"Are you… upset?"

Musing on this shortly, Blake shook her head.

"...No. I wouldn't say so. It's just that, now that I'm looking back at it, I can't see you answering any other way. Not sure how to feel about that."

"Are you disappointed?"

"Not that either." she shrugged the question off, instead looking at Darius with ever-so-slightly furled eyebrows and a curious spark in her eyes. "Not that it matters. Your answer wouldn't change if I said otherwise, would it?"

He shook his head. There was only one answer to this question.

"No."

"Thought as much," Blake snickered. "Honestly… I like that about you."

Somewhat shook by a display of candidness from Blake, of all people, Darius returned the look with his eyes wide open before recollecting himself in a second.

"I, uh... aim to please."

"Do you ever. I've seen one - or ten - too many people bending over themselves just to get into someone's good graces. It… kinda came hand-in-hand with the problem you mentioned. This is nice, for a change."

"Not everyone can afford these kinds of principles, Blake. Very few, in fact."

"Maybe…" she half-nodded in absent-minded agreement. "But for someone who was supposed to be murdered seven years ago and then popped up out of nowhere, you can afford a truly staggering amount. Really makes one think."

Even had Blake not said the last sentence, from the look in her eyes and all the way down to how she ever so slightly reclined in her chair, somewhat distancing herself from the blowback she expected to follow, there was no denying the fact that this was anything but idle pondering. A fact that Darius voiced posthaste:

"I sense a question."

"Am I going to get an answer?"

Darius didn't reply.

Instead, he thought, and thought hard. Whether he liked it or not, an increasingly clear, if unsurprising, tendency was establishing itself that, considering how much he'd gotten Blake to open up to him, it was inevitable that eventually she'd begin to prod back.

You knew what you were getting yourself into, yet you'd gotten yourself into it anyways. Surely you don't need reminding you're really not in the position to make commitments like these?

True. But assuming I'm to stay in Vale for the whole duration of the training, this was going to happen one way or the other… unless I want to find myself in Blake's place. And as far as gradually easing them into it goes, this is as good as it gets.

Your choice.

Whoever else's?..

"Do you really want it?"

One didn't have to be a psychic to see that Blake didn't expect him to push back still, and this seemingly simple question gave her pause. Darius hoped it would, too. All sympathies aside, for the kind of commitment he was about to make, he had to make sure he'd get at least as much in return.

It should, therefore, come off as no surprise that the atmosphere between the two grew only tenser as, after a solid ten seconds of deep contemplation, Blake nodded, her expression entirely devoid of her trademark sulk, or really any other emotion that could've added even a smidgen of levity to the situation.

"Yes… I do."

Darius sighed.

"Why?"

"Does common courtesy not cut it?" she asked, a slight hint of fledgling irritation heightening her tone. "I've told you practically everything of interest about me, yet I know nothing about you!"

"A valid point," Darius nodded. "And a good reason why I should reciprocate, true. But I'm not asking that. I want to know why youwant meto tell you."

Shooting him another one of her long, trying looks, Blake sighed as Darius didn't so much as flinch.

"Then… how about gratitude?"

Darius simply angled his eyebrow ever so slightly, prompting her to continue.

"I feel like we should make something clear," she began, tentatively tracing her finger in a circular pattern along the table's surface. "What you did for me back there… I don't know about you, but I feel like I owe you big time. And I don't…" In a rare event of Blake feeling at a loss for words, she stumbled for a second, before slightly shaking her head and taking a different approach. "No, not that. I want to pay you back. I mean… honestly, if you're still this hesitant after everything I've told you… I can only assume you're hiding something truly, truly horrible. And you just saw yourself what happens when you hide something you shouldn't for too long. Surely it'd be easier to have someone speak up for you should the worst come to pass?"

For a very brief instant Darius allowed himself to indulge in an emotion he rarely had the opportunity, or reason, to feel: that of pure admiration. For what amounted to a former thug, Blake has shown an uncanny savviness for seeing right through people, as well as a truly enviable sense of how and when to push them accordingly – both qualities he himself had spent long, long months and years acquiring, honing, and polishing to a mirror finish.

Alas, as is the tendency with all things nice, this had only lasted for but a moment, before the realization dawned upon Darius that this was far from the most appropriate location to tell the kind of stories he was about to. With a short nod, he said:

"We should relocate then, Blake."

Author's Notes: After more than half a year in the making, seeing a measly 6,7k words pop up in your notifications may have you going like 'The fuck, author-dude? That's some hilariously weak shit after missing for almost a year', and while your outrage is, realistically, more justified than most, what you don't know is that this draft has a second part that just kinda grew to the size of a chapter all on its own, and it's getting uploaded in a week. While I am truly sorry this kind-of-hiatus and while I'd like to promise more consistent uploads like I do almost every time, I'm afraid I really can't. My studies have been taking up way more effort than I thought they would, and my general state of being is far from optimal. If it's any consolation, I do promise, however, that there's no fucking way I'm abandoning this story and it's going to be finished and it'll be glorious, no matter how long it'll take me. With all of that being said, I do hope you enjoyed the chapter and that perhaps you'll consider leaving some feedback on your way out. Good time of day to you.