The next few seconds were a blur.
Any sense of order was lost among desperate screams. White Fang members had flooded the hall. Blake reacted instantly, grabbing Yang and pushing the blonde behind her, taking a few steps back, away from the back wall, where the bullet sound had come from. A faint high pitched, long, sustained beep, not unlike a computer monitor, rung in her ears.
She did a quick scan of the room - Yang was shaking, her eyes glowing with fear and rage. Ruby was on the opposite side of the room, her heels discarded on the floor, looking calmer than Blake expected, ready to run. That was good.
That was all good, good, good, except...
Oh shit where the fuck is Weiss.
She heard a loud, incoherent shout, and then more gunshots started. She didn't know who was firing them. She didn't know where they were coming from. She grabbed Yang's wrist: "We're getting out of here."
Yang was silent for a few moments. Processing. "Not without Ruby."
"Yang, I don't think we can get across the room-"
Then the lights started to snap out. Glass showered from the ceiling. In one more fluid, instinctive motion, Blake knocked Yang to the ground, and curled herself over Yang's upper body, hoping to protect her from the glass, sliding them both under a table with the momentum of their fall. The blonde's eyes flashed with protest. "You don't have to-"
The faunus's head snapped around, her amber eyes in slits. "Shut up. I know what I'm doing. This isn't a first for me."
Yang's chest tightened, but she said nothing. Then, with a slight smirk, "Y'know, I never really thought of you as a top-"
Blake bit her tongue, turning some obscene shade of scarlet. If there wasn't the chance that they were about to die, she might've shot back a vaguely seductive, there's a lot of things you don't know about me, or something equally ridiculous, but considering there was a chance that they were going to die, and innuendos were the last thing on anyone's mind except Yang's, so she left it, scrambling off her girlfriend. "Sorry. Just - shhh, dammit. Did you see Weiss?"
Yang's face grew serious as she adjusted her dress. "No, I didn't. She headed over towards Winter, though."
"Fuck. Okay. That's where we want to go - the shot came from the opposite wall, and- wait, you can't see anything, can you?"
"Nope."
"Alright. Take my hand, you're going to have to trust me."
Yang nodded, and when she grabbed Blake's hand, she gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Good thing I'm quicker to trust than you are. You've got this."
"That's an understatement, but whatever," she muttered, and slid out from under the table, reaching up to grab the empty stainless steel punch bowl, ripping her bow off her ears, and using the ribbon to tie her arm to one handle while she held the other in her hand, doing her best to create a shield. God knew how much good it would do. Probably none. Nevermind.
She shouldered her way through the panicking crowd, Yang right behind her, eyes in slits, flashing with unease and determination. Bullets were literally flying past them - not aimed at them, necessarily. God knew what they were aimed at. Whose guns they belonged to. The police, or the white fang. Her blood ran cold, her muscles numbing as she caught a familiar face across the room.
Adam.
She froze, stock still. Her eyes, just visible over the top of the punch bowl, met his. Adam's eyes widened, then narrowed. Yang placed a hand on Blake's shoulder. "Blake. Blake, why have we stopped?"
She opened her mouth, her breath caught in her throat. No. He didn't do this. He couldn't- he doesn't have the-
He raised his gun. She tightened her grip on the punch bowl. Fear and hate coursed through her like a river, overflowing, swelling out of it's banks. Fuck. No.
He aimed at the ceiling.
Almost in slow motion, the bullet approached the chain suspending the chandelier from the roof. The chandelier directly above Ruby. Blake didn't think. She didn't even glance at Yang. Breaking into a sprint, she untied the ribbon from around her arm, tying one end to the punch bowl handle, wrapping the other around her hand. There was a balcony a few meters up - she jumped, her catlike agility (thanks, genetics,) allowing her to spring higher than most humans, and threw the punch bowl, relief unknotting in her stomach as the ribbon wrapped around the railing. She swung, making a grab for the chandelier chain with her dominant hand.
She got lucky.
She wasn't able to hold onto it, it being a fucking heavy chandelier, but she was able to keep up a valiant effort just long enough to re-direct it. The momentum she already had from swinging sent the huge crystalline structure crashing into the wall instead. She climbed swiftly, too easily up the ribbon, and braced herself against the wall, her free hand gripping the bottom of the balcony railing, watching as glass coated the floor, a strange, almost surreal, sparkling layer of hateful spikes.
Stunned faces gazed up at her. Ruby's face was nothing but awe. Weiss - she was there - her face was turned away, her sister ushering her out of the ballroom. Yang's face was a perfect 'holy shit' expression. Then her gaze swept over the faces of everyone else.
Confusion. Anger. Then it hit her.
She was a faunus.
They knew she was a faunus.
And they'd concluded that she was a terrorist.
A gun fired again. She didn't know which side has fired it. Blake rolled instinctively to the side. It was good to know she hadn't forgotten this. One year...that was all she'd needed to learn to stay alive.
She scrambled over the top of the balcony, then she used the punch bowl to shatter the window.
Then she ran.
***
Weiss had sustained a superficial bullet wound.
It has got her in the shoulder. Just a graze, thankfully. It had hurt like hell at first, and she had to apply ointment to it daily - ointment that got all over her clothes, which had left her wearing the only off the shoulder shirt she owned and a strapless bra for maybe three days now, while she lay around on her bed, pouring over the soundtrack to Phantom. Her father hadn't spoken to her. She'd emerged from her room expecting...well not exactly a warm hug with a side of sparkles and sunshine. But she didn't think he'd be angry.
"Are you trying to tell me you had no idea?!"
"Father-"
"You let a terrorist into our home, Weiss!"
"Wha-"
His eyes were wild. "Did you know she was a faunus?!"
Weiss already knew that Blake would want her to deny knowledge of everything. Yang had promised her that much. "No. She never said."
"You're lying."
Now pain laced her cheek too.
She bit her lip, reeling away. She took a deep breath, then a step back, shouting in her father's face. "She's not a terrorist! She saved Ruby's life!"
"And why should I give a fuck about Ruby?!"
"Because I'm-" she broke off, that was the wrong thing to say. "Because she's my friend!"
"What, just like that cat faunus?!"
"I-"
Their father's eyes were like ice. "This is your fault. That Faunus girl-"
"May not have even been a part of the White Fang!
Jacques Schnee took a deep breath. "Weiss, I don't think you understand the danger you were in."
"I had a bullet graze my shoulder. I think I understand."
He was pacing now. Never a good thing. "You're always off in Vale with this Faunus riff-raff and for what. So that you can ruin our family name down the track, and get yourself involved in White Fang attacks?!"
"This attack had nothing to do with me being in Vale! This is your fault! The White Fang Targets us because of practises you implement, with cheap Faunus labour and bad working conditions! I had this bullet in my shoulder because of you!"
Silence. The worst possible kind.
"Weiss."
"...yes?"
"Go practise you singing."
"I-"
"I said go."
A few more moments of silence. She shut the door quietly.
***
Delivered 8:46 pm
Blake?
Please answer.
I'm really worried.
Delivered 10:22 pm
*pokes you*
Delivered 1:03 am
*pokes you harder*
Delivered 1:12 am
I have a ton of memes and I'm not afraid to spam you with them. Pick up your phone.
Delivered 3:30 am
BLAKE
Delivered 9:26 am
You can talk to me.
I'm here for you.
Stop hiding.
Delivered 12:50 pm
...
Delivered 2:49 pm
Blake this is getting really old now.
What you did was super cool by the way.
Not looking at your phone is not so cool.
Blake, I'm so scared for you. Actually so scared.
Please tell me nothing's happened.
*Please*
Delivered 5:35 pm
I will actually contact the police
And by that I mean Uncle Qrow
But still
Delivered 6:00 pm
ITS 1800
24 hour time XP
ANSWER
Delivered 10:47 pm
Fuck, Blake. Please just text.
Delivered 2:55 am
You could literally just send 🖕 or something and that would be fine
I just need to know you're okay
Delivered 6:20 am
Are you not reading these on pawpouse
Delivered 9:13 am
Ruby's really worried too
We all are
Delivered 11:56 am
I would be mad at you but I'm too worried to be mad
Delivered 3:28 pm
LOOK AT YOI GODDAMN PHONE
*YOUR
Delivered 11:27 pm
Blaaaaaake
Delivered 4:04 am
WAKE ME UP
...
this is when you reply WAKE ME UP INSIDE
Delivered 12:19 pm
(● ˃̶͈̀ロ˂̶͈́)੭ꠥ⁾⁾
REPLY OH MY GOD
Delivered 3:08 am
WAIT YOU MUST BE CHARGING YOUR PHONE
OTHERWISE IT WOULD BE DEAD BY NOW
AND THESE WOULDNT BE DELIVERING
:D BUT ALSO ಠ_ಠ REPLYYYY
Delivered 5:48 pm
Bellabooty
Delivered 10:32 am
Baeke
Delivered 2:33 pm
Blake
Delivered 8:50 am
Blake
Delivered 7:01 am
Blake
Delivered 2:09 am
Blake
Delivered 9:55 pm
Blake
Delivered 3:40 am
...Blake??
Read 9:24 pm ✓
A/N: Where did Blake get her epic parkour skills? To what extent does being a faunus actually help with this? How the hell did that ribbon not snap? How did the bannister hold up the weight of an entire chandelier? And will Blake ever figure out how to turn off read receipts? Learn these things, and more, next time in RORAWOK!
(You will never know any of these things XD)