Chương 1809: 40
Chapter 40Chapter Text
By the end of the trip to the Emerald Forest came about, it was well into the late afternoon and Team RWBY had just returned back to their dorm in a flurry of thrown around camping supplies, slightly more carefully put away weapons, and a lot of clothes being thrown into the laundry basket after three days in the forest.
Except for Ruby's, of course, because Ruby cheated and made her clothes out of grimm stuff and even took the time to properly layer it all over her body. Her actual, real body which was, as anyone could guess, pasty as hell because she literally could not tan at all.
"Uuuugggh…. I'm so glad that's over and done with," Yang groaned, flopping down into one of the closest desk chairs in the room, swiveling about before kicking herself along until she could prop her feet up on her desk and throw her head back with an utterly obscene sigh of relief that made Blake blush and Weiss clear her throat rather awkwardly as she dropped her dirty clothes in the laundry and shuffled out of her marginally less dirty combat gear and into something slightly cleaner. "I know we had an early day today but fuuuuuck it's nice to be back in the dorms again."
"Mmm. I missed my books," Blake hummed, then paused as she looked between the bathroom, Weiss, and herself. "... Weiss, do you mind if I take the first shower? I'm the quickest of the three of us."
"I would really rather not, but you are right about being the fastest at showering," Weiss sighed, sitting down at her own desk and grumbling about having to wear slightly old pajamas- that weren't even hers because the only nightwear she actually owned was a slightly excessive amount of silk nightgowns in various shades of snowy white. No, she had to wear Ruby's oversized pajamas that the girl didn't even bother wearing most of the time because she slept as a puppy . No, Weiss wasn't jealous that Yang got to cuddle up to an adorable corgi puppy every night even if it was their Team leader! She wasn't!
… At least the strawberry pants and black tanktop were comfortable, albeit slightly dirty and rumpled from the fact that Weiss wore them every time she had to wait for a shower.
"Good. I'll be a few, then- and… I kinda have some things I wanna share with you guys… about… well. Me," Blake started, then shook her head as she stripped down out of her combat gear and into a bathrobe, gathering some clean casual clothes for later as she took her towel off of the bathroom door and headed in for a shower. "I'll tell you after I'm done. I just… think it's about time now that we've been together for a while."
"Huh. Wonder what she's gonna be telling us," Yang muttered, raising an eyebrow at the now closed bathroom door, the sounds of the shower turning on and water splattering against the tile floor faintly emanating from beyond. "Think it'll be something from her mysterious past?"
"I can't imagine it's anything else," Weiss huffed, crossing her arms and turning around to go over some of her notes from before the class trip, looking to catch up on some of the things she might have forgotten in that time span. "I wouldn't presume to know anything about her, considering she keeps a lot of her life close to her chest, but it's Blake- whatever she has to tell us is an important show of trust no matter what it is. For all we know she could just be about to tell us that she's a faunus. Unlikely, though."
Ruby paused from where she'd been bodily hucking up one of her weapons from her chest mouth and tried not to look suspicious, ears twitching and tail lashing as she studiously avoided speaking and just tried to focus on maintenance of the weapons she'd used in the last few days- mostly just the ones she used less often than Crescent Rose, since Crescent Rose was her perfect, beautiful baby and rarely if ever needed anything beyond some simple cleaning and polishing and occasionally a bit of touchup on the paint details. "... How would she be a faunus?"
"... Ruby, we've been in the same room for a month and slept in the same tent for three nights. You think I wouldn't know that her bow twitches?" Weiss deadpanned, rolling her eyes and giving her team leader an utterly flat and incredulous stare. "I don't know how you of all people wouldn't be able to tell, considering your ridiculous eyesight-"
"Hey, I trained really hard for my sniper eyes!"
"-and your sense of smell that lets you sniff out cookies from half a campus away," Weiss finished, leaning back in her chair and sighing as she crossed her legs, white slippers dangling from her feet as she shrugged and rolled her shoulders. "I'm pretty sure she knows we know considering how she's been giving me several biographies and histories written directly by former White Fang members every time I ask for more faunus history. Plus your sense of smell and Yang's general perceptive nature… I doubt the faunus thing is what she was going to tell us about."
"Well, whatever it is, it's not for us to try and figure it out right away," Ruby decided, pursing her lips as she spat up one of her weapons and started polishing the transforming rifle/xiphos that was vaguely reminiscent of Pyrrha's weapon, shaking her head as her cape started to flutter of its own will. "Also, I call dibs on using the sink."
"Rubes, you're the only one who uses the sink to bathe," Yang sighed, pinching her brow as she started doing as Ruby was and pulled Ember Celica's gauntlets and anklets from her weapon case and started touching up the little dings and scratches that it had gotten over the course of the last three days- nothing serious, but there was some collected dirt and dust that she'd have to get rid of. "Also, are you gonna use it while Weiss is in there or while I'm in the shower?"
"Probably you. I don't trust Weiss to not bolt out of the shower to cuddle me while I bathe," Ruby answered casually, rather purposefully ignoring Weiss' spluttered denials (that, really, none of them believed). Weiss was absolutely obsessed with corgis, and the chances that she would have the willpower to not interrupt her own shower so she could snuggle with Ruby while naked and soaking wet were… low.
She already had a hard time not using inane baby talk when Ruby shifted into her puppy form, and while it was cute… it made holding conversations in puppy mode quite difficult.
Anyway.
"Nothing we can do but wait, I suppose," Yang shrugged after a moment of silence, pulling out her scroll and setting it on the charging dock so she could watch videos while they waited for Blake to finish her shower. There was a long moment of comfortable silence, Yang and Weiss doing their own thing on one side of the room while Ruby did machine-precise maintenance on her weapons and shoved them back into her body one at a time, the trashcan by her desk overflowing with industrial grade wipes and used cleaning sticks already and still gaining a few more, all while rose petals fluttered away from her cape and arms as she worked at ridiculous speeds, most of them floating out of the window while the rest simply piled on the floor where they'd dissipate in a few hours- if Ruby didn't just somehow reabsorb them.
After a few more minutes, the running water of the shower slowed to a halt and the buzzing fan in the bathroom quieted down, padded footsteps only just barely audible to Ruby alone as Blake seemingly shuffled around and dried herself off. There was a long pause, then Blake opened the bathroom door without her bow. Without .
Her ears were on full display for the first time any of the rest of the team could remember- not even during the day before Initiation had Ruby seen Blake's ears out and about like that, twitching in a way that was both familiar and entirely unfamiliar with their body language.
"H-hi…" Blake murmured, wrapping her arms around herself and looking to the side as if expecting rebuke. "I… guess Ruby already knew since day one… and Yang figured it out… and I heard you say you knew too, so I figured I might as well leave the bow behind."
She paused, looking around the room with her lips slightly parted, tongue darting out to wet her dry lips as she continued speaking- the supportive smiles of the girls she called her team lifting her spirits and helping her along. "I… we've all been together for a month now, and… in that time we've all gotten really close- more than I ever thought I could. And I figure… I should be open. And stop… stop hiding so many things about myself."
"You aren't obligated to tell us anything you don't want us to be privy to, Blake," Weiss interjected for a moment, shaking her head a bit and crossing her arms. "Just this much is more than enough- trust takes time to build and-"
"No-! No, I do want to. I… I'm tired of hiding all of my problems. Running away from them. I…" Blake sighed, a rueful grin on her face as she leveled her gaze at Ruby. "I blame you for this. You and your… clingy, open… adorable… absolutely heartwarming hugs."
"She does tend to do that," Yang snickered as Ruby blushed, pulling her hood over her face momentarily to hide her embarrassment. "She's great isn't she? So- what's up buttercup? Must be important if you're doing it like this."
Blake nodded, clearing her throat. "It… is important, yes. I'm just… going through a few secrets one by one, right now… so I suppose the next thing I need to tell you before I get to the really big one is… I'm… trans. A trans woman. I'm… still she/her and still Blake, just… I figured I should trust you all with this. Since… well. Y'know. Yang."
"It's nice to meet you again, Blake," Yang immediately nodded, a jaunty smile on her face as she saluted towards her sister's partner, not a single trace of judgement to be seen- not in her expression, nor Ruby's, nor even Weiss'. Yang winked then, patting the subtle bulge in her comfy pants (that, honestly, everyone in the dorm had seen and kinda just ignored most of the time) with a grin. "Welcome to the club. Wanna borrow some of my pride shirts?"
A round of nods and similar sentiments rolled around the room (or, well, with Ruby and Weiss) then, following Yang's declaration. Not a single negative word to say, really.
It… honestly made Blake so, so happy that they accepted her as both a faunus and a trans woman. She blushed faintly, then continued speaking once the round of congratulations was done (and ignoring Weiss' faint mutter of "so that's why she only wears boxers").
"Sure, I'll… um, have to get some for myself eventually, though. As for the last thing…" she swallowed thickly, clearing her throat before forcing the words out. "The thing I really wanted to tell you guys… is about my past. As…"
Blake bowed her head, leaning against the bathroom door as all traces of good cheer in her mood evaporated instantly.
"As… a former member of the White Fang."
[I feel kind of awkward putting Weiss' casual outfit on this chapter, but I forgot to post it yesterday and I'm not swapping the two images now.]
Tình trạng nguồn điện hàng tuần
-- Xếp hạng
Quyền lực 
-- Đá
Quyền lực