Author's Note

As you may have noticed, the cover picture has now changed. Angie did me the favour of drawing another picture specifically for this story :D. You should all go look at her art. All of it. Angie is the best.

Chapter 3 - Silent Comforts

It was strange, Blake had been thinking. That is, it was rather strange just how protective she found herself feeling of this girl she had only just met tonight. In addition to the short amount of time they had known each other was also just how different the two were.

She was a faunus while Weiss was a human. Even more than that Weiss was a daughter born to the Schnee name, a heritage that would make her almost universally reviled amongst faunus kind just by virtue of existing. Right now though, Blake didn't see any of that.

Weiss was young, scared, and alone. Fenris and his cronies had taken her away from the safety and shelter she had likely known all her life. Blake quickly found herself grimacing for what felt like the hundredth time that night as she had to revise that last thought. Safety from outside dangers at least, if not from those within.

Her own father had evidently abused her. The fact that Weiss had attempted to defend him despite what he had done did not in fact say anything good about him. If anything, it did quite the opposite actually. Seeing this, how could Blake possibly blame the girl for the things done by the Schnee company? Logically, she was too young to have been responsible for anything anyway. No, the one responsible for the pain and oppression of so many of her fellow faunus was the same monster that had been the one to hurt Weiss as well.

"Come on Weiss, we should go now," Blake murmured finally, pulling away slightly from the smaller girl.

She felt a little bad about making Weiss run so hard before, and was sorry that she couldn't give her a longer break either. Right now though, they really could not afford to stay still for very long.

"Okay." Weiss's voice sounded a little raw. Rubbing a little at her slightly reddened eyes she got back to her feet.

Taking Weiss by the hand, Blake gently led her back out through the fence and the two resumed their escape, albeit at a bit more of a sedate pace. It was obvious that Weiss was not used to particularly strenuous activity. They had covered some good ground earlier, and there weren't any signs of pursuers yet. For Weiss's sake, they could probably afford going a little bit slower now.

Just a couple of minutes down the street Blake's ears twitched as she heard an approaching noise. At first she was alarmed enough for her heart to skip a beat, thinking that they had been found far sooner than she had thought. As the familiar rumble continued though the momentary panic subsided before she had a chance to curse herself for slowing down as Blake recognized what it was. Taking a quick glance up the street away from the sound Blake quickly saw what she was looking for.

"Come on," Blake repeated, urging Weiss with a light tug on her arm to speed up a bit.

They sped up to a bit of a brisk jog, but only for a short while since they actually did not end up moving very far at all. Shortly after crossing the street they stopped near the beginning of the next block next to a pole. Blake pulled off her backpack, setting it on the ground so she could start rooting through it. Curiously, Weiss looked up the nearby pole, finding a sign on top of it. According to the sign it seemed that this was a bus stop.

Turning to face back down the street Weiss saw the lone bus driving slowly down the street. With its large moving body and noisy engine the bus alone contrasted sharply with the stillness of the silent buildings lining the road. At the same time though it also managed to feel so very appropriate in the setting.

By the time the bus had finally reach them and come to a stop Blake was already shrugging her pack back on with some things now in hand. Blake wasted no time in getting up onto the bus, pulling Weiss in behind her. She quickly deposited a single slightly grungy bus ticket she had found some time ago into the farebox along with a handful of coins before leading Weiss with her deeper into the bus. The bus driver had barely glanced at them longer than necessary to see that they had paid before turning back to the road.

Just as Blake expected.

She was sure that between the grime covering the both of them from the air ducts and Weiss's injuries they must have made quite the curious sight. It was not the good sort of curious though. Rather, it was the sort of thing that spoke of trouble, the kind of trouble that most people chose to avoid involving themselves in.

Looking over the empty bus it seemed that they had a completely free choice of seating. Blake chose to sit further back, away from the driver lest they be overheard. An advertisement of some sort also stretched across the back bus windows which would hide them from anyone looking in.

Looking upon a pair of seats she had finally settled upon Blake hesitated for a moment unsure if Weiss would prefer the outside or inside. Her dilemma was solved for her when the small girl moved in first, pulling Blake after her instead of the other way around for once.

Being able to get on the bus was a lucky break. This bus route headed almost in a straight line out of the area before making a few turns later on. It would move much faster than they would be capable of on foot, especially Weiss, and anybody following them would be unlikely to catch up. They would be able to ride this further away and find a place to lay low for a while. Blake actually had just the spot in mind.

Glancing back at Weiss sitting beside her Blake was suddenly struck by just how out of her depth she was. For most of her life Blake had had to look out for herself and herself alone. She had not had anybody to take care of her, but neither had she had to look after anyone else either.

Just how young was Weiss anyway? Even if Blake felt she was probably the older of the two that wasn't saying much as she was only eleven. Not exactly someone with the experience necessary to be raising someone else. Furthermore, despite whatever...difficulties, that may have plagued the younger girl's home life, as a Schnee she likely had a certain standard of living she was used to. Blake was hardly in a position to be providing something beyond the bare necessities, if even that.

No matter what misgivings Blake may have had about the future of this situation though, her resolve did not waver in the slightest. Still watching Weiss her eyes were inevitably drawn again to the girl's injuries which were still not something she could simply ignore. Sending her home knowing full well the things that might happen to her there was not something that she would be able to do. Blake had sworn to protect her, and she would stand by her word.

When Weiss began to squirm though, Blake realized that she had been staring at the girl without speaking for perhaps a bit longer than was comfortably appropriate. Feeling a little embarrassed she turned her gaze aside for a moment and began to wrack her brains for something to say.

"S-so!" said Blake facing Weiss once more, mentally cursing herself for the stutter. Weiss turned to look curiously at her. "Do you have any hobbies?" That was a nice, safe, and innocuous topic that would work for small talk, right?

Weiss blinked in surprise at the rather sudden, and out of place, line of questioning. It took her a a couple of seconds to think of something. "...I liked to sing."

"Singing. That's nice." Blake felt painfully out of her comfort zone. She was not used to conversing like this with people younger than her. When Weiss kept staring at her Blake felt another bit of embarrassment as she realized that it was her turn to contribute to the conversation. "I like to read. Books...books are a great way to immerse yourself into another world."

With a little imagination books could take you to the most wonderful of places. As many different places as there were stories. Sometimes it was nice to be able to escape from reality for a little while.

It also helped that books were a relatively cheap form of entertainment, though she didn't say that aloud to Weiss. They didn't require anything beyond the book itself unlike things such as television or video games. Blake could also sometimes get older books for free that were slated to be cast out anyway at book stores. Libraries were also of course a favoured place to spend time for her.

Lost on her train of thought it had again taken Blake a moment to realize the implications of something Weiss had said. "...Liked?" Not like. Past tense.

Weiss looked away a little uncomfortably. "I always liked to sing, but father...he said that if I were to sing, I should at least do it properly." A small scowl. "Singing wasn't fun anymore with all the voice coaches."

Blake winced.

Great going Belladonna, you hit another sensitive topic already.

She placed her hand on top of Weiss's and leaned gently against her, finding herself relieved when the tension in the small body next to her seemed to soften. As much as it surprised Blake how quickly she had taken to Weiss, it was equally surprising if not more so how easily the other girl had seemingly done the same. Weiss was surprisingly open, and trusting, with someone she had barely known for longer than a couple of hours. Words weren't even necessary when comforting her anymore.

Her thoughts wandered back towards the Schnee patriarch. Was it because of him? If all it took was the bits of kindness and decency Blake had shown towards Weiss so far to earn her trust, then that did not speak good things of her upbringing by her father's hand yet again.

The two lapsed back into silence for a while. Thankfully the silence was at least not awkward or uncomfortable. They were too at ease with each others' presence for that. Blake did however still have things she wanted to know, and wasn't quite sure how to approach the topics after her previous failure at small talk. Eventually though, something else broke the silence for her, a low but audible grumble coming from beside her.

Looking at Weiss again she saw the young girl looking somewhat embarrassed, refusing to meet her eyes. Her hunched over posture and the arms around her stomach though made it quite clear what Blake had just heard. Wordlessly, she searched through her backpack once again for something.

"Here," Blake said simply as she handed a couple of granola bars to Weiss. Hesitant blue eyes flickered between the bars and Blake. Smiling reassuringly at Weiss again Blake pushed the bars a little closer towards her. "You're hungry right? I know it's not much, but why don't you have these for now?"

Biting her lip Weiss continued to just look between Blake and the offered items for another few seconds. The faunus girl just continued to smile softly and did not move her hand. When another quiet growl sounded was when Weiss finally gave in and took the two bars with a mumbled thanks.

At first Weiss examined the packaging of the bars for several seconds looking a little puzzled. Clearly she was unfamiliar with them. It did not take very long though before she figured out how to tear them open and began taking several tentative nibbles.

Either Weiss found them to be satisfactory or was hungry enough to not care because she very quickly moved from nibbles to larger bites. With the ice effectively broken again, Blake decided to take another chance at asking her companion a question that had been nagging at her for some time.

"Weiss." Hearing her name the other girl made a sound of acknowledgement, but didn't turn to look at her this time. "How old are you?"

"Eleven," Weiss said in between bites.

Blake blinked. What?

"I'm sorry. I must have misheard. Could you please repeat tat?" Blake asked politely.

"Eleven."

"No way." No way. There was simply no way.

Weiss finally turned back to look at her just as she finished off the last of the bars. A small frown was present on her features this time. "What? What do you mean 'no way'? I'm eleven!" she insisted.

"You're too small to be eleven!" Blake blurted out incredulously. "I'm eleven! You look like you're eight. Nine at most." Almost as soon as Blake had voiced her thoughts she regretted doing so. It was kind of rude, and the last thing she wanted to do right now was hurt Weiss's feelings or start an argument on top of everything else.

Weiss though seemed to look more shocked than offended at first as she gaped openly at Blake though that only lasted a couple of seconds. "That's impossible! You're too big to be the same as age me!" She sounded rather indignant about it. "You have to be at least thirteen." Weiss counter argued.

Taken aback Blake blinked and when her lips twitched she had to stop herself from breaking into a sudden smile. So Weiss had a bit of fire in her after all it seemed. Perhaps the other girl was not quite as fragile as she had initially thought. This was the most animated Blake had seen of Weiss so far. She was actually rather interested in what would happen if she prodded a little more.

"Is the only justification you have for that my relation to your own size?" Blake tried to sound nonchalant as she spoke, as if she were not really taking Weiss's claims seriously at all. "I've seen other people around this age. As far as I can tell, I'm of a fairly normal height for an eleven-year-old." Smirking openly now she placed a hand upon Weiss's head. "If you really are the age you say, then you are quite short for our age."

The more diminutive of the two was less amused than Blake was. Scowling, Weiss said, "I am a perfectly normal height for my age thank you very much." Huffing, she crossed her arms and turned away. "You are simply abnormally tall."

Interestingly enough, at no point was any attempt made by Weiss to remove Blake's hand. Still smiling, Blake lightly tousled Weiss's hair earning her another small angry noise before returning her hand to her lap.

Blake decided that there wasn't really any reason Weiss would lie about her age. Her reactions seemed genuine enough as well. Personally though, she still harboured a few doubts. The girl was just so small. She knew it was perhaps a bit unfair, but she simply couldn't see Weiss as being the same age as her.

At least Weiss seemed to be holding up better than she had initially thought. Blake found that she actually also rather enjoyed the other girl's company.

Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.

They spent a rather long time on the bus. Weiss felt it must have been close to an hour, with few twists or turns. She didn't mind though. As far as she was concerned, the more distance between her and those awful people the better. It sure beat running too.

Once they had gotten off the bus, stopping to watch it drive off, the two started walking again. Without the worry of someone being right on their tail the two of them moved at a much more sedate pace this time.

Unlike the more industrial sector they were in earlier, the buildings they passed by walking here were smaller houses and apartment buildings as opposed to the larger warehouses and factories from before. What was similar though was the rather run down state of everything. This was not an area of town that Weiss would normally be comfortable in at all. The complete lack of people actually only served to make it feel all the more unsettling. Suffice it to say, Weiss stuck very closely to Blake's side.

Blake eventually led them away from the main street, turning into a smaller neighbourhood. Walking off the sidewalk they approached the side fence separating two small houses. With a simple flip of a latch the girls found themselves in a backyard for the second time that night. From the deteriorated appearance of the area it was clear that either nobody had lived here for some time or that they cared very little for the conditions of their property.

Following Blake up the steps onto the deck towards the sliding glass backdoor Weiss wondered what she was going to do. It seemed fairly obvious to her that the faunus had brought them here specifically, likely with the intention of taking shelter inside the house. They hadn't gone in through the front door though, and the back door appeared to only lock from the inside.

Was she planning on breaking the door? Given that it was made of glass, it probably would not be too hard. The sound that it would make though would draw unwanted attention. Not to mention Weiss herself felt a little uncomfortable at the thought of destroying private property. All this trespassing was already making her uneasy as it was.

It turned out thought that Blake had a much more elegant solution.

Weiss blinked. "How...?" In the few seconds she had spent thinking Blake had somehow managed to slide open the door without a sound and was now standing inside with the lights on. Surprising that a place such as this still had power.

"Bad lock design," Blake explained simply. "Look." She gestured for Weiss to come closer and pointed at the lock. "On the wall where the door rests when closed is this sort of hook here, see?" Blake's finger moved to point at a mechanism inside a small hole in the door level with the previously mentioned hook. "When you turn the lock on the door itself it lowers this piece here."

She took a moment to look more closely at the lock's components as Blake had invited her to do. Weiss eyed the hook as she stepped inside the house to turn the lock on the door. When the door was slid shut then the hook would enter the hole in its side. The turning of the lock caused a bolt to lower down over the hook preventing the door from sliding horizontally, and Weiss proceeded to do just that. Knowing how the lock worked though still didn't explain how Blake had managed to open the door.

"Look," said Blake as she grabbed a hold of the handle without unlocking the door first. Bracing her other hand underneath it she pushed up on the door lifting it slightly off the ground and surprisingly proceeded to slide it open as if it were not locked at all.

"But how?" Weiss asked again still confused. Blake smiled at her puzzlement.

"The hole where it locks is too large," Blake began explaining. "And there's extra space above the door. Enough to lift it slightly. It's quite easy to simply lift the locking bolt right over the hook it's supposed to be secured against."

With her explanation done, Blake moved away from the door, allowing Weiss a chance to try. As Weiss tried opening and closing the door without unlocking it, the other girl had gone to grab something from the corner. After Weiss had closed the door once more, she looked to the side upon seeing Blake kneeling down in the corner of her eye. In the other girl's hands was what seemed like a simple block of wood, or perhaps a plank given it's length. Blake was wedging it in the tracks between the door and the far wall.

"You can't open the door if there's no room for it to move."

That made sense to Weiss. A rather crude, but simple solution to the problem. Certainly knowing that nobody else would be able to get into the house after them as easily as they did made her feel a little safer than she would have otherwise.

It was quite clear by now that the house was empty. If anyone were here, then they would likely have come already. After all, given how small the house was, all their fiddling with the door should have been heard by anyone inside. Knowing this, Weiss was not particularly concerned when Blake walked in further, disappearing into one of the rooms.

Looking around at her surroundings only confirmed her thoughts that nobody had lived here for some time. There was a fairly significant layer of dust covering every surface, a stark contrast to the immaculate surfaces of any of the Schnee properties she was used to. The immediate area was rather open, with what appeared to be a kitchen to her left, and an open space to the right. As far as Weiss could tell the place here was also almost entirely bare of furnishings, perhaps the area to the right was originally a living room of some sort when there had been furniture. Now at least, it was just a very empty place.

Standing here now with her eyes still dully scanning over the house's interior, Weiss was finally struck by just how tired she felt. A little belatedly she also realized just how much she had been running on auto pilot for the last little while. How long ago was it that she was safe at home within her room? It felt like a lifetime ago now to her with all that had happened, but in reality it was only a matter of hours. By now the adrenaline of her escape had long since worn off. All that was left was just a deep exhaustion.

"Weiss, come on in here," said Blake. Her voice carried well enough from the other room even at a normal volume given how small the area was.

Blinking, it actually took Weiss a second to register Blake's comment as she slowly shuffled towards the room she was in. Pushing aside the already ajar door she stepped inside to what appeared to be a small bedroom. Blake was just finishing spreading out and dusting off a blanket on top of a small bed when she turned to the doorway upon hearing Weiss's entrance.

"Weiss. You can sleep here for tonight."

At this point, Weiss did not exactly have the will to argue, nor any particular reason she would want to. Walking up next to the bed Weiss kicked off her shoes before climbing silently onto the bed. Tiredly she crawled under the blankets, her head emerging only to flop onto the pillow.

Both the small somewhat lumpy bed and the thin rough material of the blanket were a far cry from the luxuriously expensive beds and silken sheets she was used to. But given the circumstances, Weiss was not about to complain about something so petty to Blake. She was simply glad to have the chance to lie down.

Hearing the sound of the door moving Weiss pushed herself back up into a sitting position, eyes immediately locking onto the back of her companion.

"Blake? Wh-where are you going?" Weiss reprimanded herself in her mind for the stutter and trace of fear in her voice. She'd been taught that Schnee were not to show weakness. Again her mind caught up to the rest of her thoughts a little late as she remembered her father's words and felt another pang in her chest. That's right, she wasn't worthy to be a Schnee.

"Don't worry Weiss," Blake said with a smile. How peculiar it was that already that smile was fast becoming something that instantly seemed to soothe Weiss's nerves. "I'll still be in the house, after all, I need to sleep too right? With how small that bed is though, I thought I'd let you have it to yourself."

Hearing Blake's explanation the tension in Weiss's shoulders dissolved as she eased back slightly into bed. Hesitantly she gave a nod which Blake returned as she slid out the door, turning off the lights and shutting the door behind her. Weiss hadn't exactly gotten the tour of this place earlier, so she just assumed that there must have been another bedroom that Blake had perhaps retired to.

With Blake gone Weiss was now left by herself in this unfamiliar room. Dim moonlight still came in through the window and tattered curtains, but the effect was more eery than anything else. Closing her eyes Weiss settled in to try and sleep.

It was not to much effect.

She didn't know how long she ended up laying there for, but sleep was something that ended up eluding Weiss. As tired as she may have been, it seemed that the moment she had gotten the chance to slow down and decompress a flood of thoughts began to run through her mind.

Weiss may have been young, but that did not mean she was stupid. Similarly, being sheltered did not necessarily equate to naivety. They did mean that she was inexperienced in a lot of things, true, but Weiss nevertheless was discerning enough to understand her current situation quite well.

As the Schnee heiress Weiss had been someone important. Given how little time her father had had for her, she instead was provided with almost any material comforts to placate her in lieu of him actually spending time with her. It also goes without saying that she had never once had to worry about such basic things as food or shelter. It was a secure and comfortable life.

This was would no longer be the case.

Nothing had been said out loud or discussed between the two on the subject, but it was clear that Blake's life was far from her own previous situation. Of course there was no way Weiss could know for certain quite what life is like for Blake, she simply didn't have the experiences necessary to truly imagine it. But she was smart enough to at least guess.

Weiss was incredibly grateful to Blake though of course. She wasn't going to complain or be ungrateful. Still, it was quite clear that she wouldn't have anywhere close to as comfortable a life as she had before.

But the thing was, Weiss didn't think she cared.

The kidnapping and her temporary captivity had been fairly frightening of course. But after escaping, when she looked back on it, it was like something out of a story in retrospect. Truth be told, while it may be a bit childish, Weiss secretly though this was all a little exciting. That's not to say though that she did not also feel some trepidation about what life was like as something closer to a street urchin compared to the privileged life she had before.

None of these thoughts were helping her sleep. However many minutes later it was now than when she had first gotten into bed and Weiss was no closer to sleep.

Opening her eyes Weiss was greeted with the same moonlit view of this strange and unfamiliar room. Turning her head she could faintly see out the window through the thin curtains where there appeared to be the moving shadow of what was likely a tree. It did little to comfort her.

Sitting up Weiss look at the door, clutching the thin blanket tight around her small frame. This was the first time in a long time that Weiss had really felt like she was completely by herself. Normally she could be assured of the presence of a multitude of servants or bodyguards in the vicinity. When she was kidnapped, there were the guards. And then after that, all the way to the house, there was Blake. Intellectually she knew that Blake should still be nearby, but this empty room unnerved her.

Swinging her legs off the side of the bed Weiss lowered her feet to the floor. If she wasn't going to be getting any sleep in here, she might as well go find Blake at least to settle her nerves. Still bundled within the blankets Weiss decided to take it with her as it was somewhat drafty in the building. The pillow was held tightly within her grasp as well as it had also absorbed a significant amount of body heat in the time she had been using it. Weiss did her best to bunch the blankets up higher than her body lest it drag on the floor which was not exactly clean, a reason she also made sure to locate her shoes before leaving the room.

When Weiss entered the hall she made sure to turn around and shut the door behind her out of force of habit. It was not something she would have seen, but nearby a pair of cat ears atop the head of a certain faunus twitched at the sounds.

It would have made sense to start opening doors and begin checking out the other rooms in the hall if Blake was sleeping in another room. For some reason though, Weiss felt compelled to instead return back towards where they had entered from. When Weiss looked upon the same area she had been observing earlier, there was a noticeable difference in the space across from the kitchen. Blake was lying on the floor, seemingly asleep on her side with her back currently facing towards Weiss.

Needless to say, Weiss was rather surprised. Was there not another bed in the house like she had thought? If Blake was sleeping on the floor, then that was indeed probably the case. Immediately, Weiss was struck by a feeling of guilt.

Blake had allowed her the use of the only bed . She didn't even have a blanket. This was only the latest of the many things Blake had done for her in the short time they had known each other. Blake had rescued her, had comforted her, shared her food with her, and now was sheltering her. None of those things could have been easy to do for Blake who did not seem to have much to her name to begin with.

Yet she had done it anyway.

Already Blake had done so much for her, been so kind to her, despite having no reason to do so. Never before had Weiss felt so appreciated. It was nice. And yet, never before had Weiss felt like such a burden either.

It wasn't until she heard the sound of her own sniffling that Weiss realized she was crying again. She seemed to be doing that a lot today. Furiously rubbing at her eyes she forced herself to stop.

Making sure to stay as quiet as possible Weiss moved closer to Blake. Unwrapping the blankets from around her own shoulders she carefully laid it over the other girl's form, careful not to disturb her. She would have liked to have brought Blake back to the bed, but she also didn't want to have to wake her up.

Afterwards Weiss knelt there for a moment, indecisive. She was conflicted between returning to the bed on her own, or staying here with Blake. If she returned to bed, her attempts of reaching sleep likely would not go much better than they did before. But she also did not want to intrude if she stayed, not when Blake had done so much for her already.

Guilty as she felt, eventually her desire to stay won out. Setting her pillow down next to Blake, Weiss laid down next to her, scooting underneath the blanket. Back to back the two now laid on the floor with a bit of space still in between them.

Weiss could not directly feel Blake's touch, wary of overstepping personal boundaries more than she already had. The feel of the blanket suspended between the two of them instead of simply draping down over her back though assured her of Blake's presence. And that comforted her greatly.

This time when Weiss closed her eyes the call of sleep came much more easily.

At best, Weiss had only known Blake for perhaps half a day. Despite that though, she really liked Blake a lot. Being around her gave Weiss a sense of comfort she hadn't felt from anyone since her mother had died and her father had stopped being a father.

Weiss wondered. Is this what it was like to have a friend?

Author's Note

It's taken three chapters to finish the first night, but the first night is pretty important. Future chapters will probably cover more time in less words. I do need this story to get places without taking eons after all. It's still probably like at least chapter 10 or so before Ruby and Yang though.

Weiss is smart, but still kinda childish given her upbringing. Blake is definitely the more experienced/mature of the two. Also, tiny Weiss is best Weiss. Blake is a fairly normal size for their age, Weiss just has no frame of reference for the height of an average eleven year old other than her own tiny self.

That backdoor is in fact a total insert of my own backdoor, shitty lock and all. I didn't even know how shitty and easy to get around it was for years. It is now wedged shut though whenever it's not open, so good luck trying to get in if you manage to find me :P.

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