"Weiss."

Trying to ignore your partner is pretty hard, don't you think?

"Weiss."

Especially when they're someone like Ruby.

"Weiss. Weiss. Weiss."

It doesn't help that we're in class and I'm trying to listen to Professor Port's lecture.

"Weiss!"

I don't understand how he hasn't kicked her out of the class yet.

"WeissWeissWeissWeissWeiss."

Seriously, kick her out already. I'll do all her work for the class. Just let me pay attention. I probably know all this stuff already anyway.

"Weiss, stop ignoring me."

I slowly turned to look at her, and was about to open my mouth to shush her when a certain moustachioed teacher cleared his throat.

"Miss Rose, am I boring you?"

Ruby shook her head, turning red in shame. She silenced, and he went back to his lecture. If I'm lucky, she'll leave me alone for the rest of the class. Then all I'll have to worry about is-

"Hey, Weiss."

Yang.

I wonder if Blake ever gets this annoyed at her partner.

Pyrrha and Ren are great. They're model students and amazing fighters. I don't have a problem with Nora, really. She's just a bit too eccentric at times. Other than that, Nora is easily Pyrrha and Ren's equal. Jaune... he's nice, but I hardly know what to do when I'm stuck talking to him. It gets really bad when Ruby teases me by telling me that that means I have a crush on him. That's not what it means... is it?

Well, anyway, the four of them are team JNPR, and they collectively have one great purpose. They distract my teammates so that I can slip out at lunchtime. I have someone to meet with, and I don't want anyone getting in the way. A few minutes later, in a different part of Beacon, I find myself at my destination. I quietly open the door, hoping I'm not disturbing my friend.

The lights are off, and I see a pair of yellow eyes watching me from the back. "So... you've come to finish it."

Flicking the lights on, I nod. "Yes." I move over to her bedside and reach into my bag. "It's time to finish it." Out of my bag I produce a book.

Blake smiles. "The last volume."

Shrugging, I sit down on the edge of her bed. "Well, the last one in print. They might make more, but if Tomoko hasn't succeeded yet we might as well give up on her."

She shakes her head. "I'll never give up on someone. Not even someone in a manga."

That's so sweet of you, really. "Well, let's read and find out." I opened the book and the two of us started reading.

She turns the pages when she's done. She doesn't have to wait for me, because I'm faster. It's not that she reads slower, it's just that Blake spends more time soaking up information and looking back over the whole page. I use that time to watch her while she's reading. It's weird. Blake doesn't laugh at the girl we're reading about, even when her constant failures are blatantly intended to be humorous. Instead, Blake shows concern. The girl is just a fictional character, yet Blake feels so bad for her.

"I don't understand you."

She beams up at me briefly, quickly going back to the manga in our hands. "What don't you understand, Weiss?"

I hadn't actually meant to say that out loud, so now I have to come up with some sort of answer. "You... were so worried about us finding out that you're a Faunus, but as soon as I found out you suddenly stopped wearing your bow altogether. Now everyone knows, and you seem a lot happier."

She sighs, turning the page. "It's never easy hiding who you are. It always hurts at least a little. When I realized that, when Ruby and Nora found out that I'm a Faunus, I realized I was happier when I didn't have to... lie to my friends."

I give her a reassuring pat on the shoulder with my free hand. "Well, you don't have to hide any more. We're all here beside you."

She smiles again, and I honestly think she has the most beautiful smile I've ever seen. "I know."

"I know you know."

"I know you know I know."

"That was childish."

She lets go of the book and stretches. "I know."

I sigh, and she gives me a questioning look. I laugh a little before answering what I know she's silently asking. "You're just so cute when you're being difficult."

Blake just blinks at me a few times. "Cute? Weiss, I'm not cute." She flicks her hair. "I'm adorable."

I wave the book in the air. "So are we finishing this? I'll have to go to class soon."

She sits up and takes hold of the book, flipping to the next page when she's ready. A few pages later, she speaks again. "The doctors say I should be able to get out of bed in a week. It might be a month before I'm active again."

Keeping my eyes on the manga, I answer her. "Too bad, though. It would have been nice if we had the whole team for our... upcoming adventure."

She puts her hand in between the pages, stopping me from reading. "No, you're not going without me. You can't."

"Sorry, but-"

"But nothing! After everything I went through, there is no way I'm letting you go without me! You can't just leave me behind!"

"Blake, look, it's time-sensitive. We can't just wait until you're ready."

Groaning and laying back, Blake turns and stares at the wall. "...I know. I'm sorry, I just feel so useless in here."

I look down at the other end of the bed. "How's your leg, then?"

Sitting up again, she pulls the thin blanket to the side. "All the nerve endings and everything is connected properly. The prosthetic is indistinguishable from the real thing, and I can move it and feel perfectly. Maybe actually better than before. But... I can feel that it's fake. It feels out of place. That's why I'm having difficulty adjusting. My body tells me that I don't have that leg anymore."

It really does look like she has a normal leg there, but I get what she means. I feel bad for her. After a few moments, I just pat her on the shoulder again. "You'll figure it out. Come on, then. Let's finish this. We've got ten minutes left before classes start again."

We got pretty far, but we never did finish that last volume before our time was up. As I stood in the door, about to leave, she called me. I turned and smiled briefly. She offered a sad smile, the smile of someone who is losing a battle to loneliness.

"Thanks for visiting me so much."

I have visited her every day since we collectively found out about the connection between the White Fang and the Schnee Dust Company. I wish I could be here more often, but we are students. We have classes to attend. I have two other teammates to watch out for. She knows this as well as I do.

Blake just keeps smiling her sad smile. "Ruby hasn't shown up in a week, and it's been even longer since I last saw Yang. Other than you... Jaune showed up yesterday, after, I think, two weeks. I haven't seen Pyrrha or Ren in a month. Of course, Nora shows up sporadically. You... you just keep coming back."

I give her a slight nod. "I'll always keep coming back. You don't have to worry."

I leave, closing the door behind me. I'll be back tomorrow. I always keep coming back. And of course Jaune was the last person she'd seen. He's too nice to stay away. He probably felt really bad when he remembered that he hadn't gone to see her in so long. I told you Jaune was nice.

Author's Notes: So... what is this? Well, it appears to be the sequel to The Strange Case Of Blake Belladonna. If you don't know what that is, go find it. This one starts on a premise set up by the other one. It's important.