The kiss was deep. Soft but intense. Yang overwhelmed her senses, made her feel as if she was drowning, but for the first time in a long time, Weiss felt safe.

It made breaking the kiss all that much more painful. Words were lodged in her throat, emotions were crammed there like a gag, and the only release from any of it were the tears trailing down her cheeks, and warm thumbs brushing them away. Yang was always the sort of person that was just too much to take. Too candid, too honest, too willing to cut to the drastic heart of the matter with her knowing gaze and clumsy words.

Yang was brazen enough to say what others wouldn't, and lacked the social decorum to care that she'd even done it.

Many equated her to a bull in a china shop, and in so many cases they would be right. In this moment, her caress was gentle, her voice as well. Such a wonderful contradiction was rare. Yang's willingness to even look at her made Weiss inexplicably confused. Happy and sad all at the same time. Relieved, and yet so terribly worried.

"This…" Yang murmured, foreheads touching, she watched as Weiss closed her eyes. "This is what I remember, Weiss." But it was so much more than that. It wasn't just the tears, or the kisses, it was the impact of it all. The fact that Weiss could do what Blake could not. Yang had always been mesmerized by the way that Weiss gave in, and succumbed to her own desires with a recklessness that was so utterly fragile.

Weiss had always, always, been the emotional lover among them.

The passionate, if not prickly girl who had a tendency to push everything and everyone away from her. Push away, until she clung so fiercely that none of it even made a lick of sense anymore.

When Weiss chose to let someone into her heart, it was irrevocable, steadfast, and always breathtakingly beautiful…but attaining that love was difficult in and of itself. Being given the trust required even harder. Weiss had never been an easy person to please. Her impossibly high standards were always the major complication in her relationships, because Weiss held herself above her very standard as well.

It made breaking through that personal wall of hers increasingly difficult.

Outside of team RWBY, Yang doubted anyone would truly stand a chance. That wasn't clout backing up that assumption either. It was something else entirely.

"Yang, don't."

"I want you."

"You can't mean that."

"Mm, yeah I do."

"I said no, Yang."

"But you're not pushing me away." Yang murmured knowingly.

"I don't want to push you away." Weiss huffed.

And, that was the key. In spite of everything, Weiss built her armor up more and more. Team RWBY had already breached inside the soul that refused to melt. Had already earned their place when Weiss still had an ounce of trust and love to gift the world around her. They had already warmed that soul once, and once was all it ever took. While she pushed everyone else away, guarded herself tooth and nail, she clung closer to what little she had left.

Clinging just as tightly to Yang in denial, as she did in approval. They sat like that for hours before Weiss finally fell asleep in Yang's arms.

When she woke up the next day, Weiss had no way to come to terms with herself or what had almost happened. She knew Yang would never take advantage of her, but they had been close to toeing the line of going too far. Sex had almost happened. At first, she was just kissing Yang, feeling the heat of their bodies together, but then, something snapped…some very lonely part of her was waiting to be used as Yang's personal gratification.

Someone should be fulfilled in this mess, after all.

It was an unsavory thought made worse when she finally saw the true depth of Why Yang kept the kids away from the household. Ruby looked like hell, and Blake seemed no better. There were claw marks down Ruby's neck and back. Red and angry, but not scabbed over. They were, Weiss decided, intended. As though Blake had been careful in their placement not to truly hurt Ruby. Blake's own mild injuries were colorful. Purple bites and red scratches painting a rainbow that would be gone by midafternoon.

It was no less disturbing, and Weiss understood why Yang stayed away.

"She told you…" Ruby concluded as she sat with the bathroom door open, wrapped in a bath towel as though she had just gotten out. Blake was rubbing more antibiotic ointment onto Ruby's scratches, even though she had already done so the night before.

"What did you two do last night?" Weiss shot back. "This is...this is not okay."

"I'm a huntress." Ruby said numbly. "I can take it."

Weiss sighed, looking over to Blake. "Why are you even bothering with ointment, what's wrong with your aura, or Ruby's...what did you two do to each other?"

Blake pointedly snapped the cap to the bottle shut. She had no way of explaining the depth of Ruby's need for such things…those emotions were wholly personal, and completely between them. It was best to draw a line between Weiss and the threshold into Ruby's sinfully dark and gritty perversions. At least, for now. "Weiss, it's alright. There's nothing wrong with Ruby's aura, or my own for that matter. What we're doing is called aftercare, and it's a very important dynamic to our relationship."

"Blake…your back, should I…" Ruby started to ask before trailing off.

The Faunus shook her head, placing a kiss atop Ruby's forehead. "In good time, Ruby, let me finish taking care of you first." The words were twofold as she flicked her gaze over to Weiss. She set aside the first aid kit, and put out the row scented candles resting on a ledge just above the bath, scooping Ruby up into her arms. Her words were both gentle and firm, allowing for no argument. "You wait outside, Weiss, I'll be with you in a sec."

The mated pair entered into the bedroom, where Blake settled Ruby on the bed. Switching out the bath towels for a warm, fluffy bathrobe, they stayed close for a few moments. Kissing Ruby once again before whispering something into her ear that Weiss couldn't hear. Ruby nodded, but didn't say anything. Then Blake asked about breakfast, Ruby giving a distracted reply as her eyes trailed back to Weiss.

Blake noticed this, but didn't comment as she tucked Ruby back into bed before exiting the bedroom and softly closing the door behind her. With Ruby tucked away relaxing, Blake could deal with the weight that had settled around them.

"Nights like last night happen, Weiss, and when they do, we deal with it the best we can. After she's faced danger or death out in the field, Ruby gets aggressive with me…and I let her. When she does, she releases a more primal part of my Faunus instincts that I normally keep very carefully schooled and controlled. Sometimes she needs me to loosen the reigns a bit…get more, for a lack of a better term, feral, I suppose."

"Yang said basically the same thing…" Weiss said with a frown. "But there's no way all of those scratches and bites were from you…"

"Most of them were, yes." Blake gestured for Weiss to follow downstairs. If Ruby wanted yogurt, pancakes, and hot chocolate, then Ruby would be getting yogurt, pancakes, and hot chocolate. "I won't go into this too deeply, but, if you have questions I'll answer them as best as I can."

There was only question that came to mind. The same one that Blake always seemed to hear first. "Why?"

The dark haired woman sighed. "It helps her to emotionally purge a lot of her negative feelings and guilt of a failed mission. We're huntresses, always living on the cusp of danger. It takes more for Ruby to reach an emotional level of gratification…I'm fine with taking her to that level, but, taking care of her after that is important. We have an extensive routine."

Rubbing her eyes, and pushing away her initial reaction to just shut down, she gave Blake a harsh look. "Baths, breakfast in bed? What's that supposed to be, some sort of consolation prize?"

"We do more than that." Blake said. "Movies, cuddling, sometimes we will talk through the mission. Other times she doesn't want to, and we just spend the day together. Once the initial bloodlust and anger dies down into something more manageable, Ruby's the same shy person she's always been...in a few days, it'll be as if last night never even happened."

"I don't even understand how Ruby could flip on a dime like that." Weiss murmured.

Blake pulled out the pancake mix, while Weiss grabbed the milk and butter. "We go to extremes. Most civilians don't end up walking in on a mauled group of dead bodies and a horde of Grimm to take down. That's the life Ruby knows, the demons she tries to come to terms with are tangible threats to her. The days after are fragile, I don't pretend to know the depth of her thoughts. I only know that she has them."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Weiss asked.

Blake hesitated, glancing over to Weiss and then over to the breakfast tray. "It's imperative that I do most of the heavy lifting in terms of seeing to Ruby's needs. I need her to know she can be entirely reliant on me, and that she can trust me implicitly. It's the only way relationships like ours can work. If you really want to involve yourself in our routine, go upstairs and just lay with her. She'll probably cuddle into your side in an instant...just...don't ask too many questions. Let her process things in her own time. Being supportive is the most important part."