Chapter 18: -Only if you can be selfless too

~Sid’s POV~

“No.”

“Sid, you know that-”

“Absolutely no,” I refused for the umpteenth time, arms crossed close to my chest as I stared sternly at Blake.

It was early in the morning, my brain wasn’t truly fully awake and I was still trying to understand how exactly the Cat Faunus had managed to get here in the city so quickly.

The helipads were supposed to open up in about an hour from now, and yet the dark-haired girl had somehow managed to show up even earlier than that by my doorstep.

Surprise and relief were slowly subdued by the fact that I was instantly stormed with a myriad of words leaving from the Belladonna’s mouth, all directed to stuff that were legitimately shocking, but also quite… good.

Ozpin had put her in therapy to deal with her lingering issues and… about me.

Quite the extreme action, but considering her nature of bailing through lesser instance I could see some sense about this decision.

Just some.

What made it impossible for me to truly accept the headmaster’s intervention was that I had turned into a subject of interest for the man.

Bad, really bad. Dad would seriously chide me if he ever learned up that I managed to get myself in this much trouble.

It wasn’t that I was fearing any violent retaliation from the man, especially with Blake vouching quite vehemently that this wasn’t the case.

After preparing some breakfast, I found myself dealing with the real problem that was soon going to become a reason to fear for my dear life.

“I trust you to contact them without creating misunderstandings,” The Cat Faunus pressed on with some more force in her voice. “I understand it’s awkward for you to do this, but I can assure you that mom will not jump to conclusions so suddenly-”

“But what about your father?” I interjected with a tense voice, her eyes widening just momentarily before moving away from looking at me. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“M-Mom will not create any problems.”

Why is she ignoring that question!?

“Still, I’m not doing that,” I refused once again. “If you want to call them, then do it yourself.”

“You know well enough that I haven’t speak with them for years now,” She reasoned and I frowned.

“I thought you did spare some rare calls,” I admitted with a surprised tone. “I mean, you never bothered to even check on how they were doing?”

She paused, tensing up at being subjected to that very query.

“It’s… you know it’s complicated.”

“Or maybe it’s just silly,” I retorted with a sigh. “You know, I believe that mostly everything that is ‘complicated’ about your past has been either caused by some avoidable situations.”

Blake frowned. “I’m not dumb.”

… “I didn’t call you that-”

“Yet! But you were thinking about saying that,” The Belladonna interjected with a fierce voice. “Every single time we end up talking about my past, you take shots at the fact that I made mistakes. But I’m trying to change from that.”

“And I’m not trying to diminish the difficulty of that,” I had to admit quickly after. “I understand that you’re going through some recovery, but… you messed up a lot.”

“When you say that I’m ‘dumb,’ your tone makes it seem like as if you’ve never made any dumb errors in the past,” She confessed. “It’s annoying- I understand that I messed up but-”

“I did make mistakes,” I interrupted with a nervous tone, starting to see how this derailing was going to be problematic in the long run.

I might have… been a jerk about this. I really didn’t want to make it sound as if I had been flawless since day one.

But there was a difference that truly made my mistakes somewhat acceptable compared to hers.

“I made some horrible stuff when I was a kid,” I started to explain with some uneasiness as I really wasn’t sure if it was right to mention this up in these circumstance. “As you know I’ve another older sibling.”

“You mentioned him, yes,” The girl answered positively, her tone quietened by the interest of seeing where this topic was going. “But barely compared to your sister.”

“And for good reasons too,” I said while giving a nod at her consideration. “While we’re in good terms now, there was a time just a couple of years ago where we would always compete against each other.”

I blinked, remembering the various misadventures caused by the bets that Stacy was keen to prepare for us both show who was the best at random circumstances.

Nothing overly-antagonistic, but we were quite fierce back then… enough to warrant some non-negligible accidents back home and at school.

“Who was the quickest to rush back home after the end of the lessons, who was the first one to develop a semblance… who was the best of the two to prank people.”

“You’re making it sound as if you’ve harmed people with that last one.”

…

“Sid, you just… you are not the kind of person to-”

“Right now? No,” I interrupted with a sigh. “But when I was just a child? I was a pest with little understanding over the whole ‘every actions creates consequences.’”

“But hurting people?” Blake inquired with a surprised tone, almost skeptical about my words.

“Not on purpose,” I added quickly. “I was a dumb kid, but not a malicious one about my pranks.”

“But still you did something wrong,” The Cat Faunus pressed on. “So what just happened?”

“That’s a tall question, especially with how many episodes of mess ups I can offer,” I had to point out with a snort. “But I guess I can offer you one of the worst predicaments I had to deal… and it is actually the story of how I unlocked my Semblance.”

… “Was that so dangerous that-”

“Yes,” I sighed and… I started to narrate. “I was eleven, and I had been training with my father for just a year… I think.”

It was difficult remember precise dates, but I could still remember so vividly the happenings of that very day.

“I could remember that both Stacy and I had been taken out to follow dad with one of his missions,” I muttered quietly. “It isn’t much odd for a veteran huntsman to bring his own children to see how a low-rank mission work. And this one was the first time we were going to see how it worked.”

“You wanted to become a huntsman,” Blake reminded softly and I nodded.

“I was still bent on that path, so I was as eager as Stacy back when we were picked for the task,” I confirmed happily. “I was so eager to see the place we were supposed to go and… that’s were the issue truly begin.”

The dark-haired girl kept quiet as I took a moment to ponder well over my next words.

“We weren’t told what exactly was the objective of this mission, and Stacy thought it was going to be just a scouting mission without any risk of finding Grimm along the way,” I hummed quietly, nervous as I delved in this bit of the tale. “So we decided to… prank dad. We had some sparring planned once this mission was done, so Stacy and I decided to sabotage just his portable shield.”

“Did you find Grimm?”

“Not truly,” I shook my head at that guess. “There were some bandits creating problems in the area and dad managed well against them without having to use his shield...”

“And then?”

...And then the worst truly happened.

I could remember standing far away from the battlefield, with Stacy keeping beside me as we both keep watching our father go through so easily against the ranks of bandits trying to hurt him.

We had our own weapons ready, with Stacy haivng his own customized one while I was given a simple short sword.

There was no reason for us to intervene there, especially after dad had said to not engage until something wrong happened.

We thought this reality impossible, with the mere proof of such a silly notion being given by the way the experience huntsman was dealing with the thugs.

But then… something did change.

I felt nervous, at first without much of an explanation behind this reaction, and my body tensed up instinctively as I felt something off about the battle.

My eyes focused more on dad, and I saw him starting to struggle as he was finally pushed back while trying to slam away the sudden strike from a dark-red blade.

Dread settled on my chest as I stared at the one that was now finally giving trouble to the man.

The figure had long dark hair, and her frame was covered by what looked to be a medium-grade red-colored armor that was meant to give her flexibility in moving with that kind of protection.

Yet what truly made me pale back then, what truly gave me a taste of what facing the worst threat possible as a hunter… was her mask.

It was a replica, even there in that situation I knew that this woman wasn’t a Grimm… but my mind showed doubt before truth as a red glow came from the eye-openings within that mask.

“And then… Raven Branwen arrived.”

Blake frowned. “Who?”

“She is one of the most infamous bandits in Mistral,” I explained with a sigh. “She was once a huntress bu then went rogue and took over one of the various tribes there.”

“And your father-”

“Could have been able to repel her if he had been able to use the full potential of his portable shield. Perhaps.”

But the shield had collapsed when he had tried to create some space to breath between himself and the enraged woman.

Fear rouse from the quick shock of seeing his only mean to have some cover being broken so suddenly and without reason.

I was stuck in fear, jaws dropping at the realization of what had just happened, but Stacy hadn’t stood quiet.

He had bolted, his focus behind the scary woman that was coming close to damage our father and… he tried to offer some time for the man to recover.

A futile effort as Raven merely swatted him away without much hesitation. Three mere years spent at Combat school weren’t going to just do enough for him.

I knew it, I could feel that this was going to be a horrible disasters.

And it had all been my fault.

I saw the bandit lunge back at my brother, my heartbeat increasing as I felt my panic skyrocketing at the scene.

And I…

“Stacy tried to fend her off, but failed and as she prepared to attack him.”

“You intervened,” Blake said with a somewhat convinced tone and I gave her a nod.

“And I… intervened.”

A moment I was merely running, then I could feel the rush and the wind pressing on my face as smoke formed below my feet and propelled my small frame towards the former huntress.

Raven had noticed immediately that I was approaching, the trajectory of her sword moving in an effort to clash with the small blade I was preparing to hit her with.

But while the two of us had expected for my flight to culminate with that interaction, we were surprised when my trajectory turned out to be just… off.

I flew a little higher, my capacity of hitting hindered by this development, while the Branwen went forward and missed the attempt to bisect me.

Instead of a clash of weapons, the two things that clashed were my head and her mask.

Her footing was already unstable, and while the brunt of the damage was absorbed mostly by her aura, the power behind the impact was more than enough to push her several meters away… offering just the opportunity for my father to recover and use his semblance to move us out of that general section of the forest.

Vines took hold of both me and Stacy… and the rest of the story was then told by me as I fell unconscious because of the concussion I suffered after that unexpected headbutt.

Dad managed to get us all back to the nearby village, quickly rushing to see the two of us taken care by the local hospital while he contacted the Council to request more huntsmen to that part of Mistral.

The request was approved, but the time required for the reinforcement to arrive proved to give more than enough time for Raven to make her hasty retreat.

“You headbutted her?” Blake inquired, making me tense up at the fact that I had been muttering quietly about this while thinking about it.

“Not willingly,” I flatly conceded, taking a moment to sigh. “Still, that issue risked to see my father killed, and it was all because my brother and I thought that it would’ve been funny to make his life more difficult.”

“You couldn’t have known that-”

“It could’ve been Grimm, it could’ve been more bandits. In the end, weapons are still essential to be all functional to a team of huntsmen,” I interjected sternly, my disappointment all directed to my past self. “No matter how much one can justify the behavior behind a ‘silly action’, there are consequences.”

“And why this story makes it different than my own past?”

“We never lied about our faults,” I started to reply, making her frown in confusion at this development. “We never shifted the blame elsewhere… and we never ran away from our punishments.”

It was then that her eyes widened in realization. “You told him?”

“I did, and so did Stacy,” I curtly replied.

“But that wasn’t your fault,” The Belladonna tried to convince me, but that old story was fell stuck like that in my mind.

“It was,” I pushed back with a nod. “And we both were punished for causing this many problems.”

…

There was some silence, and the two of us were keeping quiet as I affirmed my determination over that very predicament.

We were both thinking, pondering over what we were supposed to do now that the crux of the issue was finally brought up and… I sighed.

“I’m sorry,” I stated with a quiet tone. “It’s early in the morning and… we shouldn’t be having this kind of discussions.”

“Yeah… it’s quite early and I wouldn’t mind taking a break from serious topics,” Blake muttered with a nod. “I can see some of your logic, I really do… it’s just that it seems like I’m making so little progress and-”

“You’re doing a lot right now,” I interjected with a frown adorning my face. “It seems nothing because this is actually not some 180 change you’re meant to do. You’re just growing out of that whole ‘running away’ gig.”

“It’s not a gig,” She huffed. “It’s more of a meh answer to everything.”

“Yet you still use it even though you’re aware about that,” I commented with a dry tone, making her sigh.

“I’m working on it, you know that and… I was thinking about the fact I still want you to call my parents,” The faunus confessed much to my immense chagrin. “And I was thinking that… you can talk with mom and, if it’s dad answering the call I will talk with him.”

I blinked in surprise at that proposal. “Why the sudden change of heart?”

She merely shrugged, enjoying for a moment the softness of the couch. “I think I want to try that. I… want to try and not run away from my problems.”

“That sounds like big progress to me,” I pointed out with a small smile, yet dark-haired beauty merely sighed.

“I… I really want to watch some TV now,” The girl admitted softly, letting out a slow yawn. “Does this count as running away?”

I snorted. “Don’t you dare,” I chided mirthfully, drawing a small smile on her face. “And… I suppose we can watch something until it’s lunchtime. Movie marathon?”

Her smile widened at the offer, and she nodded as I turned on the TV with the first movie ready to begin.

“Movie marathon.”

-------------d-d-d-d-d-------------d-d-dd-----------------d-d-d-d-------

This was going to end badly for me, I can already tell by the way Blake was staring at me as I finished inputting the last number to call her home.

She looked curious, hesitant, incredibly nervous, but overall intrigued by what was going to happen now.

Lunch had passed quickly, and I had decided to put a brief pause to the Movie marathon so that we could get this incredible burden done already.

There was silence at first, the scroll trying to establish a connection with the other side of the call, and I felt my panic rising at the chances of ending up being received by her father.

I had experienced plenty of times from how dad would react when some of Stacy’s classmates showed some interest over Cindy, and the reaction wasn’t pretty even for those that looked from afar.

So I gulped nervously as the call finally commenced, praying silently that it was her mother and not-

“Hello?”

The voice was feminine, quite suave.

“H-Hello, am I talking with Mrs. Belladonna?”

“Yes, that’s… that’s me,” The woman replied slowly, sounding legitimately suspicious over the sudden call. “May I ask to whom I’m currently speaking to?”

I nodded. “Sirud Tremaine, ma’am,” I replied quickly. “And the reason why I’m calling is that I’ve some information about your daughter.”

“Blake?” Her voice gained some sudden interest. “You know where she is?”

“Right now she is… sitting by the couch with me,” I answered bluntly, the young Belladonna’s eyes widening in shock at the sudden revelation. “She asked me to talk with you about her current disposition.”

“What are you doing?!” She whispered furiously, trying to understand why I was offering so little subtlety over this matter.

“Is that so? I suppose she has to be quite nervous over speaking through the Scroll,” The girl’s mother sighed patiently. “She was always the kind of child that would delegate some awkward situations through people she trust and… I guess that this is the case.”

“Mostly. I also think it has to do with the fact that explaining what had happened in the last month could create some massive misunderstandings without proper explanations.”

“I hope nothing horrible has truly happened then,” The woman muttered quietly and I sighed.

“There were some big bumps, but everything is fine,” I mentioned just barely as I was unwilling to let out so quickly about what had happened in that warehouse. “She is doing great.”

“That’s good to hear,” Blake’s mother mused with some relief. “And I assume you’re the one that is currently housing my wayward daughter.”

“I was up until a couple of days ago,” I admitted, looking at young Faunus. “Right now she is studying at Beacon Academy, so she is staying there and-”

“Blake is in Vale?” The woman inquired swiftly. “And- So Tukson was correct about the whole warehouse situation.”

Oh- Wait what?

“I-I don’t understand, ma’am-”

“One of the closest friends to our family mentioned having helped a ‘determined young man’ that was trying to save a Cat Faunus from one of the outposts of the White Fang,” The mother interrupted, her voice gaining a certain degree of amusement. “He also said something about having left you some explosives. I’ve heard that a warehouse did explode quite recently in the capital.”

“There is a good explanation for it all-”

“You saved my daughter, what else can I think from that?”

Many strange things.

“I didn’t mean to-”

“Still, she has been staying at your home for a while, Sirud,” The woman pointed out with some curiosity. “And I feel compelled to ask in which conditions she had been living.”

“I offered her the guest room, but she would usually wound up sleeping by the couch,” I explained carefully. “I did ask her about why she does this and she said that it was comfier.”

A mirthful chuckle reached out from the other side of the call.

“That’s my little Blake. By the way, can you please pass her?”

I blinked, glancing at the girl as she tensed up at this question and I hummed, nodding at her.

“Since we’ve got mostly everything done, I suppose she can talk with you without having nothing to worry about.”

“Thank you, Sirud and… please, do call me Kali,” She mentioned as I prepared to pass the device to her daughter.

“Understood, ma- Kali.”

A giggle arrived from that half-fail, but I had already passed the ‘ball’ to the Cat Faunus and I prepared to see what would come from that interaction.

Initially, I thought that nothing strange would come from that discussion, knowing that I discussed most of the important things with the woman and that it was going to be only family-related topics from now on.

Yet I failed to remember that a mother that speaks to her own child will always have ‘hidden’ questions that she would never demand the answers about from ‘strangers’.

“H-Hello mom-”

“Sweetie, I hope you understand that you got both me and your father worried sick when you left Menagerie,” Kali interrupted with a sickly-sweet tone. “While I’m glad that you ended up leaving the Fang, I’ve to mention that I’m disappointed over the fact you’ve left home without saying anything.”

“I understand, mom-”

“It’s good to know that you’ve decided to join Beacon, I can still remember when I decided to stay there for two years,” The woman sighed happily. “Why, I remember some amusing adventures I had with some odd students there-”

“M-Mom, I understand that you and dad missed me and… I’m sorry.”

Blake’s swift outburst caused the conversation to a brief pause.

“Sweetie, I’m glad that you did apologize about this,” Kali praised with a serious tone. “I guess that staying at Beacon and living temporarily with Sirud managed to offer you chance of thinking about your silly mistakes.”

“I’m trying to solve the problems I’ve missed up until now,” The daughter replied to this with a sigh. “I should’ve called sooner, and spared you and dad this kind of worry.”

Another giggle from her mother. “I’m glad to hear that and… can I ask you why you are still staying with Sirud?”

...Oh crap-

“W-What do you mean, mom?”

“While I can see the need to have someone to help you with this situation, I think it would’ve been easier if it had been a member from your team.”

“Let’s just say that… I trust Sid to not make misunderstandings with this sensible situation,” She admitted, making me blink in surprise at the fact that she hadn’t asked to someone from her team.

During lunch, Blake had been quick to mention how her relationship with the three other girls had slowly warmed up to a friendly terms, and how she had pursued a more active role at school.

“I reckon that some students at Huntsmen schools can be quite… quirky. I can only assume that your team is made by quite the cast.”

“They are good people but… I don’t feel they would solve this predicament as well as it is now,” The Cat Faunus answered truthfully. “I reckon it would be awkward to explain how things have unfolded up until now.”

“And yet you found ‘Sid’, and I’ve to ask- Actually, is he listening to us?”

“He’s listening, his scroll has been set to have high volume,” Her daughter replied quietly. “Do you need to ask him something or-”

“I just wanted to ask… you two are just friends, right?” The query was met with a blush from Blake and a sigh from me.

“We’re just friends, Kali.”

“How close are you two?” She pressed on quite fascinated over the topic. “I feel like you two have to be fairly close after what happened with that ‘bump’ about the warehouse.”

“We… we care for each other?” Blake suggested, only to be met with a round of giggles from her mother.

“I see, that’s… that’s quite familiar. Yes, now I see what Tukson was referring about and…” The woman paused for a moment and then sighed. “Your dad right now is busy, but he should be done with his paperwork in an hour or two. I assume it will not be any trouble if I call back to this number.”

“If I avoid dealing with Mr. Belladonna, I will be more than happy to lend Blake my scroll for that conversation.”

Kali chuckled. “I assume that my daughter has mentioned how overprotective my husband can get.”

“Indirectly, but yes,” I confirmed much to the mother’s amusement.

“Then I guess I will interrupt this conversation now so that my little girl can prepare to deal with her dad.” The nickname drew a full-face blush on Blake. “It’s been a pleasure making your acquaintance, ‘Sid’.”

I sighed. “Likewise, Kali.”

The call ended there and I felt the weight of the entire world return back to my mind and body.

…

“So… do you know what she was referring about this Tukson?” I inquired slowly, looking at the frowning girl.

“Tukson is a close friend to my family, and had been one of the first members of the White Fang,” She explained quietly. “I knew that he was planning to leave but… I didn’t expect things to take this kind of odd turn.”

“I was actually talking about the situation over our closeness, the one your mother was mentioning in correlation to something that Tukson told her,” I hummed. “It just felt… oddly worrying.”

Blake tensed up. “You think that… he might have told something to my parents about us? Maybe he misunderstood everything and-”

“I think that your father would’ve been marching to find us instead of being back home to deal with the paperwork,” I interrupted with a sigh. “But perhaps there is some half-truth to that supposition.”

“Should I be worried about talking to my father- I mean, if he makes some strange questions, I might have some troubles and-”

“I will be there,” I said with a defeated voice, making her eyes widen in surprise… and a smile appear on her face. “But I will not intervene by doing more than that. I will not directly face your father about this.”

She still smiled and I couldn’t help but feel like I’ve dug my own grave with that concession.

Maybe I should’ve thought about this a little more instead of capitulating over the fact that it would’ve been a strenuous situation.

We ended up watching two more movies, Try Hard and The Huntsman Rises, and, after a couple more of hours passed, I felt tensing up as I felt my scroll ringing by my pocket, notifying me that someone was calling me.

I stared at the familiar number on the display, swiftly passing the device to Blake while also pausing the movie we were watching so that there was nothing distracting us from facing this last issue for today.

“Hello-”

“Blake, is that you?” A manly voice thundered with a degree of surprise and anxiety that quickly brought up some concerns within my chest over how things were supposed to develop from there. “Kali told me that-”

“It’s me, dad,” Blake interrupted quickly. “And… it’s been a while.”

…

“It has, my child,” The man admitted with a quieter tone. “Your mother mentioned that you’ve left the White Fang and joined Beacon Academy. I hope Ozpin didn’t create you any unpleasant issues.”

“No,” The girl replied. “Actually, he gave me some help by keeping some of my secrets hidden to the rest of the school.”

“I’m glad to hear that. The man can be benevolent, but I still warn you to be wary of offering him too much of what you have, Blake.”

“I know and… I will be careful about it.”

“Good,” Her father confirmed with a pleased tone. “And now… let’s focus on something I wished to ask to… is Mr. Tremaine listening too?”

Oh Gods, no. Please no-

“He is?” Blake blurted out nervously, making me stare harshly at her for messing me up like this.

“Then can he please explain to me why my daughter had to sleep on the couch?”

There was an amount of calm in his voice that just unsettled me and… I sighed.

“Sir, I think I explained to your wife that-”

“Ouch- Wai- Kali, why?!”

Before I had the chance of explaining, I paused as some exchange of words and more happened on the other side of the call.

“Dear, I think I’ve mentioned plenty of times that putting words that aren’t mine on my lips isn’t nice,” Kali chided her husband with an annoyed tone. “And please, don’t harass the poor young man like this.”

At least I had some mercy coming my way.

“I-I understand, Kali. Can you please leave my poor shoulders alone now?”

A giggle came through the device and I sighed while sharing an amused look with Blake.

“Okay… now that we’ve this situation ‘solved’, I think I can ask a little more about what happened with the warehouse situation,” The man resumed with a subdued tone. “From what Tukson told us, Mr. Tremaine was responsible for not only finding where Blake had been taken and… actually, how was my daughter kidnapped to begin with?”

“We were ambushed while we were returning from the place where Sid works,” Blake explained with some hesitation. “We were attacked by two individuals that were wearing standard White Fang uniforms… but we’re sure that they weren’t Faunus.”

“Is that so? You think that someone out from the group in Vale was working with the branch sited there?” Her father pressed up with some surprise.

“They were far too experienced. Strong Aura, one had some refined Illusion-based semblance and one of them was acting too much about it that it just sounded fake,” I replied with a hum. “This is why we think that someone was trying to use the White Fang here in Vale to perpetrate some Dust-only thefts. Blake also saw Torchwick leading some of the members during one of the latest attempts.”

“That’s absurd but… I suppose you can confirm this, Blake.”

“I thought that they were only criminals wearing the uniforms, but there were just too many Faunus for it to be the case,” The girl admitted tensely. “The warehouse itself was filled with Atlas Military-grade equipment and various crates filled with Dust.”

“Sienna would’ve never condoned this much aggression,” The man mused with some confusion. “Perhaps it was an initiative taken by the leader of the Vale’s branch. Who was it?”

Blake blinked, tensing a little more at thinking about that. “It was Adam, dad.”

…

“Oh… this is quite… an unexpected development,” Mr. Belladonna admitted. “I hope you both managed to avoid getting too much hurt while leaving the warehouse.”

“Sid took care of Adam, he stunned him so that we could leave and-”

“Blake, you helped me fighting against him,” I interrupted with a huff. “You were fighting him too.”

“But-”

“Speaking about that, I would like to also understand why you had to… destroy the entire building, Mr. Tremaine,” The man pointed out with a dry tone. “Tukson told me that he had left you with some explosives but-”

“He left me with all of his explosives, sir,” I interjected with a frown. “Destroying the building was the least damage I could offer with so many bombs.”

“Now, that is something that we will have to ask to Tukson,” Kali mused with a hint of surprise. “Still, there is one last thing you wanted to ask our daughter, right Ghira?”

Ghira sighed nervously. “This question is actually still about Mr. Tremaine-”

“Sir, you can call me Sirud or Sid-”

“Mr. Tremaine,” He ignored my words as he started with his last inquiry. “I wish for you to honestly tell me what you feel about Blake.”

Are you kidding? I thought that his wife would have made sure that this topic wouldn’t have been brought up.

“Dad, Sid and I are friends. Nothing else other than-”

“When our daughter was kidnapped, Tremaine, how did you feel?” Ghira pressed on with some insistence. “What kind of emotion fueled you, what made you take so many drastic decisions all at once?”

Blake looked annoyed at the fact that she was getting ignored too and she seemed ready to reprimand her father for prying so much over this topic.

But before she had the chance of replying to that, I decided to speak up.

“I was angry, sir,” I confessed with a sigh. “I was so infuriated at what had happened back then. Blake had been taken, I had been beaten, humiliated and left in the middle of the city.”

The cat Faunus looked at me in surprise as I started to tell about this, but she continued to keep quiet as I wasn’t done.

“This- I was also angry at the fact that this had happened without notice, that we weren’t ready to face an ambush and...”

“Were you worried about getting caught when you entered that warehouse?” Kali asked with a quiet voice and I nodded, despite the fact that they couldn’t see me.

“I was, I don’t see a reason to deny that- but my priority was to get Blake out of there,” I replied with a nervous voice. “And waddling in my own fears would’ve done little to help me with that task.”

“And so you saved her,” Ghira hummed calmly, a hint of interest dripping from his words. “I suppose you both were glad that… this rescue happened as it did.”

...What?

“I… I expected Sid to arrive,” Blake finally answered with a tense tone, drawing my attention to her and… I blinked at the sight I was bestowed.

Tears had grouped by the edges of her eyes as a twitchy smile was present on her face.

“I was… I was glad when he came and… got me back here.”

…

“That’s enough,” The man concluded with a sigh. “I guess I was a little pushy over this questions, and I apologize for having brought up some unpleasant memories.”

“We should finish this little conversation. I think we’ve got most of our questions dealt with and...” Kali took a moment before continuing. “Sid, once more, thank you for keeping an eye on our daughter.”

“It was the right thing to do,” I muttered, my right arm reaching around Blake’s shoulders and bringing her closer. “And as I’ve said, I care for her.”

She looked surprised at first… but then she leaned her head on my own shoulder.

“Hopefully, we will be able to have a better chance for some discussion when we will came to visit Vale,” Ghira mused quietly. “The Vytal Festival is around the corner, and I suppose we can visit for this occasion.”

“Then we shouldn’t be wasting any time,” His wife added with a mirthful tone. “We should be preparing for-”

The call interrupted there, abruptly so, and there was a strangely heavy silence that took us both by surprise.

I wasn’t in the mood of continuing the movie just yet, staring at the Cat Faunus as she was clinging a little at my arm, while trying to hide her expression away from me.

“Blake,” I hummed quietly, trying to break into that dense quietness, my ears finally catching some sniffling coming from her. “Why?”

“You… you had to risk your life to save mine,” She pointed out. “And it was all because of something from my past. One of the mistakes I’ve been running away from up until now.”

“It wasn’t your fault-”

“It was,” She gulped quietly. “I- I should push even more to train and-”

“Stop,” I said sternly, pulling her closer and initiating a much-needed hug from. “You’re doing good steps, and by exaggerating you would just mess things up even worse.”

She sighed on my chest. “I’m dumb.”

“Nope,” I said with a sigh. “You’re Blake.”

…

“Really?”

I snorted with some amusement. “Yep. And for now you should probably let everything out.”

…

“Why?”

“‘Cause I’m offering you a rare hug,” I replied with a huff. “And you should be enjoying this considering it’s quite expensive.”

…

At first it was a giggle that developed, but then it increased in its intensity, turning in a full-fledged laugh.

I had a small smile on my face as I kept the hug going for some more time.

“Sid.”

I blinked. “Yes?”

“When… If I finish Beacon Academy…” She hesitated for a moment, her cat ears twitching nervously before my eyes. “Can I… come to live with you again?”

“As my flatmate?”

I could feel her shuffling to look upward, and I found myself staring down at her eyes.

“Hm-hm.”

…

I sighed.

“Sure, why not.”

In the end the movie marathon was interrupted quicker than planned so that Blake could get by the helipads in time to reach back Beacon.

We decided that we would’ve continued it for Sunday after lunchtime, so that the Cat Faunus could have spared some time with her team without causing any suspicions.

And boy, if only we had known how suspicious the girls were already by what had happened today...