Professor Arc

Chapter 21

Blake wasn't sure what to think when they were drawn before Professor Arc as a group. She'd been prepared for the Headmaster and Miss Goodwitch; after all, she'd violated the terms of their agreement by going after the White Fang once more. But the moment the stern woman had brought them back to Beacon, she'd been pulled aside by the young teacher, the two of them engaging in a heated discussion – too quiet for any of them to pick out the details.

Eventually however, the woman had nodded, saying that Professor Arc would be handling their punishment in this matter, since Blake was his responsibility. The others weren't exactly exempt from that either, since they had willingly gone out with her.

At least they'd stopped the White Fang from getting hold of one of those giant robots.

Plus... they'd made an altogether more startling discovery...

"What am I going to do with you guys?" The blond man shook his head as he sat down in his couch, leaving the four girls to arrange themselves on the two larger sofas. Weiss and Ruby feigned attention, but the faunus could see their eyes greedily scanning the room. Now that she thought of it, neither of the two had actually been to his office before. It was mostly just her and Yang... which painted a pretty damning picture actually.

Maybe she should leave out the biweekly trips to a therapist from her résumé.

"Give us a medal?" Yang suggested, "we did fight off a big-ass robot controlled by a criminal, that's got to be worth something."

"On a major road filled with traffic, which put hundreds of people at risk." Blake winced, feeling her shoulders hunch even as Yang's mouth clicked shut.

"Ah... you saw that, did you?" The blonde girl stammered.

"Saw it?" The Professor sounded amused, "me and no doubt half of Vale – it was all over the nine o'clock news."

"Oh God," Ruby whined, echoing the thoughts of them all, "that means dad'll have seen it... I'm doomed..."

"You're doomed?" Yang snorted, "you'll pull that cute and broken look and dad will immediately think it was me that led you astray – like you always do!"

"Yang did it!" The small girl cried, getting a growl from the elder sister. Blake could only shake her head, imagining what it must have been like to live with those two as your children. She pitied the poor man... no doubt Beacon was a welcome break for him.

"Anything you wish to add Miss Schnee?" Jaune Arc leaned back in his seat, holding a mug of steaming coffee under his chin. It was that which granted a small reprieve to Blake. After spending so long working under him... with him – she meant with him. Either way, she'd started to learn some small bits and pieces about Beacon's youngest teacher... and one of those was that he was always in a good mood when he was drinking coffee.

"I have no regrets over what we did," the proud girl lifted her head to look him straight in the eye. At that very moment, Blake felt an incredible camaraderie with the girl... so strange, given their opposing heritage.

Adam was wrong... they could live together.

"That's good, I suppose – no one your age should have to live with regret."

Do you? Blake wondered, though she knew not to pose that question... given his past, there was no doubt plenty of things to wish could have gone differently. Were they similar in that regard? And if so, what did it matter? Life wasn't about matching negativity with others, better to spend time focused on the good – like her team, her new family.

A family that might now be in jeopardy.

"And thus we come to the crux of the matter," the man turned to face Blake, brow raised, "and what does our resident vigilante have to say for herself?"