𝐈𝐧 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 (English)

Chapter 60

Blake didn't much enjoy being Jaune's minion.

She liked the term even less when he said it to her, though one quick bout of pointing out Ruby's silent suffering was enough to heap the guilt on until she agreed to it. Jaune had never been a very threatening person, but she was beginning to realise she'd underestimated him. He wielded a guilt trip like Weiss did her rapier, piercing through any and all defences until she was curled on the floor bleeding from a thousand tiny pinpricks.

Except with less blood and more self-hate, which quickly forced her to cave and agree to do everything and anything to help him help Ruby.

And really, she owed it to Ruby to try for the support her young leader had given through all this time at Beacon, supporting her when she came out as ex-terrorist, supporting her in searching for the White Fang, and supporting her by being a convenient shield every time Weiss or Yang threw a temper tantrum.

Blake didn't want to be a bad friend.

Even though a part of her was somewhat certain she was, because it was Jaune of all people who noticed this before her. Oh sure, Jaune and Ruby were closer than she and Ruby in some ways, they had the whole 'mutual team leader suffering' thing going on, along with the 'absolute pair of dorks' thing. Still, Blake lived with Ruby, and liked to pride herself on being observant even if she was a terrible judge of character.

Which she supposed didn't make much sense in hindsight. Being observant if you couldn't judge what it meant was kind of useless, but then she could hardly call herself a good judge of character when she'd dedicated several years of her life to Adam. Blake would be the first to stand up, raise her hand, and say she was quite possibly the worst judge of character ever.

Case in point, she'd judged Weiss a racist, Yang a dumb bimbo, Ruby a childish idiot, Jaune as being useless and weak, Sienna as being a good leader, Adam as being perfect boyfriend material, and her parents as traitors to faunus. If there was an award for mort mischaracterisations made in a lifetime, Blake was fairly sure she was among the nominations for it.

And hey, she was getting better – partly through effort but also because it was hard to get much worse – and that was why it annoyed her to realise Jaune had figured this out before her. Had she spent too much time reading? Had she been too eager to write Ruby's silences off as her being lost in daydreams about weaponry? In hindsight, it had probably been the reading. That and her habit of vanishing off to quiet spots to get some extra reading done. Hard to notice anything wrong if your every spare moment was spent hidden in the library or balanced on a tree branch.

"Don't you start with the emotional over-analysis," Jaune said, not looking up from the book he was reading. "At least hold your problems in until after we've dealt with Ruby's. Then we'll get onto yours."

"I'm fine."

"You're a bundle of not-fine," he replied, both rudely and quite accurately. Blake didn't like it. "But that goes for a lot of people so I'll let it pass as long as you're not having a mental breakdown right next to me."

"How kind of you. So, what do we do?"

"I don't know."

"Aren't you the psychiatrist?"

"No."

"But you're always reading those psychology books."

"Aren't you the biggest slut in Beacon?"

Blake recoiled. "Excuse me!? No!"

"But you're always reading those smut books."

Blake's eyes narrowed darkly. Touche, Jaune Arc. Touche. But being technically correct with his comeback wouldn't stop her remembering this, nor her paying him back the next time Glynda partnered her with him in combat class.