RWBY: Black Cat

Chapter 21

Blake shut her backpack with a satisfying snap as the button clicked into place. She gazed down at it, her eyes dull. It was White Fang grey and red. Everyone had the same one. None of them were particularly pleased to have to use them. But they were necessary, for carrying food and such.

Blake heard a knock on the door. She brushed her bangs out of her eyes, getting to her feet. "Yeah?"

"We're leaving in ten minutes. Glynda wants us outside." Weiss's voice was muffled slightly by the closed door.

"M'kay, two seconds."

The rest of team RWBY had left the room they'd slept in the past two nights, clearing out their few belongings before breakfast. Something had made Blake linger. She blinked, then shook her head. The sooner I get out of this place, the sooner I stop becoming a total emo.

She swung the bag over her shoulder, stepped outside, and slammed the door behind her, making her way through the complex, heading outside.

***

It was a crisp morning. The air smelled cool, and the weather was surprisingly good, if not a little humid. Team RWBY had instinctively lumped together off to the side. Adam and Blanc were talking to Raven. Neo and Glynda, surprisingly, were walking together, united in their want to avoid talking to Adam. Neo blinked. Some team we've become.

Neo nudged Glynda's arm, gently. Glynda stiffened, then glanced down at her. "Hm?"

Neo paused, not sure how to put her words into actions. I can't believe we were teammates for all that time, and this how we've ended up... Hoping Glynda would get the gist, she gestured to herself, then Glynda, then Adam, and then just tried to look sad.

Glynda blinked slowly. Neo expected her to say something like, 'I guess some of us made better choices than others,' or 'you haven't done anything to improve the situation.'

"...me neither."

The petite huntress paused. A small part of her was shocked. A grin stretched slowly, easily across her face, and she reached into her backpack, pulling out a cronut. Whatever else they'd done, the White Fang really did have excellent cuisine at their largest bases. The vertically challenged huntress broke it in half, offering half to Glynda. It was the half with more icing, too.

Glynda hesitated, then quickly snatched it out of Neo's hand, glancing around to check that Raven hadn't seen, hissing under her breath, "Don't you even think about making me do something that soft again."

Neo shrugged innocently, and shoved her half of the cronut in her mouth. She and Glynda continued on in a silence that was slightly less stony, but still silent.

Neo felt strangely at home. There was something about going on an adventure with old friends (kind of - not really friends but - nevermind) that made her feel completely at ease. Despite the possibility that they would never see Leif again, and the fact that team ANGL had been shattered completely, she felt strangely hopeful. She had no idea why.

She'd always known that she was impressionable. When she was young, she'd been caught up with "the wrong crowd", and became rebellious enough to ditch her parents, (who loved her no doubt, but she'd often become lost amongst her brothers,) go to a combat school for two years, before going to Beacon. At Beacon, she'd met Raven, and Glynda and Adam and Leif, and had become much less grungy, and more interested in things like intellectual debate, and social problems in the world, and real friendship.

Then of course Adam had done what he'd done.

And Neo became hard and cold.

Then she'd met Roman. She loved Roman. He was frustrating, and egotistical, and charismatic, and they were a team. Neither were huge fans of adoring looks or displays of affection. They went in to get the job done, and they did just that. They'd done jobs on their own, and they'd done them under Cinder - all things considered, the benefits of working with her had been great. At least, they had been, until Roman had been arrested. And Cinder hadn't cared.