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It had felt like hours. It probably had been hours. Sun wasn’t sure how long they had been there, sitting in a makeshift tent hospital in the rubble that was once downtown Vale. He didn’t know if it was still the dead of night, or if the early morning rays of sunlight were beginning to shine their light on the horizon. His eyes were struggling to focus, and his head felt fuzzy with exhaustion.
The last couple of hours were hell, to put it lightly. That girl from Atlas, Ruby’s friend, Penny, was literally torn apart in her match. Grimm had invaded the city, the school, the stadium, leaving an aftermath of destruction and causalities in their wake. A giant dragon Grimm- the likes of which Sun had never seen before in his days as a Huntsman in training, both in Mistral where he studied and back at his home in Vacuo- made its rounds around Beacon Academy, new Grimm falling from its’ body like waste. The White Fang made its’ attack on Beacon as well, going after whatever human they could find. And then there were the Atlesian robot armies. Sun groaned at the thought of the Paladins and what a pain they were to fight. Had it not been for Velvet and her apparent endless supply of weapon summoning, they probably could not have lasted as long as they had in the Battle of Beacon.
Some weren’t as lucky as they were, though. Word was beginning to spread around about what had happened at the top of the tower. Sun had overheard from some guy in a cape talking to Professor Goodwitch about Ruby. She went to the top of the tower looking for Pyrrha to bring her back to safety. And whatever happened at the top of the tower, it had left Ruby in what was practically a coma. Pyrrha, as eavesdropping had told him, wasn’t as lucky.
At one point he heard screaming, followed by loud, uncontrollable sobbing. It startled him and jolted him from a nap he didn’t realize he was on the verge of having. Sun took that as team JNPR learning the news about what had happened to their teammate. It was probably just the beginning. In the aftermath of such a battle, there were bound to be more like Pyrrha. More that had put their life on the line and ultimately lost in order to hold back the chaos that put so many at risk. Sun counted his blessings that his teammates all survived, and that for the most part, his friends were alive.
It had been a long, rough night, and Sun was exhausted. But he couldn’t rest just yet.
He had to make sure they were both okay. Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long.
Sure, the doctors said that they were going to be okay. But Sun couldn’t help but worry over them. Blake got stabbed in the stomach. Yang lost her arm. Yang fell unconscious from the pain. Blake was so lucky to have been able to get away from that guy in the White Fang with Yang in tow, while both were horrifically injured. Earlier, while they waited to be boarded onto a ship to leave Beacon, poor Blake cried inconsolably as she held onto Yang’s remaining hand, whispering over and over how sorry she was to Yang. And now here they both lay in single cots in a makeshift hospital tent, recovering. And now here Sun sat, waiting idly by for one to stir awake.
He yet out a small yawn, rubbing his eyes again as he struggled to stay awake.
“Sun.”
Hearing his name caught his attention, and Sun turned to one of the two on the cots. Blake rolled over and faced him, and the sight broke his heart. Her eyes were bloodshot; her face stained with the trail marks of tears. Had Blake been awake the whole time? Just silently crying?
“Can you help me up?” she asked. Sun all but lunged out of his chair, quickly making his way to the side of Blake’s cot. Very slowly, he helped Blake sit up in her cot. She winced and let out a small hiss in pain as she sat upright.
“Blake, are you okay? Do you need a doct-” he stopped short when he saw the look Blake was giving him. “Okay, I got it. No doctor.” He knelt down beside the cot, looking up at Blake in all seriousness. “But are you okay?” Blake had been crying. By now it was obvious, and it hurt him to his core knowing that he had been sitting there unaware that something was wrong. And if he could do something to help, even if it was just getting Blake to talk about it, he wanted to try. Blake wiped her face with the palm of her hands, taking a moment and thinking.
“Can we talk outside?” she asked. Her voice was soft. Her gaze moved from Sun to the still unconscious Yang beside them. Sun could see the tears begin to well in her eyes again. He got up and held out a hand to her, which she took quickly. Sun helped Blake rise from the small bed, careful not to accidentally reopen her injury in her side, and the two made their way outside the tent.
It was the early hours of the morning, as it turned out. The sky was light, with the sun barely beginning to shine on the horizon. It seemed darker though, being in the middle of downtown Vale with buildings blocking what little sunlight was beginning to light up the morning. Even with the sky slowly lighting up, everything was still dark. Had he and Blake not been Faunus, they probably would not be able to see very far. The electricity grid was destroyed in the Grimm attacks, leaving the town in darkness for the night. Sun slowly ushered Blake a ways away from those who were still awake. The two found a small alleyway, far away for the two of them to talk in private but close enough should Blake need immediate medical attention. Blake leaned against the wall, holding her side as she looked downwards. She seemed so glum.
“So you ready to talk?” he began, “Or is this gonna be like when we first met, where you don’t say anything for a long time and give me looks?” She looked up at him, eyes furrowed in aggravation but her eyes welling up with tears. So much for the idea of making a joke to make her feel better. “Not the kind of look I was thinking I was gonna get from you. Blake, please talk to me, what’s wrong?”
Blake wiped her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Yang got hurt, and it’s all my fault.” Blake said, “I couldn’t fight him off, and I got hurt. He hurt me to get her attention so he could hurt her, too. And I couldn’t tell Yang to get away. She should never have tried to fight him and now she-” she paused to choke back a sob, “It’s all my-”
“No, it’s not, Blake.” Sun interjected, “It’s that jerk in the White Fang’s fault. He hurt you to get Yang’s attention. He cut off Yang’s arm. He is the one to blame, not you.”
“You don’t get it!” Blake exclaimed as she pushed herself away from the wall, stumbling a bit from moving so quickly with an injury, “This is my fault! This all happened because I left the White Fang! If I hadn’t come here then this wouldn’t have-”
“It probably would have still happened, Blake,” Sun interrupted again. Blake seemed a bit caught off guard. “Do you really think that if you hadn’t left the White Fang all of this wouldn’t have happened? Even if you hadn’t come to Beacon, these guys probably would have still attacked the school. And Yang probably would have still gotten hurt. You know her. She charges in headfirst without much of a plan and goes into a punching frenzy. She charged in headfirst with that guy because she cares about you, Blake. And you saved her from a far worse outcome and got the both of you away. You can’t hold yourself accountable for all of this. And if it amounts to anything, I’m glad you came to Beacon. I got to meet you and Yang and all of your friends.”
Blake looked taken aback by Sun’s words, like she couldn’t quite get her mind around what he was saying. He supposed he could understand. It must be hard to see how she wasn’t the source of the problem like she had convinced herself she was, and that this wasn’t in fact her fault. But she wasn’t, and Sun was going to make sure that she could see that. He held his arms out, offering her a hug. She looked like she needed one.
Blake took a step back, her expression suddenly becoming more terrified.
“He’ll come after you, too, Sun,” she said.
“Let him come, then. I can handle it.”
Blake seemed to hesitate, and then made her way towards him until he could wrap his arms around her. She responded in kind, her hands grasping onto the back of his shirt firmly. He hadn’t noticed it before, but Blake was shaking as he held her. Sun gently ran his fingers through her hair as he gently kissed the top of her head.
“I’m sorry, Sun,” mumbled Blake.
“Nah, you don’t have to apologize to me, Blake.”
“I do, Sun. I can’t let Adam hurt another person I love like he did Yang.”
And like that, Blake was gone from his arms. She was still able to use her Semblance in her condition? He looked around, trying to find her. Surely she couldn’t have gotten that far, especially in the state she was in.
“Sun?”
He looked above him, and standing on the roof of one of the buildings they stood between was Blake.
“Please take care of yourself, Sun. And take care of Yang.”
And with that, Blake vanished.
Sun quickly jumped along the walls of the alleyway to the roof of the buildings only to find nothing. There wasn’t the slightest trace of neither Blake nor a clue as to which direction she went off to. It was just Sun and an empty rooftop. He heaved a deep sigh. There was a pain in his heart knowing that the girl he cared so much about was gone, and that he hadn’t a clue to know where to look or how to convince her that she didn’t have to distance herself from him and Yang.
Yang. Oh shit, Yang!
Sun quickly hopped down from the building, landing firmly on his feet, and made his way back to the hospital tent. He pulled open the tent curtain to find Yang sitting upright in her cot. A doctor was beside her, finishing changing out the bandages on her arm with fresh, new ones. When she caught a glimpse of Sun, her expression went from tired and neutral to that of dire determination.
“Sun! Where’s Blake?” Yang asked him urgently, “Is she okay?”
This was gonna be difficult to say. Sun knew it.
“Could you give us a moment?” he asked the doctor. Without a word and a quick nod, the doctor gathered up her supplies and made their way out of the tent. The look on Yang’s face was becoming more and more dreadful with each passing moment. The silence between them hung heavy in the air and made the both of them uncomfortable. Sun almost didn’t want to tell her. Yang had been through so much already. The news that Blake had run off would only hurt her more. But she deserved to know, right?
He took a deep breath and readied himself to tell her the news.
“Blake’s gone, Yang.”
“What..?” she said, her voice breaking, her eyes brimming with tears and lips quivering. He suddenly realized how the way he phrased his answer sounded. Oh shit, good job, Sun.
“Shit! Shit, no! Not like that Yang,” Sun said as he made his way to her cot. He sat down on the edge of the bed beside her and turned to face Yang. “She left.”
“What do you mean ‘she left’?” asked Yang.
“We were talking outside and the next thing I know she’s on the top of a roof and when I got up there to go after her she was gone without a trace,” Sun said.
Yang seemed at a loss for words. Rightfully so, he imagined. It was a lot to take in. It was becoming uncomfortably silent between them again, so Sun tried to think of something to get Yang to talk.
“How are you holding up?” he asked.
“My arm is gone, and now my partner has left,” Yang said with a firm tone, “I’ll be fine. It’s just-”
Yang curled into herself, stopping mid-sentence and began to cry, saying over and over in a broken voice, “It’s just not fair!” Seeing Yang- cheerful, warm-hearted, fiery Yang- reduced to such a broken and distraught mess like this hurt Sun. He couldn’t begin to imagine the amount of hurt she was feeling. He could feel himself start to get misty eyed at the sight of Yang crying. Sun placed his hand on her far shoulder and held onto her, resting his head on her closer shoulder. He sat there with her, silently consoling Yang as she cried her heart out.
It was a long, rough night that was beginning to become a long, rough morning. Sun would spend the rest of the day trying to comfort Yang and keep her company, something that had turned out to be way more difficult than he originally thought. The news of Blake running off, on top of the trauma of losing a limb, did a number to her usual excitable and cherry disposition. But he was determined to do so regardless.
Sun could take care of himself. He would do the best he could to take care of Yang. He hoped that Blake, wherever she ran off to, would take care of herself, too.