Forever Home (ch6)

EARLY RELEASE FOR ALL PATRONS! THANK YOU SO MUCH!

A lot of you had questions about how the fairies would transform Blake and how she'd be able to provide for herself as a human. Don't worry, this chapter answers all of those questions and more!

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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													Chapter 6. Human Hearts

Blake couldn't believe what she'd just heard.

In fact, she was so astonished, she was almost certain she hadn't heard Penny correctly.

The cat shook her head incredulously as her wide gaze traveled around to each of the three fairies.

"Wh...What? What do you mean you're going to... make me human? H-How? What will-"

"Please," Penny said. "Let me explain, Blake. I was thinking about all of this a lot for the past couple of weeks. I thought about the suggestions you'd made and why they couldn't work. You know, how you'd said I could try to cast magic that turned you invisible to everyone but Weiss, or to somehow make it so that you would be allowed at the school with her.

"And I realized what the issues with those suggestions were! They both involve altering other peoples' minds! If I were to make you invisible just to humans, then theoretically, every human on the planet would have to be made unable to see you, including Weiss. The second scenario would mean altering tons and tons of papers from the college that state pets aren't allowed and implementing the assumption that they are allowed into the minds of thousands of students, workers, and their relatives.

"In both of those cases, there's far too much magic that would be required. It would take a hundred fairies for something like that."

Here, Penny paused, to let Blake absorb what she was saying. The cat nodded very slowly and tried to make sure she understood.

"So none of those would work... because it would mean altering a bunch of other humans, right?"

"That's correct!" Penny affirmed. "It would take a lot of fairies and a lot of magic to alter a lot of human minds. But that brings up our solution now."

With a smile, Penny flitted down to hover just in front of Blake's nose.

"But Blake, how many fairies do you think it would take to alter just one single cat?"

Blake's whiskers twitched, and her tail lifted up out of the grass.

"...Three?"

"Precisely!" Penny gave a little tumble in midair. "That's our answer, Blake! If all we're going to do is alter one body instead of a million minds, that's completely doable! Ruby and Yang agreed to help!"

"Yeah!" Yang pumped her tiny fist into the air. "We're gonna do it!"

"We're gonna help you see Weiss again!" Ruby exclaimed.

Blake was feeling her heart begin to beat a little faster, thrilled to consider the possibility of this new idea. But then the doubts and questions began to arise.

"But... would I even be able to live as a human? All I've ever known is life as a cat. Am I going to have to learn how to walk on two legs and put on clothes and eat with those weird, sharp stick-like things and... and go to school?" She wrinkled her nose at the thought.

Penny hummed for a moment and thought about it.

"I think if the three of us focus enough while we're casting the spell, we can make it so that all of those things will already be inherent in your mind. You won't need to learn them. We'll just plant the ideas into your body and your mind as your form changes so it'll all be natural to you!"

Blake wasn't too sure about that, but she wasn't about to challenge a fairy's words.

"All right," the cat said. "But... what about my... my age?" she wondered, nervously. "As a cat, I don't have much longer to live. Does that mean I'll be transformed into an old human as well?"

Dismay started to creep into her chest, overriding the little thrill of excitement from before.

But Penny was shaking her head quickly.

"Not at all! You're seventeen years old as a cat, so you'll be seventeen years old as a human, too! That'll almost be like sending you back to being a kitten in cat years!"

Blake had to admit she liked the sound of that. She'd never really gotten to enjoy her kittenhood since she'd been living with that horrible man. Maybe reliving her youth as a human wouldn't be quite so terrible. Especially if she got to do it with Weiss.

And that brought up her final question.

"And... what about Weiss? Will she even recognize me?"

At that point, Penny frowned for the first time that night and shook her head.

"That's the only thing we can't prematurely cast into all of this. We can alter you, Blake, but not Weiss as well. We can't make her recognize you right away. That's something you've got to figure out for yourself."

Blake swallowed and gave a single nod.

Yang flew up to her next.

"But remember," she warned. "You can't just go up to Weiss and tell her, 'Hey, I'm your cat and some fairies transformed me into a human!' That won't go over well at all."

"Yeah," Ruby added. "She'd probably avoid you..."

"And besides," Penny continued. "Ever since she lost her bond with me, her innocence and beliefs in things like fairies have pretty much disappeared. As a human girl going to school and becoming an adult, she has other things to worry about. She won't believe in fairies anymore like she used to."

"Right..." Blake sighed. "I didn't think it would be that easy. But I'll think of something. I'll have an entire human lifespan to work with, after all. Even if it takes me a year or two to make her recognize me, we'll still be able to be together for... fifty or sixty or seventy more years after that!"

"Um..." Penny timidly raised her hand up to stop Blake. "That's the other thing, Blake. We... we can't give you the entire human lifespan. Our magics are only strong enough to give you a small amount of time..."

Blake's ears flattened.

"What? What do you mean you can't give me the entire lifespan? Does that mean I'm just going to die as a human at an early age?"

"No, no, of course not!" Penny piped. "The magic would work in... a certain way. Yours isn't the first case like this in all of history so far, you know. Fairies have done this before with animals wanting to be human, and even humans wanting to be animals.

"It works like this: Ruby, Yang, and I can cast magic to make you a human tonight, and for a short amount of time, you'll be able to maintain your human form. If you make Weiss recognize you within that amount of time, and if the two of you can prove you love one another, then that will become the new magic.

"Your love will take over from there, and that will be what can maintain your human from for as many years as you can live. So long as you and Weiss love one another, you'll be able to live as long a human life as any."

Blake listened carefully, trying to sort things out in her mind.

"So then... what would happen if Weiss rejected me or... or didn't love me anymore...?"

It was painful to ask, and even more painful to think about. But she had to ask.

Penny looked to the sister fairies, then back to Blake.

"Then the spell would be broken. You'd return to being a cat. Think of it this way: if we transform you tonight, your life as a cat will be frozen at seventeen years. You'll become a seventeen-year-old human then. If you can prove your love to Weiss and she can prove her love for you, the two of you can be together as humans for however many years of your lives.

"But if at any point, say in forty human years from now, something happened that would break the spell, you would revert back to your cat form at seventeen years old. From there, you could either live out the last few years of your life as a cat, or come to us again and have us turn you into a human, and the process would repeat exactly as it starts tonight."

Penny's more serious expression faded as she finished explaining everything.

"But don't worry! I've lived with you and Weiss long enough to know that you'd never stop loving one another! The spell won't break over something like if you two were bickering or got into a disagreement or something small like that.

"What would break it would be true, mutual hatred and loathing for one another, something neither of you would ever be able to recover from. And I know that could never happen. Not between the two of you."

Blake was glad Penny had that kind of faith in her. She knew she'd never be able to hate Weiss, even if the girl rejected her as a human for some reason. Blake would always love her, no matter what.

"All right..." She let out a long breath. "You'd said the three of you can only give me a short amount of time to be human. That's the time limit I have for making Weiss recognize me. How long do I have?"

Penny again turned back to the other two fairies and mumbled briefly with them. When they came to a conclusion, Penny gave the estimation.

"We can give you one month."

Blake almost flinched. She'd lived through many months together with Weiss, enough for Blake to be able to get a concept of how humans measured time. She understood how many sunrises "one month" amounted to, and Blake didn't think it was a very large amount of time.

But if it meant she could see Weiss again...

If it meant she'd be able to talk to her and have her understand...

If it meant Blake might be able to spend the rest of her human life with Weiss as she'd promised her...

She would make that month worth it.

Blake could feel the resolve wreathing its way around her heart. With every passing second, she was closer and closer to seeing Weiss again, through the same eyes, but from an entirely new perspective. Just the prospect of being face-level with her was stunning to Blake.

Nervous excitement coursed through her veins as she faced the trio of fairies now.

"Is there anything else I should know about all of this?"

Ruby flitted up to her now and shared a tidbit.

"Oh! We should probably tell you that you'll have to keep some part of your cat form when you become a human. If you fail to get Weiss to recognize you within that one-month timeframe we give you, that feline part of yourself will take over your human form and you'll become a cat again."

"Buuut~" Yang put in. "If you can get her to recognize you, that part of you will vanish, and you'll be 100% human!"

"That's right!" Penny said. "You should choose what part of you you'd like to remain when you're a human. I'd recommend something like your tail, not your fur."

That all sounded odd to Blake, the fact that she'd have to be walking around as a human with the tail of a cat. She'd probably be taken away and locked up somewhere before she could even get to Weiss. And surely, Weiss would be frightened out of her wits if she saw a strange girl with a cat's tail approaching her.

Blake would never be able to get near her if that were the case.

"Well... as much as I think I'd need my tail for balance when walking on two legs... Is it possible to keep my ears?"

All three of the fairies nodded right away.

"Yes!" Penny said. "Perfect! Those can be much more easily covered than a tail could be! We'll make sure to conceal them for you!"

"Thank you," Blake sighed in relief. "Is there anything else?"

Again, the fairies consulted for a moment. They made sure they'd gone over everything Blake would need to know and do during the month of the spell.

After a few minutes, they decided they'd said all they could.

"There's just... one last thing..." Penny informed her timidly. "You know how humans... lose their belief in fairies, right?"

Blake nodded slowly.

"Usually, they can see you when they're very young, but once the adults dissuade them, the children begin to believe you're not real. So they lose the ability to see you within their first five years."

"Exactly," Penny agreed. "And... we'll be turning you into a seventeen-year-old girl. So that means-"

"I... won't be able to see you anymore..." Blake finished, her eyes wide in dismay.

The three fairies nodded.

"Yes," Penny told her. "That is the unfortunate truth. You won't be able to hear or see or sense us. But at the very least, thanks to the spell, you'll still have the knowledge of our existence! And I can promise you now that I'll stay by your side until your month is up!"

"I promise too!" Ruby said.

"I promise ya, Blake!" Yang added. "Even if you won't be able to see or hear us, you'll at least know you won't be alone in all of this."

Blake was feeling a stuffiness in her chest now. Trading her animal form for that of a human's would have many benefits to her in terms of what she wanted to do.

But it also meant she'd have to sacrifice the keen senses that allowed her to see the fairies.

Her heart sank a little, but she was still resolved. Their promises resonated within her, and it was nice to know she wouldn't be alone in all of this.

Still, Blake took one last moment to look around at the three of them.

Ruby and Yang, the fairies who had drawn the curtains aside so the other humans could see the abuse Blake had been suffering at the hands of her old owner.

And Penny, the fairy who had lived with her and taught her for many years, and helped her understand Weiss.

Blake held all of their gazes – silver, lavender, and teal. When she tried to find her voice, it was raspy, but there was the faintest purr in it as well.

"Thank you all so much. That you'd... that you'd help me be with her again... it means the world to me." Blake strode forward and gently bumped her nose to each fairy's cheek in turn. "Ruby... Yang... Penny... Thank you so much. I promise I'll never forget you."

Each of them reached out to hug Blake gently around the neck. Ruby started to sniffle into her fur a little bit.

"We'll always be with you, Blake! And Weiss, too!"

"And," Yang said. "If you end up turning back into a cat, you'll be able to see us again."

"But hopefully," Penny tacked on. "If all goes well and according to our plans, you'll be with Weiss from now on, and you'll never see us again."

Blake dipped her head and let out a full purr.

"I'll miss you all. But even though I won't be able to sense you anymore, I'll know you're always with me. Thank you. For everything."

With one last look to all of them, Blake dipped her head.

At that point, the three little fairies wiped their tears and flew into position all around Blake.

She heard them murmur some things, things spoken in the fairy language that made no sense to Blake's ears. She could feel something in the air, and recognized it as their magics. It swirled and glimmered around Blake, until it was enveloping her completely.

She felt herself changing.

There was a bit of a strain put on her body as her bones stretched and expanded. Her posture went from four paws to two legs, and her spine went from being horizontal to the ground to vertical.

Her tail shrunk away along with the rest of her fur, but it seemed all of it was gathering atop her head. Long strands of hair flowed down from around her ears, which were all that remained unchanged.

As her fur receded, she started to shiver in the cold night air. But the fairies provided clothing for her right away, covering her sensitive skin with soft, light layers of fabrics.

Though Blake's cat ears remained as promised, a new set of human ears also formed on the sides of her head. For a brief moment, she heard the world through two full sets of ears, to the point where it was so discombobulating, she nearly fell over.

But right away, the fairies concealed her cat ears beneath a bow, which blocked out the sounds so that only her human ears could serve the hearing function.

She could feel her paws becoming hands, her pads becoming palms, her claws vanishing in favor of weaker, wider nails.

But despite all of the strange, frightening outward changes she was going through as she relinquished her birth form, it was inside her body that felt the best.

Once the initial ache of all of her bones and organs growing in size had passed, Blake could feel the ache of her age dissipate.

The strain that had one sat atop her old, brittle bones was replaced with a strong, youthful firmness. Time seemed to turn back for her now, and a rejuvenating sense of energy washed throughout her veins as her transformation was finally completed.

She could feel her heart, beating much more fully and more slowly than it had used to.

It was almost terrifying at first, when she opened her eyes and got a good look at herself. Her fur was gone, replaced by the same, smooth pink skin that covered Weiss and her family. Her claws were gone, and her teeth had shrunk and flattened out.

Her cat ears remained, but they couldn't hear now thanks to the bow around them. Her human ears couldn't move, but there was still a chink in her left one, a scar that couldn't be healed even with the transformation.

Her deep golden eyes were the only visible reminder of what she had once been.

Blake staggered on her two feet now, finding there were shoes covering her toes. The absence of her tail unbalanced her, and she fell to her knees with a gasp. The rush of air that filled her lungs was much larger than she'd expected it to be, and she choked.

It took her a moment to get used to breathing like this, with her back upright now.

But not a second after she'd gotten used to breathing, a new pressure swelled up, this time not in her chest, but in her head.

Tiny sparks of electricity started shooting through her brain as human knowledge poured into her mind. The human concept of "time" washed over her, and Blake now understood just how long she would have to maintain this form – one month.

There were things she now understood as numbers, shapes, and objects, all by their human definitions. All of this was knowledge she would need to be able to enter Weiss' university and attend classes as though she'd always been a normal human girl, who had been learning and studying these topics all her life.

But on top of all of those images and bits of information, there were words.

So many words.

Words she realized she'd heard a million times before as a cat, but had never been able to comprehend until now.

Her vocabulary expanded, and somehow, she knew the meaning of all of those words, as well as how to use them.

As soon as the buzzing in her head died down, Blake scrambled to find the sounds that would produce one word in particular. She realized it would sound different now that she was using a human language and not the language she'd known as a cat.

Slowly, she tried to form the sound she wanted to hear.

"Whe... Wuh... iss..." She shook her head, stuck out her tongue a little, and tried again. "Wah... Wei... ss... Weiss..."

At last, she found it. The one word that meant the most to her.

Blake smiled, an expression she'd seen on the humans and fairies alike many times before.

And then, something else happened.

An awful stinging sensation began creeping up behind her nose and eyes. It sent her into a panic, her heart already starting to thud as she feared something was going wrong.

A few seconds later, water began dripping from her eyes. It was hot and it stung, but somehow it was relieving.

Blake was crying. For the first time in her life, she could shed tears.

And she cried for a long time out in the grass.

She cried for all the times she'd been unable to in the past.

She cried for the times when the man had kicked her and beaten her.

She cried for the times when her stomach had been hollow and hungry.

She cried for the times she'd wished she were dead...

And then she cried for the day she was carried out of that horrible place.

She cried for the relief of being fed and taken care of by Glynda.

She cried for the joy of finding fellow companions and fairies in the shelter.

And at last, she cried for Weiss.

She cried for being found and rescued by that little bright-eyed human girl.

She cried for being blessed enough to have been given a second chance at life - with her.

She cried for all of the happy times she'd experienced at Weiss' side.

She cried for the sake of loving her, and for the pain of losing her.

For a long time, Blake could only cry and choke out her name.

"Weiss... W-Weiss.."

Sorrow.

Grief.

Loneliness.

All things she'd known before, but now she was able to define.

She thought of Weiss, where she might be right now, what she might be thinking, wondering if she were crying, too...

Then, different words came to Blake's mind.

Affection.

Joy.

Love.

Eagerness.

Determination.

Resolve.

At long last, her tears finally stopped. Blake wiped her face to find her pants were damp from all the crying.

But she'd already wasted enough time like this. She didn't have long to keep this form.

She needed to get moving. Now.

With effort, Blake pushed herself back up onto her two feet, swaying slightly until she found her balance. She took a few deep breaths and glanced around the yard.

She saw nothing but shadows and bushes.

But she knew they were still there.

"P-Penny... Ruby... Yang..." she murmured. "Thank you."

Blake could feel a warmth curl around her heart, and she knew they were beside her.

Now, she turned her eyes upon the street that had taken Weiss away from her, aglow with orange lamplight.

Blake already had an idea in her mind of how to get to Weiss.

She started moving her feet, and made her next breath useful.

"I'll find you, Weiss..." she vowed. "I promise."

. . .

. .

.

Leaving home was the most difficult thing Weiss had ever done.

All her life, she'd grown up being so sheltered, so conditioned to depend on her father and his money. So now that she was on her own, everything was terrifying and intimidating beyond belief or explanation.

As soon as her father had dropped her off at her intended future residence and university, there had been several smiling adults awaiting her arrival to help her unpack and start adjusting. They'd brought her to her room, a dorm meant only for one person, with only one bed and a large workspace.

They'd given her information pamphlets, gotten her a campus ID card, helped her set up her school email account, and gotten her started with searching for classes she'd need to take in her first semester. They'd all been very helpful and even kind to her.

But ever since she'd found out Blake couldn't come with her, Weiss hadn't smiled once.

Even after everyone had left her room so she may start unpacking, Weiss never felt content or relieved for a second. Everything was too exciting, not in a positive way, but in a highly stressful one.

On her first night alone there in what was meant to be her new room, she'd curled herself up into a ball on her mattress and cried quietly to herself.

The next day, she'd had to join a group of incoming freshmen students on a tour of the huge campus. The tour took nearly three full hours, and by the time she'd returned to her lonely dorm room, Weiss all but collapsed from fatigue.

She called Winter for a while after that, telling her everything that had happened, how their father had more or less forced her to move out and start college early, and how she hadn't even been able to take Blake with her.

Winter sympathized with her greatly, offering words of condolence and motivation. She promised that the next time both Weiss and herself had a free weekend day that she'd come visit her little sister and take her out to lunch.

Weiss felt a little bit better after talking to Winter.

But the second she hung up, the anxieties returned to her, creeping in like thorns beneath her skin.

Every night she slept without Blake felt so horribly wrong to her. She missed the small pool of warmth her cat had used to produce, either at her side or the center of her chest. With the school semester now beginning in the autumn, nights were gradually starting to become cold. Weiss sorely missed Blake's comforting presence at her side.

And she had to wonder how Blake was coping without her.

She knew the cat must've been confused and nervous now that Weiss had gone and left her.

Blake wouldn't understand what was happening. She wouldn't know why Weiss wasn't coming home anymore to play with her and pet her and sleep beside her.

Weiss' heart broke a little more every time she thought about her old cat, alone and cold curled up on Weiss' bed, wondering where she'd gone.

It hurt to think about Blake crying out in the night in her mournful little strings of yowls.

Weiss hadn't contacted her father since the move, because she was still very upset with him for making these arrangements behind her back. But Weiss wanted to talk to him, about Blake if nothing else.

However, for the next week or so, Weiss became swamped with work, even though the semester classes hadn't begun yet. She needed to register for her classes, then order textbooks and other necessary supplies for them.

She needed to get used to taking her own laundry down to the designated room to get washed, and she needed to start buying food she could keep in her dorm, rather than just buying cheap meals on campus every day.

There was so much she suddenly had to do for herself. It didn't seem fair that all her life she'd had everything provided for her, and now suddenly she was thrown out into the world and expected to thrive without so much as a set of guidelines on how to do so.

It was difficult for her to talk to other students on campus. They all eyed her with disinterest and even disgust. When Weiss worked up the courage to ask questions of a few of them, she received harsh replies, with content ranging anywhere from jabs about her age to her height.

That was how Weiss found out her arrival here had made its way around campus in the form of rumors. Everyone knew she was a privileged rich girl sent here a year early by her father, with his credit cards to pay for anything and everything she'd need. For that, they all resented her from day one, and no one seemed willing to help or speak to her.

All of this only added to Weiss' misery.

Her father had said it would be good for her to get out of their house and start over anew, to find a path for herself and start to feel better.

But college certainly wasn't fixing her. In fact, Weiss was convinced it was making things exceedingly worse than they'd ever been back at home.

She'd only been there for a week and a half, and by then, she'd only discovered a mechanical routine of waking, eating, working, and going to sleep again. It was essentially all she'd ever done back at home, only there she'd had Blake, her family, and a familiar environment.

None of those things were here.

Everyone was hostile to her except the adults, who seemed to baby her in knowing she was a novice to this way of life. Weiss didn't know who she hated more.

She knew life here would have been significantly less stressful if she'd been able to take Blake along with her. If she could take care of her cat and sleep with her at night and know she could always come back to her after a stressful day, Weiss knew she would have felt much better about everything.

But Blake's absence and thoughts of her potential passing during Weiss' own absence from home only served to stress her out twice as badly.

Weiss wasn't at all looking forward to her first week of classes. Perhaps her homework assignments would distract her from things, even just a little bit.

The only comfort she'd known at home that she felt she could rely on here was drowning herself in work.

And that was truly a horrible feeling.

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It was the weekend after her first days of classes had come and gone.

Weiss didn't really like any of her classmates or professors, as she felt they were all looking upon her with rueful gazes. Whenever she was forced to introduce herself, the rest of the class broke out into mumbles about her, enough to turn Weiss into a taciturn person after only a few days.

The girl who'd once strained to participate and provide answers in order to demonstrate her exceptional knowledge and how well she'd been paying attention to the lessons was now a quiet, unresponsive basket case. She soon became nervous to speak up, and every time she did manage to raise her hand, her heart always pounded in a nauseating way as she waited to speak.

The weekend was a blessing for her. She slept in a few extra hours and didn't leave her room if she didn't have to. She busied herself with homework, and once she'd finished all of that, she started reading through her textbooks' chapters and taking notes for future weeks' classes.

It was Sunday morning when she received a call from her father. Weiss drowsily pushed herself up from her bed, debating whether or not she wanted to answer and speak to him. She hadn't since she'd gotten here, and she hoped he understood just how upset she was about all of this.

But she'd have to tell him she was doing fine and that everything was going perfectly well.

As she clicked the button to answer the call, she took a deep breath and got ready to start lying.

"Good morning, Father..."

She was waiting for him to start bombarding her with questions.

But to Weiss' surprise, his voice was low and resentful.

"Weiss... your cat..."

The fear that seized her heart in that instant was crushing. Within seconds, she felt she was going to be ill. Her entire body went numb, and her lungs were barely working.

"F-Father...? What about Blake...?"

It was obvious that it was nothing good. If the cat was sick, Weiss would demand her father come fetch her and drive her back home. But Weiss couldn't stop fretting that Blake had suffered a fate worse than illness.

Her father took a moment to respond, every second of which sent more shockwaves of terror through Weiss' heart and forced more stinging tears out from her eyes. In her fear, she didn't even realize she'd resorted back to her more innocent way of addressing him.

"P-Papa...?"

He heaved a sigh and finally went on.

"I'm not sure how it happened. I always lock and close the doors at night. You know that. But this morning, I woke up and the front door was open a bit. And the cat was gone. It seems she got outside."

Weiss' heart dropped, and her stomach flipped, twisted, and heaved. She was shaking so badly she nearly dropped her cell phone.

"Wh... What do you..."

Her whisper of a voice barely reached him on the other end. The man kept his voice quiet.

"As I said, I'm not sure how it happened. She just wasn't here this morning to eat her breakfast. I searched the entire house and there's no sign of her."

Weiss covered her mouth and sobbed into her palm, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"F-Father, I don't understand! How could this happen? Don't tell me you... did it on purpose-"

"Of course I didn't. Don't be foolish. She just got out somehow last night and that's all there is to it."

"Then... did you at least go outside a-and try to look for her?" Weiss cried. "Please, Father! Put up posters o-or ask the neighbors if they saw anything! She could still be in the area! She could still-"

"Weiss."

The way he said her name silenced her words, but not her tears. Her father went on in a solemn voice.

"There's no point in going through all of that trouble. That cat's never lived a moment outdoors, so for her to get out at this old age... There are cars and coyotes and-"

"Stop it!" Weiss shouted. "Father, stop! How could you say such horrible things?!"

"Because it's the truth, Weiss. That's just the truth."

"No..." She tried to sit up in bed, but she felt faint and ended up slumped back against the wall. "F-Father, please... you've g-got to at least... l-look for her..."

"There's no use. I'm sorry."

Weiss barely managed to press her trembling thumb onto the hang-up button before the phone slipped limply from her fingers.

She collapsed back onto her bed, her face buried into her cold, damp pillow.

She didn't move all day, her cries filling the air even long after the sun had gone down.

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A/N: Things might be looking up for Blake, but what about poor Weiss? How is Blake going to get to her in time, and make Weiss realize it's her in only a month? It isn't going to be easy, and it might not even be possible...

Blake may have gotten a real human heart in this chapter, but she doesn't yet realize just how fragile it is. Unfortunately, Weiss knows all too well.