The Last Sunflower (ch2)

EARLY RELEASE FOR PATRONS ONLY!! THANKS SO MUCH!

I'm not too sure about the terrain on Patch, but for whatever reason, I imagined it as a more humble place, less modern and technological.

This chapter shows what took place from Blake's perspective during chapter 1. So we've rewound a bit and Ruby hasn't left yet.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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												Chapter 2. The Shadow

Blake was always running.

Ever since the moment she could stand as a toddler, she'd been practicing how to run, as though subconsciously training herself for years to come.

She always ran.

Because she was a coward. A "scaredy cat", just like all the human kids had taunted her of being.

She'd always resented their jeering tones.

But with each passing year of her life, she only ever seemed to do things that proved them right.

She'd run from her own family, run from the protests, run from Adam, run from her teammates at Beacon...

And now she'd run away from her closest partner and best friend.

Or at least, she'd tried to.

She'd done her best to run, to make them all believe she'd left them behind for good, making sure there'd been plenty of witnesses to see her dash off after the battle.

But the truth was, she wasn't even capable of committing herself to any single decision.

She'd made it look as though she'd run, but in actuality, she hadn't even done that. She'd merely given off the impression she'd run away, used her clones to confuse her friends, tricking them into seeing a reality that wasn't there, manipulating them into seeing what she wanted them to see.

To resort to deceiving her own friends, the people she trusted and had been opening up her heart to, the people who had trusted and opened up to her in turn...

She really was horrible.

But she'd done whatever was best for herself. Just like always.

After fooling them with her clones, she'd hidden her true self in the shadows of Vale, watching, waiting. She'd taken note of which ship Ruby and Yang were taken onto, though she never did end up seeing Weiss again.

With the sisters being all she could cling to, Blake had followed them.

She'd memorized the ship they'd taken, but remained in Vale alone for a time, sneaking into whatever stores were still open after the battle. She'd resorted to her old ways of stealing morsels and bottles of water, taking advantage of the restrooms to redress her wound, then fleeing before anyone could so much as notice her presence.

Then, she'd taken the night ship to Patch, alone and miserable.

It was a 4-hour flight that allowed her to wallow in her own insecurities – every last one of them. Four hours of feeling wretched, loathing herself.

Once they'd landed, she had only a few faint memories to go off of. Ruby had once said their house was near the ocean, because she'd recounted she could often hear the waves on quiet nights.

Presently, Blake searched and searched all throughout the night, keeping to the dark forests along the shoreline. She did her best to recall the photograph of their house Ruby had once shown the team, trying to locate a settlement of similar size and shape.

She peered into every window, searched every porch and yard, searching...

She only paused briefly to rest at a small farm in the wee hours of the morning. A few cows and goats were the first creatures to take note of her existence in days.

She slipped into a shed there, helped herself to a small portion of milk and bread, rested for about an hour, then crept out once more.

On her way out, she noticed the massive flower field.

In the night, they were all painted silver, but glowed like miniature suns. Hundreds of them, looking back at her, guiding her onward. They faced where the sun would soon rise, promising a new tomorrow.

They made her feel safe despite the foreign land she'd found herself in, warm despite the chill of the night, and calm despite all that had transpired.

She took only one for luck's sake, then hurried off again.

And less than one hour later, she found herself at a home she'd never been to, but one she knew very well.

It was yet before dawn, the purple sky just barely twinkling with the last of the stars. Ruby had been right; Blake could hear the rush of the ocean.

She used the nearby trees to climb, balancing herself on the branches with care, distributing her weight evenly as to not cause a commotion.

The first room she peered into on the second floor seemed vacant at first, with one bed clearly empty and untouched. Even in the darkness, she could see that the pillows were a soft yellowish color.

It reminded her of Yang's hair.

Blake felt that her partner should have been lying in that bed, and to find that she wasn't made her stomach twist.

Especially when she noticed that her leader was resting close by.

Blake brought a hand up to her mouth to swallow a small gasp.

She hadn't seen Ruby in so long, it felt.

And now, here she was.

Her once strong and valiant young leader now seemed so fragile and small.

Blake longed to tap the window. She wanted to see her face again. She wanted to hear her voice.

But she was scared.

What if Ruby hated her for running off and leaving Yang? What if she didn't want anything to do with Blake anymore?

Tears rushed up behind her eyes as her mind spiraled downward into a pit of dark thoughts. From the bottom, familiar childish voices taunted her.

"Scaredy cat, scaredy cat!"

Blake vigorously shook her head and jumped down from her perch. She'd seen all she had to from this room. Ruby was safe, and that was enough.

But why wasn't Yang with her?

A hollowness far worse than hunger gaped within her stomach as she darted around the house, looking for the next available window. As soon as she had found it, she located the nearest tree and repeated the process, concealing herself behind a bushel of browning leaves as her golden eyes pierced through the shadows.

Before anything else, she noticed the black bird at the end of the branch, pecking its beak against the glass window. Blake pushed her weight onto the branch to shake it a bit. The bird squawked and jumped around to face her.

Blake felt there was something strange about it. She shook the branch again, and it flapped its wings and took off, calling loudly.

She watched it go for a second, not knowing what to make of it.

But her eyes soon returned to the window and what lie beyond.

There was a single bed there, close to the glass, and a figure rested beneath the blankets.

Blake's heart throbbed painfully at the sight of her.

She felt only a sliver of relief, but nothing more.

Yang looked just as pale and meek as Ruby had, which was even more uncharacteristic of the elder sister.

She'd always been so vibrant, so charismatic - even in her sleep, if that was at all possible.

But now, she just appeared silent, reserved, as though all traces of her past self had been erased to leave behind a shell.

It wasn't right. None of this was right.

Blake wished she could go back to their days at Beacon, when all of them had been together. When they'd throw pillows at each other to wake them up so they wouldn't be late for classes. When they'd say their goodnights and turn the lights off, then proceed to keep whispering and giggling together for another hour afterward.

She wanted to go back to hearing Yang's little snores, listening to the bed above hers shift as her partner rolled around and mumbled incoherent things in her sleep, then wake to see her grinning, upside-down face over the side of her bed, her chin covered in drool and a mess of yellow hair dangling all around her.

But the girl she saw before her now, sleeping so still and silently...

She almost didn't believe it was Yang.

Blake longed to take the bird's previous place and tap on the window, until she woke and could turn those stunning lavender eyes on her.

But if she did, Blake feared what she might see in Yang's gaze.

Hatred? Betrayal? Disgust?

"Scaredy cat, scaredy cat!"

Whimpering, Blake shoved the thoughts away again.

/No. She wouldn't... She wouldn't.../

But here and now she steeled herself for whatever Yang might do the next time she saw Blake. Whatever she did - be it hit her, yell at her, or anything else - Blake would accept it.

Because she was responsible for what had happened to her partner. She was responsible for putting her in that bed. She deserved whatever Yang would give her.

But for now, just seeing her was enough.

Blake was too frightened to wait until she might wake. If she could help it, she never wanted Yang to see her, not before they were both ready.

With the dawn almost upon them now, Blake didn't know how much time she had left.

So she made quick, light work of crawling to the edge of the branch, just until the point where she felt it could support her. She extracted the sunflower from her clothes and laid it across the outside of the window sill, tucking the end of the stem into a small crevice so the wind wouldn't displace the gift.

With that, Blake jumped down and disappeared into the woods, leaving behind what was most precious to her.

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She found her weary feet taking her back to the little barn once more, the only place she'd stumbled upon since arriving here that seemed secure enough and able to conceal her for a short amount of time.

Naturally, there were people working there now, beginning their morning work. But Blake managed to slip into a deserted shed when no one was looking. It was full of broken tools, old hay, and cobwebs of every shape and size.

She shooed a family of mice away from the dusty hay bails and took the hard sticks as her bed. Should someone find her, she would do what she did best and run.

But for a time she managed to rest, for as long as the daylight lasted.

She woke with the twilight, when the farm workers had all retired. Only then did she slip out of her hiding place and steal through the shadows once more.

She crept into the more modern barn, and once again took a bit of fresh bread, milk, and a bit of cheese from the supply shelves. She made sure just to take a little bit from each portion, so the overall missing amount was unnoticeable.

After that, she needed to quell the burning questions within her chest.

Had Yang woken yet? Had she found the flower?

It wasn't a long journey from the barn, not with Blake's speed.

So after clipping off another sunflower from the patch, she took off once again through the cold forest. She'd already mapped out a path in her mind, and arrived at the little house as quickly as possible.

The first thing she did was look up to Yang's window and see that the sunflower was gone. She scoured the ground, but didn't find any traces to suggest it had fallen.

So she climbed the tree again, chased off the persistent black bird, and peered inside.

Yang hadn't seemed to move at all since her visit this morning. Blake feared she was in a comatose state of sorts, and wondered if their father was truly able to care for both Yang and Ruby by himself.

But the next thing she saw lifted her heart, just a little.

Her sunflower was now inside the room, standing in a vase beside Yang's bed.

Blake didn't know why, but seeing that made her happier than anything had in the past few days.

She lingered in the tree all night, fending off the birds and listening to the breeze that, when it was quiet, would give way to the sounds of the distant shore.

Yang continued to sleep, though at one point she shifted slightly, which caused Blake to tense in preparation to flee. But her partner had merely turned onto her side, exposing what remained of her right arm, and was still once more.

When dawn approached, Blake left her second sunflower on the sill, and ran once again.

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For two more days and nights, she repeated the same process.

Every time she returned to her teammates' house, she found them both still deep in slumber.

But every time, the vase on Yang's bedside became a little fuller, and added a bit of color to the place.

Blake left one flower every morning, and one every night.

She left five in total that ended up in that vase.

On the day she'd picked the sixth and tucked it into her clothes, it was a cold, still morning. Overnight, a small, thin layer of snow had fallen, just a very slight covering that would likely melt by noon.

Blake made her way from the flower patch to her teammates' home, pausing at the base of the tree she so often climbed. The same pesky raven was there at Yang's window, and Blake was preparing to climb up and chase it away.

But the bird seemed oddly lively today, and as soon as she climbed up, Blake understood why.

Yang was no longer lying quietly in bed.

Rather, she was sitting up with her eyes open.

Awake.

Blake's heart swelled at the sight of her finally conscious again after so long without her. A man who was presumably her father was in the room with her, talking to her quietly and offering her many embraces.

But Yang... didn't seem very eager to accept.

Blake couldn't see much from her hiding spot, and with the colder weather settling in, she had fewer leaves to hide behind, so she made sure to keep out of sight.

But in quick turns of her partner's head, Blake saw flashes of her eyes.

Those pretty, once-vibrant lavender eyes were now ghosts of their former selves. They were bleak, emotionless, and dull.

And her lips never smiled, not once. Not even when Blake read the name "Ruby" on the man's lips. Not even hearing her little sister's name cheered her up, and Blake knew that wasn't right.

Nothing felt right anymore.

She was relieved to see Yang awake, but... but if she was only unhappy and upset, then wasn't she better off asleep?

/No. God, what am I thinking...?/

Blake choked back a sob and turned herself away.

Yang was awake now, and she felt she could safely assume the same was true for Ruby.

That was all she'd wanted to know.

So... now what?

/Time to run away again...?/

She didn't know where to go from here. Coming to Patch and checking on these two had just been an excuse to run from her other impending problems with Adam and the White Fang.

And now she was running away from Ruby and Yang as well.

She truly was an awful person.

But at least she might sleep well tonight on her bed of dusty old hay just in knowing that at least two of her teammates were safe in their respective homes. She couldn't speak for Weiss, but Blake trusted that her older sister would care for her where their father couldn't.

So Blake jumped down from that tree for what she hoped would be the last time. She kept the sixth sunflower for herself, and headed off back through the snowy forest the way she'd come.

And once again, she left them behind.

And ran.

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A/N: The next chapter will continue directly from this point and explore the events of the following day.