Yang paced impatiently down the stairs that led up to one of Beacon’s towers, lost in thoughts. She hadn’t been in town, nor in the library, nor in the training grounds. They had been running out of ideas and steam, when the blonde remembered something and went off hopefully without even saying anything.
Blake had once commented to her that she liked high places. So Yang figured maybe that little thing was worth a shot, and it would turn out the black haired girl was right under (over?) their noses this entire time.
But she wasn’t on the high towers or dark rooftops of Beacon either.
Yang heaved an uncharacteristically heavy sigh. Blake had been missing for over a day now, since the very vocal and emotional argument in their room the previous night. She hadn’t come back that night, and no one had seen her since, not even the academy staff.
Weiss’s silent refusal to make her opinion on the situation known, and Ruby’s flustered concern aside, Yang… was worried.
For as long as she’d known her, Blake had never been so openly emotional as she had yesterday, trading vocal blows with Weiss that were more laden with repressed hurt the longer the discussion went on. And then it came to an apex, as Blake let her words slip with what she’d been holding back, and she ran away in haste.
Ruby called out to her, but she and her sister didn’t pursue Blake. And it didn’t occur to Yang until later, but leaving someone in the emotional state that she was all alone, to deal with her problems by herself, was never something that helped, in general.
To their credit, the revelation had been a little.. shocking, to say the least. Though it did explain a lot. Like why Blake never took off that bow, it was probably covering up her faunus ears. And her ridiculously sharp senses. But ultimately, it also gave rise to a whole new set of questions.
Was Blake really involved with the White Fang? How involved had she been with it? Hell, was she still involved with the group, even to this day? What had led her to join them?
Yang didn’t know the answers to these questions. What she did know was that the White Fang and its plight weren’t just something Blake could have an objective opinion about, because they meant something to her, personally. The blonde wondered how much of her ‘we’ was meant as ‘we the White Fang’ and how much meant ‘we the Fauna’.
And Yang was forced to question herself. How much did she, did they, even know about Blake Belladonna?
She was awake in her thinking until late at night.
She was still thinking about things when she woke up in the morning and as they finally got to looking for Blake during the day, with no discernible results to speak of. Team JNPR hadn’t seen her either. Which brought her to her current grumpiness.
Yang kicked open the door at the bottom of the stairs with more strength than necessary and walked in the direction of her team’s room.
It was, quite honestly, frustrating. Not frustrating enough for Yang to start ripping her hair off, but close. Not that Weiss’s dismissive attitude had been helping it much. But all it did was aggravate her mood, because Yang was already frustrated. Frustrated and regretful.
To say the truth, Yang hadn’t been that surprised when the whole thing happened. By all rights she should’ve been, but for some reason it wasn’t that hard to believe. The “Blake is a faunus” part that is. Not exactly the “Blake is/was White Fang” part. But still. She was definitely less thrown off by it than Ruby or Weiss.
So now, she was regretting she didn’t think to stop Blake, or even run after her.
At the time she thought, oh it’s just a little argument, they’ll sort this out as the big girls they are. But it wasn’t, and as a result of that, Blake was missing. Maybe if Yang had gone after her and talked to her, she wouldn’t have disappeared like this. Maybe if she’d supported the other girl and tried to talk to her or comfort her following the discussion, she would’ve stuck around so they could solve it. Maybe, maybe if she’d remembered to act as a partner when it was actually needed.
The four of them were a team. But Yang and Blake were also partners before the four of them were a team. And Yang was starting to feel she hadn’t done nearly enough for her partner to earn that title.
Hell, even if Blake hadn’t decided to run off on her own, Yang still should’ve done something. Even if only been there for Blake.
That was what partners did, after all.
Yang came to halt in front of the door to their room with a silent resolution.
Ruby was already doing enough worrying on her end. Now it was Yang’s time to do so, and time for her to do something for her partner and find her so they could talk this out and laugh about it later.
Tomorrow, Blake was coming home.