Blake Belladonna in One Good Turn Deserves Another

## Blake Belladonna

Blake Belladonna depicted in chapter 11 by KegiSpringfield. Published: 2015 September 28.

## Physical description

### Eye color

Yellow

In *One Good Turn Deserves Another*, **Blake Belladonna** forms a relationship with Jaune Arc following his injury by a Grimm. She is the first perspective shown in *OGTDA*, and the piece is primarily told from her point of view.

## Background

Coeur Al'Aran wrote *OGTDA* with the end goal of writing a "realistic romance", as he read pieces he believed were contrived. Coeur decided to apply his experiences dating for a more realistic literary work. Coeur also noted that Blake did not have many interactions with Team JNPR and wanted to write a story where she has greater involvement with their team dynamics.

## *One Good Turn Deserves Another* from Blake's Perspective

### Early Life

Blake Belladonna was born in 17 BB to unknown parents (at the time of OGTDA). At some point, she joined the White Fang and was mentored by Adam Taurus, where they engagedin miscellaneous adventures such as fighting giant robots. Despite these adventures, Blake reflects that she and Adam were not as close with each other compared to her and Team RWBY in the present, showing distance early on.

At some point, Blake defected from the White Fang and enlisted in Beacon Academy, where she became partners with Yang Xiao Long and inducted into Team RWBY following Initiation. Sometime between, Blake asked Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch to keep her animal identity a secret from toher students, opting to use a skillfully placed bow. At some point, Blake revealed this secret to her closest teammates, but still did not publically exit the closet regarding being a Faunus.

### Training (Chapter 1)

Ruby Rose decided to conduct training in the Emerald Forest as an opportunity to either skip classes or attain extra credit, to the initial agreement of Team RWBY and JNPR. It is unknown how long the teams engaged in battle, but it is known that at the start of the story, Blake fought off a Beowolf on the ground, while Ruby and Weiss Schnee provided long range support. Yang Xiao Long, Blake's partner, was engaged in melee combat and was beginning to tire as well. Blake reflected that the training endeavor was a poor idea. Blake witnessed Nora Valkyrie continually fight, astounded at her energy reserves. Blake takes notes of the motivation for Team JNPR, particularly Jaune, who she saw had a similar technique of counter-attacking as hers with different applications. Yang asked whether everyone wanted to go home, which Pyrrha Nikos and Blake agreed with.

#### Jaune's Injury

Jaune sent Blake a verbal alert, to which Blake attempted to dodge, but was clipped by a Beowolf. Despite the Beowolf dying, it did not immediately disappate, reuslting in Blake being pinned and requiring help from Jaune. Despite Jaune's best efforts, he was unable to lift the creature. Jaune attempted to call Ren, but was attacked by another Beowolf before Ren could provide reinforcements. Blake watched as Jaune attempted to fight and continued her escape effort to little avail. Blake watched as Jaune had poor posture in his defense and reflected that she would not want to die from being stepped on. As Jaune attempted another defense, the Beowolf broke his arm, and he and Blake shared a glance of unfortunate realization. Blake saw Jaune stand his ground despite losing his shield arm, and managed to kill the Beowolf while it inflicted a deep injury on him. As Jaune was knocked aside and the Beowolf died, Blake attempted to make her way over, but was unable due to being pinned. Blake saw Ren appear, and she passed out as her adrenaline dissipated.

### Awakenings (Chapter 2)

Blake awoke from her unconscious state, realizing she was in the Beacon infirmary, and that she did not know where her teammates were. Blake soon realized Jaune was still unconsciousness, but was relieved no one died. Blake soon realized she was in a trap of reciprocity, as Jaune risked his life to save her, but was not sure what Jaune would want. Blake considered playing match-maker for Jaune, but realized she knew little about his personality and the core of his deficiencies.  Eventually, Blake was interviewed by a nurse, informed of her condition, and that she likely would not need painkillers. Blake attempted to ask about Jaune's condition, but likely due to medical confidentiality, the nurse could not give this information.

##### Yang Tackle

Blake decided she would become Jaune's friend when he awoke, and returned to Team RWBY's dorm room, only to get knocked to the floor by Yang Xiao Long. Blake asked Yang about Jaune's condition, as she got no information from the nurse, much to Yang's humor. Blake stressed that Jaune was not her type, but that he did help save her, much to her embarassment. Yang replied that Jaune experienced substantial Aura depletion and loss of chest material, causing Blake to cringe, though Yang followed up commenting that Jaune should be fine after a few days. Blake also asked for how the rest of the teammates reacted, to which Yang stated they took it well since they thought he would die, causing Blake to cringe again. Concerned over the panic she was tangentially related to, Blake apologized, though Yang insisted she was not responsible for the situation. Yang realized that Blake was concerned about Jaune's well-being, and that she could read him easier than her pornography. Blake insisted she was not reading pornography, instead calling it "mature literature", and that she would not help Jaune like that. Yang eventually recommended Blake could help Jaune while he is in the medical bay, to which Blake initially interpreted as helping with academics, but Yang eventually elaborated suggesting lending books. Blake attempted to play a joke on Yang by commenting that she only owned hardcore pornography, but Yang flips it on her by referencing a specific book in her clothes drawer, much to Blake's chagrin.

##### RWBY Reunification

Blake and Yang were still on the floor, so by the time Ruby and Weiss appeared, they saw them in a seemingly inappropriate position. Blake observed Pyrrha's efforts at planning training for Jaune, much to Blake's concern. Blake also sympathized with both Jaune and Pyrrha as one caught Pyrrha's attention, while the other was dealing with Jaune's density. In the evening, Blake thought about Jaune, her debt, and her friends, noting that when Jaune awoke, he would be isolated in the infirmary and likely stressed. This gave Blake further motivation to consider Yang's suggestion of giving him literature.

## Coeur's Commentary

### 2014 November 11

Prior to writing OGTDA, Coeur introduced that the work would be a Knightshade pairing with realistic relationships in mind, as he has read previous FanFiction works with contrived romance. He decides to apply his dating experience as a "26-year-old Company Director."

Coeur noted from his writings that Blake did not interact much with Team JNPR, acting more like an acquaintance than a friend to any of them. Although at this point, Coeur did not have background with *RWBY* since he exclusively read FanFiction, and only started watching the series until after November 13, when he published chapter 3 of *OGTDA*. Despite this, he still aimed to represent Blake and Jaune as naturally as he could without major changes like in subsequent works.

### 2014 November 12

Coeur commented in the Author Note for chapter 2 that Blake still did not think much of Jaune at this point, emphasizing his ambition to achieve realism based on inspiration from his previous relationships, noting they require time and prior friendship. He also notes very little interaction between Blake and Jaune, as the two would only begin noticing each other more, but still have dissonant personalities that would make casual interaction difficult. Coeur intended to present interactions through the vessels of their teammates, as they represent their family, which is why Blake brings up concerns about Jaune's current state with Yang when she fails with the doctor.

## References

1. ↑ **This will be a Jaune x Blake pairing but I'm aiming to make it a realistic pairing. What I mean by that is I read a lot of fics on here which have pairings and "romance" that seems incredibly convenient and forced.**
2. ↑ **That's fine if you're like 10-12, but I'm kind of a 26 year old Company Director who *has* been around a bit and am active on the dating scene... so... yeah. More reality.**
3. ↑ **So expect hormones, complications, frustration and self-denial. Not to mention drama, jealousy and candid looks. That said I'll also be looking to not change Jaune or Blake's characters either, so don't expect Jaune to suddenly become a suave ladykiller, or Blake to take the lead.**
4. ↑ **So there we go, a short starting chapter but I am a super busy person and I wanted to give Blake and Jaune a realistic reason to interact.**
5. ↑ **I also realised while writing this, that Blake doesn't have all that great a relationship with Jnpr. She is more of a "friend of a friend" and while she acts polite with them, she never really seems to have the same level of intimacy that Ruby does with them, or the teasing friendship Yang does. Weiss has her unwanted flirtations with jaune, and past friendship with Pyrrha.**
6. ↑ Nor a squadron of white fang or giant robots, or the usual ridiculous scenarios she found herself dragged into.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Falling asleep surrounded by friends was an unusual but comforting feeling for her, and while Adam had always been quick to defend her if she was in danger they were never as close as she was with team Rwby.
8. ↑ She knew that Ozpin and Goodwitch had known her nature beforehand, it was mostly the other students she looked to hide it from anyway. Faunus and Human alike.
9. ↑ **For anyone who is wondering, timeline wise this is set sometime after Blake's reveal as a Faunus, but before season two starts, so there will be story aspects later.**
10. ↑ Team JNPR had agreed wholeheartedly with Ruby's idea to get some live fire training in the Emerald Forest. It hadn't hurt that Beacon considered such training missions as permissible reasons to skip class – and could even consider them extra-credit.
11. ↑ Further reasoning had been sound, they had been training so much lately against each other, and other Hunters in Goodwitch's lessons, that they were forgetting who the true enemy really was. Yang had been keen for any kind of adventure, and once Weiss had been won over Blake had just tagged along to keep them out of trouble.
12. ↑ As for the other team? Nora had been keen, naturally. And Ren had agreed to come along to watch over her, whatever their relationship was, or wasn't, Blake had known they would both come. Pyrrha had shown her usual protective attitude over the two, and Jaune had either come along because he wanted to be stronger… or just felt peer pressured. Blake could never tell with the blonde.
13. ↑ Blake grunted to herself as a Beowolf flew past her, claws slashing furiously at where she had been just a few seconds before.
14. ↑ Weiss and Ruby were stood together at one side, the latter providing long range support while the Schnee heiress provided a dead zone, incapacitating and dispatching any Grimm that tried to approach them.
15. ↑ Blake's own partner of course, seemed as filled with energy as ever. Diving under the swinging arms of a Beowolf to deliver a devastating blow to its chin. Blake rolled her eyes internally at the huge grin on her face.
16. ↑ She was beginning to tire herself, and considering she was actively minimising her movements to conserve energy that was saying something.
17. ↑ This whole training trip had proven to be a poor idea.
18. ↑ "Boom! Got it!" A voice that sounded far too ecstatic called out, as the dust from another explosion whistled past her. There was another one with entirely too much energy, especially considering how heavy that hammer was. She didn't care what anyone said. Limitless energy *had* to be a facet of her semblance…
19. ↑ Speaking of the boy, he seemed to be doing okay. His style was much more immovable than her own, blocking and defending before lashing out at over-extended limbs whenever he had the chance. Both of them relied almost entirely on counter-attacking, though she emphasised never being struck in the first place.
20. ↑ "I certainly wouldn't mind a rest." The taller redhead opined from nearby. "I didn't expect this level of Grim when we agreed to this." In the distance they could hear Ruby yell out an apology which they collectively ignored.
21. ↑ "A shower would be appreciated right now." Blake offered as she broke away from Yang and re-joined the fray.
22. ↑ "Blake! Look out!" The sudden male scream caught her attention, her eyes instantly alighting on Jaune who was sprinting towards her. Trusting his reasoning despite his usual goofiness she span herself to one side, hoping to avoid whatever Grimm had managed to sneak up on her. A huge weight clipped her as she tried to dodge, slamming her to the ground even as a great weight landed on her legs causing her to hiss in pain. The reflexive strike she delivered with her weapon bit down into thick flesh but with little reaction.
23. ↑ The body that pinned her legs to the floor was an already dispatched Beowulf that had been knocked aside by someone. Grunting in irritation she began squirming to free her legs from the smelly creature.
24. ↑ "Blake, are you okay?" The blonde knight asked her as he jogged to her side. She ignored his somewhat rhetorical question as she strained to free her legs. The body was heavier than she'd expected and brute strength had never been her strongest point.
25. ↑ "I'm fine, help get this off me."
26. ↑ "E-eh, sure." The boy seemed surprised at her instructions but obligingly hurried to help, settling his hands under the creature's shoulders as he prepared to life it enough that she could wriggle free. "This thing is heavier than it looks!"
27. ↑ Blake let her head fall back onto the soft earth in silent frustration as he struggled with the corpse. Their studies aside, how light had he expected an eight-foot creature made of solid muscle and bone would actually be.
28. ↑ "Damn it this isn't budging! Hey Ren, can you give me a hand over here?" Blake let her head dip to one side as she laconically looked in the direction of the green-clad gunman her *saviour* had shouted out to. The dark haired boy seemed to let out a short sigh that perfectly reflected her own current mood as he stopped firing to look at them, right before his magenta irises widened in alarm.
29. ↑ Blake flinched at the sudden noise and almost let out a yelp of alarm when Jaune's boot slammed down next to her face as he took a more rigid stance. A solid tonne of muscle and bone was on them at the next moment as a burly clawed arm slammed into the Knight's shield, deflecting off with a shower of sparks even as the force drove the boy back a step.
30. ↑ Blake resumed her urgent struggling as Jaune was forced back. The Beowolf had perhaps not noticed her yet but it was only a matter of time before it did, or just stepped on her and killed her.
31. ↑ Another roar and crash of metal above her drew her attention back to the fight raging above her form. Jaune once more staggered back from the blow before righting himself and planting his foot firmly down in front of her head. She knew it wouldn't last though.
32. ↑ The force of the blows was too strong for him to block without some of the momentum bleeding through… normally he would seek to deflect the blow while moving back with the force. Staying completely stationary was doing nothing but damaging his arm and draining his aura. With his own body reeling back from each strike he wouldn't be able to do anything with his sword… the blade would literally hit the grim with all the force of a butter knife.
33. ↑ "Argh!" The boy above her shouted out as a sickening crack echoed from his arm. Blake's yellow eyes widened in sudden fear as she saw his shield arm slump uselessly at his side. The sudden realisation of what this meant shone in his eyes as much as her own, as the two of them met. His own blue eyes looked sad and defeated – as though it was just one more reason to be ashamed. She didn't need to see her own eyes to know that they were wide in understanding terror.
34. ↑ Their eyes stayed locked to each other as she tried to form the words she wanted. Instead all she could do was mouth the word she wanted to shout out. *Move.* His own blue eyes hardened, a sudden flash of anger or frustration even as he let out a short sigh.
35. ↑ Blood splashed across her vision a second later as the two forms above her clashed. Through the red haze she could see the dark bipedal grim falling back away with a sword through its face, on the other side a smaller blurry figure also collapsed to the floor.
36. ↑ "… Jaune…?" She whispered in the sudden silence as she struggled to look at the body lying beside her. His blonde locks had fallen across his face so she couldn't see if he was awake, or even alive. "Jaune!" She tried again, louder this time as she reached out with one hand to touch him. The distance was too much as her questing fingers fell short a scant few inches from his face. Frustrated she strained herself to touch his skin, there had to be a pulse. *Had* to be! If only she could reach him and make sure!
37. ↑ Ren. That was good. He would fix this, right? The adrenaline rushing through her system seemed to be escaping her, along with what remained of her consciousness. Her fingers still reached out to touch that hidden face as she slipped away.
38. ↑ Maybe when she woke, this nightmare wouldn't exist anymore.
39. ↑ Waking up from an injury induced sleep was a slow affair, and one she wasn't all that used to.
40. ↑ Training, the emerald forest, her teammates – Jaune!
41. ↑ White walls, beds, she had seen it all before but it was the blonde figure in a bed two down from her own that drew her attention. He looked tired and sick. Paler skin than usual and some bags under his eyes that made it look like his skin was drooping. But the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor and the visible swelling of his chest calmed her own raging heart.
42. ↑ Assuming nothing else had gone wrong, and she suspected there would have been someone to tell her if there had…then everyone had gotten out okay. Her biggest fear, that she might fail people as she had failed Adam hadn't come to pass this time.
43. ↑ Blake Belladonna was not a person who stayed in someone's debt, and not only because she didn't want to be beholden to anyone.
44. ↑ But what would Jaune even want?
45. ↑ *A girlfriend?* A treacherous part of her mind offered causing her lips to twist in displeasure. It was no secret that Jaune didn't have much luck with the ladies, and honestly Blake could see why… He had a good figure and was handsome in a charming kind of way… but his personality was just too… limp.
46. ↑ Or rather it was perhaps his confidence that was the problem. Because it was difficult to have any idea what his personality was like when he never really expressed it aloud.
47. ↑ "Miss Belladonna?" A feminine voice asked as a white coated woman walked into the room. Never having been a patient of the infirmary herself she did not recognise the woman, nor did the woman offer a name in return. "It's good to see you awake, how are you feeling?"
48. ↑ "The muscle appears to have been pulled by your efforts to free yourself. There's little I can offer in terms of advice since it was clearly the better option to attempt an escape than be incapacitated in enemy territory. I don't want to prescribe painkillers for such an injury, but if the pain worsens come to me immediately."
49. ↑ "That's fine. Is Jau- he okay?" She asked while pointing towards Jaune.
50. ↑ "I am unable to discuss Mr Arc's treatment and injuries with people not on his team. If that is all, you can leave as soon as you are able."
51. ↑ "Blakey!? You're okay!" A voice crowed from her left, causing her to jump a little as 135 pounds of huntress barrelled into her, dragging her to the floor.
52. ↑ "I would assume so. That said… she wouldn't tell me anything about Jaune. I know you will have found out what happened to him." The blonde's lilac eyes seemed to widen at Blake's tone before narrowing into tiny slits.
53. ↑ "Oh really… hmm... you want to know about Jauney-boy do you? Did our resident knight woo the fair maiden with his heroic acts?"
54. ↑ "Jaune *really* isn't my type." Blake admitted with a roll of her eyes. "But he did sort of… save my life… so yeah." She finished a little lamely as she looked to one side, a blush slowly appearing on her cheeks. Somehow it felt ironic to be more embarrassed at having to be saved than the teasing that she was into the man, but that was just how she worked.
55. ↑ "Geez fine. Jauney was pretty messed up. His aura was depleted to critical levels and he got a sizeable chunk of his chest torn out." Blake winced at the words, her face pulling down in increasing fear at the words. "Luckily it was mostly skin with some bruising on his ribcage. The doctors said he'll be fine in a couple of days, and he'll have a kick-ass scar for it too!"
56. ↑ "How did the others take it?"
57. ↑ "Quite well actually." Yang offered flippantly, earning a raised eyebrow from Blake. The blonde's eyes suddenly narrowed as a serious look overcame her face. "Considering that we were pretty much all convinced he was gonna die."
58. ↑ "I'm sorry." Blake offered, more sincerely this time. Having people be concerned for her was still a new feeling, as were the responsibilities that came with such close attachments.
59. ↑ "I'm sorry." Blake offered, more sincerely this time. Having people be concerned for her was still a new feeling, as were the responsibilities that came with such close attachments.
60. ↑ "Seriously though he's gonna be fine, so you can stop worrying so much about it."
61. ↑ "Blake, I can read you easier than you can read your little smut books."
62. ↑ "They're not smut!" Blake hissed with a small glare, repeating words she had used hundreds of times before. They were *not* smut. All literature was art… it's just that some covered more mature topics. And really as if sex wasn't an important part of life, it was the very basis of it. Realistic scenes like that just made the characters more believable, and the story more fulfilling.
63. ↑ "I will definitely *not* be thanking Jaune in that manner!"
64. ↑ "Have a little faith will you Blakey. I mean Jaune is going to be stuck in the med bay for a couple of days until his aura is back up. You could help him recover as thanks for helping you out."
65. ↑ That… wasn't a bad idea… which coming from Yang was somewhat scary in its own right. There was a certain amount of poetic justice in the action and it would also make it clear that she was doing it to repay him without getting his hopes up. It was protecting her that put him in the infirmary, so she could take steps to make that stay more bearable.
66. ↑ "Okay, that sounds good… I suppose I could take notes for him in class and help him catch up with the work he misses." That was one aspect Jaune was still not exactly excelling with so he might actually appreciate that help more than anything else right now. Anything that kept Goodwitch off his case would probably earn his lasting approval.
67. ↑ "Er yeah, I was thinking more like actually helping him while he is *in* the med bay. You could lend him some of your books to read."
68. ↑ "What books?" Blake asked with a suffering sigh. "I was under the impression I owned nothing but hard-core pornography."
69. ↑ "Like the one you tried to hide in your underwear drawer?"
70. ↑ *Oh you bitch!*
71. ↑ Of course they had failed to adequately explain why Ruby and Weiss had found her and Yang wrestling angrily on the floor of the room, but everyone instinctively blamed Yang for it anyway.
72. ↑ But apparently Pyrrha was designing a frankly dangerous looking training regime for the poor man.
73. ↑ Blake didn't know whether to pity the man who had acquired the champion's attention so keenly, or Pyrrha herself for falling for such a socially-awkward man-child.
74. ↑ It wasn't until Blake was laying in her bed while the others drifted to sleep that she began to think back on the young man she owed a debt to.
75. ↑ It was that realisation that made her think on Jaune. For when he woke up he wouldn't have anyone nearby to calm him down.
76. ↑ Maybe Yang's suggestion of giving him something to read to distract himself wasn't such a bad idea…
77. ↑ **This will be a Jaune x Blake pairing but I'm aiming to make it a realistic pairing. What I mean by that is I read a lot of fics on here which have pairings and "romance" that seems incredibly convenient and forced. I.e. "I meet you, I'm in love! You love me too? Awesome!" Whenever I read them I always cringe and have to stop... and I always perhaps unfairly wonder to myself - have they ever dated a girl before?**
78. ↑ **That's fine if you're like 10-12, but I'm kind of a 26 year old Company Director who *has* been around a bit and am active on the dating scene... so... yeah. More reality.**
79. ↑ **I also realised while writing this, that Blake doesn't have all that great a relationship with Jnpr. She is more of a "friend of a friend" and while she acts polite with them, she never really seems to have the same level of intimacy that Ruby does with them, or the teasing friendship Yang does.**
80. ↑ **So I haven't seen any other Rooster Teeth shows, have never watched any anime other than Attack on Titan, Naruto and Fate Stay Night (and RWBY of course) - and even DIDN'T watch RWBY until after I had already written the first three chapters of "One Good Turn"**
81. ↑ **So expect hormones, complications, frustration and self-denial. Not to mention drama, jealousy and candid looks. That said I'll also be looking to not change Jaune or Blake's characters either, so don't expect Jaune to suddenly become a suave ladykiller, or Blake to take the lead.**
82. ↑ **So there we go, a short starting chapter but I am a super busy person and I wanted to give Blake and Jaune a realistic reason to interact.**
83. ↑ **Blake really doesn't think that much of Jaune still, after all I'm going for realism here and I'm probably actually going to draw a few parallels to how I actually ended up dating some of my ex's. I don't think I've EVER had a relationship that didn't involve a lot of time and friendship first.**
84. ↑ **Also there isn't much Jaune – Blake interaction here, and really if you think about their personalities why would there be? Blake has just started paying more attention to Jaune, but their personalities are so different in terms of maturity that Blake couldn't just sit down with him and chat.**
85. ↑  **This chapter was mostly a team interaction between Blake and Rwby, and why not? Blake and Jaune are the major characters in this fic and their teams are their family, so I intend to have a lot of interaction involved.**