Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

POV Blake

Pain

I feel pain, nothing else, a searing burn in my lower abdomen. Right where he brought the blade down, right where he finally cemented how little he actually loved me. I can’t see anything, it’s all just… black, a dark void, nothingness….. it’s so cold, so… frightening… I don’t like it at all.

I have force myself to open my eyes, as they really don’t seem to want to open at all, but damnit I don’t want to sit in darkness for a minute longer. Eventually, after a LOT of forcing, I see just the faintest crack of light breaking though the darkness, guess I’m finally waking up. A few seconds later, I’ve finally managed to open my eyes, only to be met with the blinding white of a tile ceiling.

Oh, guess I’m in a hospital, well, that makes sense, I did kinda get stabbed, hopefully that’s been sorted out by my aura by now. I try to move, but I feel… weightless, like I have no bones in my body. I feel like a husk, a hollowed out, broken down husk. Ah well, no time for thinking like that now, I need to get back on my feet, I need to make sure everyone is ok after the attack.

I can feel my weight begin to shift off the hospital bed that I find myself in, slowly rising off my back, leaning upwards to take in my surroundings. When I finally reach a sitting position, I feel it best to look around the room first before I get up. Looking to my right, on a chair next to the bed, I see my combat outfit, folded neatly, Gambol Shroud placed on top of them, a note of some sorts tied to it.

The rest of the room isn’t anything special, nothing too important, just a standard hospital room. Guess now that I’ve got a lay of the land I can finally get off my ass and do something. I slowly begin sliding myself over to the edge of the bed, dangling my legs over the side when I finally reach it. Well, hopefully I can still walk and-

FUCKING OW

Well, that’s a yes, but a very painful yes, my legs are still working, but I can tell they really shouldn’t be in my current condition. Whatever, I’ve walked off worse pains, this isn’t anything new, the constant burn in my side is, gonna have to check out the stab wound when I get my bearings.

I slowly make the harrowing 4 foot walk over to the chair next to my bed and painfully lean down to inspect my gear. I pick the note off of Gambol Shroud, it’s tied in a small white bow to my weapons handle.

“Get well soon, I took the time to make sure your gear was properly cleaned and repaired”
-Weiss

Ah Weiss, you really have changed, haven’t you, being so concerned for the wellbeing a Faunus, I was so wrong about you the first day at Beacon. Maybe when she takes over the Schnee Dust Company, I won’t feel terrible buying any dust from them.

I’ll put on my gear in a minute, first I need to check out where I was stabbed. I slowly walk over to the mirror that’s across the room from the bed. Slowly but surely, the pain from walking begins to fade, guess I just needed to readjust to walking again, hopefully it’ll be gone soon. When I finally make it over to the mirror, I just sort of… stare at myself, at the dead look in my eyes, the paleness of my skin, how close my ears have pinned themselves into my hair….

Wait, shit, my bow, it’s with the rest of my gear, gonna have to tie that back up as soon as possible, but not right now, I need to assess the damage that he did to me. Slowly, I begin to pull up my hospital gown around my left side, slowly raising it from my thigh up to my hip, eventually past that, and-

Yeah, the large cross shaped scar is about what I was expecting, guess Adam really cut deep “Ah well, not the worst penetration he’s ever given me.”

What the fuck was that?!? Why the hell did I say that?!!!?? Did I seriously just make a joke about that?!? Since when do I even do that?!?

That isn’t like me to do… heh, guess Yang is rubbing off on me more than I initially expected…. Wait…

YANG!!!

Shit Shit Shit, Yang, I forgot about her, DAMNIT HOW DID I FORGET, I need to find her, and fast. First I should probably get my gear back on, don’t wanna go walking around in just a hospital gown. I make my way back over to my gear on the seat, picking up from its spot. “Thanks Weiss.” I find myself saying. She really deserves it, she’s changed so much, hopefully after I find Yang, I’ll find her, I just hope she isn’t too badly hurt from the battle.

It took a lot of pain and straining, but I manage to finally get my outfit back on, taking note of the sizable hole in the left hip, from where Adam brought Wilt down. Gonna have to fix that later. I make sure to walk back over to the mirror when I go to re-tie my bow, I need to make sure my ears cannot be seen, not after what just happened… not after the hell I just brought to everyone.

Eventually, I manage to slowly walk my way out of the hospital room, opening the door, looking around and taking in the suffocating whiteness of the hallway. I start the long and painful walk down the hall, I need to find out where Yang is, I need to know she’s still alive…. She has to be, I don’t know what to do if she isn’t… if she’s, NO, she’s alive, she’s gonna pull through, she’s Yang Xiao Long, she takes every challenge head-on and wins damnit, something I need to get better at. I’ve barely managed to walk halfway down the hall when I hear the familiar shouting of my name.

“BLAKE, YOU’RE OK!”

I’m really not, I’m anything but ok right now. I slowly turn on my heels (not a good idea, cause fucking hell, that hurt) and look to face Sun as he comes barreling towards me. I hold out my hands to try and get him to stop, but it doesn’t work, he crashes right into me and wraps his arms around me.

“YOU’RE OK, YOU’RE ACTUALLY OK, we were so worried about you, we didn’t-“ He immediately starts rambling on about how concerned he was, I’d appreciate it if I wasn’t on a mission to find Yang right now.

“S-Sun, can you let me go please” The words come out of my mouth with about as much life as I expected them to, absolutely none.

“O-oh right, you… you’re probably still not doing the best, s-sorry.” And immediately he’s rambling abojt how sorry he is, he’s such a dork, it’d be cute if, again, I wasn’t more focused on Yang right now. “It’s fine… I’m… I’ll be fine, I just…. Sun?”

“Hmm, yeah?” He responded almost before I even say his name in a questioning tone, immediately ready to help, guess I should be glad I’ve met people so willing to provide me with help when I need it. “H-Have you seen Yang?” His face drops its smile as soon as I ask him. Oh no, please don’t tell me. I can already feel the tears welling up in my eyes, please, she has to be-

“Y-yeah, she’s ok… well, as ok as she can get, b-but she’ll make it, docs promised us it’s nothing fatal.” Oh thank the gods above, I don’t know what I would’ve done if Sun hadn’t said that.

“C-can you please bring me to her.” The words sound pained and sad, they sound so tired, I’m so damn tired. “Yeah, cmon, let’s go.” Ok, finally, I can go see Yang and make sure she’s ok. Sun wraps his arm around my shoulders to help me balance as he turns around and begins helping me walk the opposite way down the hall.

Eventually, we take a right turn into another hall, and immediately I see a tall man sitting in a chair outside a room just a few doors down. As we get closer, I see more his messy black hair, and general messy demeanor. Fits the description of Yang’s uncle Qrow. He’s completely passed out, guess the stress from what happened got to hum. Sun eases me past him and we find ourselves in front of the door to another room.

“Blake, I’m… just gonna warn you, it’s gonna be hard… Yang’s alive but… she didn’t make it out of Beacon unscathed.” Sun gives me a warning, but damnit I don’t care how hard it will be, I just need to see Yang, I need to know she’s gonna be ok.

I detach myself from underneath Sun’s arm and grab onto the handle to the door. I’m not gonna wait a second longer, I need to see her, I need to know she’s ok, she needs to be ok, I-

And as soon as I open the door, I wish that I never did, that I just lied in bed till I died, because inside the room, passed out on the bed, is Yang Xiao Long, she’s there, but not entirely, because looking down, I notice a distinct lack of a right arm.

“Y-Yang.” I can’t do a damn thing to stop the tears from spilling out, I can already feel them leaking down my cheeks. I immediately find myself rushing to the side of her bed, not caring about the pain it causes for me to move like that. As soon as I get to her, I lean in, admiring the soulless look on her face. Even like this, she’s still beautiful, even after all the light has been drained from her face, I can’t help but feel at ease when I look at her.

But damnit, I don’t deserve that sense of ease now. I always do this, I always get people hurt, I always drag my demons with me wherever I go, and now…

I’ve let them black out the brightest light I’ve ever seen.

Chapter Text

POV Sun

Yeah this is going about as well as expected. Blake immediately broke down when I took her to Yang, no surprise there. She clearly wasn’t ready for this yet, why the hell did I even agree to bring her here, she absolutely needed more time to recuperate.

She’s just leaning on the side of Yang’s bed, softly sobbing and apologizing, seriously, she’s probably said “I’m sorry” more in the last minute than she has in the entire rest of her life. I guess she just needs to let all the stress out, it’s probably really hard for her to see Yang like this.

Blake already took it really hard during the Fall Of Beacon, now that she’s had time to really process what happened, she’s probably going into a full breakdown over it, Yang was her partner, somebody she cared about a lot, it’s no surprise that she’s so broken up over Yang’s current condition. Now I just really need to make sure she doesn’t get TOO broken up over it.

Blake already explained what happened to her and Yang back at the fall, apparently her asshole ex-boyfriend did this to them. Now, I know Blake, and knowing her, I can already tell that she’s going to hold herself accountable for this, she’s always been way too quick to take the blame for things in her life out of her control.

“Hey, Blake-“ Blake’s head twists in my direction after I call for her. She looks… defeated, her face is drenched in tears, her eye are bloodshot and tired, her hair is a mess… she just looks so done with everything. “M-maybe you should-“ As soon as I continue, she stands up.

After one last defeated look towards Yang, she begins walking towards the door to the hospital room. What the hell is she doing?!

“Blake, what’re you doing?” I grab her my the arm before she can reach the door. “Where are you going?” She just stares straight into my eyes, not saying anything, just giving a lifeless glare.

Suddenly, she vanishes out of my grip, and I hear the distinct sound of the door opening. She popped her semblance, damnit Blake, what the hell is wrong with you.

I rush out the door to see what the hell she’s doing, and as soon as I look to the right, I see her rushing down the hallway. “Damnit, BLAKE, WAIT.”

Great, she’s running, well good luck getting away in the shape you’re in now Blake, I’m bringing you back here if it kills me.

POV Blake

No No No No

FUCKING DAMNIT, NO

How could I let this happen to her

How could I do this to her

Yang lost her damn arm and it’s all my fault. I never should’ve gone to Beacon, I never should’ve left the White Fang, I should’ve just taken the easy way out. If I was gone, Yang would be happy, she wouldn’t have had her life ruined because of me.

But no, I’m too much of a coward for even that, instead of the easy way out, I took the cowards way out, and it ruined her life. I’m not going to let this happen again, I’ll never let my demons hurt her again, I’ll take them away with me like I always do.

“BLAKE, WAIT!”

Sun’s calling for me. Sorry, but I can’t stop, I can never stop running, if I stop for even a second, she might try and chase me, I can’t let her get near me again, I’ll just hurt her even more.

“BLAKE, STOP!”

His voice is closer, he’s chasing me. “SUN, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE” Hopefully he’ll understand, hopefully he’ll just let me leave in peace… who am I kidding, he’s just gonna keep running after me. I try my hardest to run faster, to escape any quicker, but I guess recovering from a stab wound kinda imparts your ability to run.

“BLAKE, JUST STOP FOR A MINUTE AND TALK TO ME!”

I’m not gonna stop, Sun knows I’m not gonna stop, but he just refuses to let me go. Im trying my hardest to outrun him, but unfortunately, he’s a lot faster than I am right now.

I feel his hand grab onto my arm, he’s trying to hold me back from leaving, sorry about this, but I need to get out of here. Inwardly apologizing, I pull my arm free from his grip, and slap him. “JUST LET ME GO!” Please, just let me leave so I don’t ruin your life too.

I try again to run, but suddenly, I feel a sizable weight crashing straight into me and shoving me to the floor. Great, he pinned me down. “SUN, GET OFF ME!” I try to shout at him, try and wrestle my way from his grip, but I’m too tired, I’m just too…. defeated.

“Blake, please, just stop for a minute.” Why does he insist in keeping a disease like me around. “Stop, just stop running, cmon, let’s just go back to Yang, she needs you now.” No, she doesn’t, she really doesn’t.

“The only thing she needs from me, is for me to leave and never come back, this is all my fault Sun, I led Adam to Beacon, I’m the reason she lost her arm, it’s my fault she’s hurt, I can’t let her get hurt because of me again!”

Please, just understand, I can’t hurt her any-

“So you think leaving her to rot is the best way to make sure of that?!? Do you have brain damage or something?!?”

Wow, asshole.

“What. The. Fuck. I DON’T HAVE FUCKING BRAIN DAMAGE, I JUST KNOW THAT-“ I try to start up again, but he immediately shuts me down.

“NO, YOU DON’T KNOW, YOU REALLY DON’T, Blake, do you seriously think running away is gonna help Yang?!? FUCK NO, the only thing it’s gonna do is finish the job Adam started.” He did not just fucking say that.

“I’M LEAVING BECAUSE I KNOW IF I DO, HE’LL LEAVE HER ALONE!” He will, if I’m gone, Adam will chase me, and Yang will be safe.

“NO, YOU’RE LEAVING BECAUSE YOU CAN’T UNDERSTAND THAT THIS ISN’T YOUR FAULT!” Yes it is… it has to be, it’s always my fault, Adam would’ve let me leave if it wasn’t… right?

“Blake, Yang got hurt, irreversibly hurt, but I know damn well that she’d gladly do it again for you, any of us would, were friends, it’s our job to help each other out.” He’s… not wrong, but it shouldn’t have come to this.

“Blake, Adam didn’t follow you to Beacon for any fault of yours, he did it because he’s a freaking creep who can’t let people go, any sane person would’ve let you go, he’s a monster, not because of you, because of himself.” He- I… no, it’s….

“Blake, you can’t run away from everything, this isn’t on you, this isn’t your fault…. please, just come back with me, we’ll go back and see how Yang is doing… just please, you can’t leave her like this, it’ll only hurt her more.”

And the dam finally breaks.

More tears, probably more than I’ve ever cried in my whole life. Gods, I’m such a coward, my partner suffers one of the most grievous injuries imaginable, and I’m running for the hills almost immediately… how can someone as extraordinary as Yang call a coward like me their partner.

“I-I…..” I can’t bring myself to say anything further, I can’t form a single coherent sentence, I just can’t… I need to get back to her…. I need her light again.

“You ready to head back?” Sun asks me that one question, the one thing that I absolutely know the answer to right now.

“Y-yeah.”

“Alright, let’s go.” He helps me back up to my feet, slings his arm under mine to help me balance, and begins walking me back to Yang’s room.

After we finally make it back to the hallway, I notice that Qrow seems to be missing from his seat outside the room, guess he woke up. As we get closer to the room, I can hear the sound of two voices talking, two adult men, one sounds very…. defeated, the other sounds raspy and tired.

As Sun opens the door, we’re met with two men turning their heads towards us, one being Qrow, the other… well I’ve never seen him in my life, but the blonde hair is a pretty dead giveaway.

It’s Yang and Ruby’s father.

Oh shit.

Chapter Text

POV Blake

Well shit, Yang’s father, Taiyang Xiao Long is here. Of course he’s here, his Daughter laying in the bed next to him, why wouldn’t he be here.

Yang and Ruby told me about their father, they seemed to respect him a great deal, faults and all. And now, I finally get to meet her in person… while standing next to his comatose daughter. Well now I’ve gotta think of something to say to him and Qrow, they’re just staring at me.

“…..uhhhh hi there.”

Smooth Blake, real smooth.

“…..hi.” Well, at least Taiyang responded, better then nothing. He still doesn’t look too amused to see me intruding like this….. fucking hell, I wasn’t prepared for this.

“You are?”

Oh shit, he’s asking me questions, ok, pull it together Blake, just answer his questions.

“I-I uh… I’m….”

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME, WHY IS THIS SO HARD- I feel the distinct pain of something hitting me in my side. I turn to see Sun elbowing me in my hip, he’s clearly trying to snap me back to reality. I guess I did kinda need that, I was pretty out of it until he did that.

“I’m… I’m Blake, Blake Belladonna, I was… I’m Yang’s partner from Beacon.” Ok, that’s my introduction out of the way, hopefully the rest of this conversation will go better.

“Oh, it’s…. It’s good to finally meet you, Yang’s told me a lot about you.” Huh…. Hearing Taiyang say that….. it feels nice knowing Yang talks about me…. What’s up with this weird heat in my face? Whatever, just keep up the conversation Blake.

“Good to meet you too Mr Xiao Long, Y-Yang and Ruby likewise told me plenty about you.” Wait…

Shit, Ruby and Weiss, gotta find out about them later.

“Heh, glad they didn’t forget about me at Beacon….. you ok? You look a little… down.” Shit, why did he have to ask that, I’m trying not to cry.

I begin looking around the room. First I turn to Sun, only to find that he’s left the room while I wasn’t looking, asshole. I keep looking around, and my gaze falls on Qrow, he looks…. strangely calm about the whole ordeal. Eventually my line of sight makes its way back to Taiyang….. damnit, I’m gonna have to tell him what happened now.

“I-I uh…. N-no… Mr Xiao Long-“

“Just call me Tai.”

“T-Tai, I-I’m so sorry about what happened to Yang, it’s…. Damnit, it’s all my fault.”

Both the adults look a little more on edge now.

“I…. I was separated from everyone else during the attack…. I probably would’ve been killed if Yang hadn’t jumped in to help.” That was a lie, Adam didn’t want to kill me, he just wanted to make me hurt inside.

“She charged in to save me…. And… she….” The tears start to flow again. “I’m sorry… I’m so sorry.” I begin to fall. “This never would’ve happened if it wasn’t for me, I……” I need to leave… not for good, I just… need a minute outside to collect my thoughts.

“I’m… I’m sorry I just….”

I bolt put the door and close it behind me.

I find myself practically crawling to one of the chairs slotted next to the door, and sinking down into it. After that, I just let myself go, I cry more than I’ve ever cried before… I’ve ruined everything.

POV Qrow

Well that was…. definitely something. Yang’s partner and another random idiot just barged in, the idiot left, Yang’s partner introduced herself as Blake, she got sad and left while crying that it was all her fault…. Yep, it was definitely something.

“Uh…. I.” Tai’s just as confused as I am about that whole interaction. “Should… I.”

“You stay with Yang, I’ll go see what’s wrong with her partner.” I find myself saying. Tai should probably be with Yang for longer, he just got here, it’d be a pretty dick move for him to have to leave because of somebody else’s problems.

I eventually make my way to the door, opening it up and peeking out into the hallway.

Almost immediately, I find myself drawn to a torrent of sobbs and apologies. Blake’s sitting in one of the chairs next to the room. She’s just… sitting there, wallowing in her own sorrow…. a little to familiar for my liking.

“Hey, kid.”

She immediately shifts her attention to me as soon as the words leave my mouth.

“You gonna be ok?”

She looks…… tired, like she’s ready to lay down and die…. she definitely needs some help. I move over to the seat next to her and sit down.

“N-no… gods, this is all my fault.” She immediately begins blaming herself for what happened to Yang. “Why exactly is that?” I ask her, I need to know exactly why she’s so dead set on taking the blame for this.

“I…. my old partner…. he was… he was part of the White Fang that joined in the attack…. he… he cornered me… had me helpless on the ground… he told me that he was going to destroy everything that I loved….” Oh, personal matters…. well this just got more complicated. I already knew about her being a Faunus, Ozpin already filled me in about that, but the fact that somebody so close to her did something so detestable…. again, a bit too familiar.

“And then Yang showed up looking for me……. Adam…. My old partner said he was going to start with her…..” I can already see where she’s going with this. “So he… he stabbed me, to make me get Yang’s attention…. and when she realized the trouble I was in….. she immediately charged straight in to help me.” Yep, there it is, Yang charged in to save her, and it got her fucked over.

“I’m so sorry… I’m just…. Gods I really am a Black Cat aren’t I, I bring misfortune wherever I go.” Well that hit a little closer to home than I wanted it to.

“Hey kid, listen to me.” She turns her head to look at me. “Don’t beat yourself up over this, your old partner tried to kill you? Not your fault, it’s his.” She lets out a humorless chuckle. “You’re the second person to tell me that today.” Her response seems so void of life.

“Well that should give you the idea that it’s true, look, Yang’s your partner, she’s told us nothing but great things about you, and I know damn well that if she was faced with the same situation, she’d throw herself at this “Adam” douchebag again and again if it meant keeping you safe.” She seems to brighten up slightly at that.

“Trust me, I’ve spent my whole life being called a bad luck charm, I think I know what I’m saying when I tell you that you aren’t one.”

“B-but.”

“But nothing, the asshole followed you across the world and threatened to ruin your life, he’s clearly not right in the head, that isn’t on you, it’s on him and his psycho idea of “revenge”.” I can already tell that she’s a lot less torn up now.

“Yang trusts you, she clearly didn’t misplace that trust of you care this much about her, so stop moping around out here, and go be with her, ok?”

She begins to stand up, I follow her lead.

“O-ok.” And like that, she begins walking back towards the door to Yang’s room. Before she can open it, I place my hand on her shoulder.

“Kid, it’s gonna be ok, Yang’s gonna be ok, she won’t let this hold her back.”

“I know, she’s too strong to let this stop her.”

Chapter Text

POV Raven

This is what she gets, this is what happens when you stick your neck out too far for others, you get it slit… or I guess your arm would be more fitting.

Yang got what was coming to her, you never risk your own life for anyone too weak to defend themselves more than you need too, that’s how I’ve always done things, and guess what, I’m alive, I’m thriving, meanwhile she’s lying in bed, basically dead, and down a limb.

Why the hell do I feel so pissed off about this?

Who cares, not my fault she’s a reckless idiot who got herself in deep shit, that’s her fault. Besides, she’ll be fine, she’s my daughter, I know she won’t stay down after that, she’s too strong for that.

She’ll get back up, she always does…. Right? Why the hell am I so concerned, who gives a shit is she doesn’t, if she dies than she just get what she deserves for being such a dumbass, seriously, who just charges at an enemy she knows nothing about, seriously, he could’ve killed her, idiot.

…….she seriously hasn’t woken up yet? Wow, this is taking forever. Qrow’s sitting in a chair to her right, very clearly passed out. Yang’s girlfriend is there too, sat to her left, holding her remaining hand in one of the tightest grips I’ve ever seen.

Tai’s probably with Summer’s brat, Ruby. Whatever, I wasn’t here for him anyway….. gods this is taking forever, seriously, I need to turn back to normal soon or I’m gonna get stiff, being a Raven for too long really doesn’t do me any favors when I finally turn back…. alright, just a few more minutes, I’ll just sit on this branch for a few more minutes……

Yang, just wake up already.

I’m about to fly off, about to just call it quits and accept that Yang’s probably dead, when I see just the faintest bit of lilac peeking through her dead eyelids.

Finally, I knew she’d get back up, like I said, she’s my daughter.

Ok, Qrow and Yang’s girlfriend are awake now, I can leave. I begin to take off, finally ready to fly out of sight and turn back to normal.

I take one last peek inside the house before I go… Qrow’s staring right at me, of course he realized, he always manages to find out where I am. Fuck it, I’m getting out of here already.

And with that, I finally take off to leave, to just leave Yang….. why the hell do I feel so…. weird.

POV Yang

Everything hurts.

Everything really freaking hurts. My head hurts, my chest hurts, my legs hurt, my arms… well I can’t feel anything in the right one, but the left one really freaking hurts. Yep, that’s what I get for just charging in like that, still gotta get that sorted.

Where am I? I gotta get up and see where the hell I am.

I slowly crack my eyes open, it’s a pretty long process, but I’m able to do it eventually. Oh, I’m back home, guess somebody brought us back home…. Wait

BLAKE!!? Where is Blake, is she-

I turn to my left, and there she is, as gorgeous as ever. Ok, she’s ok, she’s- really hurting my hand…. ow.

“B-Blake?”

Her beautiful golden eyes begin to open, and I’m eventually met with her stare, her captivating captivating stare that I just want to drown in… gods she’s so beautiful.

“Y-YANG! YOU’RE AWAKE!”

She basically pounces on me and wraps her arms around my neck. It feels…. it feels nice. I can hear somebody stirring to my right.

I turn, and find Uncle Qrow waking up next to me. “Hey… Yang, welcome back to the land of the living.” It’s nice to hear his voice again, to know he’s ok.

“Hey Uncle Qrow….” I still feel weak, I hate feeling weak, but at least I feel weak in the company of two of my favorite people.

Qrow’s attention is outside for some reason, I turn to the window, but nothings there? What was he so concerned about? Ah, who cares

I can still feel Blake practically tied around me, it’s a really nice gesture of concern, only makes sense to return it.

I go to hug her back, I can feel my left arm squeeze around her midsection….. I can’t feel the right one, guess it’s gone limp or…..

Guess it’s….. gone…. It’s gone.

Fuck

My arm is gone……

Qrow can immediately tell just how hard that realization hit me, he gets up to lean over me. I can feel his hand on the top of my head, I can’t see it though, by now I’ve buried my face into Blake’s shoulder and just… started to cry.

Blake can tell I’ve found out, I can feel the shift in her mood, she’s sad…. why is she so sad? I’ll talk to her about it when we’re alone…. After I’ve… had time to process all this…. for now, I’ll just try and find out what happened to everyone else.

“Where… where are the others… where’s Ruby?”

“She’s in her room, your dad’s watching her.” Qrow responds immediately, he can probably tell that I’m gonna break down pretty soon.

“Is she… ok?”

“She’s still asleep… she wasn’t seriously injured but…. I-I’ll go check on her.” Qrow gets up out of his seat and walks towards the door. He gives me one last look of sympathy before he exists the room and shuts the door behind him.

“Blake… what about Weiss?”

“She… she visited us a few times, she’s doing fine, she’s probably the only one of us who made it out perfectly fine…. Her… her father came for her, she’s been taken back to Atlas.” Oh… that… that’s probably not good, Weiss made it very clear just how much she detests her father.

“Are you…. Are you ok?”

“I-I…. Yang, I’m…. I’m so sorry, this is all my fault, I should’ve just… I should’ve known he’d follow me I just….”

Who? Who was that….. oh…. That was her old partner, wasn’t it, “Adam”? Was that his name… that’s why she’s so torn up about this.

My arms…. arm, wraps tighter around her, my hand rising up her body until it eventually reaches the back of her head.

“It’s… it’s ok, it’s gonna be ok, it’s not your fault.”

That sentence is only half true, Blake’s not at fault for any of this, but it’s absolutely not going to be ok.

I lost a part of me, I doubt anything is gonna be ok for a while.

We just sit there cuddled up to each other for a while, just taking everything in.

Suddenly, I hear the door to the room open.

Ruby walks in, she seems…. Fine, good, good, she’s ok.

“Yang? Blake?”

“RUBY!” Blake immediately jumps to her and crushers her in a big hug. I’d join her if I didn’t…. Well if I didn’t really need a hand right now.

I let out a small, dry chuckle at the thought of the shitty joke… whatever, Ruby’s ok, Blake’s ok, apparently Weiss is ok, hopefully team JNPR is ok, it’s gonna be ok…. eventually.

It has to be ok… I can’t let this stop me, right?

Damnit, I’ve started crying…. I’ve started bawling…. I’m such a baby.

Chapter Text

POV Yang

It’s been about five weeks since Beacon fell.

Five long, hard weeks, five weeks that I’ve spent doing fucking nothing.

Dad keeps trying to tell me it’s ok that I’m just sitting on my ass all day, but I freaking hate it. I hate not being able to do anything…. I hate being so scared….. is this what Blake felt like… to always be in fear of that edgy redhead asshole Adam….. I can kinda understand why she was so distant for most of our time at Beacon now.

Oh, right, Blake, she’s here too.

I’m really glad she’s here with me, I’m glad she’s here to help me keep myself together, I don’t know how well I’d be doing that if she wasn’t here, especially after Ruby left with what’s left of Team JNPR…. I hope they’re doing ok on the way to Mistral, I’ve heard that the journey is a long one, and who the hell knows how many Grimm are scattered along the way.

They’re out there making the long, dangerous track across kingdoms, meanwhile I’m here being a fucking vegetable…. I feel so worthless.

I’m just lying here… in bed…. With Blake.

Wait What?!

O-oh, right… Blake’s laying here with me, I asked her to before we went to sleep last night…. well this is…. actually pretty nice…. gods she’s so beautiful. I’m so glad she’s here with me.

I can see her begin to stir, she’s waking up.

She opens up her bright golden eyes, those gorgeous eyes that I find myself drowning in every time they make contact with mine.

“Morning.”

And her amazing voice, like everything she says is a song sung by angels. What I wouldn’t give to hear that song take on a more inappropriate to- NO, FOCUS, STOP BEING HORNY YANG, SHE DOESN’T LIKE YOU LIKE THAT…. She doesn’t… she can’t.

“M-morning.”

My own voice sounds… frail, weak… I hate it so much.

“You…. You doing ok?”

I love how concerned she is, I really couldn’t ask for a better partner, could I?

“As ok as I can be.” That isn’t very reassuring to either of us right now.

“That doesn’t really mean much.” She’s not wrong at all.

“No…. I guess it doesn’t… I’m-“

She’s wrapper her arms around my neck, her face is digging into my shoulder.

“B-Blake?”

“Trauma Cuddles, figured they’d help you feel better.”

Ah yes, “Trauma Cuddles”. Our little way of trying to help each other relax when scared. We’ve been doing them since Beacon, though usually Blake was on the receiving end of them, not me… guess we both have a lot of mutual trauma now, don’t we.

“Thanks…… how are you doing?”

“I guess the same as you, as ok as I can be.”

“That doesn’t really mean much.”

Blake chuckles adorably at my reuse of her own words. “No, no it doesn’t… alright, cmon, let’s get up, your Dad’s probably already making breakfast.”

Breakfast sounds nice, maybe food will take my mind off the feeling of helplessness.

“Yeah, just gimme a minute.”

Blake’s already started getting off the bed….. it still feels so weird sharing a bed with her. Not bad, just weird, I mean, friends don’t usually go out of their way to sleep next to each other.

I guess Blake’s a better friend than most

She reaches out her hand, she’s offering me help to get up…. I appreciate the gesture, but I can get up myself, I’m not that useless….. right?

It probably comes off more bitchy than I intended, because when I ignore her offer for help, I can see her ears flatten against her scalp.

“I-I’m fine getting up myself, it’s ok.”

I really hope that makes her feel better, the last thing I want is to hurt her.

I guess it works, her ears perk back up.

“O-ok, cmon, let’s go, I’m starving.”

She begins walking past me.

And suddenly, I grab onto her hand, holding it tightly.

“You ok?”

She notices immediately and turns to look at me.

“Y-yeah, I just…. I… I’m fine.”

I let her hand go. Damnit Yang, she probably thinks you’re weird, normal people don’t just grab their friends like that.

“Ok…. Alright let’s go eat already.”

She sounds…. weirdly hurt at the loss of contact…. whatever, I’m too hungry to think straight right now.

She walks over to the door before me, she opens it up, and waits for me to exit first.

She even feels the need to open the door for me…. I know she’s just concerned (and guilty), but I hate the feeling of uselessness it gives me…. whatever, I’ll talk to her about it another time.

Eventually, we make our way out of my room and down towards the kitchen… Dad’s nowhere to be found, where the hell is he?

I see a note taped to the fridge, he probably had somewhere to go this morning.

“Gone to the post office, be back soon.”
-Dad

Oh yeah, it’s mail day, I almost forgot about that. Ah well, guess I gotta make breakfast myself.

I go to open the fridge to see what we have in there, but Blake beats me to it.

“You can go sit down, I’ll take care of breakfast.”

Normally I’d probably tease her and ask if she thinks I’m a bad cook, but now….. I just feel useless for the millionth time this morning. Whatever, I’ll talk to Blake about it later.

She even feels the need to pull out a chair for me when I go to sit down… damnit, she has no clue what the hell this is doing to me.

How could she, I’m too weak to even talk to her about it.

“T-thanks.” My thanks feel lifeless, they lack any sort of emotion.

“Don’t mention it.” Her response has so much emotion, so much care… it makes me feel just a little bit better.

A bit better about how useless I am, just sitting there while I watch her make Pancakes… I wonder how Nora and Ren are doing, I wonder if they’ve finally just sealed the deal already.

We barely talk as we eat, we just kinda sit there and pick at out food…. I really want to make conversation, to hear more of Blake’s angelic voice, but in too tired to even say anything.

So we just sits there in silence.

Eventually, we finally finish breakfast, Blake’s a pretty good cook, not as good as Dad… or Mom… but she’s still pretty good.

Now that breakfast is done… what the hell am I supposed to do now…. guess I’ll just drown my sorrows in the TV….. again.

Blake follows me over to the couch, sitting down right next to me, leaning her head against my shoulder.

I grab the remote and start randomly flicking through channels.

Nothing, nothing, updates on the status of Vale, some weird documentary about flowers….. there’s nothing interesting on.

And than I hear his name.

Blake and I both tense up at the mention of Adam by on the news, he’s been publicly confirmed present at the attack on Beacon.

I change the channel almost immediately after we hear his name, neither of us really want to hear anything about him right now.

Eventually, we hear the door begin to open.

Guess Dad’s back, I wonder if anything good came in the mail today.

Chapter Text

POV Yang

Where am I?

Everything’s dark.

Wait, no, everything is on fire… this… this looks like Beacon, like the cafeteria.

Wait… I can feel my arms.

Arms, I have my right arm back.

I go to look up, access the dream, and I see him.

Oh fuck.

I can feel an extra weight on my arms, I’ve got Ember Celica on, when did I put them on?

Who cares, I have something to blast the bastard with, so I’ll blast him.

And blast him I do.

…..that didn’t work, why didn’t that work!??!

And now he’s reaching for his sword.

Ah shit.

Just keep blasting Yang, it has to work… eventually.

Ember Celica is gone, my damn arm is gone.

What’s not gone is Adam, he’s still here, closer than ever, close enough for me to see his teeth when he cracks a smile at me.

And than, the crimson blade of his extends from its sheath.

Only for me to suddenly find myself back in my bed.

Oh…. It was a nightmare.

Where’s Blake?

Where else, wrapped around my torso, sleeping peacefully next to me… I wonder if she had the same nightmares about him.

Looking past her, I see the prosthetic that dad got from General Ironwood…. I appreciate it but….. it just feels like he’s trying to make me forget about what happened, I can’t just move on from something like that.

Blake begins to groan, guess I woke her up.

I run my hand through her glorious obsidian locks, they’re so soft.

“Yang? You ok?”

“Y-yeah….. I guess I’m fine.”

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“….nope.”

“Nightmares?”

“How’d you know.”

“Lucky guess.”

Yeah, she definitely has the same nightmares about him that I’m dealing with, she’s probably had them since before we even met.

“I’m… I’m gonna go downstairs, see what Dad’s doing.”

“Alright.”

“You gonna stay here?”

“Wherever you go I go.”

“Figured you’d say that, alright, cmon.”

She gets out of bed before me and offers me a hand to get up, I’d be a bit miffed if it wasn’t for the fact that the side of the bed I was on only leads to the wall.

I take her offer for help, I’ve gotten better at accepting her help when she offers it.

She helps me walk to the door, opening it for me. Her hand is entwined with mine the whole walk…. It feels nice.

Eventually, she helps lead me to the stairs… huh, I can hear voices.

“What’re they doing here?” Blake said that pretty quietly, she can probably already tell who the voices belong to, super cat hearing and all.

We make our way to the dining room, and we hear a pretty… interesting conversation, Dad’s there, along with Professor’s Port and Oobleck, guess teachers are a close knit circle.

They’re all laughing, I think I heard something about Uncle Qrow wearing a skirt. Honestly, the image is pretty damn funny.

Dad pipes up to continue the story. “We told him it was a kilt! He’d never worn a uniform before, so he didn’t know!”

Wow, that’s just evil Dad, Oobleck seems to share that opinion. Nice job.

And then he goes on about some girls saying he had nice legs, really hope Summer wasn’t one of those girls, that’d be weird.

And then suddenly Port slams his leg onto the table. “Like what you see?” Ok, gotta be honest, that was pretty funny.

And than he falls, lands right on his back, probably should have gotten out of the chair before propping his leg up like that.

Alright, guess it’s time to join this clusterfuck.

POV Blake

That whole interaction was honestly hilarious. Guess teachers do have a sense of humor, Ilia was dead wrong…. I hope Ilia’s doing alright….. hopefully Adam hasn’t done anything to her while I’m gone.

I must’ve spaced out for a minute there, Yang’s talking to her father now, she made her way across the room to stand next to him.

I quickly make my way over to her side.

She’s hoisted herself onto the kitchen counter by the time I make it to her.

Yang tries to insert herself into the conversation, asking what the professors are doing here, they just respond with the whole “life outside the classroom” retort, and say how Professor Goodwitch is trying to restore Beacon.

And then Taiyang tries to continue his story.

“ Now look, let's not worry about that right now. So, there we were, standing in the auditorium, looking at Qrow, wearing a skirt. Then Oz tells everyone, "It's time to work on our landing strategy!"”

The comedy the story offers is appreciated.

Then Oobleck says something that peaks my interest, he mentions the “Branwen twins”, apparently they were always “interesting”.

Yang’s already told me that was her mother and Qrow’s last name, so I can only assume that this conversation is gonna go into one of the two of them with more detail.

Port says something that I can tell miffs Taiyang a bit. “That sure didn’t seem to stop young Tai.”

Ok, guess we’re talking about Raven now.

“Hey, come on, man, she’s right here.”

Yep, definitely Raven.

Port then tries to say Yang is a “mature young woman” to get Tai to feel better. It just comes off as kinda creepy.

Tai argues that Yang is still a teenager… that’s true, but to be fair-

“"She" is also in the room, and can be directly spoken to. And I think I've been through enough to be considered an adult at this point.”

Oh, guess Yang beat me to it.

Taiyang sighs and tries to refute what Yang says. “Adult or not, you've still got a long way to go before you're ready for the real world.”

That kinda pissed me off a bit.

“I think we’re ready enough for whatever “real world” you live in.” I find myself saying.

I don’t think Yang or Tai hear me, because Yang immediately goes on to be pissed about every father figure using the same three condescending phrases. Honestly, I can’t say my Dad ever said anything like that to me.

The argument continues for a little, it’s nothing too bad, but then Tai says something that halts everyone else.

“As a matter of fact, it is so! If you honestly think that you're ready to go out there on your own, ha, well I guess you lost some brain cells along with that arm.”

He. Did. Not. Just. Fucking. Say. That.

I swear, I will cut his damn throat for-

Wait…. Is Yang laughing?

Huh, it’s been a while since I’ve heard a laugh this genuine from her… it’s…. calming, satisfying.

I guess Yang got her use of comedy to cope from her Dad.

And then Port reinserts himself into the conversation, he asks Yang why she hasn’t tried on her prosthetic. Honestly, I’m wondering that too.

After a bit of extra info on the arm from Oobleck, Yang gives her response.

“I’m… scared.”

And that hit me like a truck.

I still can’t shake the feeling that I’m responsible for this, for taking somebody so fearless and bright, and doing this to them. Yang constantly reassures me that what happened isn’t my fault, but I doubt I’ll ever be convinced.

“Everyone keeps talking about me getting back to normal. And I appreciate it, but... this is normal now.” Yang looks down at her stump when she finishes that sentence… she’s not wrong, losing a part of you will really change how your whole life works.

Yang and her father get into a bit of a back and forth about what “normal” really is, and right after Yang aggressively states that her arm is never coming back, Tai gives a response that lightens the mood a bit.

“You're right. It's not coming back. But that doesn't have to stop you from becoming who you wanna be. You're Yang Xiao Long, my sunny little dragon.”

She really is, she’s always burned hotter than the sun in the middle of July, she’s the dragon that guards us all underneath her bright wings.

Tai continues.

“You can do whatever you put your mind to. So whenever you're ready to stop moping, and get back out there, I'll be there for you.”

I can tell Yang is pretty stunned by the show of support, I hope what happens next doesn’t stun her too much more.

I place my hand on her shoulder, grabbing her attention, and add onto what Tai said.

“I’ll be here too Yang, I know can make it through this, you always take what life throws at you in stride, you can’t let this stop you, I know you won’t let this stop you.”

I can see tears begin to well up in her eyes, and a large smile begins to form on her face, a bright smile that I haven’t seen since the Vytal Festival.

Port once again sees it fit to add to the conversation.

“Fear is like any other emotion. It comes and goes. It's all in how you handle it. Why, even I find myself wrestling with that emotion from time to time.”

I honestly wasn’t expecting something so wise from him.

Yang seems skeptical about that claim, but then Oobleck whispers something that nearly makes me break down laughing.

“He’s afraid of mice.”

Almost immediately Port tries to defend his fears, citing the problems mice bring, their strange tails.

Call me biased on account of being part Cat, but mice were always less scary to me, and more…. enticing.

I’m glad that Yang had that talk with her father, I think she really needed it.

But right now, I think the both of us need to go back to sleep.

Chapter Text

POV Blake

I’m glad Yang’s gotten back on her feet now.

As much as I enjoyed sleeping snuggled up to her, it’s definitely more comforting to know that I don’t need to stay by her side all the time.

She even painted her prosthetic yellow, now it won’t seem out of place with her usual outfit.

Currently she’s outside, training with Taiyang, I’m glad he’s helping her out so much, he’s honestly a really great father.

I wasn’t expecting him to be bad or anything, it’s just…. reassuring to know all the good things Yang and Ruby said about him were true.

Although…. watching the two of them outside…. it brings back some warm memories. Memories that turn sour at the recollection of how I left home.

I wonder how my parents are doing.

Honestly, I don’t know why it hasn’t crossed my mind before now but, I don’t know what they’re going through during all this. Were they affected by the Fall of Beacon?

Did people take Adam’s involvement in the attack out on them?

I hope not, Dad isn’t even high leader of the White Fang anymore, he has no connection to Adam whatsoever….

Well, no connection besides me…. though I’ve been gone for so long I don’t know if him and mom even have a connection with me anymore.

The thought scares me, it scares me a lot.

What if they hate me for leaving?

What if they hate me for what I said when I left?

What if they don’t want me to come back?

What if they never want to see me again?

What if they think I’m dead?

What if they’re happy I’m dead?

All those thoughts leave me terrified…. do they even still want to be considered my parents?

…..I should probably visit them…. I just need to know that they’re ok during all this.

Or… I could just stay here, with Yang.

No.

I’ve run away and hidden too much, I need to go back.

I don’t have to hide anymore.

Yet I’m still hiding from everyone…. I’m hiding the real me.

I’ve been hiding my whole life.

I reach up to the bow still tied on my head, the bow that I’ve been using to hide my ears for longer than I can remember.

Why the hell am I still wearing this.

I don’t need to hide who I am from anyone here, especially not from Yang……

Why do I even still have this, Yang’s already made it clear that I don’t have to hide from her, I never had to hide from her.

I’m not going to hide from her any more.

And suddenly, I’m stomping down the stairs, and making my way out the front door of the Xiao Long house.

Yang and her father just finished up training for the day, clearly Tai ran Yang ragged today, she’s absolutely drenched in sweat.

Why the hell does that make her look even more hot?

What the hell am I into?

Whatever, I’ll reevaluate my kinks later, I’ve got to take care of this NOW.

I quickly walk up to Yang’s side, she hasn’t noticed me yet, she still has her broad back turned to me, her strong, toned back that I just want to dig my nails int-

NO, STOP BEING HORNY BLAKE, you have more important things to do now.

“Hey, Yang.”

Yang turns when I call her. In spite of all the sweat, she looks more full of energy than I’ve seen her in weeks.

“Hey Blake, wassup?”

“Can I…. Can you come with me for a minute.”

“Sure.”

I offer my hand to help her up off the spot on the ground where she’s sat, she accepts it immediately.

I’m glad she isn’t trying to refuse help anymore, I know it probably made her feel weak in the past.

Now, she accepts it without hesitation.

“So where we going?”

“Can I…. Can you bring me to the shore, I need to do something.”

“Oh, sure, it’s a bit of a long walk though, so just give me a second to fire up Bumblebee, it’ll be easier riding there.”

“Ok.”

Yang begins to walk towards the garage, she grabs her jacket on the way there and puts it on. Well there goes the view.

I can feel Taiyang looking at me while I stare at Yang.

“What do you need Yang to take you to the shore for?”

“Just some…. personal business.”

“…..well, in that case, just be safe.”

He begins making his way back inside the house. I don’t know why, but he cracks an enormous grin at me on his way in.

What was that for?

I hear the roar of an engine behind me.

“Your chariot awaits m’lady.”

I turn to see Yang sat on the seat of her bike, patting the spot behind her.

I make my way over to the bike, and sit down on it behind her.

“You might wanna hold on, the ride could get a bit bumpy.”

What am I supposed to hold onto? Oh… right.

I hold onto Yang.

So I hold onto her, I wrap myself around her torso like I’ve done basically every night for the past two few months.

Why does she feel so hot? Oh, wait, it’s Yang, she’s basically a walking blast furnace…. But still, she feels hotter than normal.

And we’re off, Yang starts up Bumblebee and we take off down the path to the shore.

It’s not a very long ride, and honestly, it isn’t really all that bumpy, I don’t know why Yang thought I needed to hold onto her so tight.

It takes about 5 minutes, Patch isn’t a particularly large island, and the Xiao Long household isn’t very far from the shore.

Eventually, we stop near a small beach, it’s a small, calm little area that Yang took me to a few times while I was staying with her and Taiyang.

I get up off the bike, Yang follows me, leaving Bumblebee up on the edge of the path.

We both make our way down the beach, eventually reaching the shore, Yang standing to my right.

“So, what’d you want to bring me here for?”

“Can you…. Can you untie my bow please.”

She looks a bit confused at the request.

“Me? Don’t you usually untie it?”

“I just…. I want you to do it.”

“Alrighty then.”

She walks behind be and places her hands on the edges of the bow. I can tell she’s a bit hesitant, she’s being careful not to hurt me with her prosthetic.

I’m glad she cares about me to take such caution, but I trust her to do this, it’ll be ok.

“Aaaand, off comes the bow.”

I can feel my ears get caught in the breeze now that my bow’s off, it feels nice.

It feels liberating.

“T-thank you.”

I grab the bow out of her hand gently, and simply stare at it in my grasp.

I’m not going to hide anymore.

“Ever since I’ve got this, I’ve been using it to hide… I’ve been using it to keep the real me locked away from everyone else… from all the people at Beacon, from the rest of the team…. Even from you.”

“Blake, it’s ok, you didn’t know if you could trust us, and honestly, with how shitty most Faunus get treated, I don’t think you should have trusted us from the start.”

She’s standing to my right again. We’re standing side-by-side, together.

I’m never going to leave her side, never.

“I’m done hiding Yang, I’m done trying to pretend I’m somebody different.”

I grab onto her left hand with my right, still clutching my bow in my own left hand.

I turn to look at Yang. What’s with the hint of red in her face?

Whatever.

I reach out my left arm, letting the bow flow in the breeze, the ribbon edges flapping around in my hand.

“I don’t need to hide from you anymore.”

And then, I let it go.

The thing I’ve spent so long using as a barrier, the thing I’ve used to keep everyone away from who I really was-

I just… let it go.

“Blake…. You sure you didn’t-“

“I’m sure Yang…. I don’t want to be scared of myself anymore.”

And then, we just stand there, hands tangled together, staring out into the sky, watching my bow glide away into the ocean.

I’m glad it’s finally gone, I’m glad I can finally just be myself.

“Yang… I….. there is something I wanted to tell you…. I was… I’m going to go back home.”

“Home?”

“I’m going back to Menagerie, I’m going to visit my parents.”

“Oh, well…. Guess I’ll-“

“I want you to come with me.”

“-pack….. yeah, I was gonna even if you didn’t say you did.”

“O-oh, w-why?”

“Cause I know you Blake, I know you want somebody there with you. Besides, you’ve met my dad, it’s only fair I get to go meet your parents.”

“Oh…. T-thank you.”

“No problem.”

“I’m warning you, it’s gonna be a long trip.”

“Then I better pack plenty of snacks.”

Gods, what did I do to deserve a partner like her.

Chapter Text

POV Yang

Blake was right, this is really fucking boring.

I was never a fan of sea travel, and this just reinforces why I think it sucks.

We’ve been on the water for a while now, and all I want to do is get to Menagerie already, seriously.

I hate the ocean.

Whatever, when we get there, it’ll be worth it, I’ll finally get to meet Blake’s parents…. As terrifying as that sounds.

Why am I so scared? Blake met my Dad already, I meet hers…. I’ve met my other friends Dad’s before… well, except Weiss’ Dad, but apparently he’s the biggest douchebag to ever douche.

So why the hell is the idea of meeting Blake’s parents so damn terrifying.

Oh, right, it’s cause of the enormous crush I have on Blake.

I’m glad she hasn’t noticed that yet, that’d make this whole trip WAY more awkward.

“Hey, Yang.”

Speak of the… well, not the devil, angel is more accurate.

She definitely looks the part, her new outfit is…. stunning. The jacket is really stylish, I love the thigh-high boots, and…. well I’m not gonna complain about the crop-top, but gods, it’s really making it hard to keep my dreams family friendly.

Honestly, I’m glad Blake ditched the bow, her ears are still so adorable. I’m happy she’s comfortable showing them now, she shouldn’t have ever had to hide them from people.

She never should have felt the need to hide them from me.

“You doin ok?”

That soft tone of hers… it just… makes me feel things I really don’t want to feel in front of others.

“Fine…. how about you?”

“Eh, guys I’m also doing ok, had a run in with the Captain earlier, he assumed I was riding alone…. guess I just give off that vibe.”

“What vibe?”

“The whole edgy loner who wants to stay as far away from everyone as possible…. if you asked me a few months ago, I’d say that’s exactly the vibe I wanted to have…”

“And now?”

“Well, now….”

She walks over to my side and clasps my prosthetic hand in hers.

I really wish I could feel the contact…. I want to be able to feel her.

“I’m glad I’m close to people… I’m glad I’m close to you.”

“I-I…. I’m glad about that too.”

“I-“

She stops herself midway through the first word.

“Blake?”

She pulls out Gambol Shroud, her eyes fixated on something above us.

I turn to face whatever she’s facing, and I see some weirdo in a hood staring at us.

“Who’s there?”

Blake’s question goes unanswered, the weirdo just leaves.

And then suddenly, I hear something moving in the water behind us.

Something Big.

The boat suddenly shakes.

An enormous shadow eclipses us.

When we turn, we’re met by the enormous visage of a Sea Feilong.

Oh shit.

I can hear the captain call for the crew to get to their battle stations.

Well then, guess we’re gonna fight this fucking kaiju.

POV Blake

Well, this is all going to shit.

I hear Yang cocking Ember Celica next to me.

I turn to look at her, she looks ready to fight, like always.

She turns to me, I give her a quick nod. She returns the nod.

Alright, here goes nothing.

I charge at the Sea Feilong, rushing off the deck of the boat, and propelling myself towards the beast with my semblance.

I swing Gambol Shroud straight at them, hooking its blade into the damn things head.

I begin swinging around the serpent, eventually Gambol Shroud flies from it and returns to my hand. When I get it back I my grip, I open fire on the Grimm, though I doubt the bullets are even doing much considering its size.

Back on the boat, Yang’s firing at the beast as it moves. Shit, the things headed towards the boat.

I launch myself back onto the deck, landing just in time for the boat to shift out of the way to avoid the serpent.

I nearly fall over, but Yang grabs onto my shoulders to steady me.

“You good?!”

“I’m fine.”

The Feilong jumps over the ship.

I launch myself up to the upper deck, I try to get a better angle on the creature before I fire.

Again, the bullets barely do anything.

Even the shells from Ember Celica that Yang is firing don’t seem to be damaging it much.

Well, when in doubt, cut the Grimm to pieces.

I once again launch myself towards it, eventually reaching its head and striking it several times with Gambol Shroud.

Suddenly, I’m hit by the impact of several cannon rounds hitting the Feilong.

The shockwaves send my flying back onto the ship.

I crash on the deck at first, but eventually I find myself stopped upright.

Yang caught me, she always seems to catch me.

The creature is still out there, we need to take care of it. I can hear the captain falling for the heavy cannon to be loaded.

Heavy is a pretty apt word to describe the canon that emerges from the deck.

Surely that’ll do something to the Feilong-

-the Feilong that just sprouted wings.

“They fly now?!”

Yang is understandably shocked.

“Looks like it.”

The thing is flying, of-fucking-course it can fly. It easily dodges all the canon fire that was directed at it.

“Is it just me or is there lightning coming out of its mouth?”

It wasn’t just Yang.

I ready Gambol Shroud to attack again.

Only to feel a shoe pressed into the back of my head.

That weirdo in the hood bounces off my back, straight at the Feilong.

In midair, the hood flies off the figure to reveal-

“SUN?!!?”

“The hell is he doing here?!”

“Yang, I don’t freaking-“

Sun manages to redirect the Feilong’s head, right before a blast of electricity could fire straight at us. Instead, the beam flies over the boat, leaving us unharmed.

Ok, appreciate the help, but seriously Sun-

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!”

“Oh, uh, you know, just... hanging out!”

His response is as unserious as I should’ve expected.

He’s just riding the Feilong as it flies around wildly.

Well, he was, until the thing shocked him, now he’s falling.

“CRAP, YANG, LAUNCH ME!”

“ONE FASTBALL SPECIAL, COMING UP!”

I launch myself backwards, landing right on Yang’s balled fists.

And suddenly, I find myself flying towards Sun with ludicrous velocity.

I manage to intercept him midair, and come sliding to a halt on a nearby patch of land.

I glare at Sun in my arms.

“My hero!”

Not the time Sun.

“YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE!!”

“Yeah? Well it looks like you can use all the help you can get.”

And suddenly, a cloud of dust kicks up next to us.

“She has plenty of help you fucking creeper.”

Yang’s landed next to us, guess she launched herself after me when I landed.

I scoff, and drop Sun into the dirt.

“Just shut up and fight.”

Yang and I start making our way back towards the action.

I swear I can hear Sun say “Yes Ma’am” as we run.

I again jump back at Yang, and she once again launches me.

I can see the Feilong charging another blast, I need to intercept it before it hits the boat.

Just as soon as I get in position to stop the blast, in comes Sun to block it by himself.

I can hear the Captain call for us after we both land on the deck.

“If you can clip its wings and draw it out towards the bow, we could take it!”

I look to Sun, and he immediately says exactly what I was expecting him to say.

“I mean, you're the one with the swords.”

That gets a groan out of me.

Sun charges forward to the front of the ship, activating his clones, and launching upwards.

I jump off the first clone, it springs me up to the second higher in the air. That one in turn springs me up to the third one, which grabs me by my arm and launches me towards Sun.

He extends his arms, ready to catch me.

Sorry Sun, you’re not Yang.

But you are a pretty effective step-stool.

I eventually reach him, and immediately launch myself off his back.

I start diving down, straight towards the Feilong.

It readies its electrical blast again.

Only for Yang to come rocketing into the things head, throwing off its aim.

Even from up here, I can see her throw me a thumbs up.

Adorable.

Alright, just a little more, and-

I made it to the Feilong’s wing, time to take this thing down.

I rush down the wing, dragging Gambol Shroud through its membrane, tearing it on the way down.

Ok, I did it.

And now I’m falling.

Below me, there’s a rock, and on top of that rock, is Sun.

I can’t believe I’m about to let him catch me like this.

And the suddenly, he gets shoved to the side.

Instead of his arms, I land in the familiar warmth of Yang’s.

Oh thank the gods she caught me instead of Sun.

“My hero.”

I can hear Sun groan at my reuse of his words.

And I can see Yang blush in response.

She… no, she doesn’t, she can’t, she’s probably just embarrassed from catching me like that.

And then suddenly the rock we’re all on begins to fall.

The Feilong is after us now, knocking over the rock pillar we were standing on.

The three of us begin launching ourselves off the other nearby rock formations, the serpent chasing us all the way.

Damnit, Sun’s in trouble again.

I end up swinging my way over to him, catching him just before the Feilong can snatch him up in his jaws.

We both land on the side of another rock formations.

And the Feilong stares us both down, charging up another blast.

Well, guess we’re fried.

Or not, the boat suddenly rams straight into the Feilong, impaling it on the bowsprit.

And then, the heavy cannon fires, blasting the Grimm’s upper body clean to dust.

Well, that happened.

Yang launches herself over to us, almost immediately rushing to my side to check if I’m ok.

It’d be a nice moment if somebody didn’t interrupt it.

“Ha-ha! Up top!”

We both turn to glare at Sun, he’s raised his hand for a high five.

He probably should’ve expected the slap I give him in response.

Chapter Text

POV Blake

Well….. I’ve made it.

I’m back home.

Back in Menagerie.

Sun doesn’t bother to hide his awe at the sight of the port Market, just wait until we get to Kuo Kuana.

“I've never seen so many Faunus in one place.”

“This is the one place everyone can feel safe, no matter who or what they are.”

“Wow, sure is, uh, crowded, huh?”

He’s not wrong, it really is.

“Yes. Yes, it is.”

I can tell Yang feels a bit uncomfortable. I can guess why, she’s the only human here currently, I doubt she really feels all that welcome.

I go to reach for her hand, but Sun catches my attention again.

“Is it always so... cramped?”

Yes, it is.

“Well, when you try and take an entire species and put them on an island that's two-thirds desert, yeah, it tends to be cramped.”

Hopefully he-

“What! You guys have that much more space? Why waste it? A little desert never hurt anyone!”

No, of course he doesn’t, why did I expect him to understand.

“It's not like the desert in Vacuo, Sun. The wildlife here is more dangerous than most other regions.”

“So, they give us a terrible island, in the corner of Remnant, to try and shut us up.”

“That's a pretty good summary, yeah.”

“Huh. Jerks.”

I can see Yang visibly deflate at that knowledge.

I go to grab her hand like I was TRYING TO before Sun interrupted me.

She turns her head to me at the contact.

“Yang, it’s ok, you’re not like the people who forced us here.”

“….tell that to everyone giving me death glares.”

She’s right, when I look around the market, I can see so many other Faunus staring at her with noticeable anger.

“Yang, it’s gonna be fine, I won’t let them hurt you.”

“I can take care of myself.”

“I know you can, but I’d rather you not bludgeon anyone to death here.”

She chuckles at the joke.

I’m glad she’s laughing more. I missed her laugh.

Finally, after a relatively short walk, we finally get a view of Kuo Kuana.

Sun once again fails to hide his awe.

Yang is also visibly impressed at the sight.

“This, is Kuo Kuana.”

Honestly, I’m really glad I’m not doing this alone. The sight of home already has me feeling….. dejected. I’m just glad Yang’s here to help me along.

“It's... beautiful. I take it all back. This place looks great! Why would anyone ever want to leave?”

And right now I’m really wishing that I took up her offer to boot Sun off the damn boat.

“That's not the point, Sun! We asked to be equal, to be treated just like everyone else! Instead, we were given an island and told to make do. So we did the best we could. We came together and we made a home where any Faunus could feel welcome. But this island, this town, will always be a reminder that we're still not equal. That we're still second-class citizens.”

Yang once again deflates.

I grip her hand tighter, hoping the contact dispels any of the negative thoughts about how any of the other Faunus here might feel about her.

Only to feel cold metal in my grip… oh, I was walking to her right.

I can feel Sun put his hand on my shoulder.

“Well, hey, this guy's feeling pretty at home.”

Dork.

Well, guess there’s no avoiding it.

“Alright, time to go home.”

“Oh yeah? Which one's yours? Can you see it from here?”

Sun pulls me irritating close to his side.

I can feel the surrounding air heat up…. Is Yang getting mad?

“Kind of.”

Sun starts randomly pointing at houses in the general vicinity.

“Is it that one? What about that tiny one down there? I like the paintjob.”

Well, guess it’s time for the brand reveal.

I grab his hand and direct it towards my house.

Well…. My Parents house.

“It's... that one.”

I can tell Sun is totally baffled from the reveal by the way he points at me.

Surprise, my Dad’s the chieftain of Menagerie….

Sun immediately makes a rather comical sound of amazement.

Yang voices her opinion on the reveal.

“Well damn, guess we’ve gotta start calling YOU princess instead of Weiss.”

Weiss….. I hope she’s ok during all this.

Alright, let’s get this over with.

POV Yang

Ok, I’m finally meeting Blake’s parents.

This is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done.

Whatever, it can’t be THAT awkward, I mean, it’s mot like Blake’s introducing her girlfriend to them or anything.

Even if I really wish she was.

Well, here we are, at the front door to Blake’s parents house.

I can see Blake hesitate before she can grab the door knocker.

“You ok Blake?”

I can tell she appreciates my concern.

“Yeah it’s just….. it’s been a long time since I’ve seen my Parents.”

“Hey, it’ll be ok.”

“Yeah, besides, you came all this-“

I elbow Sun in the gut before he can finish.

“Owwwww, did you really have to use the metal arm?”

“Just shut up and let Blake do this.”

Blake chuckles softly, before finally moving forward and using the knocker.

WOW, that was loud.

“ Okay, if we're being honest, that's kind of intimidating.”

“Y-yeah, I’ve gotta agree with you there.”

And then suddenly, the door opens.

From behind the door, another cat Faunus appears.

“Blake?”

“Hi, Mom.”

Oh, it’s Blake’s mother.

Ok, stay calm Yang, do not embarrass yourself in front of Blake’s mom-

Blake gets caught in a hug.

Awwwww.

Blake clearly needed that.

I can hear somebody calling from inside the house.

We all turn to the door.

Holy Crap. Is that Blake’s dad? He’s fucking jacked.

Ok, be scared of Blake’s dad later, just enjoy the happy reunion for now.

Before I can even think, Blake’s mother, Kali? I think her name is Kali. Has invited us in for tea. I was always more of a coffee kind of girl, but sure, why not.

Everything is going well so far.

Just a regular introduction to your best friend’s parents. Nothing out of the ordinary, exchanging first names, telling them how you met their daughter, the whole song and dance I’ve done a bunch of times already with my other friends.

And then the topic of Beacon comes up.

“ We were horrified when we heard the news. The Kingdom of Vale isn't perfect, but it certainly didn't deserve what happened. Oh, we were both so worried.”

I’m glad Blake’s parents still seems so concerned for her safety.

I knew she was wrong about them hating her for leaving.

How could they?

….What if Blake left me? Would I hate her if she did?

….Nah, probably not. Love is pretty hard to snuff out like that.

And then Sun says something that gives me so much second hand embarrassment that I may actually die.

“ You guys have nothing to worry about. I've seen your daughter in action before! And trust me, she's got some moves!”

I can feel Blake stiffen up next to me, she clearly didn’t want him to say something like that.

I doubt Blake’s father did either.

“And what exactly do you mean by that, Mr. Wukong?”

Well, he’s screwed.

And I doubt his nervous rambling is going to help.

I can hear Kali ask Blake why exactly Sun is even here.

Blake’s response?

“He just kind of followed us home.”

I get a little more caught up on the use of the word “us” than I probably should have.

At this point, all of us are looking to Sun, watching him fail at this entire conversation.

Eventually, he just tries to divert the topic, pouring himself another cup of tea and saying it’s really good.

He’s not wrong, the tea is rather nice, but if this isn’t a facepalm worthy moment, I don’t know what-

“OW!”

WHY DID I USE THE METAL ARM

“Y-Yang? Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I-I’m fine, just…. Forgot this was made of metal for a minute there.”

When I turn to look at Blake, I can see her mother staring at my prosthetic.

Huh…. Ok.

And then suddenly, we all hear a knock on the door.

Blake’s father, Ghira, looks a little worried at that.

“ Darn it, I completely forgot about the meeting!”

Huh? What meeting.

After a quick exchange with Kali, Ghira gets up and begins walking towards the front door.

Blake asks her mother if everything is ok.

“ Yes, dear, just poor timing. He can reschedule. It's just been hard dealing with them lately.”

“Dealing with who?”

“ Hmm? The White Fang.”

And at that, me, Blake, and Sun all rise and shout the same word.

“WHAT?!?”

Chapter Text

POV Raven

For fucks sake Yang, did you really have to go to Menagerie?

Do you know how hard it is to fly the trip to Menagerie as a damn BIRD.

No…. She wouldn’t, cause I’m not around to tell her.

Fucking hell, seriously, my arms are still sore and I’ve been perched for like, 5 hours now. Gods, I need to visit the chiropractor after this.

Where the hell is Yang’s girlfriend? Isn’t she the whole reason Yang came here? Why is she just standing on the balcony alone, staring into the night sky.

Seriously, Yang, just go inside and fuck her already, it’s less sad than whatever you’re doing right now.

Nope, she’s still just standing there, staring out into space.

WOW, this is sad to watch.

Does she seriously have nothing better to do?

I should just take off, get a safe distance away, and portal back to the tribe.

…..In a few hours, I just….. can’t leave without seeing Yang do SOMETHING.

………..is she seriously just gonna stand there all night?

Why the hell is she so sad all of a sudden?

She just came out here and started crying. Now she’s just staring at the moon.

…..It’s not because of me, is it?

Of course it isn’t, Yang wants nothing to do with me.

…..Why did that kinda hurt?

Whatever. Not like I care….. at least, I shouldn’t.

I’ll just…. Wait here until somebody comes to talk to Yang.

Oh, right on time, her girlfriend’s mom is coming outside.

Guess that’s my cue to leave.

POV Yang

Ugh, stupid…. Jealousy…. Stupid feelings.

Stupid Mom.

Why don’t I get what Blake has?

I’m not mad at her, I’m just…. jealous.

She gets a mom who cares about her more than anything… and me, I get a mother who abandons me and a mom that dies on a mission.

I can hear the balcony door open behind me.

It’s Kali.

Does she have some sort of telepathy? Does she know I’m thinking about my Mom?

Whatever, I don’t care WHY she’s here.

“Yang, dear, are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m just…. Tired.”

“Are you sure.”

“Yeah, there’s just a lot of things going on….. I’ve got a lot of things to deal with.”

My prosthetic flexes pretty noticeably when I say that.

“If it’s…. not too much for you to talk about…. may I ask…. why do you have this?”

She lays one of her hands on my prosthetic.

Well, guess it’s about time I talked about this with somebody other than Dad or Blake.

“I…. I lost it during the fall of Beacon.”

“Oh… what happened?”

“Better question is “who””

“Somebody did this to you?”

“Yeah, I’ll give you a hint, he’s tall, dark, douchey, and everyone in this house wants him dead.”

It takes her a minute to process what I meant.

When she finally does, her ears flatten against her head.

Just like Blake’s…. Only… less adorable.

“O-oh…. I’m… I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, you guys probably hate him just as much as me and Blake do.”

“I suppose that’s true…. Are you sure you’re ok talking about this.?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I’ve…. Learned to live with what happened. The only thing I can really do is keep moving forward…. Probably what my Mom would’ve done.”

“She sounds like a strong woman.”

“She was…. She really was.”

I miss Summer, a lot…. I miss her so much.

“Y’know… she wasn’t actually my mother.”

“She wasn’t?”

“Nah, she was only Ruby’s mother.”

“Oh…. What happened to your mother?”

“Hell if I know…. Hell if I care.”

Kali looks a little confused at this, she’s clearly worried.

“She…. She left me and Dad not long after I was born…. No reason why, no second thought, she just…. left us.”

“I’m…. I’m so sorry about that Yang.”

“Why’re you sorry, you in cahoots with her or-“

And out of nowhere, she gives me a hug.

“U-uh?”

“I’m really so sorry you had to go through that, I can’t imagine how you must’ve felt…. It sounds horrible.”

“….yeah… it was.”

I’m hugging her back now… this feels nice. A different nice than when Blake hugs me, but still nice.

“Yang, if you ever need anything from me, please, don’t be afraid to ask.”

“Y-you don’t have to-“

“Yes, I do, family should help each other.”

“I’m not-“

“You’re Blake’s partner, she clearly thinks the world of you and then some. As far as I’m concerned, you’re part of our family now.”

Well, the dam finally cracks.

Nothings gonna stop the tears now.

I immediately begin to burrow my face into Kali’s shoulder.

“It’s ok Yang, it’ll be ok, Blake’s here for you, I’m here for you, we’re all here for you.”

“T-thank you…. So-so much… you’ve been nothing but kind to me… I-I….”

At this point I’m just bawling into Kali’s shoulder.

“Let it out dear, it’ll be ok.”

This feels….. it feels like I’ve finally got something I’ve waited so long for.

Screw you mom, wherever you are.

I don’t need you anymore.

And then suddenly, a very irate Blake makes her way out onto the Balcony, dragging a very scared Sun by his arm.

“Mom, Yang, hello.”

“Hello darling…. Is… everything ok?”

“Yeah, uh… you look a bit pissed.”

By this point I’ve finally dug myself out of Kali’s embrace.

“I’m fine. Can we have some privacy, I need to talk to Sun. Alone.”

“Oh course dear.”

“Yeah, sure, well, it was nice knowing you Sun.”

“Y-yeah, you too.”

Kali and I both head back inside, leaving Sun to die a horrible death at the hands of Blake.

Afterwards, we both sit down on a nearby bench.

“Mrs Belladonna…. Kali, I can’t thank you enough for everything you just said…. You have no idea how much it means to me.”

“I’m always happy to help Yang, like I said, you’re part of the family now.”

“I can’t think of a better family to be a part of….. I’m so lucky that Blake is my partner.”

“And we’re all lucky that you’re Blake’s partner, you’re a wonderful person.”

“Aw, cmon, you’ve only known me for a day, I can’t be all that great.”

Kali laughs slightly at the little dig at myself.

“I’m sure you’ll only get better the longer you spend here.”

“…..thank you, really I-“

We can hear shouting from outside, louder than it was before now.

Did I hear something about a Spy?

Kali and I both rush back outside to assess the situation.

Blake’s gone.

Kali immediately ask what’s going on.

Sun’s response is not one that eases either of us.

“The White Fang is evil, I totally called it, and I'm bringing your daughter back!”

He then jumps off the balcony, presumably after Blake.

“Wha-?!”

I look out into the treeline, seeing Sun skip from branch to branch. I think I can see Blake further along than him.

“Well, I’m bringing both of them back, cause Sun can’t be trusted to bring anything back anywhere.”

And just like that, I launch myself after them.

POV Blake

Damnit, I should’ve known it wouldn’t end like that.

They’ve been watching me, they know I’m here.

And… something about the spy is… disturbingly familiar.

Please tell me it’s not her.

I can’t fight her.

We both briefly take pause on different trees.

Only for Sun to suddenly come dropping out of the sky above the spy.

She dodges it pitifully easily.

I continue to chase her while Sun lands on another branch.

“Hey, wait up!”

“Don't let her out of your sight!”

I continue to chase her. Eventually we break out of the treeline and continue the chase on series of nearby rooftops.

She slides under a set of pipes. I go to do the same, only for something to strike the pipes and release steam in my path.

Like I’m gonna let a little steam stop me.

Easily making it through the cloud, I eventually come face-to….. mask, with the now stationary spy.

“Why are you watching me?”

Please… please don’t be her.

And the suddenly Sun comes soaring through the sky and landing on the roof ahead of me.

“Give it up! I'm not above hitting a girl, you—”

The spy immediately cracks their whip at him.

Perfect, that gives me an opportunity to do something.

I manage to land a kick, knocking a Scroll out of the Spy’s hand.

She manages to counter my next attack, knocking me back slightly with a kick.

And then Sun comes barreling into them, tackling them down to the rooftop.

“Grab the Scroll! Seems someone thinks it's important!”

While I rush to do so, I can hear the Spy say something.

“Get off!”

It sounds exactly like her…. Please, please don’t be her, I can’t do this.

No time for a crisis now, she’s running straight at me.

Fortunately, Sun manages to intercept her with one of his clones.

I pause for a second… she looks exactly-

“Quit staring and grab it!”

R-right! Get the scroll first.

When I finally do, I hear Sun calling for me to watch out.

I turn around, and watch as the mask crumbles from the Spy’s face.

It’s really her…..

“Ilia.”

Sun immediately seems confused.

“Wait, you know her?! But she doesn't even look like a f-“

And suddenly, Sun is stuck by Ilia’s whip.

“Sun!”

“Give it to me.”

Ilia’s turned red. She’s clearly not happy to see me.

I can’t blame her…. I did leave her….

With Adam.

“No.”

I can’t… I’ve fought too hard to make it this far.

Ilia once again changes color. Her palette looks so much more… sad now.

“You shouldn't have come ba-“

A bright explosive shell suddenly rains down in front of Ilia.

After it impacts, Yang crashes in front of me.

“Stay the hell away from her.”

“Y-Yang, wai-“

Suddenly, Ilia creates a cloud of dust in front of her, masking the area.

When the cloud clears….. she’s gone.

“Who the hell was that?”

“I’ll explain later.”

Wait, what about-

“SUN!”

The both of us rush over to his limp body.

He’s bleeding badly, the wound Ilia left is serious.

“ No, no, no, not again, please! Help! Somebody! Hold on, Sun, just hold on.”

Yang places her hand on my shoulder.

“Blake, calm down, we need to keep everything under control. Let’s get Sun back to the house, we can get him treated there.”

Right…. Ok….. he’ll be fine.

I hope to the gods he’ll be fine.

He has to be fine.

Chapter Text

POV Blake

“A-Adam, I don’t-“

“What’s wrong my love?”

He’s firmly grasping my shoulder with one hand, his other digging into my thigh equally hard.

“I don’t… I don’t really know if I want to do this.”

“Why? Are you not enjoying it?”

“I….I-“

“Just relax darling, I won’t hurt you.”

“I-I know, but I-“

His hand glides further up my thigh.

“Just be quiet and let me do this Blake, I’m doing this for you.”

“I know… but… I-I-“

His other hand clasps around by mouth to silence me.

“Don’t worry, you’ll enjoy it my love.”

I doubt I will at this point.

But…. I trust him not to hurt me.

He wouldn’t hurt me, right?

He’s doing this to make me feel good.

But… I don’t want to feel good in this way.

Why am I not just telling him to stop?

I want him to stop, but I just can’t find the strength to take his hand off my mouth and tell him.

So…. I just let it happen.

I close my eyes, and accept the pleasure, as unwanted as it is.

And when I finally open my eyes-

———————————

-I’m no longer with him.

I’m back at home, back in my old bed, laying on my side.

Oh… it was just a memory.

Good, I don’t ever want that to happen again.

I can feel somebody moving behind to me.

I hesitate to turn around.

I’m scared that when I do, he will be there, and that memory I’m trying so hard to forget will be recreated.

When I finally do turn, I’m struck with an immeasurable sense of relief.

It’s just Yang.

She’s so adorable when she’s asleep.

Honestly I wish that stupid memory was with her instead. At least then I’d be a willing participant.

And I know damn well she would be too.

Honestly, looking back, I’m a bit baffled that I didn’t realize how she felt about me sooner.

———————————

I still can’t believe I let Yang talk me into this.

I know I’m taking Sun with me as my date, but honestly, I’m only here because Yang convinced me to go.

Speak of the devil, here she is, right past the door, welcoming us into the dance.

Honestly, that dress doesn’t look that good on her, she’d probably be better off wearing a different dress, or a suit, depends on what she’d rather wear.

Otherwise, she still looks as great as ever.

“Well, look who decided to show up.”

“Don’t even start, I will leave right now.”

“Alright, I won’t start.”

“Good, because it’s taking every fiber of my being to not just walk back out the door.”

“Alright, well, you two enjoy the dance.”

“We totally will, don’t worry, it’s gonna be awe-“

I stop Sun before he can finish.

“Sun’s right, we will, but first, are you still needed up here?”

“I can spare a few minutes if you need me.”

“Good, because I intend follow through on your offer for a dance.”

“O-oh, I… honestly wasn’t expecting you to actually collect on that.”

“Well, I am, what do you say? Care to dance?”

“It would be my pleasure.”

I reach my hand out to her, and she gladly accepts it.

I walk the both of us out into the center of the room, making sure that I don’t bump into any of the couples.

“Well now, I hope you know how to dance, otherwise I’d be very disappointed.”

“Me? Know how to dance? Does a Nevermore know how to fly?”

Yang’s response to my little dig at her dancing skills is full of her usual bravado.

Good, at least I know my first dance won’t be a bad one.

And so, she wraps her free arm around my waist, and we begin our dance.

She wasn’t wrong, she’s actually rather good at it.

Of course, I probably won’t tell her that, she’s too fun to tease.

Honestly, I’m glad she talked me into coming, so far it’s been pretty fun.

Maybe that just because Yang is such a good dancer, maybe when our dance is over I’ll want to leave again, I doubt Sun is anywhere near as good at dancing as he says he is.

Whatever, I’m here now, might as well try and enjoy it.

The dance goes on for a few more minutes. It’s slow, coordinated, it feels like a proper dance between two partners.

Partners… Yang is a good one… not like… him.

I’m glad I met her, she’s so much nicer to me than anyone else I’ve ever met.

“Alright, I should probably get going now, gotta get back to welcoming the rest of the guests.”

She sounds very disappointed, guess she was also enjoying our dance.

“Well, if you have to, I guess our dance will have to be cut short.”

“Yeah… so, was I as good a dancer as I claimed to be?”

“Eh, you were alright.”

“Oh don’t give me that shit, I’m amazing.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll admit, that was probably the best dance I’ve ever shared with somebody.”

She brightens up a lot at that.

Her face has turned weirdly pink for some reason.

Guess she wasn’t expecting me to compliment her like that.

“O-oh… well, I’m honored. You were pretty damn good yourself.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Alright, I-I’ll let you and Sun have your dance now, hope you enjoy it.”

“I’m enjoying the night so far, I doubt even he could ruin it for me.”

“Good to know I’m not the only one having fun.”

———————————

Honestly, I probably should’ve realized it as far back as the Beacon Dance, she was way too excited when I said I wanted to dance with her.

She was so obvious, and I was just too dense to realize.

I was always too dense to realize how she felt. Even after Beacon fell, I was too focused on how I felt about her to realize how she felt.

———————————

I can tell that Yang is still having trouble adjusting to using her new arm.

It’s clearly not something she’s used to yet, it’s going to take time.

She’s just finished training with her father for the day. I hope he didn’t go too hard on her, it’s still her first day back up.

Well, he clearly went hard enough on her, cause I’m here, cleaning her cuts and bruises.

Her aura hasn’t gone up in a while, she’s too distracted to maintain it.

That’s probably why she doesn’t feel it when I rest my hand on her prosthetic… I just let my hand stay there, feeling the cold, lifeless metal beneath it.

Yang finally looks down at my hand atop her new arm.

“Blake? You ok?”

“Yeah… I’m fine…. How about you, the arm working alright?”

“I-I guess…. It just… it’s weird… I can’t actually feel anything in it…. I can’t feel your hand right now.”

She moves her arm slightly to clasp my hand in hers.

“I can’t feel any of this…. I want to, but I can’t… I want to be able to feel this, to feel you…. But I can’t.”

“I wish you could feel it too….. I just wish…. I’m so sorry Ya-“

“Blake, for the millionth time, I don’t blame you for this. I jumped in there, I ran headfirst into danger and got fucked over for it, you’re not at fault here….. I wouldn’t want to feel your touch again if you were.”

“I-I……”

And I collapse into her, wrapping my arms around her in a crushing hug.

I can feel both of her arms, the normal one and the metal one, wrap around me in response.

The contrast is so clear, one is warm and full of life, the other, all it leaves is a cold touch with no soul behind it.

I want her to be able to feel me again.

———————————

Gods…. I love her…… so much.

And she loves me.

I know she feels the same…. But I just can’t bring myself to tell her how I feel.

I want her to do it first, I need her to be ready.

Because if I don’t know that she’s ready-

-will I be any better than Adam by telling Yang that I love her before she can really say it back?

Chapter Text

POV Ilia

Why?

Why did she have to come back?!?

Does she know how much danger she put herself in by coming back?!??!

Damnit….. she has no clue what Adam’s plans for Menagerie are.

She has no clue what she walked right into.

At first I thought I’d be asked to kill her, to remove her from the equation before she could become a serious threat.

I don’t think I could bring myself to do that. Even after she left…… I still care about her too much to do that.

Fortunately, Adam didn’t want her dead either, he wanted her alive, and he wanted me to incapacitate her for transport to him in Mistral.

I still can’t believe his coup actually succeeded.

Now I have no chance of getting out, he has the whole of the White Fang in his back pocket.

The only choice I have left is to go along with what he tells me to.

And he’s ordered me to get Blake out of the way so we can take out her parents without her interfering.

And that task would be a lot easier if her new partner wasn’t glued to her 24/7.

Yang Xiao Long, a human, seriously Blake?

I still can’t believe that she chose a human…. And worse, she’s looking at her the same way she used to look at Adam.

Yet another person she’s fallen for…. and she never even looked my way once.

I need to separate them if I have any chance of bringing Blake down.

I know damn well that I can’t take Yang in a fight.

I know how Blake fights, I know how to counter her, but Yang? I doubt I could even do any lasting damage to her.

So, that’s where the plan came into effect.

Blake was exploring the market with Yang and the boy that Adam says isn’t a serious threat…. Sun? I think his name was Sun.

Three members of the White Fang that was placed under my watch volunteered to draw them out, apparently Blake found out their identities from my Scroll.

Blake’s already been tracking down my other associated through my scroll, just last week I had to save somebody’s ass because Blake cornered him in an alley.

The plan was simple, the volunteers would draw Blake and the others away, and separate in order to draw Blake, Sun and Yang away from each other.

Hopefully everything goes off without a-

I can hear gunfire.

Good, hopefully that means the first part of the plan is going well.

I can hear the gunfire moving closer towards me.

Then, it splits off, three different sources no one in three different directions.

Good, it seems the separation works.

Now, to just wait, and-

I’ve got a ping from one of the volunteers, Blake’s on their trail.

Good, I just need to I reach them before Blake can capture them, and the I can finally get this over with.

And so, I take off in their direction.

I just hope that the others draw Yang and Sun away far enough so I can take Blake down before they can meet up again.

….I still can’t believe I’m doing this.

I don’t have any other choice.

He hasn’t given me any other choice.

It’s the only I can do at this point.

I’m too scared to fight back.

So now… I’m hunting down my oldest friend.

To take her back to the man that she tried so hard to run away from.

POV Blake

Damnit, he’s getting away.

I can’t let another one get away.

They’re too dangerous to let escape.

I take shots at the White Fang member with Gambol Shroud, though they manage to avoid all of them.

Ok, he’s heading out of the market.

Good, that means I can use more force without the risk of hurting somebody or damaging anything.

Hopefully Yang isn’t breaking everything in her path to get to the White Fang member she was chasing.

Ok, finally, I’ve managed to make it out into a clearing.

Suddenly… the White Fang member just…. Stops.

Either he’s realized that he can’t escape, or-

-it’s an ambush!

I can hear somebody rapidly approaching behind me.

I quickly turn to face my attacker-

-and get a face full of whip.

The strike knocks me back, causing me to drop the main part of Gambol Shroud.

I reach on my back to grab the sheath, but my arm is caught in a whip, and I am pulled to the ground.

I drop the sheath in the process, a foot stomping on top of it in order to keep me from grabbing it.

I can already tell who it is.

Looking up, I’m proven correct.

“Ilia, wai-“

All asking her to wait gets me is a boot to my head.

Ow.

“I-Ilia, please, just t-“

“Shut up.”

The next kick was straight in the mouth.

Again, OW.

“Ilia…. Just…”

“I SAID SHUP UP!”

Her whip is still wrapped around my arm, I know that if I try to move, I’ll likely end up being shocked for it.

“…..sorry.”

What is she saying sorry f-

And I’m being shocked anyway.

That first blast of electricity takes out my aura instantly.

“I-Ilia, please, y-you don-“

She says nothing, she just shocks me again.

And again.

And again.

And eventually,

I black out.

POV Yang

That took way too long.

The member of the White Fang I had to chase down was a fast one, I think they were a cheetah Faunus or something.

Sun’s already taken out his target, we both dragged them back to the Menagerie police to be sorted out.

One thing still concerns me though.

Where’s Blake?

She hasn’t come back yet.

“Damnit, Sun, keep an eye on these two, I’m going after Blake.”

“Will do.”

And I’m off.

I use the location tracker in Blake’s scroll to make my way towards her.

She’s pretty damn far away.

About halfway through my walk towards her, she suddenly… stops moving.

Oh no.

I really pick up the pace after that.

Her location tracker is in of a clearing just outside of the market.

She better be ok, because if she’s not, I am going to kill whoever hurt her.

And it looks like I’m gonna be killing somebody.

Because when I finally reach Blake’s location, I can feel the air heating up around me from how mad I get.

Blake is lying there, unconscious, and standing above her is that short chameleon girl that Blake promised to tell me about but never did.

Said girl looks to me, and I can quite literally see the color drain from her face.

She’s scared of me.

Good, she should be.

Cause now I’m fucking pissed.

Chapter Text

POV Yang

I swear, she is going to fucking die.

I can tell she’s scared of me even behind that damn mask.

Maybe the fact that she’s literally gone white helped with that.

Or maybe the fact that she’s very clearly shaking.

She starts to shift slightly.

And then, she runs.

I can see her pull back her whip, clearly intending to lasso away with it.

Unfortunately for her, I’m not about to let her get away.

Right as her whip begins flying towards a nearby beam, I launch a shell form Ember Celica straight at it.

The shell impacts the beam after the girl has already hoisted herself up, causing her to fall back to the ground when the beam breaks off.

And then, above her, I notice a pile of boards being suspended by a rope.

Well, that’s convenient.

I launch another shell at the rope, hitting it dead on and snapping it.

The girl only gets to look up for a second before the boards crash down on her.

After the impact, I wait for a minute to make sure she isn’t getting up.

No movement, good.

Now, I need to check on Blake.

I rush over towards her and slide down so I’m kneeling at her side.

Shit, Blake, please be ok.

When I reach her, I place my hand on the side of her head, moving her hair away from her face to get a better look.

I can’t hear her breathing.

No, no no no, please.

“Blake, please, get up.”

Nothing.

“Please, Blake, you need to get up.”

Still nothing, no response.

“Blake, please…. Get up, I need you.”

She’s still not getting up.

“Blake…..”

And then the tears start flowing.

“Please….. you can’t leave me….. I can’t do this without you.”

My eyes are basically glued shut to stop the tears from getting out.

It doesn’t work, I can’t feel them dropping from my eyes and onto my legs.

And then, behind me, I can hear somebody groaning, along with the sounds of wood being moved.

My eyes shoot open, looking to me left where the noise is coming from.

I can tell that they’ve gone red.

I take my hand away from Blake’s face, and begin standing up.

The air around me is heating up wildly.

If that wasn’t enough of a sign of my semblance going off, I think the unmistakable feeling of my hair bursting into flames is more than enough.

Turning to my left, I see the girl rising out of the pile of wood I buried her under.

Both of my fists clench tighter then they’ve ever done so before, to the point where I’m pretty my non-metal hand has started bleeding out of the palm.

I stare daggers straight at her. I swear, I’m actually seeing red right now.

I’m going to fucking kill her for this.

POV Ilia

Ow.

That really freaking hurt.

I feel like I’ve got a concussion now.

Fortunately, my head didn’t get hit hard enough for me to be out for more than a minute or two.

Now I just need to get up, and get out of he-

…..why do I small smoke…. And fire?

Whatever, I just need to get out of here before-

And right as I stand up, I hear something charging right at me.

Turning to my left, I’m nearly met with a fist square in the face.

I manage to step back just enough for the fist to miss me and impact a nearby wall.

The force of the punch leaves a crater in the side of the wall, nearly breaking right through it.

I manage to catch myself before I fall backwards.

And right before Yang turns to me, and tries to slam her fist into the side of my head after dragging it across the damaged wall.

I manage to avoid the swipe, before Yang tries to punch me with her other hand.

Glad I also managed to avoid that one, I feel like the metal arm would’ve hurt a LOT.

Using the momentum from that last punch, she whips herself around, sending a kick at me with her left leg after spinning.

I manage to duck under the kick.

What I don’t avoid, is the knee to the face from Yang’s other leg.

The strike sends my flying back a lot farther than it probably should have.

I manage to pick myself back up after the knee strike sent my backwards, and I’m nearly met with Yang’s fist.

Again, I barely avoid it, but this time I manage to go on the counteroffensive.

I strike Yang across the face with my whip, staggering her a bit.

Unfortunately, not enough to stop her from clotheslining me with her other arm and launching me away from her again.

This time, I manage to snag my whip on a nearby post to stop myself.

Yang comes barreling towards me at a completely ludicrous speed.

This time, I’m not quite fast enough to avoid her attack, and I’m hit square in the gut with an incredibly hard punch.

I’m pretty sure I see blood coming out of my mouth during the resulting gasp I make.

The impact sends me crashing into another nearby wall.

I can feel my aura start to lose strength, though fortunately it is yet to break.

After I manage to stand up again, I see Yang standing a distance away from me.

Alright then. Guess I’m going to have to fight her.

I can see her getting into a fighting stance.

There’s no way out of this now.

And so, I rush towards her, my whip at the ready.

And then, I step to the left, out of Yang’s line of sight, and swing my whip towards her.

Unfortunately, Yang brings up her prosthetic to block the attack, my whip wrapping around it.

She then uses that to pull me forward, right towards another punch.

Before she can hit me with her free hand, I manage to wrap my legs around it, and use the momentum to spin around her, pulling my whip away from her and stroking her in the back with it as I jump away.

The strike causes her to fall forward onto her knee.

And then, in an instant, she fires off her gauntlets directly in front of her.

The force of the point blank explosion launches her backwards, straight towards me.

She spins herself around in midair, and attempts to hit me with a flying punch.

I manage to lean back just enough to avoid the attack, causing Yang to fly over me.

She hits the ground a slight distance behind me and tumbles a bit before stopping herself on her knee.

She then kicks herself up, and spins around at me again, hitting my me in the ribs with a punch from her metal arm.

I was right, that really freaking hurt.

Fortunately, she didn’t hit me with enough force to launch me again, so I’m able to steady myself and strike her across the torso with my whip.

The strike causes her to stagger.

Taking the opening, I dash past her, hitting her in the side on the way.

I once again dash by, hitting her in the side.

Then I do so again, and again, and again. I strike her in the side, the chest, the back, I even hit her across the face a few times.

Every time I hit her, I swear, I can see the raging inferno that has engulfed her hair burn even brighter.

And then, as I’m about to strike her head on, she pulls her fist back.

I’m not dumb enough not to notice, so I’m prepared to sidestep the attack.

Only for her to instead hit the ground.

And when her fist impact the ground, it shatters apart in a massive shockwave.

The force sends me flying back off my feet.

Meaning I have no way to dodge when Yang launches towards me, and grabs my by the face.

She then rushes straight at another wall, slamming me against it.

She then runs along the wall, dragging me against it all the way.

Every second I’m dragged, I can feel more of my aura chipping away.

I barely manage to click the trigger of my whip, activating the lightning dust in it.

And then, I crack it forward towards Yang, hitting her square in the chest, sending a shock through her.

The quick shock causing her to jerk away, I can see her aura flicker slightly from it. She lets go of me in the process. She’s disoriented.

Now that I’ve made an opening, I can finally end this.

So I once again try to strike her with my whip.

This time around, she raises her left arm, the normal one, to block it.

Exactly like I hoped she would.

I can see her go to whip her arm back to try to pull me towards her.

Unfortunately for her, she wasn’t fast enough.

I again press down the trigger for my whip, sending another burst of lightning dust through it, hitting Yang with another shock.

She lets out a pained yell at that. Good, that means that hurt her, so I just need to keep it up.

I hold down the trigger, sending a continuous current of electricity through my whip, and straight into Yang.

The constant shock causes her to drop to her knee and cry out in pain.

And then, almost drowned out by Yang’s pained cries, I can hear somebody groaning.

“Y-Yang?”

Turning my head, I see Blake, finally having woken up.

“YANG!”

Damnit. I didn’t want her to have to see this.

Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s going to have to see much more. Because the sudden increase in heat is not a good sign.

Turning back to Yang, I can see her hair burst into an even more wild burst of flame, they’ve somehow turned blue from the sheer heat, her eyes practically glowing bright red.

Somehow, despite the continued shock, she manages to stand up.

I probably should have let go of my whip, though unfortunately, I was a bit to surprised to do so.

She then manages to pull her arm back, lurching me towards her.

And then, then comes the hardest punch I think I’ve ever seen anyone throw out.

POV Yang

That one absolutely hurt her.

She was sent flying straight into a wall from the force of that punch.

After she falls to the floor onto her knees, I can her aura flicker away around her.

Good, her aura’s finally broken.

Although, judging by the burst of pain that brings me to my knees, and the feeling of something cracking apart around me, so is mine.

But, unfortunately for her, it’s gonna take more than a broken aura to keep me down.

Right as she begins to rise back to her feet, I do the same.

And then, I begin bolting right towards her.

Before she can react beyond jumping in fear, I’ve caught her in a shoulder tackle.

I then charge straight through the wall she crashed into.

Then another, and another, and another.

After crashing through a fifth wall, I finally find myself having emerged on the other side of a building, throwing the girl to the ground, her whip falling beside her.

Gotta remember to apologize to whoever’s house that was later.

I can see, somehow still awake, her mask having fallen off while I was tackling her through the house, weakly reach for her whip.

Yeah, no, no more shocks for today, I think I’ve had enough.

I bring my boot down on her arm, resulting in her letting out a weak shout from the pain.

I’m surprised I still have enough left in me to keep her pinned down like that.

She stares straight into my eyes. I can see the pure fear in hers.

Then, I pull back my fist, ready to just blast her damn head off, until-

“Y-YANG, WAIT!”

Turning around, towards the house I just plowed through, I can see Blake leaning against the wall to keep herself standing.

“Yang… don’t, please.”

“Blake-“

And then, I can feel a swift kick to my guy.

The girl below me managed to gather enough strength to kick me off of her.

She then grabs her whip off the floor, and runs away, clutching her stomach.

I go to chase her, but that’s when the ludicrous amount of electricity she hit me with finally catches up to me, and I fall to my knees.

Blake immediately rushes to my side, kneeling down and placing an arm on my back.

“Yang! Are you-“

“Y-yeah, I’ll be fine…”

“Ok….

“And you?”

“I’m alright…. I’m fine.”

I use the tiny amount of strength I have left to lurch up and crush Blake in a hug.

“I was really scared that you weren’t going to wake up Blakey, I…..”

“Yang…. It’s ok…. I’m not going to leave you…. I’m never going to leave you.”

She begins hugging me back.

As nice as this is, I have one serious question that I really need an answer to.

So, unfortunately, I have to pull away from the hug.

“Blake…. Please… tell me… who was that?”

“…..her name is Ilia, Ilia Amitola…… she was a friend of mine back when I was still in the White Fang.”

“Pretty shitty friend if you ask m-“

She looks at me with a rather threatening (and rather sexy) glare.

“S-sorry…”

“Look, she’s…. She’s a good person Yang…. She’s just….. she can’t get out like I did…… please, if you see her again, just….. don’t hurt her any more than you need to…. I want to help her.”

As much as I really wanna bash that bitch’s face in… for Blake’s sake, I’ll hold myself back if we meet again.

“Alright, I think I can manage that.”

“Thank you.”

She pulls me back into another hug, resting her head atop mine.

This feels nice.

What also feels nice, but extremely unexpected, is the light kiss she leaves on the top of my head.

I’d ask her about it, but right now, I’m waaaay too exhausted to do anything but sleep.

“Hey, Blake, can… can we go now… I’m really fucking tired.”

She laughs slightly, pulling away form the hug and looking me in the eyes.

“Alright, let’s go home.”

Chapter Text

Yang was having some trouble fixing up her prosthetic after her battle with Ilia, especially after that massive burst of electricity the Faunus had hit her with. It had fried all the circuits in the thing and made it impossible for Yang to use the damn thing since it was no longer able to link to her nervous system.

She had the mechanical engineering skills to fix the thing, she was just waiting for Blake to return from her trip to the market with the materials she needed to do so. By now she had finished cleaning off all the scuffs and marks from the fight and re-applied the yellow paint to it, bringing it aesthetically back to 100%.

Blake had gone out to get the components a few hours ago, so hopefully she would be back with them soon, Yang always felt a bit… incomplete without the prosthetic on. To be fair, she still felt a bit incomplete even WITH it on, but the connection of it with her aura did help a little bit.

So after finishing visually repairing her arm, she just sat in the chair to the desk she was using as a makeshift workbench, holding the prosthetic in her left hand, kinda jingling it back and forth, since she really had nothing better to do. She was honestly getting kinda bored at the wait, but she wasn’t about to get pissy as Blake for taking time getting some very specific items in such a crowded location.

It only took about another 20 minutes of Yang swinging the hand on her prosthetic back and forth for her to finally hear the door to the room she had been staying in open. She turned the chair around to get a good look at Blake entering the room with a bag of the items Yang had asked her for.

As usual, Yang had to pry her eyes away from Blake at the absolutely angelic sight of her. It took her a good few seconds, and the noticing of Blake’s smirk at the staring for her to finally find the will to do so. She sheepishly turned back to the desk, looking down at it to avoid Blake’s gaze.

She didn’t even bother looking up when she heard the sound of Blake’s heels advancing towards her. She didn’t look up until Blake placed a hand on her shoulder to try and turn her in the chair. When Blake did so, Yang found herself only an inch or two from Blake’s chest, and she was rather flustered at the closeness to it.

Yang rolled the chair back a bit and turned her gaze back to look Blake straight in the eyes, refusing to look anywhere else on her perfect body. Blake just laughed rather vocally at Yang’s embarrassment, dropping the bag of parts on the desk to hold her gut and laugh. “Oh my god, Yang, you are so easy to fluster.”

“S-Shut up…. Did you get everything?” Yang just wanted to change the topic of this discussion entirely, so she shifted to talking about the parts that she needed for her arm. “Yeah, don’t worry, I got everything on the list. Took a helluva long time though, sorry for the wait.”

“It’s fine, I’m just glad to finally be able to get it fixed up. Wanna be able to use both arms again.” She turned back to the desk and laid her arm down before fishing through the bag to get what she needed. “Thanks Blakey.”

Yang almost immediately got to work on accessing the inner wiring of her prosthetic to begin replacing the fried circuitry and wires within it. She began the repair process, with Blake watching her work from her side, admiring her beloved partner’s mechanical skill.

“Hey… Yang…. I know it’s a bit of a delayed question, but… after the fight with Ilia….. are you alright?” Yang stopped at Blake’s rather concerned question, ceasing the repair job and turning to face her partner. “Y’know what Blake… no, I’m not alright.”

Oh god, this is what Blake was worried about. Yang was probably seriously hurt and didn’t want to tell her- “I’m all left!” Yang cheerfully stated while pointing to her stump of a right arm. “…………….” Blake just stood there in silence, watching as Yang devolved into a fit of laughter.

“Yang… that’s… not….” Blake couldn’t stop herself from starting to laugh along with Yang. The joke wasn’t very good, nor was it very appropriate for the situation, but Blake was just enamored by the laugh that Yang had let out and absolutely had to join her.

The two of them just let out a long howl of mutual laughter, basking in the tone set by Yang’s terrible joke about her disability. Blake had missed Yang’s shitty puns so much since after Beacon, and hearing her make another poor taste joke that wasn’t very funny absolutely set her heart ablaze.

“A-Alright, maybe it was a LITTLE funny, but seriously, not the moment.” Blake’s smile was betraying her attempts to berate Yang for making that joke at a pretty poor time. “Ok, I won’t make that one again, don’t worry. Don’t wanna cut you to pieces, do I?”

That one, Blake absolutely couldn’t laugh at, and Yang picked up on that rather quickly. “R-Right, sorry.” Yang awkwardly went back to her work on fixing up her arm while Blake just stood there in a bit of a state of awe, not really believing that Yang had just joked about THAT of all things.

Whatever, she’d let her get away with it for now, she could tell that Yang felt rather awkward after realizing just how poorly the joke had went over with Blake. She knew that Yang would probably not intentionally make the mistake of joking about that ever again. At least, she wouldn’t while around Blake.

She knew that Yang mostly coped with comedy, so she could infer that the joke was mostly just an attempt to make light of what happened in an play to get over it easier. Blake didn’t think that either of them would ever really get over it, how could anyone ever get over something like that?

Honestly, she should just be glad Yang was getting back to her old self. Hopefully things would be calm for the foreseeable future so that hopefully they could both get back to how they used to be… and maybe sort out the Goliath in the room of what exactly they were to each other.

—————————————

After almost a month of being out of commission, Ilia was finally back out in the field. Yang had done a number on her, cracking most of her ribs, breaking one of her arms, leaving a big snap in her spine, and a massive bruise on her gut that nearly shattered her whole ribcage. Even after the injuries healed, Ilia was a bit too scared to get back to work in trying to eliminate her.

By now, she was stable enough to get back out there, but she knew damn well it was a bad idea to try and fight Yang, especially on her own, so she decided to call for some serious backup. Apparently Adam had sent one of his most trusted enforcers to get the job done for her.

It took several weeks, but finally, the backup had arrived. Ilia waited patiently with the Albain twins for the dropship to finally make landing at the Menagerie White Fang HQ. When it finally did, Ilia was glad that she would finally be able to let somebody else handle the job of dealing with Yang.

The dropship’s doors opened, and out came a rather sizable squad of White Fang soldiers, all armed rather well and clearly ready for a fight. Heading that squad, was a rather large man, stomping off the ship, a massive chainsaw slung over his right shoulder, face entirely concealed behind a large custom mask.

“Ah, brother Felies, it’s a pleasure to see somebody so capable be allocated to our efforts.” Fennec had opted to greet the team leader, Dino Felies, known long time supporter of Adam’s ideology and extremely powerful warrior. Ilia figured that he would stand a much better chance against Yang than she would.

“You the one the little girl beat?” He had walked right up to the three of them, staring down at Ilia as he awaited her response to his question. “Y-Yes…” Dino just continued to look down at Ilia, before deciding exactly how he felt about her. “Pathetic.”

“Brother Dino, Ilia was tasked with the rather hard mission of eliminating Mrs Blake Belladonna and her allies, her partner specifically, a Yang Xiao Long, has proven to be rather difficult for most of our warriors.” Corsac had given his input on the situation, attempting to defend Ilia in the process.

“I can see why she’s been difficult. I’ll take it from here, clearly you all can’t be trusted to see Adam’s orders through without him holding your damn hand the entire time. You’re lucky he’s such a forgiving High Leader.” That last part shocked Ilia a bit.

“W-What about High Leader Kahn?” Ilia didn’t personally care for High Leader Sienna Kahn, but she was a capable leader. “Adam took her out of the equation, she was just slowing things down.” And that made Ilia’s heart sink. Adam Taurus was now the acting High Leader of the White Fang.

“Ah, well, we have not been informed about that, brother Felies. We trust that brother Adam will handle things better than she ever could.” Dino just scoffed at them and began to walk away. “He’ll crush our enemies beneath his feet. Just like I’m about to do to Blondie.”

And after that, he set out to get to work on that, not wasting any time with planning things out, just straight to the killing. Ilia just stood there in shock at the bombshell Dino had dropped on her, and processed the idea of Adam being High Leader.

The thought was a terrifying one… but she had no other option but to follow him and hope things would wind up well for her. She honestly had no idea what else to do but keep fighting under his command….. she hasn’t known any other option for a long time now.

Chapter Text

About a month after her bout with Ilia, Yang thought things in Menagerie would calm down significantly for her and Blake. There had been less White Fang sightings, less accidents for them to clean up, and more time to themselves to do whatever they wanted. It was nice having some downtime after all the crap they had to go through.

At this point, Yang had fully moved into Blake’s room, the two of them basically couldn’t sleep anymore if they were apart. Yang didn’t really appreciate Sun’s comment of them “not getting any sleep at all” if the two of them shared a bed.

Yang wanted so desperately to be able to tell Blake how she felt, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it, could barely even bring herself to talk about their relationship at all. She was scared, more scared of it than almost anything else in her entire life. Scared of rejection, of failing….. scared that she’d let Blake down.

At the moment, the two of them were simply relaxing together, cuddled up against each other, watching some random romcom show they set up on Blake’s scroll. Blake’s parents were both away at a meeting with several of Ghira’s advisors, so the two had had decided to just spend the day indoors, lazing away on Blake’s bed, just waiting for something to happen.

Unfortunately, something did indeed decide to happen that day… or night, it was actually rather late, and it ruined to good relaxing vibe that the two of them were oh so happy with. The calmness was completely shattered to bits when Sun suddenly burst through the door, startling the both of them straight off the bed.

“GUYS, WE-….. sorry.” He waited patiently for the two of them to stand back up and dust themselves off. “Anyway, guys, we have a problem.” Blake narrowed her gaze a bit towards Sun. “What type of problem.” Sun was quick to respond. “Well, a big one right outside the front door and a bunch of little ones around it with guns.”

That got both of them on full alert. “Wait, what?!” Yang was the first to question further. “I’m saying there’s a freaking White Fang kill squad outside, and they’re asking for you guys.” Well, that part had put them BEYOND full alert.

Both of them quickly rushed to grab their weapons and other combat gear, before rushing out of the room to follow Sun. Blake hoped deep down that Ilia would be there, she needed to speak to her again, but she wasn’t betting on it.

By the time they had reached the front door, they all had their weapons ready, preparing themselves for things to go south really quickly. After opening the door, they were greeted with a pretty unnerving sight. About 20 White Fang goons, all armed and prepared to fight. What really drew their attention though, was the large man in the front of the crowd.

A rather large, bulky Faunus wearing a mask that covered his entire face, and carrying an enormous chainsaw which he had slung over his shoulder. Blake recognized him, he was a White Fang Lieutenant named Dino Felies, the man who had bested Weiss back on the train in Mountain Glenn.

“Well hello kids. Great of you to finally get your slow asses out here. If it wasn’t obvious enough from the firing squad, I’m not really here to talk. Adam sent me to kill you, and that’s what I’m gonna do, no complications, no fancy plans, just me ramming my chainsaw through your guts.”

Blake immediately readied herself in a fighting stance, Gambol Shroud in position to strike. “If he wants me dead, he should’ve come here himself to-“ She was promptly cut off. “Oh not you kitty-cat, he wants you alive. I’m talking to her.” He focused his line of sight directly on Yang.

“You’ve become something of a problem for him. High Leader Taurus didn’t take too kindly to your little tussle with Ilia.” One thing in that declaration caught Blake off guard. “Wait… High Leader…. Taurus?” What happened to Sienna Kahn?

“Oh yeah that, he took Kahn out of the picture. She was just slowing us down anyway. Now, I’d love to let you stew over that bombshell, but like I’ve said, I’ve got orders to cut your partner open.” Dino brought his chainsaw in front of him, and powered it on.

“Yeah, like that’s gonna happen. Blake, I’ve got this guy, you and Sun handle the jokers.” Yang cocked her gauntlets and prepared for combat. Sun likewise got his weapon ready. “Alright, 10 goons each, doesn’t sound that hard.”

“Yang, are you sure you can handle this?” Blake looked to her partner, concerned. “I’ll be fine Blake. If I’m not, just jump in, let Sun handle the cannon fodder.” Sun made a sound of mock offense. “Excuse me, I’m not somebody you can just dump all the minions-“

He was cut off when Yang blasted herself towards Dino, ready to strike at full speed. Dino managed to raise his saw to block the strike, staggering back a bit from it, but remaining on his feet. He immediately swung his saw back up, straight towards Yang from below. Yang used her gauntlets to push herself backwards, dodging the attack.

Meanwhile, Blake and Sun immediately got to work dispatching the goons Dino had brought with him. They easily fell to their Melee strikes, going down after a few hits or the odd bullet fired off. They were definitely having the easier time compared to Yang.

Dino had gone on the offensive, relentlessly swinging his saw at Yang, trying to swipe her with it from about every direction. Yang managed to block most of them with her gauntlets, but a few swipes got distressingly close to hitting her. Dino continued to keep up the pressure, trying to wear down her defense until her guard was too weak to stop his attacks.

By this point, Blake and Sun had dealt with most of Dino’s men, only a few of them being left which Sun opted to deal with on his own. Blake turned her attention to Yang’s fight with Dino, noticing that her guard was slipping more and more as time went on. She almost immediately rushed over to help Yang.

“Oh, yeah, sure leave me alone with all these guys…. Ok I know there’s only like 3 guys left, but still.” Sun mock complained to Blake as he quite easily dealt with the last of Dino’s men. As he finished up with them and made sure to strike a pose afterwards for style points, he turned towards his friend’s battle with Dino.

Before he went to assist however, he noticed something, or rather, someone, sat up on a nearby rooftop, looking away from him and towards Yang and Blake’s fight. He recognized that short figure with a massive ponytail, Ilia.

Sun immediately diverted his attention away from the fight with Dino and moved towards Ilia’s location, making sure to stay out of her line of sight as he did so. He was so about to get even for that stabbing a few months back.

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Ilia didn’t like watching this fight any more than she liked having to fight Yang herself. She didn’t even care if either party got hurt, she cared that if Yang got hurt, Blake would obviously take it rather poorly. She never wanted to hurt Blake, never wanted to let anything like this happen to her. Gods, she regretted introducing her to Adam more and more every day.

She had honestly started regretting everything leading up to this moment and likely would regret everything that followed. Adam had lead them so far astray from their original beliefs, but yet, his ways proved effective. They were dirty, brutal, and Ilia hated every act she had committed, but she couldn’t back out now.

Everything just got harder for her to watch when Blake jumped in to help Yang fight Dino, dropping the battle with his men and leaving Sun to fend for himself. Ilia couldn’t care less about Sun, he was pretty irrelevant to her and to Adam as well.

Come to think of it, where exactly did Sun go? She took her eyes away from him a while when Blake jumped in to battle Dino, and after a moment of watching, she turned back to the other battle to see all of Dino’s men knocked out and Sun nowhere to be found.

Was he trying to get the jump on Dino or-

And then Ilia immediately flipped herself backwards at the familiar sound of a gun firing towards her. She landed on her feet, taking out her whip in preparation for a fight. Her question about Sun’s location was answered when she saw him standing just off the rooftop she was sat on, one of the barrels from his weapons smoking as he had it aimed towards where she was previously.

“Miss me? Don’t think I forgot about the whole stabbing me thing, I’m looking to pay you back for that.” Sun recombined his weapons into their staff configuration and got into a fighting stance. “I figured now was as good a time as any to do so, let the girls have their fun down there with the big guy.”

Ilia likewise got into a combat stance, ready to strike at the moment Sun began to move for an attack. Both of them stared at each other, waiting for a move to be made, ready to fight off whatever the other threw at them.

And then, after a tiring period of tension where nobody had made a first attempt to fight, the initial attack was made. Both of them launched at each other, ready to finally get this battle over with.

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Ilia immediately found herself being knocked backwards by a swift kick straight to the gut. It didn’t do much damage overall, but the force behind it knocked her backwards, causing her to land on her back.

She almost immediately did a kip-up to get back on her feet, bringing her whip in front of her to block Sun jabbing at her with his staff. Following up with a swipe, she managed to make Sun lose his balance, before going in to try and swipe him. Sun managed to strike her whip with his staff to block the attack and give himself some leverage to push off Ilia and jump away from her, regaining his footing.

He then snapped his staff into its Nunchaku form, managing to swing one of its components straight into the back of Ilia’s head. Ilia stumbled forward before swinging backwards with her whip, nearly striking Sun with an electrified swipe, but missing by a few inches.

Sun then immediately countered with another strike from his Nunchaku, this time first hitting her in the face and then hitting her again in the back. Ilia was knocked forward a bit by the attack, but managed to catch herself and spin around, just in time to dodge an oncoming barrage of shells from Sun’s shotguns.

She countered with a blast of her own, which Sun easily jumped over, reassembling his staff and attempting to swing it down directly on top of her head. Ilia jumped back, avoiding the attack, but that was exactly what Sun expected her to do, as he suddenly sent two of his clones straight at her.

Both of the caught Ilia in a double clothesline, knocking her on her back against the rooftop. Sun landed ahead of her, ready to strike her with his staff again, but Ilia launched herself straight at Sun with another kip-up, drop kicking him straight in the chest, pushing him away while she got to her feet.

Sun pushed his staff back against the ground behind him to gain some leverage and push himself forward. He then split his staff into its nunchaku configuration again, swinging one at Ilia while firing the other one from under his shoulder. Ilia was able to dodge the melee strike, but the shell hit her dead in the chest, causing her to stagger back, her aura flickering slightly.

Sun then immediately charges her, keeping up the offensive with another flurry of fast-paced strikes from his nunchaku. He manages to tag Ilia several times with the barrage of melee strikes, chipping away at her aura every time he does. Ilia, after being hit several times, manages to restabilize herself and block one of the many strikes, before grabbing onto Sun’s nunchaku and pulling him into a knee strike straight to his gut.

The attack hurts Sun noticeably, but not enough to stop him from firing off another shell over his shoulder, straight into the back of Ilia’s head. The blast manages to finally disperse her aura and staggers her forward a decent amount. Sun immediately follows up by reforming his staff and whacking Ilia across the back with it.

Ilia only just barely manages to keep on her feet, before deciding that it’d be better to just cut her losses and leave while she still can. She activates her whip’s electric charge again, before striking the ground behind her with it while jumping. The shock manages to hit Sun and stun him for a moment, taking a chunk out of his aura.

With her enemy momentarily unable to fight, Ilia dashes off the rooftop, running as fast as she can to get away from the fight, making her way through the nearby treeline to try and hide. When Sun manages to regain his bearings, he is unable to locate Ilia. “Damnit, where did she go?!”

“Must’ve run off, darn.” Guess that he’d have to wait a bit to really lay the smackdown on her, that blows. Whatever, now he should really check on Blake and Yang to make sure they were handling the big guy. From the looks of it, they could be doing better.

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Blake was knocked away by a strike from Dino’s saw, causing her to fall on her back, but she quickly was able to push herself back up off the ground, before swinging Gambol Shroud straight at Dino. He easily saw the attack coming and parried it with his chainsaw, but Blake saw that coming, and gave Yang a knowing look.

Yang immediately understood what Blake meant, and jumped up to Gambol Shroud in the air, grabbing it. Blake immediately pulled back on Gambol Shroud’s ribbon, bringing it back towards her, pulling Yang along with it. Yang flew back past Blake and then propelled herself to the side with her free gauntlet. Blake began spinning in place, dragging Yang through the air as she did so.

After about 3 spins, Blake swung Yang straight into Dino, causing her partner to hit him square in the side, breaking a sizable amount of his aura away. Dino was launched quite a distance away, but was able to stop himself by planting his chainsaw in the ground in front of him and gripping it tightly.

Yang launched herself towards the staggered enemy, rushing straight towards him while charging up a devastating punch. She continued to barrel forward at incredible speed, managing to rush straight up in front of him, winding back her fist in preparation to knock that stupid mask straight off his face.

Unfortunately, the searing pain caused by a volley of buckshot straight to her gut halted any attempt at an attack. Dino had taken out a Sawed-Off Shotgun and blasted Yang point blank with it. This left her completely stunned and open for him to drag his chainsaw up from the ground, swiping her across the torso, shattering her aura and launching her backwards.

Dino got back up, ready to finish the job, before he found himself being hit with several bullets from the side. Blake had moved around to fire at him from his flank. He immediately raised his shotgun towards her and fired at her. Blake managed to dodge the volley with her semblance, followed by several other blasts in her direction.

Eventually, after a series of several more semblance propelled leaps, Blake managed to get herself behind Dino, preparing to swipe him across the back with Gambol Shroud. Unfortunately, Dino managed to quickly spin on his heels and grab onto her wrist, causing her to drop Gambol Shroud from the force he was putting on her. He then blasted her straight in the gut much like he did with Yang, breaking through her aura as well, before tossing her to the side.

“Damn slippery little bitch. You are so lucky Adam wants you alive.” Dino once again revved up his chainsaw, walking away from Blake to instead once again go after Yang. She was only just barely getting back to her feet, trying to lift herself up off the ground. Unfortunately, she was halted by Dino swinging his boot straight into her jaw.

The kick flipped Yang onto her back, leaving her basically defenseless for whatever Dino was going to do next. He then stood straight over her, powering his chainsaw, and then, with terrifying force, he swung it straight at the side of Yang’s torso.

Yang only barely managed to recover enough to move, but not enough to fully avoid the attack. She managed to get out of range to where it’d be fatal, but she still felt the painful sensation of a chainsaw blade ripping into her side. By this point she couldn’t even move because of her injuries, so she simply clutched her side and let out a cry of pain.

“First I beat your Schnee friend, now I get to kill you. Guess you kids are all just letdowns, aren’t you?” Dino raised his chainsaw high above his head, preparing to bring it straight down on Yang. “After I’m done with you and ship the kitty off to Mistral, I’m gonna hunt down the rest of your friends.”

As he prepared to finally finish Yang off, Blake managed to return to consciousness, turning herself over to try and get a look at Yang. What she saw when she got that look absolutely terrified her. Yang was just seconds away from having a chainsaw blade jammed into her skull.

“YANG!!” Blake immediately grabbed Gambol Shroud and began rushing towards Dino, not really having any attack strategy in mind. Dino heard Blake’s cry for her partner and turned to her. “Of course. Well, Adam never said he wanted you in perfect condition.” He took out his shotgun again and aimed it at Blake.

Blake was a bit too blinded by fear and rage to react, instead just continuing to rush at Dino, faster and faster. Dino was just about to pull the trigger to fire at Blake, but was completely cut off from doing so when Blake suddenly launched forward in a blinding burst of speed, a trail of black shadowy lines following behind her.

When Blake stopped, she did so in a state of confusion at what the hell she just did. She turned around, back in the way she came, and was stunned by what she saw. All along the path she dashed down, stood over a dozen solid blacked out afterimages of her own form, all in a series of attack positions. At the end of that trail of shadows, Dino stood, confused.

At least, he stood there for a second, until he was suddenly launched back, and was hit directly with the attack from the first shadow, and then the next, and the next, and so on as he flew further and further down the path of shadows.

Blake noticed that Dino was rapidly approaching, and, winding up Gambol Shroud, waited until he was directly in front of her, before swinging upwards, unleashing a massive crescent wave of purple aura straight at him, cutting straight through his own aura, cleaving his mask in half, and launching him away.

When Dino landed, he did so completely unconscious from Blake’s attack, bis bloody and bruised face now exposed, leaving his massive saber tooth fangs out in the open. He was completely knocked out by whatever it was Blake had just done to him.

Blake herself immediately reattached Gambol Shroud to the magnetic strap on her back and rushed over to Yang’s side. Meanwhile, Sun had made his way back over to them after his fight with Ilia. “Yang!” Blake kneeled down next to her, trying to examine the wound Dino had left on her.

Fortunately for Yang, it wasn’t very deep, not hitting anything vital, leaving the injury painful but not fatal. If it was patched up soon, she should be good to go by tomorrow. Yang turned to look at Blake with a blood stained smile. “Since when could you do that.” Her voice was weak, but very much alive.

Blake let out a soft chuckle at Yang’s question. “Since now I guess. Cmon, let’s get you up. Sun, get her other side.” Blake had begun to pick Yang up, slinging her right arm over her shoulders, while Sun did the same with her left. The two of them began to carry Yang back inside. “I’ll patch that for you, looks pretty nasty.”

“Don’t worry, probably feels much worse. Seriously, fucking ow.” Yang said that with a partially teasing tone, but it was clear that the cut absolutely hurt like hell. “Sun, when we get Yang inside, come back out and make sure the police round these guys up.” Sun nodded towards her as they brought Yang inside.

Hopefully nothing like that would happen again in the near future.