Part of my "how you know inside me" series.
Chapter One, every night with us is like a dream
Two years after Yang graduates from Beacon Academy she is twenty-three years old and moving out from her shared apartment in Vale. It'll be the first time the place she lives is not the same place Ruby lives.
Ruby is crying about how much she'll miss her so Yang laughs and tousles her sister's hair.
"You'll be fine - you've still got Penny with you. But I'll miss you too, little sis."
For the past year and a half, Yang has lived with Ruby and Penny. It's been awkward as hell sometimes and Yang has learned the art of announcing her presence in every room she walks into, but for her entire life Ruby was where home was.
And now it won't be and she's terrified, not that she is willing to let it show.
It isn't like she'll be alone - Yang's moving in with Pyrrha and Velvet into a three bedroom townhouse and Ren and Nora live three houses down. She should be an adult by now, it should be easy.
Even though they say their goodbyes outside Yang's old apartment, Ruby and Penny follow Yang and the rest with the moving van and help unload her boxes while congratulating her on her new place.
(It isn't like she won't see Ruby just about every day - Team RWBY is still intact and her new townhouse is a fifteen minute walk away)
Pyrrha and Velvet already moved into their separate rooms a week ago, though they've been sharing Pyrrha's twin-sized bed and the sofa. Yang'll be donating her double bed to Velvet, because they'd decided to buy a king-sized one for Yang's room, so they'll have a bed they can all fit on (more or less, at least) if they decide they want a mass-cuddle session. Her girlfriend's have dubbed Yang's new bed a no-sex zone.
It embarrasses Yang, but she appreciates the thought. She doesn't like sex.
They are just about done getting all of Yang's boxes and starting to get out some party food for a house-warming party now that everyone is moved in, when Blake pulls her to the side.
"You okay?"
"Of course!" Yang smiles "No need to worry."
Naturally her soulmate knows her better than that and waits her out.
"I'm going to miss Ruby." Yang finally confesses and Blake opens her arms and allows Yang to slot herself into Blake for a hug.
Blake hums in her ear, "Uh-huh." She squirms further into Blake.
"And I'm going to be living with my girlfriends. Like an adult."
"Scary, isn't it?" Blake and Weiss had rented a house together when the team moved back to Vale, they are saving up for a home now.
"Uh-huh," Yang agrees, "I feel like this is a grown up thing, but I don't feel like a grown up. I'm scared of messing everything up."
Blake doesn't tell her everything is going to be okay and that she won't mess up, but at least she doesn't say that Yang will mess up. Yang doesn't want to hear any of that right now anyway.
"Sorry, I feel like I'm being a big baby." She feels very small making the admission.
"You aren't. You're fine, Yang."
Yang doesn't pull away from Blake until she feels ready to. "Thanks for that, by the way."
"Anytime."
They rejoin the rest, party in full swing and the room is full of her old friends from Beacon and some of her new work friends. Its a very full room and a little overwhelming, because the deposit for the place was rather large and she doesn't want to spend her first night there cleaning it all up.
Luckily most of her friends have mellowed out since their school days, or at least understand responsibility the last time they were all together because everyone is careful with where they put their food and drinks and elbows.
It isn't a large townhouse, at least not for three grown women with another staying over part-time, but it is comfortable and they shelled out the extra cash for an L-shaped sofa that can fit all four of them and more besides.
Everyone catches up on everything they've missed - unfortunately Jaune and his girlfriend have broken up but he leaves well enough alone with Weiss, while Neptune and Sun seem to be having a spat and aren't talking to each other. Coco gets so drunk Velvet has to stop her from standing on their coffee table when she announces to the room that she'd found her soulmate last week. Everyone congratulates her.
As the night wears on, most of their guests trickle out the door until it is just Yang's girlfriends, her team, Ren, and Penny. Her team and Penny stand outside the door, watching as she and Ruby embrace again, hard and long.
"I'm going to miss you. So much," Ruby whispers tearfully in her ear.
"Me too." She kisses her sister's cheek and cups her face. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Penny takes Ruby's hand and leads her out. Blake nods encouragingly at Yang before she and Weiss turn to leave and Yang watches all of them walk away before shutting the door.
Ren's still there, so when Pyrrha's hand puts her hand on her back to support her her lower lip only juts out a little in effort not to cry.
"Night, Ren!" Nora kisses her soulmate on the cheek, "I'm staying the night here tonight. Come by tomorrow and make us breakfast though!"
Ren smiles at Nora and kisses the top of her head before leaving and shutting the door after himself.
"Are you okay?" Velvet asks and the rest lean in comfortingly, hands soothingly rubbing her back and arm.
"Yeah," Yang cries hot tears on her cheeks, "I'm just gonna miss Ruby." She draws out her sister's name in a loud sob.
Yang finds herself in the center of them as they hug her for a long while and ease her with soothing words. Eventually they move themselves to the sofa and turn on a movie. Yang sits in the center with Velvet and Pyrrha to her left and right. Nora drapes herself over their laps and fetches them a bowl of popcorn and two pints of ice cream that they share between themselves.
They never make it to any of the proper beds and fall asleep like that together, eventually shifting until Velvet sleeps sitting and Yang pillows her head on her lap. Pyrrha sleeps stretched out on the other side of the sofa and Nora sleeps on the floor with a mass of blankets and sheets that they haven't yet put on their mattresses. They don't wake up until Ren is tapping at their front door and they scramble to clean themselves up. Yang's got chocolate ice cream all over her mouth and chin.
By the time she scrubs the chocolate off her face and brushes her teeth (still sticky from ice cream), Ren's got pancakes and scrambled eggs started for them.
"You didn't have any bacon or sausage in your fridge, so no meat." Ren explains, flipping a pancake onto a stack.
If every morning is like this, Yang could get used to it.
(It turns out every morning is not like that, but all the best ones do and she has plenty of them ahead.)
This is honestly not how this was supposed to turn out, but I was suddenly hit by terror about Adult Responsibilities. So there'll be one more chapter to this one, about Nora and Yang as planned or so help me.