AYangThang: Blake is really pissing me off in Volume 6. I didn't think she could be any more bone headed than she was in part of volume 4, but there's been some shit coming out of her mouth recently that's just downright idiotic. I mean, we're talking impossibly high levels stupid here. I won't go into spoiler territory. She really does need to forcefully remove her head from her ass when it comes to Yang.
Anyway, since she has aggravated the unholy crap out of me for the umpteenth time, I decided I'm going to do a story where I ship Yang and Kali. This is completely an AU, obviously. Have fun with it. (Kali is best kitty Faunus, and I stand by that.)
Oh, by the way tonight this is getting two chapters so that you guys can really sink your teeth into it, and see where the story's headed. Expect chapter 2 in about an hour or less
Souls Seeking Love
Chapter 1
Setting: Vale, Present Day. 14 years after the Great War.
It was late at night when the restlessness of a cat Faunus shifted the sheets for the umpteenth time. The woman sat up in the dark, sighing under her breath. Although there was no clock in the room, she knew it was well passed the midnight hour. The crickets chirping lazily outside of the window proved that. She reached for a book over on the night stand, the heavy text was her last resort when it came to occupying her mind.
She no sooner cracked open the book, that the woman next to her rolled onto her side.
"Kali, babe, what the hell?"
"I'm reading."
"Why? Still can't sleep?"
"No, I can't. I don't like this, not one bit."
"You don't have to like it. You just got to bite your tongue and not say anything."
"I'm worried about Blake being accepted into Beacon."
"Oh…"
"Is that really all you have to say?"
"Well, I am half asleep."
Yang Xiao Long grumbled in the darkness, feeling around for the bedside lamp to switch it on. The room came into view thanks to the dim light. Shadows danced on the walls as two women sat side by side in the bed. At first, Yang said nothing. she felt as though there was very little she could reasonably offer. Then the fog of sleepiness lifted, and she found her voice. "In case you forgot, I went to Beacon once too. I turned out fine...more or less."
"I'm well aware of that." Kali replied, closing the book and running her fingers over the leather cover. "That's part of my concern."
"Hey now, it's not all doom and gloom."
"It's not a comfortable life, either, Yang."
The blonde chuckled mildly. "I dunno about that, I'm pretty comfy."
The Faunus at her side merely cast Yang a withering look, the woman far too exhausted to do anything else. There were a list of retorts that came to mind, and a life full of violence she didn't want her child exposed to. Her lips thinned into a tight line. "I don't know how I could possibly support it, knowing what it means."
Yang just smirked, drawing her knees up as she leaned in them. "You make it seem like there's this whole big reason why she wants to go. Ever think maybe she doesn't have one? Or that she didn't think that far ahead?"
Kali could only shake her head at the foolish notion. "Blake isn't that impulsive. She has a reason, and she won't say what that reason is. I'm worried, and you should be too."
"Maybe you're right. Maybe I should be. I'm not, though." Yang said, stifling a yawn. "When you get right down to it, being a huntress put food on the table. For me, I guess that was good enough. I didn't need anything besides that."
"It's also a deadly profession, dear. I'm afraid because Blake isn't like you."
"I'd hope to hell not." Yang reached out, grabbing the woman's hands in her own. "Stop before you claw the blankets." Her grasp was strong and true. Calloused fingers ran across Kali's knuckles. "You can spin it around and around all you want, but she's set on this. You're not going to win in an argument about her future. Blake's got her reasons, whatever they are."
"Doesn't it bother you? We don't even know what inspired this in the first place."
"No, not really." Yang yawned again. Then as she rolled back over. "It doesn't matter. If you're that worried about her, I'll deal with it later."
"How much later?"
"Tomorrow."
Kali only sighed as she laid back down, her worries running amok.
When Yang said she would handle things, it was never something done with care. Frankly, Yang wasn't exactly a careful person. She was many things, but, to say that she lived her life with caution would be a blatant lie. Kali had waited the entire day for something to happen, but the household had been oddly peaceful. The back yard remained intact, and the front had even been tidied, lacking any sign of a training battle.
Yang had spent all afternoon tinkering around with her bike, adding a fresh coat of paint that it sorely needed. Blake had been locked away in Yang's workshop, doing something to that dangerous gun-blade contraption that she called a weapon. All in all, it was an average day, lacking any major injuries, or huntress-in-training related incidents. It was only when sundown came that Kali realized she may have let her guard down a little too early.
Yang didn't step foot into the living room for a quiet evening. That was unusual. Instead, Kali heard noise in the kitchen.
A short cluster of glass bottles sat in a small basket. Much to her constant dismay, it cluttered the corner of the counter along with a few other knickknacks Yang insisted on keeping there. The woven basket collected everything from bread crumbs, bullet casings, and even crystals of volatile dust. Kali even heard the bombastic blonde woman humming to herself.
The two sounds together were almost a promise of forthcoming trouble.
"Yang?" Kali asked from the sitting room. "You don't plan to drink tonight, do you?"
"Sure do."
"It's not even the weekend."
"I told you that I'd take care of Blake, and that's exactly what I'm doing." Yang said loudly enough that Kali could hear her.
Yang took the bottle nearest to her, giving it a small shake as she considered it. The blonde had spent all day trying to decide what to do, and now she had the perfect plan. Smiling at the amber liquid sloshing around on the inside, she let out a tiny chuckle. Then she gave everything a brief look over before nodding to herself. It wasn't the most expensive, or even the best tasting alcohol she owned. She doubted it would appeal to the sensitive senses of a Faunus, but she couldn't bring herself to care.
She chose it because the bottle was almost full and would suit her needs.
A whiskey this harsh, however, needed to be on the rocks. That was a lesson learned only by the trials of time an experience. She had so little to recall her uncle by, but drinking was his favorite method of tutelage. She recalled his outlook on the lowbrow bottle. It lacked a lot of the complex flavors of a better made brand, but she chose not to dwell on that.
Instead, she grabbed two glasses and put some ice into each.
Faunus ears twitched at the sound of ice being cracked from the trays and plunked down into the glasses. Kali set her book down, making her way into the kitchen. "Yang, what are you doing with those?"
"Preparing for some training." Yang said, whiskey bottle in hand, and the two glasses filled with ice.
Kali leaned heavily against the thick open doorframe. "I'd question the kind of training you can achieve with that."
"You'd be surprised." Yang told the woman in front of her. "Besides, it's about time."
"And every time you say that, I dread the outcome."
"I know." Yang said matter-of-factly, her gentle gaze gaining a glint of something distant. A white hot rage had cooled over the years into faintly burning embers. She harbored memories that were singed, they would never completely heal. "Blake needs to know how to look after herself. There are some things Beacon can't teach her, or rather, that it won't teach her."
Kali let out a tiny hum. She didn't agree, not entirely, but her relationship with Yang had been founded on poorly calculated trust. It was sometimes pure insanity, plain and simple. "And you will?"
"Well, it's not like I can protect her." Yang grumbled, deflated. "What else do you want me to do? Follow her around? Bash in the face of every Grimm, lowlife, and jackass she's going to run into?"
"No, actually, I was hoping you'd try to convince her that your line of work is dangerous, and that she shouldn't go to Beacon." Kali muttered as her ears folded back. "It's what I would have liked you to do."
"Yeah, but I tried that, and off she went to Signal for beginners training anyway." Yang shot back. "Besides, if Signal didn't convince her, Beacon just might. The huntress life is paved with sin and bathed in destruction. What little honor a huntress might have comes at the cost of thankless pride. She'll figure that out. Maybe when she does, she'll come home."
Kali just sighed. "That's roughly what her father said. I don't know if I agree, though. In any case, please tell me that's all for you." Gesturing to the amber booze, Kali offered what she knew to be a stupid question. "You're not going to actually let her drink that, are you?"
"Like I said, about that time." Yang said sincerely to the most beautiful Faunus that Yang had ever known. "Hey, trust the huntress when it comes to training one."
The cat eared woman was much older than Yang. Kali hid her figure beneath conservative kimonos and full figured dresses, but truth be told, she was a voluptuous woman. Her eyes glimmered in the darkness thanks to her heritage. Under the bright kitchen light, her orbs were breathtaking shade of molten gold. Her keen eyesight had waned over the many years that Yang had known her, but the thin wire frames only added to Kali's bookish charm.
"I still say she's too young, but, I know you'll never listen to reason." She pulled off those glasses, and rubbed them with the sleeve of her kimono. "I'd rather that she didn't pick up the habit. I think that it's bad enough you drink the way that you do."
"Her first drink is going to be with me, babe." Yang told her, setting the materials down to lean on the counter. A glance out of the window showed her exactly where Blake sat, looking out inquisitively at the stars. "Beacon's not a high class finishing school. It's a whole different beast, and she's got to prepare in more than just combat. She's not half bad in a fight, but if she can't hold a drink or two, she's not going to be ready to deal with the dangers of missions."
"I still don't know how I feel about Beacon, either." Kali frowned, the conversation was old and tired by this point. She'd tried to talk her daughter out of it, but that had been a failing endeavor. "Why did she even apply, Yang?" Kali asked as she replaced her glasses, now that they were free of smudges. "I just don't understand."
"Maybe you're not supposed to." Yang shrugged. "Maybe it's not your thing to know…"
"Why do you keep saying that?" Kali questioned, her annoyance clear as a bell. "There's no reason for her to be going out there, risking her life. It's not noble, it's not even a point of pretentious pride."
"Don't ask questions you won't like the answer to." Yang said as she gathered the glasses and booze bottle. "Now, I can either grab a third glass so you can join us, or, you can go back to reading that book you bought just the other day."
"You know well and good that I don't drink hard liquor." Kali said, kissing Yang tenderly on the lips before sighing. "Please don't aim to get her drunk. You're bad enough with a hangover."
"No promises, she's probably a light weight, but I'll try not to." Yang said, as she headed for the back door. The blonde hesitated before turning back to Kali. "I know it doesn't look like it, but I just want her to be safe."
In truth, Yang didn't know why Blake had applied for Beacon either. Still, the girl had passed the tests. At the end of the day, it was easier not to ask. Better for Kali not to know, and for Yang to merely accept the fact laid in front of her. In a different time, perhaps Yang would have asked those all too important questions. Maybe in a different place, she would have been able to rationalize the unattended argument between mother and daughter.
As it was though, Yang couldn't do either of those things. Instead, she chose to prepare Blake for Beacon as best as she could.
The young Faunus was sitting there on the back steps, glancing at Yang as the blond sat down beside her. Pouring two drinks, Yang handed one off to Blake before taking the other one for herself.
"So, did you think about what we should talk about?" Yang asked, taking a long, slow sip.
She watched Blake sniff at her own glass. Feline ears folding over as she looked at the gently sloshing liquid. Another sniff, and she glanced at Yang again. The older huntress nodded in encouragement. With trepidation, Blake took a sip, her lips pulling downward at the taste. Her whole face contorted as she swallowed.
"No good?" Yang asked with a grin.
The Faunus just shook her head.
"Drink it anyway." Yang told her. "It's training."
"How is drinking going to train me?" Blake asked, eyeing the glass of fluid with disdain.
"If you can't burn off a buzz with your aura, you can't handle yourself. What if something gets spiked when you're not looking, ever think of that?" Yang sipped on her own drink again before continuing. "You're a pretty young thing…easy on the eyes…what happens if someone gets too interested? What of they don't take no for an answer?"
Blake said nothing.
"You didn't think of that, did you?" Yang sighed at length before shrugging. "Well, now you have. So you just drink that, and you can thank me later."
"This might be training, but it's a nasty way to do it." Blake muttered.
"The only way." Yang told her.
"Whatever…"
"I had to learn that the hard way, and it was a different time back then." Yang bit her lip, and swore under her breath. She didn't want to admit it, but for her, drinking had always been her blessing, and, her curse. "Way different, actually."
Setting: Vale, Flashback – Nearing the end of the Great War.
A foot stopped on a burning newspaper. The black lettering declared a proposition of peace talks between humans and the Faunus. While this might have sounded like a blessing, Yang could only curse as she put out the fireball that had been flung at her from angry rioters. Leaning heavily on a wall in a nearby allay, she couldn't help but hate the way Vale became. It was nothing but unending malignancy, and all that had done was attract Grimm.
In a state of emergency, Ozpin made the only order he could. He had to quickly restore peace.
The people marched down the city streets, Faunus on one side, humans on the other. A barricade sliced the city down the middle at the juncture between downtown Vale, and the guarded district that the humans populated. Everything beyond the barricade was labeled as a human's only zone. The only allowance made was to the hunters and huntresses of Vale, serving the line to keep the city under control.
Yang crushed the propaganda paper, setting it ablaze all over again as she sneered at the man who'd thrown it at her. He continued proclaiming with great joy that Faunus should be done away with. She wished she could break his nose. That wouldn't solve anything, but it would have made her feel better. Swallowing back her anger, she stormed off, passing by the rabbit Faunus that had endured his abuse.
"Are you okay, Velvet?" Yang asked.
The woman nodded wordlessly, too busy patching up what little was left of her ego along with the bruising on her ears.
"You're an idiot, Xiao Long." Coco replied harshly. "You can't lose your temper every time someone insults Velvet. You'd be beating up pretty much anyone who passes us by in the street. They're not worth the effort."
"Tell me something I don't know, Adel."
The clinking of bullets into a chamber cut through the low boiling rage that bubbled beneath the silence. Coco Adel, team leader of the newly reformed team CFVY was having great difficulty with the new addition to her team. The young blonde upstart was nothing like her former team member, and the bitterness showed. "Look, I don't know what you think you're doing, but if I've told you once, I've told you a million times. You can't jump the wall every time people start shouting."
"I don't see why I can't." Yang spat. "My job is to keep the peace, and I am."
Coco shook her head. "Humans don't mingle with Faunus, Yang, it's just not safe." She looked out to the barricade. "You've been lucky so far, but when if the rioters did you harm? If they started turning on you, there'd be no way to get you out safely."
"Tell that to Velvet and every human she tries to talk to." Yang bit out, causing Coco to deflate.
"My team was assigned to this side of the wall. The rules don't apply to her." Coco said, feeling her gut pinch as she laid out the well-worn justification that she didn't even agree with. "Listen, our job is to enforce peace. That means keeping Faunus and humans at arm's length until Vale's council comes to a decision about Faunus rights. You can't just go around blowing holes in the pavement every time someone pisses you off. That's not how we handle things."
"It's how I do." Yang growled out as looked over to the man who had gotten up only to hand out more fliers. "Bastard was lucky I didn't really bust in his face." Yang snarled from under her breath. Another glance to Velvet made Yang even angrier. She watched the Faunus woman wince with every bob of her long fur lined ears. "He hurt her."
"It's not so bad." Velvet mumbled softly.
"Like hell it isn't." Yang said as she reached up to caress the injury as softly as she could, Velvet closing her eyes to try and hide how much it pained her.
"He's lucky I didn't throw his ass over the wall of the barricade." Yang told them. "Let him see what it's like to have a few Faunus return the favor."
"Yang, they'd kill him." Coco warned. "You can't do that. I'd never allow it."
"You saw what he did to Velvet. If he gets what's coming to him, so be it." Yang bellowed. "I'm sick of this shit."
Coco sighed, glancing to the Faunus woman whom she held in particularly high regard. "Velvet, can you still hold the line?" Coco asked gently, willing to let her teammate rest in the shadows if she absolutely needed to.
"I'll do what I can." Velvet said, her determination was one of the many reasons that Coco trusted her so deeply. Velvet had proved her willingness to put herself in harm's way for the sake of others. More than once, Velvet met that adversity face-to-face, refusing to back down. That she was also a pacifist by nature worked in her advantage. She was able to quell some of the most heated of the rioting Faunus.
Her gentle words had spared many human lives, and that couldn't be over looked, even when the most violent stood up to defy her.
When Yang turned to follow Velvet, Coco grabbed her. "Not you, Yang. I'm benching you."
"She's not going back out there without me." Yang bit out. "I'm not cool with it, Coco. I'm not going to just sit around with my thumb up my ass while people beat up on her."
Coco, always a hands-on leader, backhanded Yang with flawless precision. "Get a grip, Yang. I mean it."
The action was well spoken about amongst the students of Bacon. A good job would earn a firm opened palm pat on the behind, but failure to follow orders always came with a slap in the face. Yang took it, like she had taken every reprimand from Coco in the past. The angry fashionista remaining stoic. She glared through her deeply colored glasses. Yang didn't back down, and finally, Coco sighed.
"Yang, let's be real here. You don't belong at this post. You belong with the other students helping the teachers." Her tone edged with sympathy as she shook her head. "I allowed you to substitute Yatsuhashi on this team because I thought you could handle it."
"I can."
"You call that, over there, handling it?" Coco asked, gesturing to the fist sized indent in the street where a man could have been standing.
"He backed off, didn't he?"
"Not the point." Coco shot back, clicking her tongue against her teeth. "I told you to be intimidating if you had to be. I didn't tell you to be a loose cannon."
"You don't screw around with my partner and expect to get away with it." Yang told Coco. "That doesn't fly with me. Never has, never will."
"Listen up, rookie, I let you partner up with Velvet because I thought you'd have a little faith in her." The leader began, her voice hard. "If you can't trust Velvet to look after herself a little, then you're no good as her partner. If that's the case, you're worthless to me." Coco scoffed as she tossed her glance back to the barricade, and the Faunus woman holding the angry rioters at bay. "Now get out of here, go cool off. I don't want you back here until you do."
Yang stomped off passed the barricades, hands at her sides in white knuckled fists. She knew Coco was right, the leader of team CFVY made the right call, but that didn't make the reprimand any easier to accept. Her cheek stung in the way only Coco could ever cause. Her words cutting deeper than a strike ever could. Yang suspected, that was why she'd been put on Coco's team in the first place.
Coco was just as volatile and acerbic as Yang, just as hardheaded as the brawler, with enough gumption to keep Yang in her place. For what little comfort it was worth, Yang generally liked living among her team members. Now though, she could only walk away from her post. Relinquishing it to the other hunters and huntresses upholding the order in the unruly downtown streets of Vale.
As a Faunus man spat at her feet, Yang bit back a curse.
She'd never seen such unmitigated racism in her life. Defeated, angry, and itching for a way to unleash her rage, Yang did the only thing she knew how to do. She walked into the first open bar she came across, and ordered a beer.
The first of many…