A/N
So, this is was commissioned by Ask_RvB_Caboose on iFunny. It takes place between volumes three and four, and I have taken the liberty of changing the events of the between-season a bit, exploring the idea of what could've happened had Blake chosen to seek out Yang instead of her parents, with a little Bumbleby twist, as per my Modus Operandi, so to speak.. What was changed, however, I won't say. Ill let my story do that for you. I hope you all enjoy, and if you want to commission me, send me an email at "theorderbusiness ".
Snow and gravel crunched beneath her feet as she trudged along the unpaved road. The sun high above her head did little to warm her, and she pulled her coat tighter around herself. The road cut through dense forest, and all was silent save for the whistling of the wind and her own footsteps. She was unfamiliar with the area around her, but she had been told by a local shopkeep that her destination lay down this infrequently traveled path to the outskirts of the relatively small island city, at least compared to Vale. As another cold gust of icy wind blew past, her ears flicked in discomfort, and she regretted ditching her bow at the beginning of the path.
'I didn't expect it to be so cold in Patch,' Blake thought to herself. The clothes she had worn did little to shield her from the biting wind, but she would make do. She had an objective here, after all. It had been a long few months since the fall of Beacon, and she has been all but idle in that time. From the moment she let her partner's limp hand slip from hers, she had a mission. It was almost a month ago now that that mission had been completed, and since then...she had been lost.
There was a cold in her heart since then. From the second Gambol Shroud found its home in her sheath, Blake was at a loss. She was just a stray in the world for a time, until one day, she came to a crossroads in her mind. Sitting inside the tiny apartment in the all but abandoned residential district of Vale, Blake realized what was corroding her soul. Beacon had fallen, Weiss had been taken, Pyrrha and Penny killed, Ruby in a coma (though from what she heard from that shopkeep, Taiyang Xiao Long had fled town for the week in search of Ruby, so she had evidently awoken at some point), Yang…She had lost everything. In her year at Beacon, she had truly found something special, something amazing. Something she had never dreamed of finding in all her years under the banner of the White Fang. Only, it was all taken away.
She had lost her home.
So now she had to find it again.
For a time she briefly considered taking a journey back to her place of birth, and maybe, had things with Adam after the fall gone differently, she would have, but no. As much as she missed her parents, her heart pulled her elsewhere. She felt cold, and as winter came around full force, Blake realized what she needed to do next, to cure the ice in her heart. She had to find the person who brought her around to begin with. She needed to see Yang.
The faunus was still uneasy about her decision, though. She was scared, terrified really, of what Yang would think of her. Surely she would blame her, maybe even hate her. 'It was my fault she got hurt, after all,' the cat faunus thought pessimistically. Either way, she needed to see her former partner, if nothing else to confirm her fears. Blake would gladly go through it all for Yang, for even a chance that she would forgive her one day.
So, she had left Vale on a ferry bound for Patch soon after she had decided, and here she was now. She was pulled from her thoughts by the first living sound she's heard since getting on this path. Ahead of her, she could see the gravel road opening up to show a driveway and a modest home. Above her was the source of the noise, a rough caw of a lone raven, sitting perched atop a bare tree limb. It cawed once more at the black-haired woman before flying away. She pushed the bird out of her mind, though, and continued on her way.
As Blake left the shelter of the trees, a sudden gust of wind blew across her, but she hardly noticed: she had already gone numb. Not a thing was moving anywhere around the building save for the snow drifting from the wispy clouds overhead. Yet, even in such a peaceful environment, Blake could not bring herself to move. The fear inside of her was screaming at her 'Run, RUN!' and it took all her willpower to just stand still. All the hesitance of her journey from Vale to Patch came crashing into her once more, and she was just as frozen as the ground beneath her feet.
For the first time in almost six months, she could see her.
Yang slumped in her bed. She was sitting up, but only barely. She had her good days and her bad ones, and she could already tell this would be a bad one. Despite it being after noon, Yang had only just woken up. Her left arm sat palm up in her lap, as did her right one. Or, at least, it felt like it. Of course, nothing was really there, just empty space, but she could still feel it there, resting against the bedsheets, opening and closing at her will. She sighed, and shook her head. She was alone again.
Even her dad had left. She didn't blame him, of course, but it still hurt. She heaved a sigh and ran her hand through her dull, matted hair. She felt tears begin to well up in her eyes, and she forced them back. As much as losing her arm hurt her, Yang would recover from it. That was not truly why she sat in bed today. No, no, she was just alone. She was alone, not a noise around her. They had left all in one way or another. Weiss didn't have a choice, Ruby had to go try to save the world, Dad had gone running after her, Pyrrha and Penny...it hurt, it cut her deeply that they all were no longer here now, but they all had their reasons. All except for…
"Blake," she whispered quietly, a single tear slipping down her face to plop soundlessly against her hand. Her last memory of her cat-eared partner was of her carrying her away from the maniac. After that, just unconsciousness. By the time she woke up, Blake was already gone. Even now, she didn't know where she went, why she went. All she knew was that history had repeated yet again. Once more, she had been left behind, with no damn idea why. With that, any of the will she had, left her, and she slumped backwards.
Her head impacted on the corner of the headboard of the bed, her aura seemingly nonexistent, as it had been since awakening. Her semblance was similarly unresponsive to the impact, which came as no surprise to Yang. She groaned as the pain radiated through her skull, and she slid her head down onto the pillow. Her face was contorted in pain, and she lolled her head to the side, facing the window that had become her world for the past few months. She lay there with her eyes closed for a moment, just feeling the pain in her head. It did little to distract her from the pain in her heart. Yang slid her eyes open, hoping maybe the view of outside her window would distract her from her pain, like it always failed to do.
Instantly, Yang saw the irregularity in the view of her front yard. She stuck out like a sore thumb against the vivid white of the winter snow, and her violet eyes met a set of amber ones from across the yard. Their gazes held for a moment, before, in a flash, Blake was gone. Running. Yang could only see her own reflection now.
She watched as, for the first time in months, her dull lilac irises faded into crimson.
In just a second, Yang threw the window open and scooped the remaining half of Ember Celica onto her left arm. Wearing nothing but a tank top and a pair of short shorts, Yang carelessly rolled out the window into the snow. It chilled her to the bone, but deep in her heart, a cold, wounded fury pushed her forward and sent her sprinting through the ice and snow barefoot after her partner. The wind bit into her skin, but she hurled herself through the cold after the retreating form of her partner, who was running full tilt towards the shelter of the woods. The blonde knew she would never be able to keep pace in the woods like this. Her only chance was stopping Blake here.
And she would be damned before she let Blake get away.
Yang chased her former partner, her heart pounding in her chest and breath coming in gasps. In past months, Yang had hardly gotten out of bed, let alone kept up her training, and Blake was easily outrunning her. "Blake!" she yelled, anger rushing cold through her veins, chilling her just as much as the wind and snow, "Blake, stop!" It was no use. WIthin seconds, the faunus was almost to the woods. Panicking, Yang reflexively deployed Ember Celica over her arm and leveled it at Blake's back. "Stop Running!" Yang screamed, voice cracking halfway through as rage became fear and tears welled up behind her eyes.
BANG!
Ember Celica bucked on Yang's wrist as she fired in a desperate bid to get Blake to stop. The shot wasn't aimed at the brunette, and the slug impacted harmlessly on one of the many trees lining the woods. Blake seemed to hesitate for a second, slowing down just slightly at the unexpected gunshot. Blake looked over her shoulder, and once more their eyes met. Yang saw the fear in her partner's eyes.
The moment did not last long, just long enough for the cat faunus to see the crimson eyes fade back to lilac as despair clawed its cold talons into Yang's heart once more. After an instant, Blake was gone, her semblance propelling her into the woods, and her clone fading into nothing but a wisp of shadow.
All was silent for a moment as the weight of what just happened sunk in. The blonde's legs shook before giving out all together. She didn't even feel her bare knees burying into the three-inch snow. She bit her bottom lip, as a sob welled up within her, and her whole body seemed to shudder and convulse as she began to cry. Blake was gone, again. Yang felt as if she was being crushed under a mountain, that her whole world had fallen apart all over again. "No," she choked through her tears, "no, no Blake, please no…" Suddenly, she slammed her fist into the snow and shouted, "Not again!" The last shout trailed off into more wails, as she continued to cry out in her despair.
What little strength was in her left. She slumped forward, curling in on herself in the snow. The cold hurt her body, but couldn't hold a candle to the blizzard in her heart. She broke all over again. She lay like that for only a few seconds, before a soft crunch sounded out in front of her. Glancing up through neglected hair, the blonde could see a pair of heeled boots standing in front of her, before an ever so quiet "Yang?" called out.
'She came back.'
Lilac and Amber met once again. Fear and uncertainty kept Blake from relaxing, and all was silent save for the whistling of the wind. Neither of them moved, and the faunus let her eyes wander a bit, noting the tears that were beginning to freeze to her former partner's cheeks and her lips were turning blue. Blake was scared for a variety of reasons at the moment. Yang had shot at her. Yang seemed a bit calmer now, though, but still… When she looked back to Yang's eyes though, her fears were realized. Slowly, crimson bled into the bleak lilacs.
Like lightning, Yang had shoved herself back to her feet, her emotions fluctuating wildly, and a stray spark of aura jolted through her form, warming her for a moment before fading. Bringing Ember Celica to bear once more, Yang shouted, "Where were you!"
Startled at the violent change in mood, the dark-haired woman stuttered, "W-what?"
Even as her anger singed her heart once more, her body was still shuddering, cold and sorrow forcing her to speak through tears as she yelled, "Tell me!"
Scrambling for an answer that she hoped would pacify the brawler and get the gun out of her face, Blake explained, "I was...I...I-in Vale, Yang!"
Yang jolted her weapon threateningly towards her former partner and continued her impromptu interrogation with, "Why? Why?!"
The faunus held her hands out in front of her in a surrendering manner, "Yang, calm down, I couldn't-"
"I don't want to hear some excuse Blake, tell me why you left!" The bawler shouted, her arm trembling more and more.
"What, Yang, put the weapon down, I don't understand!" She began, "I had to leave Yang, Adam, you wouldn't have been safe! You needed to be safe!" Her own voice was growing raw with emotion as well.
A fresh surge of outrage went through Yang at that. She took a step forward, trembling in a mixture of rage, fear, and cold, the former brawler took a step forward. "What I needed? What I needed?! I needed you Blake! We were supposed to be partners, Blake! You were my partner and I needed you and you fucking left me when I needed you the most!" She took another step forward, and Blake retreated the same amount as Yang continued, " I don't care about Adam! I haven't been laying in bed for six months because I got hurt, Blake!"
The fury bleeding off of the blonde slowly began to rub off on the other woman, and a healthy amount of indignation grew in her. The annoyance could be heard in her voice now, and she said, "Yang, why are you acting like this? I know we were friends, I would even call you my best friend, and I know I hurt you, God how I know I hurt you, but-"
Yang had heard enough, and cut her off, her voice shook in pain as she roared, "Damnit Blake, you weren't just a friend to me! You were never just a friend to me!" Tears, like a river, flowed down Yang's face, and finally, the remaining half of Ember Celica fell limp to Yang's hip. Her next words came as a whisper, so quiet that even in the silence of the secluded home, Blake would have never heard it without the aid of her secondary ears, "You were never just my partner. You were so much more to me…"
What anger that grew in Blake died then, smothered by the weight of what Yang had just said. "Y-Yang, what-"
She was cut off, as, without warning, Yang collapsed forward. Blake only just managed to catch the blonde, startled at how cold she was in her arms. Quietly, Yang whispered, "Don't leave me again, Blake," and she was gone. The cold had gotten to her, and she was unconscious.
Worried, and still in shock by what Yang had said, Blake rapidly scanned the area around her, looking for some clues as to what to do to help this mess of a girl in her arms. Her eyes caught on the still-open window Yang had climbed out of. Scooping the blonde now-eighteen-year-old into her arms, Blake ran back towards the window.
She didn't miss how alarmingly light the usually bulky girl was.
A shivering breath huffed from the now unconscious woman, and the faunus quickened her pace. Getting to the window, Blake looked around the room inside. There was a bed just by the window. She hastily laid Yang onto it and pulled the covers over her while remaining outside herself. She raised a foot up, and rested it on the windowsill and leaning halfway through the window, but paused.
Blake glanced backwards, out into the cold world behind her. She had a tendency for hurting Yang, and she was terrified of doing it again. 'I could just leave,' the brunette thought, 'Maybe she would think it was all just a dream.' It was an appealing option; Yang could just move on with her life, forget about BLake, in time, and maybe be happy with her life. 'Safe,' Blake thought, and frowned. Then, a small whimper brought her gaze back to the blonde.
"I needed you Blake!"
"Don't leave me again, Blake…"
No, she couldn't do that to Yang again. Without further hesitation, Blake stepped through the window into the heated house, and closed the pane behind her, locking the cold outside. She crawled over Yang, and stood beside the bed, just staring at the woman. The frozen tears began to melt on her cheeks, and Blake wiped them away. There were many emotions going through the faunus at the moment. She was scared of what Yang would be like when she woke up, she was worried about potentially hurting the girl in the future, she was confused as to what Yang had meant by saying Blake was more than just her partner, but overall, she felt a certain level of warmth in her chest.
She had decided to stay with Yang, and, if she would keep her, maybe they could begin to heal, finally, together. Now if only she would wake up.
Brushing a stray lock of blonde hair off of Yang's face, she could tell the brawler hadn't been taking care of it. Her hair was dull and dry, a pale comparison to the luscious mane it had been before. Not only that, but judging by how light she had been, Yang hadn't been eating enough either. A pang of guilt went through her, and she backed away from the sleeping woman, and looked around the room.
It was very simple and plain, so Blake assumed it was more of a guest room than Yang's actual room. There was a small rug by the bed, on top of the maroon carpet that seemingly ran throughout this area of the house. The only furniture in the room was the bed itself, a nightstand, and a wooden chair in one corner of the room. Blake frowned at the nightstand, or, more accurately, the vase containing three wilted and dead sunflowers.
The blanket on the bed shifted for a moment, before a slurred voice called out, "Blake?" Blake's ears twitched at the twinge of fear she could hear in Yang's voice, and she was back at her partner's side in an instant.
"I'm here, Yang. Are you...alright?" she almost said 'calm', but thought better a second later.
In a whisper Blake almost didn't hear, Yang said, "Oh thank God," before hugging herself as much as she could with only one arm and rolling to face Blake, "If you're asking if I'm gonna blow up on you again, I'm good. Its out of my system." A shudder ran through her, and said, "And if by alright you mean freezing cold, then yes, peachy."
Having nothing else to say, an awkward silence filled the room. After a moment or two, Yang couldn't stand the silence. Blake was back, damnit, and she needed to say something. She pushed her remaining arm out of the covers, and held a still-deployed Ember Celica out towards Blake. "Hey, uh, can you take this off? She's really uncomfortable under the blankets, and cold as hell too, and I can't really do this with one arm."
"Oh, uh, sure...How do I…?" Blake trailed off, running her hands over the frigid metal, searching for some kind of mechanism to collapse the shotgun-gauntlet.
"I activate Ember Celica with my aura usually, but my aura doesn't really listen to me all the time anymore." She frowned for a moment before continuing, "It a miracle she even deployed in the first place. Just send a pulse of Aura into her and she should collapse."
Ignoring Yang's personification of her gauntlet, Blake did as she was told. The gauntlet collapsed into a thick bracelet that she tugged from her partner's arm, which she set on the nightstand. Blake's hand then rested on Yang's forearm, rubbing the chilled flesh slowly, and they once more fell silent. 'Her aura isn't working?' she wondered to herself, 'that explains why she gave in to the cold so quickly.'
Blake sat on the bed next to Yang, hand still resting on her partner's forearm, lost in thought. Then, Yang's arm moved, and the blonde rested her palm underneath Blake's instead. The faunus gave her a questioning look for a moment, before Yang sighed, "Look, Blake, I said it like a psycho before, but I really do want to know why you left."
Blake's shoulders slumped a bit at that, and she let out a withering sigh. "Yang, at Beacon, with Adam…"she began, "you appeared right at the end, you didn't hear what he said." She sniffed, the terrible memories bringing up tears. Yang tugged on her arm, before letting go of Blake's hand.
Yang held the edge of the blanket up, shuddering at the momentary loss of warmth, and asked, "Lay down?" Blake stared for a moment before wordlessly removing her long white jacket, boots,and socks, and climbed under the covers with Yang.
Immediately, the former brawler pulled Blake close. They were almost nose-to-nose, and Blake continued, her voice wavering just slightly, "He said he would kill you. All of you. Ruby, Weiss, You, team JNPR, Sun, everyone." She sniffed, wiping away the first tear to slip down her cheek, but held contact with those lilac eyes that were starting to regain some of their vividity. "Then you showed up, shouting my name, and he knew. He just said 'starting with her', and stabbed me." One hand instinctively slipped from around Yang to rest on the scar left by Adam on that day. "You saw us, and attacked and...you know the rest."
Shaking her head, Yang moved her hand up to cup Blake's cheek and asked softly, "Why didn't you tell me this before, Blake? Like, before you left?"
There was a lump in her throat, but Blake forced her way through it, "You weren't safe with me, Yang. He would've just came after us again. I left because...because I was terrified that you would convince me to stay, and you'd end up hurt again, or worse, because of me." Blake shook her head, and Yang wiped at her tears with her thumb. "I couldn't live with that, so I left, and stayed in Vale. I couldn't see you while he could still hurt us, Yang."
They lied there in bed for a moment, before something clicked in Yang's mind. Hesitantly, Yang asked, "Wait, then...why did come here now?"
There was a broken smile on her face for a moment, and she said, "I spent the last three months following the White Fang, fighting, investigating, searching… He can't hurt us anymore." Blake pressed close to Yang, longing for the contact she would've shied away from before she met Yang. Tucking her face into Yang's shoulder, Blake whispered quietly, voice full of broken emotion, "I hunted him down, Yang. I hunted him down, and I killed him."
Yang was speechless. She could feel the faunus crying into her shoulder, and she understood. Adam was close to her once before, and, though he deserved it, it couldn't have been easy. She ran her hands through Blake's hair, cooing "It's okay" into her ear until she calmed down. For the first time in six months, a familiar affection swelled in her heart for the girl in her bed.
They fell silent then, and simply laid there for a time. Then, Blake spoke up with a question of her own, "Yang, when we were out there, just before you passed out, you said I was more than just a partner to you. What, exactly, did you mean by that?" She felt the blonde stiffen in her arms, and there was silence.
Pulling back to meet Blake's eyes, Yang thought, 'I want her to know this. She didn't before, and she left before I could tell her. She needs to know how I feel.' It scared her, sure, but still, Yang spoke, "Blake, I think you know exactly what I meant."
Blake pulled her close once more, and asked simply, tense as a cable, "How long?"
Yang shrugged weakly, and said, "I really don't know, it just kind of happened. I've known since before the dance, though."
A huff of air rushed from Blake's lungs. She felt as if she had been kicked in the gut. 'That long?!' the faunus thought. She had feelings for her for that long, and Blake had ran from her. Only now did Blake realized why Yang was as wounded as she was. "God, I'm so sorry." Blake whispered.
Yang ran her hand through her partner's hair, and she said, "It's alright if you don't feel the same, but Blake," she pulled back, and rested her palm on the brunette's cheek, "When you left, I almost hated you, but I never felt any less about you." Her golden eyes were full of tears, but still she was drawn in towards them. With hardly an inch between them, Yang asked, "Blake, can you stay here, with me?"
Blake knew there was more to this question than on the surface, and she knew that Yang would not be angry if Blake didn't return her feelings. Even so, Blake knew what to do. She would finally allow what she had denied her heart all those months ago, when she had left Yang. She left her heart, because of practicality, for safety, and out of fear. Now though, fear still gripped her as she stood on the precipice of a tremendous decision, but if there was one thing Yang had taught her it was that sometimes, you needed to just jump off the deep end. So, finally, Blake Belladonna followed her heart.
"If you would have me, Yang, I would love nothing more than to be here with you," the faunus whispered. Yang smiled for the first time in months, and her once dull eyes now shone as the sun.
And like the sun, Yang had a gravity to her, one that pulled Blake towards that smile. Before she even knew what was she was doing, Blake pressed her lips against Yangs.
Yang went stiff for a moment, before leaning into Blake, cupping the back of her head, and her emotions surged through her. Like gasoline poured onto a lit match, the cold in her was gone in a second as what would later be called "love" filled her, and her aura surged. Warmth filled their air around the two, and Blake tangled her hand in Yang's now glowing golden hair. Slowly, a noise began, like the distant rumble of an engine. It grew louder and louder, until Yang realized what it was.
Pulling back for air, Yang laughed, joy in her heart, and said, "Are you purring?!"
Blake, just as flushed as Yang, and said, "I am. I'm happy, and safe. You tend to have that effect on me." They locked eyes, and Blake's heart soared. 'Here is Yang Xiao Long,' she thought, 'in all her beauty.' Her once joyless eyes were now vivid and bright, her hair glowing with a fire that burned in her soul, and her mouth in a wide, exciting grin that never had any right or reason to leave her face. In an instant, they were kissing again, holding each other as close as possible, Yang's missing arm doing little to deter their passions.
Yes, Blake would not leave Yang's side for a long, long time.