Written in collaboration with GriffinPaws
*Idea inspired by makoshark's 99 Reasons
"Oh, I look up to you
You don't look down on me
What do you see in me?
Is it oceans of blue?
How do you make the colors say
In a thousand crazy ways
that in the end most things will be okay.
Oh, you make me want to say
I do, I do
I do believe in you
This much I know is true"
-I Do I Do by Charlie Mars
The Faunus
"I'm serious," Yang said hotly, knitting her brows together in determination. "Hit me with your best shot."
"Okay then," sighed Blake, not even bothering to look up from her book as she came up with a response. "I'm a faunus."
"And I'm a human."
"Exactly," said Blake, nodding in concurrence.
"Exactly what?"
Frowning, Blake took a break from her reading, realizing that Yang had been entirely serious when she barged into the room a second ago, claiming that the two of them should be together, as a merry couple, if Blake could give no reason to oppose this "wonderful opportunity" for love.
"I thought you understood what that meant."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Yang blinked with feign ignorance. "I thought we were just listing things that don't matter."
Adam
"Yang..." Blake spoke in a low voice, her expression matching the graveness of her tone. "Adam will kill you if he knew what you meant to me."
The blonde grunted, whirring around her prosthetic arm in bitter dissent.
"Not if I kill him first," Yang muttered darkly.
The White Fang
"I was a member of the White Fang."
Blake swallowed, nervously running her fingers up and down her book's spine. This was an incredibly sensitive issue, something that she was sure her partner would understand...
"Yeah," drawled Yang, apparently not amused, "and I used to run around in my underwear all the time when I was a kid, but I don't expect you to bring that up when we write our wedding vows."
Running Away
"This won't last," pressed Blake, urging the blonde to see reason.
"And how can you be so sure of that?" Yang asked, sounding slightly hurt.
"I had a partner. I was with him for almost my entire life." Blake looked down at her shoes, her ears folding in at the dismal memory. "And I left him... I ran away. When he threatened to harm everything I've ever known and loved... I ran away again. How can you be so sure I won't do it again?"
"Blake, you ran away from me twice before. And I found you again and again, both times." Yang shrugged. "Maybe, deep down, you wanted to get caught. Because you knew you wanted to be with me."
"No, I didn't!"
"Well, it's either that or you're just like- the worst runner ever."
Puns
"You make way too many puns," Blake accused sharply.
"But you love them!" Yang protested in defense.
"No, I don't," Blake deadpanned, not being able to remember the last time she'd been impressed with the blonde's play on words.
"Okay then..." Yang frowned. "You tolerate them."
"No, I don't."
"Well then, you're a liar." Yang grinned. "And lucky for you, I both love and tolerate liars."
Cat Jokes
"You degrade me with all of your cat jokes," huffed Blake, trying hard not to look too insulted.
"I promise to stop," purred Yang, as she advanced.
"I highly doubt that."
"Eh, so what else is new?"
Meeting the Parents
"Your father won't like me."
Yang paused, took a moment to process this idea, and then stared back at her partner in utter disbelief. "Have you ever met my dad?"
"Well..." Blake pondered for a moment. "No."
"Trust me." Yang rolled her eyes. "He'll like you."
Huntresses
"We're both huntresses. We're constantly surrounded by danger and one of us could be killed at any moment."
"So, we should make most of what we have now."
Temper
"You have a bad temper."
"No, I don't!" Yang jerked forward, her right hand balling into a threatening fist. "What would make you say that? God, Blake! You are so insensitive!"
Cinder
"We need to put an end to Cinder's plan," said Blake darkly.
"You're right." Yang nodded grimly, then seized the opportunity to hold Blake's hand. "It's just too bad that we'll be doing this as we do that."
Best Friend
"You're my best friend, Yang," confessed Blake with emotional honesty, "If we broke up, it'd be like losing a family member."
"Yeah..." Yang froze. "But if we don't, you'd be gaining like, five."
"Five...? What do you mean five?"
"Well, there's me." The blonde counted down with her fingers. "There's my dad. There's Zwei, and Ruby, and Weiss-"
"Excuse me?" Blake gasped, appearing highly affronted.
"Oh, please." Yang snorted. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed the way the Ice Queen checks out my baby sister! It is so obvious! I can't believe you, of all people, haven't figured it out already-"
"No," Blake cut in, sounding deadly serious, "I meant Zwei."
Zwei
"I don't like Zwei," Blake growled, emphasizing each of her words with meaning and purpose.
Yang shrugged in response. "You would if you gave him a chance."
"Yang, he's a dog," snapped Blake. "He's like my mortal enemy."
"I thought you didn't want me comparing you to a cat," the blonde quietly pointed out.
"Of course not."
"Well, you're not giving me much of a choice, Blake."
Terrorist
"Once again," Blake reminded her partner, "I was a member of the White Fang."
"Was!" Yang groaned. "Was, was, was, was, was!"
Falling In Love
"You're not exactly the person I saw myself falling in love with."
"Okay, you're not exactly a knight in shining armor either, Blake. But here we are, in love against all odds."
The Moon
"If you're the sun, then I'm the moon." Blake shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "We're just not meant to be."
"That wasn't very poetic." Yang deliberately coughed. "You should really leave the metaphors for someone else."
Rules
"There are rules to these sort of things," said Blake as she fidgeted around with her fingers. "You're not supposed to fool around with your friend's sister."
Wearing a look of horrid betrayal, Yang held her chest in faked pain. "Have you been fooling around with Ruby?"
"What?!" Deceived, Blake nearly fell out of her chair. "No! I was talking about us!"
"Well, what do you mean by fooling around then?" Yang countered on in rage. "I've always been dead serious about this!"
The Achieve Men
"I don't like the Achieve Men."
"...Okay, so I suppose that is one good reason." Yang nodded concedingly. "We'll work on that."
Sun
"I think Sun is into me."
"I know that I'm into you."
Reading
"I love to read books," Blake tried, "and you don't. See? We don't share any of the same interests."
"Hey! What are you talking about? I love to read!" Yang argued back. "Why are we ruling out X-Ray and Vav?"
Excited
"You get excited over almost everything. I'm rarely ever passionate like you."
"I just have one word to say to you." Yang lifted up a single finger. "Tuna."
Cranky
"You can be pretty cranky in the morning."
"Trust me, Blake. You're no bucket full of sunshine."
Beer
"I don't like beer."
"Good, so there's more for me."
Time
"We've known each other for only a year. You don't know me well enough to be in love with me."
"I know you enough," Yang insisted. "I know that you hate to walk in the snow because your boots get all soggy. I know how your ears twitch when you're upset. I know that you secretly like Zwei but you're just too stubborn to actually admit it. I know that you love to sing in the shower and, thank heavens, I still love you despite how awful you sound in there. I know that you keep a secret autographed stash of Ninjas of Love, the sequel, underneath your-"
"Okay, okay! I get it!"
Reckless
"You're too reckless," Blake asserted.
"I'm a huntress," Yang agreed to a certain extent. "It's not that I'm reckless. It's just that when I see an opening, I take what I want."
"That's the very definition of reckless!"
"Actually, I'd like to think of myself as an opportunist."
Thrill-seeker
"You're a thrill-seeker, an adventure-nut," listed Blake. "You love to go out on crazy missions and travel the whole world. Sooner or later, you're going to grow sick of me."
"Blake. You can make an infinite amount of shadow clones by yourself. You fight with an awesome sword-slash-gun-slash-chain scythe thingie. You're as fast as a real ninja. Plus, you've got two adorable cat ears." Yang let out an exhausted breath of air. "In what universe would I ever get sick of you?"
Losing an Arm
"You lost an arm because of me."
"Yeah," droned Yang, "so do you mind taking some of the responsibility?"
"..."
"...I'm kidding, Blake. It wasn't your fault."
I Don't Deserve You
"I'm not good enough for you."
"And who am I?" Yang snorted. "The Queen?"
"I'm being serious."
"Oh, come on." The blonde waved off her useless worry. "I like you, Ruby adores you, Zwei really, really adores you. I mean- Even Weiss likes you!"
Kids
"I don't want kids."
"Oh, thank god. I didn't want to spend four years of my life wiping a baby's ass anyway."
Shower
"You take way too long in the shower."
"You would too, if you had gorgeous hair like mine."
"Yang..."
"Bitch, please. I'm fabulous."
Ruby
"Seriously, Yang," said Blake, going back to a previous issue. "Don't you think Ruby would find this...difficult to deal with?"
"Oh my god, Blake," Yang answered slowly, her voice heavily laced with exasperation, "Last time I checked, Ruby called dibs on being the best woman at our wedding. She's already there."
Girls
"You're a girl. I'm a girl... We're both girls."
"Well, uh," Yang frowned, "I can check again if you want us to be sure?"
"Doesn't that bother you?" Blake grunted. "Most people think it's weird."
"If it took you this long to bring it up, then I don't think it'll be an issue."
Stupid Things
"I'm running out of ideas..." Blake murmured. "How about you give me a reason on why we should be together and I'll tell you why you're wrong."
"Okay..." Yang sighed, pretending to look deeply annoyed. "How about the fact that you ask me to do all sorts of stupid things with you and I do them anyway, not because I necessarily want to, but because I care about you so, so much."
"Um..." Blake pondered out loud. "That sounds more like what I do for you."
"Ah-ha!" Yang pointed accusingly at her partner. "So you admit it!"
Virginity
"Oh, here's another one," Yang continued, "I lost my virginity to you."
"Wha- No, you didn't!" Aghast, Blake spluttered across the room.
"Well, whose fault is that!" Yang crossed her arms in a hussy fit. "It's got to be yours, because it's definitely not mine!"
I Love You
"Wait, I thought of one. We should not be together because... Because-" Blake groaned in defeat. "I don't know, Yang! I can't put it into words! We just- We don't make any sense together."
"Blake, I belong with you," Yang said quietly, suddenly sounding serious after a while of childish nonsense. "That's the only ending that ever made sense to me."
A long pause lingered in between them, and as usual, Blake regretted her decision in ruining the mood. The room, when not filled by her partner's constant chatters and charades, now always felt uncomfortable and lonely.
"Why are you fighting this so hard?"
"...I don't know," Blake disclosed, in an equally pained voice.
She didn't have the courage to look her partner in the eyes, fully aware that the blonde's alluring lilac orbs would be enough to completely distract her from her thoughts. Logic, reasoning, every form of sensible rationale seemed to fly out the window whenever she stood by Yang's presence.
"We shouldn't be together because I love you."
Her answer slipped out after a terribly long thought.
"That..." Yang gawped at her, in both disbelief and in stunned silence. "That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life."
"Well, I don't know how else to put it," she murmured in reply.
After a moment of uneasy breathing, her partner finally nodded, approaching her with eyes of crystal understanding.
"I think that, what you're trying to say is that..." Yang began, "You do love me, but you've been through this before, and you know how badly things can fall apart."
Blake swallowed, this time not shying away from the blonde's warm embrace.
"And you're scared," muttered Yang. "And I get that, because so am I. We're in the middle of war! Of course I'm afraid of what's going to happen next, to us, and to the future. But that's never going to change the way I feel about you. And I know that you feel the same way about me too, Blake. In the end, I know that you'll always have my back."
Completely still, Blake simply listened, hearing her partner's rhythmic heartbeats and breathing in her unusually soothing scent.
"We should be together because we love each other," said Yang, and this time, Blake raised her chin, not willing to miss seeing her partner's expression as she said these promising words.
"Yang, I told you to just give me a reason," Blake sniffled, "not to make me cry."
"Sorry, Blake. Being verbal is kind of my thing." Yang winked, drying away a lone teardrop. "And... Do you know what your thing is?"
"...What?"
"Being irresistibly purr-fect."
"...And we're back to square one."
Author's Note:
Credits to GriffinPaws for most of the ideas. It was a pleasure working with you.
Readers, thank you for reading. We hope you enjoyed this short one-shot.
Please, leave your thoughts in the reviews, and let us know if you want more!