Chapter 1
Yang was bored.
That's how most of her days at Beacon were these days. After dealing with classes and homework, Yang just felt bored. To combat this, she would usually swing around to her team's dorm room, switch clothes, and head to the school training rooms. However, after an exceptionally exhausting Grimm Studies class with Professor Port, Yang decided she was definitely going back to her dorm room – for a nap.
What she found wasn't unexpected, but not exactly what she wanted to find that day.
Ruby had apparently decided that she and Weiss needed some "partner bonding time" that afternoon, which meant that there were deconstructed parts of both Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster strewn all over the room, with Ruby and Weiss sitting right in the middle. Yang took one look at the floor, full of small metal screws and bolts, and sighed to herself.
"Rubes? You know that we have to be able to actually get to our beds in a few hours, right?" Yang asked her sister. Ruby turned her head at Yang with an unimpressed look on her face.
"Yes, Yang," Ruby sighed, "We know what we're doing. I'm making sure to keep everything nice and organized!"
Yang blinked and looked at the room. In her head, Yang knew that her sister was going to have everything cleaned up and back to normal in no time, but her tiredness was causing her to vent a bit. She thought for a minute, looking at some of the blank spots on the floor, and prepared for the scolding that was sure to come from her other teammate.
"Alright, I'm coming through, look out!"
And with that, Yang hopped around the room, making sure to land with her feet on the few blank spots leading to Blake's bed. Once she got there, she smirked to herself, then climbed up, flopping sideways onto her bunk.
Ah, comfort at last. Now for Ice Queen's rant about being careful or whatever, and then I can finally get some sleep.
Right on cue, Weiss leapt up from her position on the floor, her face full of irritation, and glared directly at Yang's hanging legs.
"Yang Xiao Long!" Weiss yelled, "How dare you be so reckless around parts of some of the most important things in our lives! Be more careful, you could have –"
Yang tuned her out there. She knew she should be more careful, and on most days she would have been, but not today. She was just too tired. Yang swung her legs up onto her bed, closed her eyes, and fell asleep almost immediately.
Yang dreamt of yellow.
It wasn't the first time, of course; almost everything in her life had the color ingrained into it. Yellow was the color of her hair, her emblem, her weapon, and her motorcycle. It was always her color – except for when red took over. Red was her other half, and it was one she knew well.
In her dream, Yang saw herself, standing under the moonlight in a field of nightshade. Yang watched as her dream-self blinked, its eyes switching from lavender to vibrant red, its hair glowing with a gradient of fire. The temperature increased, and Yang felt herself begin to sweat. Yang knew this scene well – it was the power of her semblance. She wasn't afraid though; the feeling of her semblance always felt like an old friend, returning to protect her once again.
Abruptly, the feeling of the scene changed. The moon began to glow brighter, transforming into the summer sun. The temperature burned, igniting the field of flowers. Yang began to feel fear – fear she only felt from one thing.
Yang once again saw her dream-self, its eyes now glowing a dark red, and its golden mane literally set ablaze. For Yang, this was her worst nightmare - her loss of control. It was a rare problem for Yang to have, but on the occasion that her rage built to a point that her semblance burned too bright, she lost control, giving in completely to the destructive power that her body, her soul, generated. Yang watched her dream-self's face narrow in anger, heard its enraged roar, and then…
Abruptly, Yang was startled out of her sleep by a loud slam. Still half asleep, Yang jumped up, causing her to fall right to the floor, breathing heavily. Luckily, Ruby and Weiss had cleaned the spot she landed on, but falling from the top bunk still hurt. When Yang looked up, she quickly saw what had caused the slamming noise.
Blake Belladonna was laying on her back, one hand holding her head while the other propped her body up. She appeared to have walked into the room, slipped, and fell backwards into the door, slamming it against the wall. Blake held her head in pain, her eyes closed and her teeth clenched.
Suddenly, she cracked one of her bright yellow eyes open, zeroing in on Weiss.
"Weiss, why are there dust cartridges sitting by the door? Cylindrical dust cartridges?" Blake almost growled.
"W-well, you see," Weiss started, "Ruby and I were trying to speed up the rotation of Myrtenaster's dust chamber, and then, uh, we decided that that was a good spot?" she finished, squeaking out the last few words, turning to look to Ruby for help. Ruby looked at her partner with wide eyes, then turned to Blake to explain.
"Right! We, uh, thought that the space behind the door wasn't really being used, so we, uh, put Weiss's… dust… cartridges… there…" Ruby trailed off, not really sure how to explain her and her partner's poor thought process.
Yang was already up and moving, walking over to Blake, her own pain forgotten.
"Are you okay? Do you need anything?" Yang asked her partner, worry evident in her voice.
"I'm fine," Blake winced, "My head just hurts a lot," Blake stopped talking for a second, looking up at Yang, now with both eyes open.
"If it wouldn't be too much trouble, could you get me an ice pack? My head really is killing me," Blake asked quietly. Yang nodded, and quickly ran to the student kitchen down the hall. Meanwhile, Ruby and Weiss were gathering up their weapon parts, placing the remaining parts on the desk on their side of the room.
Yang quickly returned, handing Blake the ice pack, which she then held to her head.
"Thanks Yang," Blake sighed in relief, "This really helps a lot."
Yang was reluctant to just leave her partner sitting on the floor, so she blurted out a question.
"Do you want me to carry you to your bed?" Yang quickly asked, immediately clapping her hand over her mouth, her eyes widening in embarrassment. Blake smiled softly, and nodded.
"That would be great."
Yang slowly took her hand away from her face, realizing that her partner had actually taken her up on her offer. She carefully bent down to scoop Blake up in her arms, then slowly walked on the cleared floor over to Blake's bunk. Yang gently set Blake down onto her bed, and Blake looked at Yang appreciatively.
"Thank you Yang, you're the best." Blake said, smiling at Yang yet again.
Yang tried to come up with a meaningful response, but the best she could do was:
"Thanks, no problem."
Yang continued to stand there, smiling at Blake, totally immune to the flow of time until she heard giggling from the bunks on the opposite side of the room.
"Yang and Blake, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-" came Ruby's voice, singing from the other side of the room. Yang swung her head around, cheeks burning. She saw Ruby grinning like a madwoman, and when Yang shifted her eyes down, Weiss was holding a hand over her mouth in a poor attempt to stifle her giggles.
Yang sent both of them a death glare, stopping Ruby's singing, but doing little to stop the laughing echoing from their side of the room. When Yang looked back down, she saw Blake softly giggling as well, and Yang suddenly felt glad she was already blushing. Blake's giggling quickly stopped, and she just looked at Yang, smiling. Yang took one last look at her partner's gleaming amber eyes, then swung an arm up to her bunk.
"Shut up…" Yang mumbled, climbing up to bed. She was tired; she wasn't thinking straight. She rolled over immediately after getting back into her bed, closing her eyes. Yang still heard her sister and Weiss giggling, and still felt her cheeks burning, but was determined to sleep anyway. It wasn't really working. Yang growled quietly to herself, then covered her exposed ear with her other pillow.
Eventually, Yang fell asleep thinking of yellow yet again, but this time the shade felt very similar to a familiar pair of eyes.