Yang had grown up with stories of France. Vivid images painted by the stories Summer had told her and Ruby, the pictures Taiyang pulled out whenever he got the chance to; all inside of her head. But there was always a downside to dreams and expectations. When Yang stared out of the window, the rough but beautiful landscape passing by (rough and beautiful sounded exactly like one of those descriptions in the brochures Summer had showed them before the trip), she wasn't sure if coming here had been a mistake.
The real France didn't match the image in her head she had held onto for so long. It wasn't a collection full of perfect landscapes but rather lush lavender fields tainted by an old tractor standing right in the middle, rusty cars blocking the view of a beautiful old house and the fields full of poppies and cornflowers not matching the exact shade of green she believed to remember. Everything seemed a bit more edged, more dry, more real and less vibrant. Maybe finally being here for the first time meant coming to terms with that place only existed in her dreams and letting it go for good.
"Is this even an official road?" Yang asked. "I'm not sure if insurance will cover the gravel wrecking our tires."
"I still know the way." Raven changed the radio channel from some French chanson that Blake would have loved, to a woman talking in a serious tone. Yang didn't understand a single word. "Did you at least start your essay while we were on the plane?"
"Sure." The truth was, she had merely written her name on it before playing Minecraft until her laptop's battery had died. Not that she and raven had talked much anyway. She leaned back, resting her feet on the console. It was warmer than she had expected, and the car they had rented either didn't have air con or they just hadn't been smart enough to figure it out, so they had opened the windows. The wind grasping at her hair with greedy fingers, blonde curls hitting her cheeks. The air smelled different in France, like chalk, lavender and the sun.
"If you ask me, it wasn't smart of them to buy the château. They paid too much for it and no one's ever done anything with it for at least twenty years. The bathrooms were old even when I was spending my summers there. They're gonna have to put more money into it than it's actually worth."
"I don't know, Summer was pretty excited. I think she needs something to do during her sabbatical." She looked at her phone again, even though she had no connection anyway.
Summer had said she wanted to take time off from work, a break from spending most of her time at the end of the world and far away from home, but now she had only switched one end of the world for another. That wasn't something she wanted to talk about with Raven though.
"Look, there it is."
Yang looked up. The château was sitting at the top of a vineyard, hidden behind a few tall trees. Yang could see the sand-coloured stone walls and little towers she knew from pictures, but not much else.
"It looks pretty," she said.
"From the tower you can see the lavender fields. It's awfully pretty, like a postcard. Actually I'm sure they did sell some postcards back in the days. Never been my thing."
"Why not?"
"It's just one of those landscapes you see every time you buy a pretty calendar for your office. Meaningless and generic. Don't get me wrong, I had a good time here, but every time I sat there and watched the landscape I just felt like I could as well stare at a cheap calendar instead, it wouldn't make a difference."
Yang shoved her phone back into her shorts' pocket once Raven had stopped the car in front of the château. The walls were swathed with wine, almost reaching up to the roof. This was unlike the pictures. She had seen so many photographs of the house; Taiyang had kept one hanging in his living room ever since she could remember, but right now it seemed different. Not just because of the wine. Familiar, but something was off and she couldn't point her finger at it.
The front door opened before Yang had even gotten out of the car. "Oh, you've made it," Qrow said. Despite the heat, he wore long, black pants without shoes. "We expected you earlier."
"Well, we couldn't exactly tell the pilot to hurry up." Yang smirked and jumped up the stairs to greet her uncle. He hugged her tightly. "Did we miss lunch?"
"Yeah, but we've kept something for you." He let go of her and shortly nodded into Raven's direction to acknowledge her existence. One of their warmer welcomes. "Go on inside and say hello to the others, I'm gonna help your mum with the luggage."
"Noble," Raven said. Yang hesitated for a moment before going inside.
It was surprisingly cold inside of the house. The entrance hall didn't have any windows, but light shone through the open doors leading to rooms she had yet to discover. The stone floor seemed as old as the faded paint at the walls and the wooden furniture. A staircase led to a gallery. Yang could spot some doors to the rooms of the upper floors. Only now Yang noticed that she didn't know where to go, but she heard voices, so she followed them.
She entered what looked like a living room, with heavy carpets on brown tiles, sofas, armchairs, a fireplace and bookshelves that were almost empty. The walls were painted in a soft, faded orange, with lighter spots left where paintings used to hang. There were large windows and an open door, behind it the garden and the voice of either Ruby or Summer, sometimes she wasn't quite sure.
"Yang!" Ruby jumped up and jumped into her arms before Yang could react.
"Urgh, you're wet!" Yang pulled her close despite Ruby still being in her wet swimsuit.
"Yeah, we got the pool cleaned." Ruby grinned. "Come on, the water is amazing. I'm so glad you're finally here!"
"Where's Raven?" Summer wasn't far behind Ruby. Her embrace was warm and Yang still found it weird that she was now taller than her.
"Unloading the car with Qrow."
Summer smiled and nodded. "How was your flight? Do you want to say hello to everyone or get to your room first? The view from your room is just amazing, you'll see. I've always loved the view from on top of the towers the most. I can tell Tai to make you something to eat. Or do you want me to show you around?"
"I'll go see the others first. Where's Blake?"
"Everyone's down by the pool," Ruby said. As she stood next to Summer, it was hard not to notice how much they looked alike. Summer's hair was longer, and obviously she was older, but there was no doubt they were related. It had taken Yang awhile not to let that make her feel excluded. Ruby took her hand. "Come on, you need to see this."
The garden looked like people had only recently started to chop down bushes and vines. But beneath what nature had conquered, you could still see what had once been a beautiful garden. Or still was. A large fountain was almost entirely covered with red roses. A stone figure stood hidden in the thicket, but there were only hints of its full form between the foliage, small patches of grey stone visible beneath. Instead of water, it almost seemed like it overflowed with crimson petals. The smell of earth, herbs and flowers was almost overwhelming.
The pool was hidden behind dead trees, skeletons fully covered with ivy, and for a second Yang thought she understood why Summer loved the place so much she had spent all her savings on buying it. The pool was made of stone, water pouring out of the mouth of a lion's head. The statue would have seemed over the top if it hadn't been ancient.
Kali and Blake sat in cheap plastic chairs next to the pool. Blake closed her book when she saw her, her lips curling into a warm smile. "You made it," she said.
Kali got up before Blake did. "Honey, you must be tired," she said and hugged her. "Did they at least get you something to eat yet? How was your flight?"
"Not yet, I only just got here. The flight was good. Long and boring, but we were flying business class, so it could've been worse."
"I'll tell your father you're here and to get you something to eat, he and Ghira were eager to find out the name of that bush that just smells so amazing." Kali put her sunglasses on. "I'm still pretty sure it's just laurel."
"They've been discussing that ever since we've arrived," Blake whispered when Kali was leaving. "Our dads are eager to find the answer in a book without looking it up online." She shook her head for a moment, her gaze lingering on her as if she wanted to say something, but she didn't.
"Typical," Yang said, and before she could change her mind she stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, Blake's hair tickling her cheek. "It's good to see you."
"I'm glad you're finally here," Blake whispered when she hugged her back. "The house is making weird noises all the time and I just can't sleep alone in that room anymore."
"Blake doesn't like the water," Ruby said behind her. "Maybe you convince her to go swimming with me."
She pulled away from Blake. "The pool is barely big enough to swim", Yang said.
"Big enough. I wouldn't survive the heat without it." Ruby sat down at the edge of the pool, letting her feet dangle in the water.
"Do you want me to show you our room?" Blake asked.
"Yeah, please. I could die for a shower."
"Don't show her around without me!" Ruby said.
The room wasn't as bad as Yang had expected after everything Raven had said, but the wallpaper was truly horrible, pink flowers on yellow ground that once might have been white. A large bed, its sheets clearly new (Yang had seen them at IKEA), but the carpet was so old the pattern had almost faded completely. Yang liked dark wooden furniture, the bookshelf full with old titles in French. A stack of books on one of the bedside tables clearly marked that side of the bed as Blake's.
Qrow had already brought her luggage upstairs, but Yang didn't feel like unpacking right away and leaned out of one of the open windows. The view really was like one of those postcards. The vineyards didn't block the valley, lavender fields and old farm houses next to meadows full of poppies and wildflowers. Yang had never been a person to own calendars with pictures of landscapes, rather choosing motorbikes or cute kittens, so she had no idea how generic it actually was. Meaningless? She wasn't sure.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Blake said from behind her. "We're lucky the trees don't block our view. I've always loved lavender."
"I don't know if I'm a landscape type of person." Yang turned around and leaned against the wall. "You know, this is the first time my whole family is together since… forever. I don't even know why mum is here."
"It's her brother's wedding after all."
"Yeah, but Summer always makes him invite her for his birthday and she never comes. I don't even remember when I've last seen her talk to anyone else from my other family. They never overlap, it's… weird."
"Yeah, I get that." Blake sat down on their bed, running her hands through her hair and putting it up into a messy bun. "Are you scared she might pick a fight?"
She shrugged. "I mean sure, but I don't know if that's what I'm most worried about."
"What else then?"
"I don't know." She stared at her feet. The carpet had some holes in it, maybe from too many feet running over it through the years, maybe just moths. "I think I'm gonna take a shower now. It was a long flight."
"You have to let the water run for a moment before it turns warm. You can use my stuff if you don't want to unpack all your toiletries right now."
"Thank you." She looked back at the landscape in front of her for a brief moment. It didn't even seem meaningless to her, she just didn't know what to think of it. Maybe that was worse.
The nights in France smelled different than anything Yang had ever experienced, and slowly she thought she might like it. They were having dinner in a small backyard behind the kitchen, crowded together over a long table that barely fit them all. They had cleared the empty plates from dinner already and Yang wondered if long nights with wine, cheese and grapes from her stepmother's own vineyard were just a trope they re-enacted or something the French actually did.
"So you really spent every summer here when you were at college?" Ghira asked. "How could you afford that?"
"We worked here. Back then it was still an active vineyard and the château was rented out for holiday guests and weddings." Summer reached for Qrow's hand on the table and Yang instinctively looked at her dad, but he didn't look up from the grapes he was cutting in half to stop rolling from the tiny chunks of cheese he had prepared on his plate while they had talked about the wedding. "Now another local farmer is happy about using our vineyard and I'm happy I don't have the work."
"Getting the house into shape is enough work," Qrow said. "And expensive enough."
"You should work on the garden if you ask me," Taiyang said. "Otherwise it will soon grow over your head. Literally."
"In your house you can do what you want." Qrow poured more wine into his glass.
"Well, first we have to get it ready for the wedding." Summer smiled softly, in the way that always reminded Yang of Ruby. Raven had once told her Summer did it on purpose, and ever since it had seemed pure and innocent with Ruby, but with Summer it was rather diplomatic, a way of calming down everyone around her. Did she really do it on purpose?
"I think I like the garden like that," Kali said. "There's beauty in the wilderness."
"You only say that because it's easier to maintain like that." Ghira shook his head, sharing a long gaze with Taiyang. "See? I've told her she doesn't really care."
"Tai used to take care of the garden when we were staying here," Summer said. "Raven sometimes helped him, but he was the only one who really enjoyed it."
"I only helped him because I wasn't very eager to run the vineyards up and down all day long." Raven stole one of Taiyang's elaborate cheese creations from his plate.
Summer smirked. "Just that?"
"Oh, come on." Raven rolled her eyes and pointed at Yang. "Everyone knows I got knocked up in the end, no point in making a huge deal out of it."
Taiyang almost choked on his cheese, shooting her an offended glare that only made her shrug. Both Yang and Qrow started to laugh, but Yang didn't know if it should make her feel awkward or not. "Well, she's not wrong," Ruby said.
"Actually we used to sit together like that every night, right in this backyard," Taiyang said. "Drinking too much wine, annoying everyone by talking too loud. Remember that one time we almost lost our jobs because we had a midnight bath in the pool?"
"You forgot to mention that we were drunk and naked," Qrow said. "He thought we had had some sort of weird group sex. Even when I told him Raven's my sister."
"You look like a female version of her." Summer laughed. "And he knew you shared a last name. How the hell didn't he know that?"
"You know, I was tired a couple of hours ago," Yang said. "But right now I'm wide awake."
"I'll wake you early tomorrow and make you go for a morning run with me." Blake pulled her shirt over hear head and threw it onto the dusty red armchair. "Trust me, that helps with jetlag."
"Maybe I drank too much wine to fall asleep. I'm not even a huge wine person." She closed her eyes for a moment. The bedsheets smelled like dust, lavender and Blake. She didn't feel calm enough to sleep, she felt the opposite of calm. Her mind wouldn't stop rambling too fast for her to keep up. "Don't you think it's weird?"
"What do you mean?"
"All the stories they told tonight." Yang looked up when Blake sat down on the bed next to her, starting to braid her hair and holding a hair tie between her lips.. "They seemed to be so close and get along so well, but now Qrow doesn't get along with anyone but Summer, mum doesn't get along with anyone at all and the only people who would have a reason not to get along are Summer and dad, but they seem to be good friends."
"Yeah, it is weird." Blake leaned against the headboard, securing her braid with the hair tie. "You know, I've talked about it with my mum before. She's been friends with Summer since college, but not even she knows what happened."
"Do you think it could be just because of relationship drama? Mum leaving dad, dad being with Summer, then Summer being with Qrow…"
"Maybe."
She sighed. "I don't know. I still get along with my exes."
"Well, I can understand it."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to –"
"No, it's fine." Blake gave her a smile that didn't seem genuine. "I just wanna say that… maybe different people just deal with that sort of thing in a different way. Relationships can be complicated."
"I don't know, I just wish they'd talk about it. I wish they wouldn't always just talk about the good parts and then start to fight."
"It's hard for you, isn't it?"
"Mostly confusing." She rubbed her eyes, just so she didn't have to look at her. "Yeah, but I don't really know why."
"I feel like every time you talk about more than one part of your family it upsets you. You're fine when you talk about Raven, you're fine when you talk about Taiyang and you're fine when you talk about Summer and Ruby, but when it all comes together it's… I don't know, I don't want to explain to you how you're feeling, but that's what it looks like from my perspective."
"Yeah, I don't know. The whole situations feels so… tensed. I just forget about it when it's only about one of them." She took a deep breath. "I think I want to go to sleep now."
"Okay."
The lights turned off. She felt Blake move next to her, crickets clittering outside of their window and still the smell of lavender, heavy and comforting. "Blake?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm really glad you're here."