Author's note: This is a cross-post. I recommend reading the original version on AO3 because that version (1) preserves my intended formatting much better, (2) contains detailed author's notes, and (3) is the only version I'm likely to update with corrections/edits. The formatting becomes very important in chapter 3 where I had to substitute extensive blockquoting with bolding to comply with FFN's restrictions. While it's technically still readable, large swathes of bold text are decidedly unfriendly on the eyes. The loss of typographical quote marks also infuriates me, but I understand that very few readers will notice or care about the difference.
Since I can't embed external links on FFN, the simplest way to find the AO3 version is probably to copy my fic title/author name or the fic description into a google search. Sorry there's so many hoops to jump through, but I strongly recommend the AO3 version instead.
I want your love (for copy editing)
Most people knew Yang's semblance was her ability to take hits and use them to fuel her own devastating attacks. Blake knew better; Yang's real superpower was her awful grammar. Her ability to get it wrong was downright uncanny. When they had mutually confessed their feelings they had pledged to do anything for one another, but Blake was beginning to regret that. Their fledgling relationship was fine—spectacular, really—but agreeing to proofread Yang's essays was fast proving to be a nightmare for the more literary-minded of the pair. It made sense that most of Yang's trouble was with homophones: she seemed to be an auditory learner and did not care as much for reading, but she was far from stupid. She simply wrote as she spoke, and many of her errors in writing would be non-existent if read aloud. But essays had to be written, and in order to receive better grades they needed to be error-free.
"But you use an apostrophe in a possessive. 'A beowolf uses it's claws...' The claws belong to it! It's a possessive!" Yang protested.
Blake was convinced she could hear the improper inclusion of the apostrophe in Yang's quote. "Okay, you're generally right about possessives. But English is weird—"
A huff of vehement agreement emanated from the vicinity of the desk.
Blake leaned over the blonde's shoulder to point at the offending sentence on Yang's scroll and soldiered on, "Here, 'its' is a possessive pronoun so it is inherently possessive, therefore it is duplicative and downright improper to use an apostrophe to show possession when such possession is already denoted. Instead you have created a contraction reading 'A beowolf uses it is claws...' but that is not what you intend to communicate." The faunus' eyes narrowed a fraction as she caught herself retreating into unnecessarily stuffy wording in a knee-jerk reaction to bad grammar.
Yang turned to pull a comically cross-eyed expression at Blake, but deleted the offending apostrophe with no further complaint about the idiocies of English grammar, nor any comment about the wording of her girlfriend's explanation. She uncrossed her lilac eyes and focused them back on her scroll. "So, what else have I got wrong, professor?" Her tone was light, but the slight emphasis she put on the last word carried a twinge of irritation. "I know there are more errors 'cause your ears twitched a bunch of times when you skimmed my draft."
Black cat-ears twitched involuntarily again at the memory and Blake continued with her corrections. Five single-spaced pages later, she was thankful that Yang's back was turned as she rubbed her thumb and index finger across her forehead, fighting off a creeping sense of irritation at the blonde dutifully—if a little sullenly—tapping away at her scroll. An hour of whack-a-mole with grammatical errors had worn Blake's patience thin but she went on, "Well, there's your use of 'affect' and 'effect.' When something has an effect, it affects something." Blake enunciated the words, carefully distinguishing the different pronunciations.
"They're... different words? Oh."
"You didn't know that 'affect' and 'effect' are different words?" Blake had detected genuine perplexity in Yang's response, but it did not stop her tone from rising with incredulity.
"I guess I kinda knew, but I never really paid attention."
"You need to pay attention, then!" Blake's admonition cracked like a whip as her final thread of patience snapped.
The ominous silence that followed ended abruptly with the sound of a scroll being backhanded off the desk and the harsh scrape of chair legs across the floor. Evidently Yang's own patience was at its end, too, as she pulled herself upright to confront Blake. "I know! I'm trying my best here!" She drew her brows together in a frustrated furrow and her shoulders into an aggressive hunch.
"Well, you're trying my patience! You need to do better! If I see more than one error per hundred words in your next essay, that'll be a night without cuddling." Despite the unstrung outburst that preceded it, there was steely composure in the ultimatum.
The brawler's building anger turned to shock as she processed the words. "You wouldn't! You couldn't!" The brawler gasped and gawped.
"Try. Me." Blake ground out the clipped syllables. "And dust help you if you get someone else to proofread it first. You'll be wishing a week without cuddles is all you have to suffer." She punctuated the pronouns in the threat with jabs of her index finger to Yang's sternum as her frustration boiled over. "You're not stupid, but how are you so bad at this? This is stuff you learn in grade school!" She immediately regretted her choice of words as she remembered Yang's broken childhood, but the hand she clapped to her mouth could not undo her transgression.
"My grade school years were spent trying to raise Ru—" Yang snarled with arms half-raised from her sides and hands curling into fists, but stopped short as she saw the mortification—and fear?—that clouded Blake's golden eyes. Yang's heart ached to see her girlfriend like this, even if Blake had brought it upon herself.
The faunus desperately tried to bandage over the wounds she had foolishly opened even as she fought against a sense of dread, terrified that she was pushing away the one presence that grounded her. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry I snapped at you. I know you're working hard for the team's sake, and I appreciate that." Blake paused. "The team appreciates that. And I... I really shouldn't have said what I did." She laid a penitent kiss on Yang's collarbone as she lowered her forehead into the brawler's shoulder before drawing the braceleted wrists gently downwards. "I'm really sorry," she murmured, and then exhaled in relief a few moments later as the clenched fists relaxed and their fingers intertwined. "I wish I could take back what I said."
"Does that mean—"
"No, my ultimatum still stands. Your next essay needs to be much better than this draft." Blake guessed at the rest of the question before Yang could finish and was rewarded by a belligerent growl in response. She took a half-step back to look into frowning lilac eyes. "But I will take you out on a lunch date this weekend to apologize for snapping at you. I really am sorry for what I said." She felt a reassuring squeeze on her hands but could not fully tamp down her fear that she had truly gone too far.
Yang must have seen the negative emotions that flickered across Blake's face because the brawler immediately dropped the faunus' hands and caught her in a tight embrace. They stood together for a few moments as tension drained and emotions calmed. "Of course I accept your apology." She began to disentangle herself, "I've got a lot to teach myself, so I guess I should get started."
Blake reluctantly let the warm presence go as she reached for her scroll. "I'm not asking you to do this alone. I'll tutor you on grammar, but I want to you push yourself just a little harder," Blake said, putting gentle emphasis on her words. Her amber eyes softened, "I'll make you a list of the recurring errors I see in your drafts and I'll find you some books on grammar in the library."