Chapter 1: A Blonde Walks Into a Bar
It was no secret that Yang liked bars.
She stood at one, waiting impatiently to be served her favourite cocktail - a Strawberry Sunrise - at her latest haunt. Grabbing the colourful drink, she stuck the straw in her mouth and polished off the whole thing in less than ten seconds. She slid the empty glass to the barman who had barely turned around, and nodded as a signal for him to get her another. The next one arrived much quicker.
She turned around, leaning back against the bar, drink in hand and surveyed the dance club she had discovered through serendipity. The disco lights rainbowed all over her and the pulsating crowd, but her purple eyes were used to it. The DJ was on fire tonight, spinning tune after tune of bassy electro dance music, Yang found it easy to move to, and she often found herself at the centre of attention when she did. Tonight, though, she was bored. It was too familiar, the barman knew her face but not her name, the doorman let her in without hesitation, and the regulars were getting too friendly. She no longer found it fun, but somehow she kept winding up at this place all the same.
"Yo, how you doin', beautiful? You look lonely, where's your boyfriend tonight?" A man, wearing a tight shirt with an open collar, leaned towards her to shout over the music. He also used the opportunity to stare down her top.
She eyed his face cautiously, trying to figure out whether she had met him before. He seemed awfully familiar and apparently, he knew her 'boyfriend'. "Which one?" she quipped, "I don't have a boyfriend."
"You serious? Fine thing like you and no one to go home with?"
Yang looked him up and down, "Why, you want a piece of me? Think you're worthy of my attention?"
Her forwardness seemed to catch him off-guard, he had clearly planned a neat segue into asking her for her Scrollmates PIN which she had ruined with her brazen response. "Yeah. You wanna ditch this joint and go somewhere a bit more private?"
"I know a little place nearby."
'Nearby' turned out to be a metre away from the fire exit back door of the club. She led him not far from the light pooling at the bottom of the alleyway's lone lamppost and pressed a kiss on his mouth that unapologetically blew his mind. She sucked all the air out of him, left him gasping for breath, so that he clung onto her and pulled desperately at her clothes. He was riled up and raring to go.
"Wow, you certainly don't," he gulped nervously as she unzipped his jeans, "waste any," her hand made its way into his boxer shorts and grabbed hold of his rapidly hardening shaft, "time." He looked down in disbelief as the sexy, smirking blonde pulled him out of his pants and sank to her knees in front of him.
"If you touch my hair, I'll fucking kill you."
She saw the fear flash in his eyes. At least he knew not to fuck with her, especially with his dick sliding into her hot, wet mouth. He was unsure of where to put his hands so he clasped a finger and thumb around the base of his cock as an impromptu cock ring, while the other hand settled on her shoulder.
After several minutes, he gasped as something slippery and cold surrounded his skin as she slipped on a condom. The action was so quick and smooth, he barely noticed and lost the opportunity to complain. She could not make it any more obvious that it was blatantly not her first time. He stared into her dazzling purple eyes, and she stared right back before dropping her gaze to his wrapped hard-on with a cocked eyebrow, wordlessly telling him he had her permission as if her actions were not enough. He nodded, knowing exactly what she wanted.
There was nowhere for them to lie, so Yang undid the buttons of her shorts and pulled them down around her ankles along with her panties. She bent over for him and braced herself against the wall, while he fumbled around trying to find her entrance with the tip of his boner. He explored her exposed area, stimulating her wet folds, a shudder of anticipation made her butt wiggle pleasingly. He ran his finger down her slit and pushed it inside her to guide him. She sighed at the intrusion and her inner walls flexed, bringing her a small taste of the gratifying, lewd friction she craved so badly. Her needs were fulfilled as she felt him press his member into her ready-and-waiting cunt, penetrating her with only the slightest pain.
He let out an animalistic wild noise as he pushed his cock further and further into her searing hot pussy. His chest trembled with laboured breathing, but his hips were strong and solid, and he begun to pound into her, eliciting a moan from her that made him thrust with more gusto and leaked a few droplets of pre-cum into the teat of the rubber. Yang laughed, and began to grind her hips into his, her bare butt slamming against his lower abs. He snaked a hand to her clit and rubbed it briefly, before hooking his hand in the crease of her hips to push himself in deeper. He slid in and out of her with short, hard thrusts, and she placed her arms a little lower on the wall and arched her back to make it easier for him.
She felt the exquisite pressure building from her core, and used her fingers on her clit to bring herself to a quick and dirty orgasm. He said something vulgar, but she did not hear him. He re-entered her and began his final sprint.
It occurred to Yang that she had not asked his name, but it was not like she cared. They were not in the most intimate position, and as he thrust into her, she realised that she could not picture his face and probably would not be able to pick the right man out of a line-up. She shook the thought out of her head and wished he would hurry the fuck up.
Her scroll buzzed from inside her bra, the vibrations sent tingles down where it mattered. Without looking, she knew who was calling. Saved by the ringtone, she stood up abruptly and disconnected from the man.
"Gotta go, my boyfriend is here."
"I thought you said-" He stood there like a fool, with his bulbous cock hanging down between his legs.
"Thanks for warming me up before the main event." She squat down and ripped her panties off, and used the material to wipe a bit of the moisture on her cunt and chucked them at him. After pulling her shorts up, she walked back into the club and shut the door behind her. By the time he had sorted himself out and yanked his trousers back up, she was lost to him. The fire exit could only be opened from the inside.
Yang stumbled back into her dorm around midnight, still tipsy from the evening's shenanigans. Her partner, Blake Belladonna, had learned to stay awake reading until just the right time when Yang would make her conspicuous entrance. Yang stripped her outer jacket, and tossed it in haphazard heap on the floor near her closet. She heard Weiss tut as she got woken up. Ruby was not affected by the noise and continued to snooze, but she was not spared from Yang's disturbance for long. Without having to open her eyes, Weiss knew what was about to happen. Hearing Yang's footsteps coming closer, she rolled her eyes beneath her eyelids and snapped, "shoes off!"
"Oh yeah." Yang's boots clattered to the ground. She planted her foot on the edge of Weiss' bed, and climbed up to shake Ruby awake. Sometimes, like tonight, Yang's tank top would ride up and reveal her taut skin stretched over her prominent abdominals. Weiss counted six bricks of solid muscle, not an ounce of fat in sight. Yang's abs were legendary. Weiss did not know if her team shared the inclination to feel rather privileged at seeing them all the time, but she certainly enjoyed the show until the drunken lout became a nuisance.
"Ruby, can I bunk with you tonight?" she whispered. Yang was clearly labouring under the illusion that her other teammates were asleep.
Ruby was rendered light-headed from the fumes of alcohol on Yang's breath. "Ugh, you smell like Uncle Qrow."
"Let me in, sis. I always let you into my bed."
"Yang, I haven't asked to sleep in your bed since I was nine."
"Yeah I know, because now you climb in without asking." Yang grabbed the edge of her blanket and tried to shake it loose of Ruby's death grip. She made Weiss bed shake, and the heiress huffed and rolled over so her back was to Yang.
Ruby twisted it sharply away from Yang. "You're drunk, go away."
Yang feigned being hurt. "Awwww, don't be mean, Ruby."
"This is the second time this week that you've come back late, reeking of alcohol, and it's only Tuesday. It's better at weekends when you stay out all night and let us sleep in peace. Go sleep in your own bed."
"Please, Ruby. I'm lonely." That was perhaps more private and emotional than Yang had intended. Her vision blurred, although nothing to do with the cocktails she consumed, hot, stinging tears were threatening to fall down her cheeks.
"Don't do the face. Oh my god, you're doing the face." Yang did not make a conscious decision to weaponize her feelings, and make Ruby the guilty one, but that is exactly what happened. "That's my face, I invented it." Ruby sighed and lifted up her blanket to let Yang slip underneath. "You're such a big, blonde pain in the ass and you're like 200 degrees, now I'm too hot. Damn that face, why did I make it so effective?"
"Zwei invented it, not you. Anyway, quit complaining, I know you loves me really." Yang slurred.
"Yeah, yeah. I prefer you sober when given the choice. How many drinks did you have? You know, it wouldn't kill you to stay in at least one night a week." Ruby turned around to glare harshly at Yang, who had not responded. Because she was already unconscious, probably dreaming of the next night at the bar.
In the morning before dawn, Yang's head pounded when she awoke. In her sleep, she had squashed Ruby and pushed her right to the edge of the bed. The poor thing was lying in a puddle of sweat, but she did not throw Yang off. In fact, she held her arm like a comforting teddy where it had been laying between them. Yang was careful to remove herself from Ruby's comforters and sat on the edge while she blinked back the tiredness. Being a teenager, it was easy for Yang to live through a hangover and function pretty well, but getting up in the mornings was a different matter. Swallowing a yawn, she forced herself to drop to the floor with the silence of a ninja cat, and got a large drink of water to rehydrate herself. This was the first step of her very secret ritual.
There was another bar that Yang was fond of. The barbell. And it called her name. Particularly with very heavy weights attached that she would lift up and then put down again in a controlled and precise manner. She went to shower and change into a sports bra and her favourite compression tights and chugged a quick protein shake.
Beacon's gym had been overlooked when they last renovated the building and all the equipment and machines were at least 30 years old. Yang liked it the way it was, dusty, dirty, underground. That meant hardly anyone used it.
She had tried to workout in the evenings when Cardin and his cronies came to train, but she was put off by their stares and catcalls when she deadlifted or squatted. Headphones were no help because she could see them leering at her in the mirrors when she was meant to be concentrating on her form. Obviously, male attention was not something that Yang tended to shy away from, but it was too distracting when she had more than twice her bodyweight on her back.
Yang discovered lifting because a serious ankle injury put her out of action in her martial arts class for almost six months. So in order to keep her fitness levels up, she started to use the gym. It took less than a day for Yang to become addicted to the iron game, she went back later the same day and trained again, and kept going back even after she returned to her martial arts lessons. Her ankle was never the same, so she leant more towards boxing skills, even though she could kick if she needed to.
Yang opened the door to her gym and placed her towel and water down beside the heavy bag. She warmed up briefly with the skipping rope and did a few stretches before pummelling the shit out of the heavy bag. It had many poorly sewn up rips where she had torn the leather with her fists, but it would always be repaired if she asked one of the teachers nicely. She would work up a light sweat on the bag and then move on to the second part of her warm up. The exercise she did now was specific to each workout that she did, to bring blood into her working muscles and lubricate her joints. Heavy lifting takes a toll on knees, hips, and shoulders so it was in her best interest to warm them up properly.
The squat rack was rusty, but it did the job. Yang moved under the empty bar with practised grace and took its weight onto her shoulders. Her deltoids were a bit sore from her workout yesterday so they complained from the stretch when she got into position. Yang's form was perfect on every single one of her 20 reps. The 45lb bar was nothing to her. She added two large weight plates to either end of the barbell, making a total of 135lb. Again, this weight was easily repped for 20. It was still her warm up. She could tell that her legs were pumped from that set, her thighs were straining against the strong, stretchy fabric of her leggings, and she was ready for her working sets.
She took a sip of water and began to load up the bar with a couple more plates. Sweat was sticking her hair to her back, so she swept it up in a messy bun on top of her head. Yang would never do that in front of other people, but it was necessary during heavy squats as the knurling on the bar had the tendency to break her precious hairs if she left it loose.
She took a deep breath and stood up beneath the barbell, now feeling the strain of the 225lbs across her trapezius. Still, her form was perfect for the 10 reps she performed. Her lats were tight and her core was continuously stabilised throughout the movement. Her glutes and hamstrings were firing her out of the hole with relative ease. She released the bar back on the rack and took her first rest, A 60 second break to slow down her breathing and then she had another 10 reps with the same weight. By the seventh rep, she was breathing hard and needed a moment to get her stance correct again. Her quads were beginning to ache with the repeated work, but this was only the beginning.
315lb was her next set, but only five reps. Yang heaved the bar up and down, again and again, but her knees were starting to shake and the reps were slower on the way up. Still she managed five good ones, and hefted the weight back onto the rack. She allowed herself 90 seconds rest this time. But it was hardly inactivity, as Yang was busy getting herself more water from the grimy fountain and getting two 25lb plates that had found their way to the other side of the gym. She slid them on and secured the clips. She also wrapped her knees for protection. She was breathing so hard, there was no chance she could get her heart rate back to normal. Her precious 90 seconds were up and she was back under the bar.
This weight would snap most people's backs in an instant but Yang held it well and, even though it was uncomfortable, it was not difficult. She slowly pushed her butt back, bent her knees, and lowered herself steadily into the squat position. She felt strong now and exploded upwards to complete her first rep. Yang took a deep breath and went down again. Her second rep was ok, not brilliant but passable. Her form faltered slightly on her third and her hips raised faster than her torso so she had to give a little burst with her back to get upright. She shook her head to indicate that she had failed the rep. She re-racked the weight, and rested against the side for half a minute. She gave her muscles the chance to clear some of the painful lactic acid build up, and gain some energy back, then took the bar on her shoulders again. She sucked in a huge lungful of air, grit her teeth and squatted. The next rep was better.
Her final set was single rep of more weight than she had ever squatted before. She added her 10lb using the smallest plates in the gym. Yang waited two full minutes, psyching herself up to do it. She was scared, she could see it in her own eyes. She focussed on her cues for the lift: butt back, bend knees, heels flat, core braced, lats engaged, head up, fire glutes and hip thrust. Yang positioned herself and gave herself a little nod. She was ready.
Just holding the weight made her legs feel weak. She stayed within the safety bars of the rack so that if she were to fail, the rack would catch the bar and save her spine from being crushed, turning her into a permanent resident of Snap City. Yang descended, a little too fast, but it was decent form and she found herself in the hole with 375lb on top of her. Only her legs could save her or she would fail. Her knees were shaking and she was wobbling slightly on her dodgy ankle.
'Come on, Yang. Light weight, baby,' her inner voice encouraged.
Her glutes activated and she was on her way up. Her hamstrings kicked in and her quads pushed, her hips rose even further. She held her trunk upright and steady. It was happening. She felt like she had this strength all along.
'Come on, Yang! It's just a few more pounds.' That was Ruby's voice, pushing her, leading her. She had reached the sticking point and this was it, make or break.
'Up! Up! Up!' she urged herself and it gave her the strength she needed. The weight felt like it was nothing but a peanut. There, Yang was standing in disbelief with a barbell on her back and a personal record in the bag. She gratefully racked the weight and celebrated her success with a carefree victory dance.
Yang looked around at the empty gym; she still had a lot of work to do. Lunges were first on the agenda so Yang grabbed the heaviest kettlebells they had in the gym in each hand and took wide lunge steps all around the edge of the gym. Yang was now fully drenched in sweat, and her hair was in a state. But she kept going, round and round. Her accessory work was not as important than the main lifts, but Yang found it more fun. After lunges, she had glute bridges and stiff-legged deadlifts, step ups and leg extensions, leg press and leg curls, all done together as mini-circuits or supersets to completely fatigue her leg muscles and spur them into growth.
The sun was beginning to rise by the time she had done, so she had a quick shower and chugged another protein shake to refuel and she went back to bed, in her own bunk this time. Yang loved to sleep almost as much as she loved bars so she made sure to get a short nap in after her training to kick-start the growth process. The nap was better than coffee in respect of keeping her energised, and she was up with her teammates at 7, all bright-eyed and Yang-like. She pretended that nothing happened last night, and they did too. They were too busy waking up for the first time, and simply accepted the fact that Yang was always cheerful in the morning. Yang had been trying for that personal best for several weeks, and today she finally got it, so her smile was extra dazzling.
"What's got you in such a good mood, sis?" Ruby asked as they walked to breakfast together.
"Oh, nothing," Yang chirped instantly. Ruby raised her eyebrow but said nothing. Yang loved Ruby. Obviously, they were sisters. But Ruby always wanted to do things together as sisters, and Yang wanted no one to disturb her special time at her favourite bar, not even Ruby. If just one person found out that she went to the gym in the mornings, other people would want to as well and her pre-dawn private gym session would no longer be a thing.
Sometimes she thought that it would be helpful to have a gym partner to train with, someone who pushed her past the point of comfort, and for safety, could spot her on the more dangerous exercises. Blake had never shown any interest in physical training, except for fighting, and even then she took a more theoretical approach before putting anything into practise. Ruby split Yang down the middle, on the one hand, she would be an excellent gym partner due to her leadership skills, providing encouragement for Yang without stroking her ego too much. But Ruby was not a quiet and intensely focussed sort of person, the kind that Yang needed to concentrate on her lifts, Ruby would get distracted and confuse Yang.
Giving consideration to the other teams, Pyrrha and Nora were already partnered up, and having three people sharing equipment often meant that the trainee with nothing to do was left to cool down. Yang needed more intensity than that. They had tried it once and they could not stop gossiping in their excitement over training together that they hardly anything got done that night. Jaune, pfft, that thought was just ridiculous. Yang could out-lift him with her left pinky finger. That left one remaining teammate.
Yang knew that Weiss went to the gym in the evenings. She looked kind of cute in her matching white and blue leggings and crop top, but all she did was jog on the treadmill and lift the small dumbbells that were lighter than her sword. She had tried to explain how pointless that was as a lead-in to ask Weiss to try out weightlifting, but Weiss cut her off saying that her semblance made her so strong that she could not possibly know anything about trying to get stronger. Yang gave up on the idea of a gym buddy after that.
Yang really enjoyed breakfast, it was her post-workout meal so she was always hungry for it - a large, steaming pile of cooked jentacular food. The first time Weiss saw her eat, her eyes bulged comically at the size of the portions on Yang's plate. And Yang always ate like a character in a Ghibli movie.
The most important macronutrient on Yang's plate was, of course, protein. She had piled it high with half a dozen rashers of bacon and half a dozen eggs, which provided essential fats as well. Yang had another plate of pancakes and maple syrup waiting for when she finished that, providing her carbs and cooling down to the side of that was a huge steaming bowl of old-fashioned steel-cut oats to which Yang added a tablespoon of creamy peanut butter. All in all, Yang consumed more calories at breakfast than Weiss did all day and somehow, Weiss was the one who felt she needed to be on a diet constantly.
Yang zoned out Weiss and Ruby bickering about something and concentrated on munching all her food before it got cold. Blake sat beside her reading her scroll tuned to the Vale news feed. Yang knew that her partner only pretended to read many of the articles, she was searching mainly for news about the White Fang. Blake took a sharp intake of breath and put down her coffee cup with a loud noise, disturbing Yang from her feast.
"What is it?" Yang said, swallowing her last mouthful of pancakes.
"Just more coverage of the spike in Grimm attacks. A Beowolf loose in downtown Vale. I don't understand, isn't this what Huntsmen are paid for?"
Yang began shovelling porridge into her mouth, and made a sound in agreement with Blake. "Another attack, two civilians dead and another injured," she muttered to herself. Blake shut off her scroll rather quickly. "Have you had a chance to study for Oobleck's test?"
Yang hid behind her spoon. "No, I didn't get round to it. It's all right, though. I'll just wing it."
"Yang, I don't mean to sound like Goodwitch, but the last time you did that, you got an F. The only people who did worse than you were Cardin and Jaune and that was only because Pyrrha was away for a tournament and couldn't help him. It wouldn't be so bad if they didn't make us both retake the test."
"I'm sorry, Blake. I know you thought it was a waste of time."
"It's not just a waste of time, I'm trying to help you. You have to pass at least 70% of the exams in order to be a Huntress, and not all of them will be combat assessments. The tests are only going to get harder."
"I know that."
"Do you?" Blake stood up. "I read the material we were assigned while you were out last night, partying." Weiss and Ruby looked up from their conversation.
"It's just a bit of fun, Blake. Maybe you should give it a go some time."
"We all like to have fun, sis." Yang's eyes turned to Ruby with a gleam of fire in them. Yes, Ruby was the team leader, but Yang was the older one and she was not pleased in the slightest to have her younger sister talk down to her. "But this year is turning out to be much more difficult than last year. You didn't do any of the recommended reading during the summer, so you've been playing catch up all semester. Isn't it time you stopped acting like a kid and started working hard like the rest of us?" Weiss was nodding along with Ruby and giving Yang the standard Schnee frown.
A lot of insulting words threatened to come up Yang's throat in retaliation but she gulped them down. She had the power to make Ruby feel so small and worthless, but she refrained. After all, Ruby had let her in bed when she needed human contact, and although she grumbled about it, she knew Ruby did not really mind. "I do work hard, I work really hard, ok!"
"At what, drinking?" Weiss snapped at her.
"NO." In truth, Yang never really got that drunk. She was always within the limit to legally ride her motorcycle back to Beacon at the end of the night and plus, being hungover was not particularly a good idea if you want to workout in the morning. It only seemed that she was some crazy party girl because she knew how to let loose and be wild, and she didn't need alcohol for that. Yang narrowed her eyes at Blake.
"I don't have the time to do everything. I need to go out at night, it's how I relax and unwind, without it I'd go crazy." Blake sighed in exasperation. "Hey! It's my fun time, like when you read those dirty books!" Blake blushed and her mouth opened, dumbstruck. Ruby and Weiss looked at each other but kept their eyes down.
Yang was stood up as well and was gripping the edge of the table so hard that the wood was creaking and about to crack. She let go and folded her arms before she inflicted any permanent damage. There was an extremely uncomfortable silence at the table that even Ruby dare not break.
"Fine, I'll study for the damn test."
Yang left her room temperature, uneaten food, and her team mates, behind. There were only a handful of students at Beacon that could part a crowd. Cardin thought he was one of them, but he would be shoved aside when one of the truly infamous students walked through the corridors. Pyrrha, high upon her pedestal of superstar athlete status, could draw applause by the mere mention of her name and her presence would form a sort of red carpet, everyone automatically arranging themselves into neat rows for their favourite celebrity. Weiss Schnee, the heiress and resident Ice Queen, would sometimes allow boys to prostrate themselves on the floor in front of her so she did not have to walk on the filthy ground like a peasant. An angry Yang, known for her explosive properties, could make people run for their lives, effectively scattering a crowd. At this moment, she was not at the point of anger yet, but she was borderline and the wise people who sensed the danger moved out her way with haste.
Weiss entered the library, wary. Her own secret ritual brought her to the same spot every single day. Weiss pulled a book from a familiar shelf. It was a massive tome, an encyclopaedia of all known Grimm. This book was her key to the most inconspicuous corner of the library. Due to the sheer weight of it, it had a special book-stand on a desk that put her back to a wall, and the size of the pages were excellent at obscuring her or anything she was working on. Weiss opened the book at a random page and placed it upon its tabletop easel. Out of her bag, she threw a well-worn book in the hidden space and sat down to a blank page.
She tapped the corner of the paper with her pen a few times before she made confident marks with her fountain pen.
12:17am. Came home. Yang, drunk as usual. 66th night in a row. She honestly has no regard for her teammates at all. Especially me, she always comes to stand on my bed so she can say goodnight to Ruby. The lush is finally learning some manners, she listened when I told her to take her shoes off. I shall construct a sign to remind her about the shoes. They argued for about 10 minutes, keeping us all up. But it did give me a nice opportunity to stare at her body. She knows I'm looking, I know she knows. Maybe the sign would be rendered ineffective if she came home blind drunk and unable to read.
7:01am. She's already awake. How does she do that? Go out, get smashed, come back late, and still wake up with a smile. Anyone that cheerful in the morning definitely requires medicating, if not for her own good, for mine. Damn, that smile today made my brain turn to mush. I don't think she noticed, it was very much like my normal morning behaviour. I think she does her best to ignore me before my coffee. That's probably for the best. I wish I could get Ruby to ignore me in the mornings too.
God, why does it have to be her? She's barely scraping by in class. She's loud and rude, prone to violence, a drunk, and she tells dreadful puns. It's getting beyond a joke now. What cruel fate has cursed me, what did I ever do to deserve this, why has fortune forsaken me? I would just get over it, but I NEED HER. Need to have her, fuck her, cuddle her, just be with her. A long time ago, I thought it was just a sex thing, but the longer it goes on, the closer I get to resigning myself to thinking she's my only chance at true happiness. How did I allow myself to get this way? A question I have asked myself many times.
Get a grip, Schnee. You can handle it. I've been handling it for months now. It's just a crush. It's perfectly normal to find girls attractive, especially when they smile like that. And show off that chiselled six pack at every given opportunity. She walks around naked in our dorm every damn day. She wants me looking, I just know it. Otherwise, why would she parade herself around, if not to arouse me? I expect she wants me to disapprove, to tell her stop, to bring about confrontation. I don't think I or anyone would ever have foreseen that the very sight of her fully dressed makes me masturbate furiously after she comes back every night in a haze of booze. Blake is growing ever curiouser and I think I may have drawn her suspicions, so I'll have to watch my back. Ruby knows nothing, clueless, as ever.
And now I've gone and got all these romantic feelings for her. I mean, she would make an excellent girlfriend. She's very pretty, and likes to laugh. Her terrible jokes do actually get to me sometimes, and I catch myself smiling. I think she noticed one time, so now she tries to make jokes more often. When I look at her, I see us together. If she touches me, even on the hand, I get wet. It gets worse everyday. The other day I dreamt about us buying our first home together. I try to be normal when I'm around her, but she fucks with my head so much…
She's so fucking pretty when she smiles. Fuck it, Schnee. You're done for.
8:03am. Blake told Yang what we've all been thinking recently. She needs to study. She needs help, serious help. We all know it. She's always the last to know. I want to help her, I know she can do this. She'll be a great Huntress one day, the best I've ever seen. If she can't get her act together, she'll be kicked out and I'll never see her again. Oh god, what if I never see her again.
Weiss slammed the diary shut when her eyes filled up with tears at the mere thought of not being able to contact Yang. Hold it together, Schnee, she wanted to write but found her book closed and her pen had bounced off the table when she dropped it. Not that she had any right to feel that way, Yang didn't see her as anything but a teammate. Sure they did stuff together, team stuff, not besties-potentially-bae stuff. Weiss could not decide whether that made her feel better or worse. She wiped her face with both hands and snatched up her diary and pen. Stuffing them into her bag, she whirled around a corner and froze. Which is a clichéd trick for an Ice Queen.
"Yang," she stuttered, and sniffed. Weiss sprang away and quickly closed the flap of her satchel, feeling all of her skin ripple with an unforgiving heat.
"Weiss." Yang's usual confident swagger was missing, she was irregularly slouched, which had resulted in a face full of tits for Weiss.
"Watch where you're going, bimbo."
That took the wind right out of Yang's sails. Weiss looked at her like she had less worth than the dirt on her shoe. "Can it, Ice Queen. Maybe you should try some of your own advice."
She sat down at one of the computers and docked her scroll. The screen flashed through its loading sequence and welcomed her to the Integrated Scroll Learning Syllabus. Yang slammed her fingers on the keyboard, typing in her password. The computer presented her with a checklist of the modules that were required for this year. She frowned at the lack of checkmarks, she thought she had completed way more. She double clicked on the subject of Oobleck's upcoming test. An error message rudely denied her entry: 'Prerequisites not complete'. Yang huffed angrily and clicked on the previous one. The same response came from the computer and Yang thought about putting her fist through the screen.
The computer was the innocent party in this situation, so Yang let it live. Even after telling her no on all but one of the module topics. The very first one which was really a basic tutorial, and if she remembered correctly, was merely a review of the last year, was the only one available. It would be a colossal waste of her time and patience. But she was forced to do it in order to unlock the next ones. Yang scanned the screen, searching the edges for anything that would allow her to skip forwards. She conceded to the machine and put her headphones on to listen to the tutorial.
"Damn, this day started so good as well." she muttered under her breath.
Yang's stomach growled soon after, and her mind wandered to the breakfast that she did not finish. Her attention span was much shorter than normal since food was the only thing she could think of. Yang knuckled down and focussed her eyes on the text displayed on the bright screen.
It was not long before the words merged together and made no sense. The facts she had to learn were stiff and cumbersome in her mind, nothing like her fighting instincts which were quick and fluid. All she had to do was let herself learn in a different way, from books and words, instead of movement and action. Yang's brain refused to get in gear to do this, even though she wanted to, and it was making her head ache and her vision was getting blurry as if she had drunk too much. Maybe that was the trick, she should try studying drunk to make it more fun. Yang rolled her eyes at her own stupid suggestion.
The voice from her headphones droned on and on, while students who were lucky enough to finish their breakfast started to pile into the library. She had come to the quiz at the end and was choosing answers she thought made sense, but the computer was not accepting many of them. She heard Nora giggling and rambling to herself, and saw Ren following her, listening thoughtfully to his friend's babble.
"Hello, Yang! You're here early."
Startled, Yang turned around at the familiar voice of Pyrrha Nikos. Great, just what she needed, the class swot catching her doing the most basic module of the year, and sucking at it. "Hey there."
"Are you ok?" Pyrrha bent down to Yang's level, worried at the frightened look on her face.
"No, yeah, I'm fine. Doing some last-minute studying for Oobleck's test." Yang moved her head backwards a bit, so that her hair covered more of her screen.
"Do you need a hand?"
"No, no, no no, no. Definitely not. I got this." Yang faked the confidence in her voice, but Pyrrha's eyes conveyed an even more concerned look than before so Yang knew she failed to deceive.
"Are you sure? If you do need any help, I'll be tutoring Jaune this evening here in the library. You're very welcome to join us."
"Thanks, but I think I can manage." Yang's pride was blocking Pyrrha's generosity left, right, and centre.
"I couldn't help but overhear you and Blake… talking at breakfast and I know you've been having trouble paying attention during class so if you change your mind, you know where we are." The gorgeous redhead left Yang to her thoughts and joined the table with Team JNPR.
Yang faced the screen again, but her head dropped and slammed on the desk. This fucking sucked, thought Yang as she raked her fingers through her hair. The computer was still patiently awaiting her answer to question 7 of the quiz and Yang did not have a clue so she chose a random answer, hoping for the best.
Computer said no. Yang wanted to scream in frustration, but she had told Pyrrha that she could handle it. This was a mistake, this whole thing, studying, school, everything. Yang was so over it. She knocked her chair over as she stormed out, but hid her face from Pyrrha's look of sympathy. She bumped headlong into Jaune as a result and sent him tumbling to the ground. She heard him wonder out loud "what's eating her?" but she did not turn back to apologise.
She took the stairs all the way down to the basement to get into her gym. The large metal door was chained shut with a huge padlock. She was not aware that they locked the gym during class time. Yang needed to go in there, to calm down, to centre herself, and be alone for a few minutes. Yang only required a little bit more emotion to activate her semblance; she thought about how it had annoyed her that Ruby was trying to whip her into shape, and even though she was only doing her job as team leader, Ruby was the younger one and it irked her. Blake was frustrated at Yang's apparent lack of commitment and it had clearly been stewing for some time before exploding at Yang today, and Yang felt it was unfair. Weiss agreed with them and Yang was annoyed at that too, and for the fact that Weiss was Weiss, and had every teacher eating out of the palm of her hand with her effortless perfect grades. Fury erupted within her for feeling envious of Weiss Schnee and boom, there it was.
With her power more than tripled, Yang tore the chain from the door. The metal door was bent out of shape, but the hinges still worked so Yang went inside and went straight over to the heavy bag. She took her school blazer off and began throwing wild punches at the bag, her eyes still blazing fiercely with power. Her technique tightened up instinctively, and she was landing multiple strikes per second. Her mind went into overdrive as her fists worked on automatic.
How had she fallen behind so badly? She had been distracted. At the beginning of term, she had found this new bar and she got acquainted with the regular clientèle rather quickly. She worked her way around the guys one-by-one, not looking for a relationship but just some fun. Soon, she had been with a whole squad of dudes, but instead of putting her down and calling her a slut, they befriended her due to how awesome she seemed. She was not usually a fool for flattery but Yang fell into the habit of going out with her new group of friends who laughed at her puns and danced with her all night, instead of staying in and studying like she should have been. Yang punched a little harder because it was weak to blame others for her problems. When had she become so useless?
Why couldn't she just study like the others? It was easy for them, Weiss was a natural born boffin, Ruby wanted to be a Huntress more than anything so she had the motivation to study, and Blake loved books, all books, any book.
No, that was not even true, it was hard for them same as her. They just had their heads in the game, while Yang was all play, no work. Yang was unable to find the switch to flick herself into study mode. It was so dull, even more boring than the club she had been to every night for weeks on end. Hours and hours with her textbooks was not as appealing as getting some much-needed male attention, in equal parts platonic and sexual. Well, maybe perhaps with a favourable lean towards sexual.
Was it even possible to catch up? First-year Yang would have easily said yes. Ruby was right, this year was so much harder, and the difficulty curve was beyond Yang's natural intelligence. She had to study and she would have to knuckle down freakishly hard if she had any chance in hell to get back on track. She was not sure she could manage, maybe if she started this time last week, she would have had a shot. Where had all her confidence gone?
If it was so hard and it was only second year, should she even be here? What if it was too much for her and she would burn out before the end of the year and leave Blake high and dry? That was looking like a definite possibility right now. She was going to let Blake down big time if she failed. She did not want to disgruntle her partner any longer, but it seemed like all she could do was delay the inevitable. She would drop further and further behind, angering Blake, disappointing Ruby and worst of all, giving Weiss a reason to act like a smug cow.
Why had she wanted to become a Huntress in the first place and put herself through all of this stress? Yang suddenly stopped punching. The bag swung wildly. Her father was a Huntsman, and her mother and her stepmother too, she had an enthusiastic sister who dreamed of being a Huntress since they were kids, and their Uncle Qrow was a Huntsman as well, it was deeply ingrained in her blood to be a Huntress. It was the most logical thing for her to do, she was stronger and faster than almost everyone her age, and she could fight like a beast. She could count the number of times she had been bested in single combat on one hand. It was just the pesky book part that she struggled with, the part that her classmates found to be a breeze, it made her feel like a crippled old woman trying to keep up with them. She simply had to become a Huntress, it was the only thing she knew she would have a chance at excelling in. Plus, she thirsted for the adventure that missions would bring. But was it worth it?
Yang realised that her eyes had become watery. She braced herself against the bag that was swinging towards her with great force and clung onto it for dear life. It stank of stale sweat and old leather but she could not care less, a single tear had forced its way out and escaped down her cheek. It had all come crashing down on her at once. Maybe she was just not cut out to be a Huntress, and even though she wanted it, she would never get to be one unless she passed her exams. The brawler strained to take in breath and sniffled through her nose, still collapsed against the punching bag. She felt so weak.
Someone cleared their throat behind her. Yang's body darted upright and her head jerked around to see who it was. She had been caught out by people sneaking up behind her for the second time today, but she conceded that at least this time it was the headmaster of Beacon, Professor Ozpin which was both the best and the worst thing in the world right now.
"Professor." Yang sniffed again and wiped her nose with the back of her gloved hand. He was sitting on a raggedy bench, leaning on his cane, with his cup of eternal coffee sitting beside him.
"You forgot this." He tossed her the scroll she had forgotten in the library and she cursed herself as she caught it to her chest, because she had also left her computer logged in at the failure screen of Module 1. "Is there anything you want to talk to me about?"
"No, sir, I'll get back to class." She made to pick up her blazer and book bag.
"I'd rather we have a talk first." He tapped the bench beside him, but Yang hesitated to sit next to him. She had no idea what he wanted to talk about, and she did not want to find out. Yang's belly twisted into knots and her mind went blank. In her momentary daze, the opportunity passed for her to sit down and the professor frowned at the rejected invitation. Yep, definitely the worst thing in the world.
"I see from the records that you're falling behind your classmates." he said, his voice flat as he casually sipped his steaming coffee. His eyes went to the broken door for a fraction of a second, but they were back on Yang again before she could blink. "Please tell me what's going on."
"That's just it, Professor, I don't know!" Yang burst out without thinking, covering her face with both hands and then running them through her hair.
"Take your time."
Yang was embarrassed and her head drooped. "I don't know." she whispered this time. Professor Ozpin did nothing but stare at her through steepled fingers. "I'm failing all my classes, except for Goodwitch."
"Yang Xiao Long, do you remember the speech I gave a year ago when you first arrived at Beacon?"
It seemed so long ago and so much had happened since then. She had vague recollections of the day but she could not recall his words. "No, sir."
"Then I'll remind you." He sipped his coffee. "You came here to Beacon in search of knowledge, hoping that it would provide you with all the tools you'd need to become a Huntress, is that correct?"
Yang's bottom lip quivered traitorously, but she nodded. The last thing she needed was to start bawling in front of the headteacher.
"I warned you that new students waste a lot of energy, and I see a lot of wasted energy in you, Yang." She was so close to tears that he paused and took a breath, affected by her turmoil. "You are very skilled, and very strong. The knowledge we provide at this school should be all you need, but you still lack direction, which is something I, sadly, cannot give you. That would be my fault, not yours."
Yang sniffed loudly and swallowed the ball of negativity that was growing within her. "I don't understand, Professor."
"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's my fault too. Let me try to explain. You're attacking this punching bag filled with sand that does not get damaged, it cannot defend itself or fight back. Yet, it has defeated you today because you were unable to continue your assault. You gave up before you had even really tried.
"It is the same with your schoolwork. You let it defeat you because you're overwhelmed and gave up. You're a bright student, Yang, but it only works if you give it your time."
He could see the cogs turning in Yang's head.
"I'll see to having the door replaced, please don't destroy the new one. I know you come here to train in the mornings before class. You may well be the strongest individual I have ever known in all my career, and in light of your semblance, I am not sure that you need to come here at all."
Yang looked around at her gym with all the beaten up, rusty equipment. She needed this place, it was her quiet place, where she was calm, well as calm as Yang could get. It was therapeutic. Ozpin smiled as if he could read her mind.
"I'm not suggesting you give it up forever, I can see it's something that you clearly love. Just for a while, until you're caught up. If you spent as much energy on studying as you do on physical training, you would outperform your teammates by a country mile." Professor Ozpin was not known to make exaggerations, but she doubted his assessment of her. She was the brawns of the team, the physical one, the one who would willingly take hits in place of her friends, notwithstanding the fact that it fuelled her powers, but surely that was a sign that her intelligence was below average? Any brains she did have, were beaten out of her long ago through repeated use of her berserker semblance. But then again, it was Professor Ozpin who thought she could do it, and to her knowledge, he had never been wrong before.
"Ok, sir." Yang left the gym, and her precious weights, behind.
'Come on, Yang! It's just a few books.' Ruby's voice urged her from the back of her mind.
Yang burst through the double doors of Professor Peach's lecture so everyone turned to look at her and the poor timid professor stopped in her tracks and let Yang take the centre of attention. She could never just enter a room, she would always make an impression with her entrance. She walked while everyone listened to her boots clacking on the steps until she got to the third row where Team RWBY sat. Sidling past the students who were on time and already seated, caused groans and huffs to be muttered in her direction at the disturbance. She ignored their negativity, Ozpin's version of a pep talk lit a fire under her ass, and she was determined to take frantic notes during all her morning lectures. She dropped her notebook, open on a blank sheet, in front of her and got down to it.
Staring at the lined paper made her head go funny. Tunnel vision kicked in soon after and her eyelids fell closed. She jerked upwards remembering the tequila slammers she had last night, and her brain scrolled through the heavy squats she performed earlier that morning while the moon was still shining. Thinking about the reasons why she was so tired made her no less sleepy. It did not help that Professor Peach's voice was as soporific as 20mg diazepam on an empty stomach. Her pen quivered and fell flat on the page, and her head met it there.
The lunch bell brought Yang out of her dreams with all the subtlety of Magnhild. Yang bolted to her feet and had to rake the hair out of her face so she could see. She wavered above her desk for a moment, and muttered indistinctly as she picked up the blank notepad she had taken out in the hopes of recording something from the lecture. She lost track of her pen and left it behind.
As she walked to Lecture Hall 3 for Goodwitch's class, she planned to sit at the back and act like she was paying attention while reading her work, making sure that Goodwitch didn't notice a thing. She thought about skipping entirely, but Goodwitch was certain to notice that; it was common knowledge that the highest achievers in her class were Yang and Pyrrha.
Almost as if Goodwitch knew what she was plotting, the Professor invited her to choose an opponent to duel. Yang looked over her scroll at the list of names, there wasn't one that she wanted to fight particularly. There were only a few that would give her a good fight anyway. She was not in the mood, for once, she wanted to sit back and read quietly. Damn Goodwitch for ruining her plan.
Finally, she chose Nora.
"YES!" came the shout from the front as Nora jumped up and laughed. Yang was determined to wipe that annoying grin off her face. Yang strapped on her gauntlets and kissed the left one for luck.
"Go Yang! Go Yang!" Ruby was acting as her cheerleader. The crowd began to chant with her, "Yang! Yang! Yang!" Team JNPR were screaming for Nora on their own.
Yang moved centre stage and spread her arms out, appealing to the crowd, and receiving thunderous cheers and applause in return. She watched Nora approach completely unfazed, and Yang winked at her, adding a cheeky grin. Fighting was Yang's speciality, this was her domain and she was very territorial.
The lights dimmed so that the crowd was nearly invisible, and they quietened down on Goodwitch's command. A holographic barren landscape formed around them and they assumed their starting positions; Yang with her fists up, and Nora with her hammer held behind her, ready to swing.
A loud buzz signalled the start of the match. Nora used her hammer to launch herself towards Yang. At the same time Yang fired herself towards Nora. When the two clashed, a ripple shot through the air, expanding away from them. Nora danced away and let her hammer whirl around. Yang knew that one powered up hit from that hammer in a critical spot and she would lose instantly, even before being able to use her semblance.
"So, Nora, how about we give them the best show of their lives?"
Nora snorted a laugh. "Too easy."
She dodged and ducked the mighty hammer, using recoil to dart around Nora and creating gaps to attack. Nora was adept at using kicks to defend herself while her weapon was indisposed. Yang pressed the attack, she did not want to be too far away and in range of the massive club head.
Yang laughed too. "Let's try not to make Jaune feel too bad about himself, ok?"
"Well, that's going to prove fairly challenging."
The two fighters were exchanging strikes, and they were both enjoying themselves. Yang leapt high into the air, powering up a big attack, and Nora transformed her hammer into a grenade launcher and fired away. Yang was hit by the fringes of the explosions so her attack missed. When she looked up to see Nora's wild swing surging towards her, her eyes were crimson.
Yang swerved out of the way and she was on Nora's inside, and let loose with Ember Celica. She emptied the chambers, forcing Nora to retreat, and continued her assault with a flying knee to the midsection and a spinning kick to the head. Both connected and Nora was briefly dazed, but she pulled her heavy hammer back, winding up for a strong hit.
Yang saw it coming and crossed her forearms to protect herself, but the momentum was too much for her and she was bowled over, slamming against the ground a great distance away. Nora was laughing and let the hammer fly around her in a big arc to then bring it down to smack the ground in front of her, causing the earth to quake and crack. The shockwave nearly hit Yang but she recovered and leapfrogged over Nora's weapon, and landed a direct hit on Nora's mouth. Nora was thrown off her feet and away from her hammer.
Yang threw two strips of Dust rounds into the air, and let them fall into place, reloading her gauntlets. She propelled herself forwards with her recoil towards her disarmed opponent. She let the pain flow through her, charging her semblance, heating the air around her. She used all her negative emotions as fuel, her beautiful hair now glowing and burning.
Nora sidestepped as many attacks as she could, but Yang caught her with some hard blows that ate away good-sized chunks of Nora's aura. Nora's body rolled towards the handle of her hammer and Yang let her grab it. Nora seemed to perk up when she grasped her weapon again and she giggled and shot herself towards Yang, winding up another huge attack.
Yang grit her teeth and mirrored Nora's strike. Their weapons clashed with a huge explosion that sent both of them flying. When the dust settled, Yang was aflame, her hair so bright that it was blinding. Now, there were even stakes. Each girl could land a one-hit KO. One mistake and it was all over.
Yang readied herself and charged. Nora blocked punch after punch with the shaft of Magnhild, smiling all the while. Her retaliatory swipes were insanely fast and Yang was having a hard time keeping up. So Yang did the only thing she could think of, the next time Nora swung for her, she caught the hammer so it stopped dead. Yang gripped it so hard she felt the metal crumple beneath her fingers, and wrenched it away from Nora. Nora tried her best to hold onto her weapon but she was no match for Yang's enhanced strength.
"Oopsie!"
Yang smiled and tossed the hammer behind her, putting herself in Nora's way, while the oversized weapon whistled through the air. She telegraphed a huge attack with her right hand, so Nora would defend to her left, but it was a feint. Nora's alternate forearm darted up to block. Yang's fist was quicker and it went straight through Nora's hasty defence and scrambled her face. Nora whipped round, and tried a sloppy jab to feel Yang out, getting a taste for her range. Yang's head weaved away, and she ducked under Nora's follow-up hit. She swatted away Nora's hand as it sliced through air just where her face had been moments earlier, and improvised a sick combo on the fly.
Yang's final hit, a gauntlet blast and solid left hook to the temple, knocked Nora's lights out. Nora ragdolled and landed on her butt, finally defeated. Yang sprang on top of Nora, teeth bared, ready to attack again.
A buzz confirmed the end of fight. The stage lights came on, and the barren landscape faded away to make way for the cheering crowd.
"Yang Xiao Long is the winner of the match." Professor Goodwitch announced, making notes on her scroll.
Yang's face slowly relaxed and she released Nora from her death grip, so Nora snorted with laughter and booped her on the nose. Yang helped Nora to her feet. The two of them were sweaty and breathing hard from their exertion, but they turned to each other, smiled, and gave each other a big hug. Yang had nearly forgotten why she liked Nora, and this had been a good reminder. She was so refreshing, her enthusiasm for fighting, for school, for life was never-ending, maybe Yang could borrow some. Their fight had renewed her vigour, she was on top of the world and she was going to kick second year in the butt.
Yang faced the crowd, and Nora held up her arm in victory, and they both took a bow. Even Blake was cheering with the rest of them. Yang congratulated herself on a job well done, and with a big grin pointed at Nora who got great big cheers and whistles.
"Yes, thank you, that's enough." Professor Goodwitch could not allow them to get too proud of themselves, even though that had been the best fight all semester. She had given them both excellent marks, and she let slip a tiny smile when the clapping did not stop.
"You did well, girls." The simple acknowledgement was the highest praise from the tightly-knit Professor. Yang slid her scroll out and quickly snapped a selfie which Nora photobombed. NotRen BangaYangXL #YangvsNora #FightoftheYear #CollateralDamageSurvivor
Yang and Nora hugged one more time and then they both skipped happily back to their teams. Yang's face was stuck on perma-grin, cheesy and bright, like it should be. Her cheeks were coloured delightfully, with a twinkle in her eye. Weiss took one look at her and gulped. Ruby immediately pounced on Yang, telling her that it was strongest she had ever seen her, and giving Yang a detailed blow-by-blow, even though Yang was pretty sure she was there the whole time.
Weiss didn't say anything, she just smiled and looked shy. She turned to Blake, "So what did you think?"
"Where the fuck have you been all morning?" Blake hissed at her. The rest of the team each had the face crack of the century.
"Studying like I said. Don't worry I've got the test covered."
"You better, because right now I find it very hard to believe that you've been studying. You were late this morning and slept through Peach's lecture. Pyrrha told me that you turned down her offer of help."
"I can do this on my own, I don't need their help. I got this. Have a little faith, guys." Yang was trying to appeal to the other two girls, Ruby most of all, for their support to bring Blake back on her side.
"You have three weeks to cram in about three months' worth of lectures to study for Oobleck's test. I offered to help you numerous times before, we all have. At this point, we've given up on you."
Yang stared at her shoes. "I'm trying, Blake, I really am." she said in a small voice.
"Well, try harder, because I don't believe that it's enough." Blake took off on her own.
"Blake…" Yang called to her back pointlessly. She looked to Ruby and Weiss yet again. Weiss turned her back with a huff and walked away.
"Ruby, please, you believe me, don't you?" Yang caught Ruby by the hand.
"I want to. I worry about you. Ever since you got involved in that crowd you hang out with in town, you've been ignoring us and your schoolwork."
Yang's face was a picture. "What? Where is this coming from?"
Ruby shook her head. "You know what I'm talking about, you think they're better than we are because they're more fun."
Yang's eyes widened. Was that really what her team thought of her? Although, considering her behaviour, she could see where they got that idea. She was absent almost all the time, even while she was there in person. Passing a hand in front of her face sometimes wasn't enough to get Yang's attention. Still, she had to defend herself. "You can't have gotten it more twisted, I don't think that at all!"
Ruby looked up at her sister, her silver eyes full of distress, trying to find the right way to state the facts. "Yang, I- the others have said it to me more than once. Sometimes, it's nice to hang out as a team, but you're always out with your other friends so we never get the chance. You forgot Blake's birthday last week, you went out drinking instead and didn't come back until the next day."
Yang's heart dropped into her stomach. "Oh, shit."
"Yang! What are you doing? Do you mean to tell me that you had no idea it was Blake's birthday? How could you, you know how much she's opened up since you became friends with her. The least you could do is apologise, and you better not flunk that test or you'll make things worse. I have a responsibility as leader to make sure my team is getting along, so please don't let me down. This is me being a leader here, so don't think I'm not your friend. Of course I'm your friend."
"Thanks, Ruby, and of course I won't let you down. I'll do this, I swear."
"Good. Thank you. I hope Blake will stop snapping at everyone. She's really upset you know."
"Geez, I wouldn't have thought that forgetting a birthday would be such a big deal to someone like Blake." Yang put a hand through her thick mane of hair and sighed. "She didn't even let us celebrate her birthday last year."
"It was only a small gathering, you know Blake, she's wouldn't let us do something too showy. Sun came down from Haven, and Blake invited Neptune to be polite. Team JNPR came too and we all chilled in the rec room. It was just us, everyone was there, well, except you."
"Did you have a good time at least?"
"I did, Ren made all the snacks, so Nora and I…" Ruby trailed off and laughed nervously as she realised what Yang was actually asking. "Even though she tried, I don't think Blake had much fun." Ruby left unspoken the fact that had Yang been there, it would have been a much more lively affair. The older sister was walking sunshine, brightening any room she entered, but recently her inner light had gone dark. Yang had not realised that her shadows were long enough to be cast over her friends too.
"Hey, Ruby, I know that this seems rich coming from me, but would you have the time to study with me tonight? I don't want to burden Pyrrha."
"Sorry, sis, I've got my weapons club meeting tonight. Otherwise, you know I would."
"Well, I guess, Team JNPR it is."
That night, more got done in the half an hour before Team JNPR arrived than it did in the following three hours. Pyrrha was pleasantly surprised to see Yang already there, working diligently away, and she told Yang to think nothing of it when Yang meekly asked if she could sit in on their study group. However, she had not anticipated the dynamic that Team JNPR had already grown accustomed to, and she was largely excluded from their exchanges. Nora and Ren were in their own little world, and Jaune needed so much help that it took up all of Pyrrha's time. Yang spent most of her time analysing their relationship.
Jaune had given up on trying to date Weiss, determined as he was in the beginning, he finally got the fucking message that she wasn't interested, leading him to fall into Ruby's comforting arms. Yang loved being the older sister and advising Ruby about guys and relationships, but it did cast a telling light on the fact that no boys from Beacon ever dared approach Yang. Jaune and Ruby were in love for a season, and then he suddenly noticed that Pyrrha had been pining for him for an entire year. Ever the ladies' man, he broke up with Ruby with a bunch of flowers, roses obviously, and a box of her favourite candy.
It took a lot for Yang to forgive him for breaking her little sister's heart, but Ruby assured her that it was all part of life's great adventure and she was glad he was with her friend. Yang was a bit surprised at Ruby's maturity in the situation. In her place, Yang would have torn Pyrrha to shreds. Jaune had grown as a man a lot last year, in fact Weiss might have possibly considered giving him a chance if he asked her now. Well, it was a long shot, but that never stopped him before. Except, now he only had eyes for Pyrrha, and she only had eyes for him. While it was kind of cute, it was rather sickening if Yang was completely honest.
Pyrrha, bless her precious heart, did take some initiative with Yang and tried to involve her, but Jaune soon drew her attention back to him in some way and Yang was not fully convinced that he needed it. He was playing up to her nurturing nature and was drinking up her attention like a desperate, needy sponge.
The evening was not a complete waste as she had learned a few new things, but her growling, angry stomach gave her a much-needed excuse to leave them. She got to the cafeteria just as her belly was beginning to form sentences with its rumbling. Food, glorious food, awaited her after she survived the queue and made it to the tables. Yang was hungry enough that she could not guarantee the food would actually make it to the table.
To make up for her lacklustre lunch (the library vending machine had only one protein bar and the flavour was disgusting but Yang ate it anyway), Yang piled her plate with the meat of the night, chicken teriyaki, and a fillet of white fish, a massive pile of egg fried rice, and several servings of steamed vegetables on top of that. She had an apple, an orange and a yoghurt for dessert. Team RWBY were apparently absent so she chose a table and began devouring her meal.
She barely noticed Weiss putting her own tray down and sitting opposite her. Weiss cleared her throat and waited for Yang to greet her. All she got was the rage-inducing sound of chewing and a view into Yang's mouth as she opened her trap wide to stuff a forkful of food into it. "Do you even take breaths in between bites?"
Yang looked up and swallowed her current mouthful. "Sometimes." Yang carried on eating like it was her last opportunity to have a meal.
Weiss opened her yoghurt and stirred it with her spoon. She tore open two packets of sugar from the table and poured them in and stirred again. Yang had been chowing down, but Weiss liked to take her time in order to make her sparse meal last longer.
Her icy blue eyes were fixed on Yang's food while she gingerly spooned the sweetened yoghurt into her mouth. Yang had gotten through half of her mountain of fried rice already and it was making Weiss hungry, even as she was eating.
"How do you eat like that?" Weiss snapped, suddenly, as if the way Yang ate made her angry.
Yang chewed on her chicken. "Like what?" Weiss was grateful that she covered her mouth.
"Like that!" Weiss gestured with her spoon to Yang's vast array of food. "Like you don't have a figure to maintain. You're slimmer than I am, how do you do it?"
"Oh." Yang slowed down enough to cast her eye over Weiss's choices. The aforementioned yoghurt with added sugar and a bowl of pineapple and melon chunks. She looked apologetically at Weiss. "I work it off in the gym," she said with a shrug.
"I go to the gym too, but it makes no difference. I'm still," Weiss put down her spoon and leant in close, "squishy. You're more toned."
Yang faltered. Weiss was very close to stumbling upon what Yang did in her morning ritual. "The way I look is down to how I eat."
"But if I ate like you did, I would definitely pile on the pounds. Look at you, you're like some athletic goddess, and you eat as much as a bear."
"How do you know that? Have you ever tried eating what I eat?" Yang said in a light-hearted manner, attempting to derail the conversation.
"Don't be flippant. I really want to know, how do I get to look like you?"
Yang smirked and waggled her eyebrows. "Train your ass off. Or on, in your case."
Weiss was not pleased with Yang's joke. "I do train my ass off, I run 5k in under an hour. 10k every weekend."
Yang's eyebrows raised and she regarded Weiss in a more impressive light. She did not have much interest in running, and it was mostly out of the question due to her ankle, but she knew those numbers were not to be sniffed at. Weiss clearly had great stamina and athleticism, she would just need some heavy lifting to build muscle and strength and, bam. It was almost cruel to keep the information from her. She had to decide right now whether she was going to let someone in on her secret.
"Weiss, listen, it's not for everybody, ok? It's tough, you've gotta put your whole life into doing what I do. You won't have time for much else, parties, music, boys, it'll consume you." That was her last ditch attempt at throwing Weiss off her scent.
Weiss' body stiffened and her face became even more serious than usual. She was being challenged, and she knew it. "You have time for other stuff. The time you spend drinking, I will spend studying for my future. Besides, anything you can do, I can do too."
"Ok, Weiss. Sure, I'll help you. But I'll need you to do something for me in return."
"Done." Weiss put her hand up for silence, she was sure anything Yang could possibly want, she would be able to provide.
Yang smiled, already formulating the details of her request. "Have you been to the gym yet today?"
"No, I planned to go after dinner."
"Well, eat up. You're gonna need it." Yang tossed her the apple she had reserved for dessert. Weiss caught it with one hand, and took a large bite out of it.
