Yang woke up and stared at her ceiling for a solid ten minutes before rolling to the side and crawling out of her comfy bed.
As she went through her morning routine - which consisted of washing her face, brushing her teeth, and undoing the bun or braid she'd thrown her hair in the night before - she did her best to remember if she had made any plans for today, while simultaneously trying to pick out an outfit for said occasion. She suddenly remembered she'd made plans with Weiss and Blake to go eat brunch and her heart hammered a bit just thinking about the ravenette. She finished up her routine and applied some foundation, concealer, eyeliner, and a dab of mascara to her already long and curly eyelashes.
She stepped back to observe her handiwork, and after giving it a thumbs up, walked back into her room to finally figure out an outfit for the day.
She stepped into her moderately sized closet and started searching through her hangers for something that was cute and a bit fancy, but not overboard. She'd had a huge crush on Blake ever since Weiss had brought her over once when Ruby invited them to a dinner party. She groaned at the memory, remembering how she'd called Blake Weiss, thinking that she was the girl her sister had been raving about for the past few weeks.
Then Blake had corrected her and pointed out Weiss, who by then had already walked over to Ruby and engaged her in conversation. Yang blushed furiously, and apologized profusely and tried to brush it off, but Blake said it was fine before laughing at her mistake.
They had chatted it up for the rest of the night, while the girl Yang now knew was Weiss kept shooting her weird looks. Yang felt a little uncomfortable but planned to talk to her about it afterwards.
She didn't need too.
In a moment where Blake disappeared for the restroom, Weiss appeared next to her and bombarded her with questions such as, "Who are you? What have you two been discussing? What are your motives?"
Yang answered the questions to the best of her ability, confused as to where this was all coming from, but answered them nonetheless.
Yang snapped out of it and decided to wear the same outfit she wore that day, a simple halter white top with a orange ascot around her neck with high waisted orange jeans that matched her ascot. She finished it off with a few accessories, a matte black belt, black wedges, a gold bracelet around each wrist, and her signature aviator sunglasses. She took a look at the time and decided to try and clean up her apartment a bit before leaving, since she did have a bit of time, and there was no way her little sister Ruby was going to do it. Even though they technically shared the apartment, Ruby had lately been spending her nights in the room upstairs from the florist shop she owned where she worked designing various types of things that involved flowers. Some involved some serious architecture to stand upright, and that's what Ruby spent most her late nights on. That or her girlfriend, Weiss Schnee. Yang checked the time and saw she had to get going if she was going to make it on time.
She looked in the mirror one more time to gauge whether her outfit was too little or just right. Most people would have thought her outfit was a bit much but she wore it because not only did she want to impress, Weiss was picking the location, so it probably wasn't jean and t-shirt appropriate.
Yang grabbed her gold chain and leather crossbody and placed her phone and wallet inside and stepped outside her apartment after sending one last look at the clock.
She made her way to her sunflower yellow car and quickly took of towards her destination. As she waited at a light, her thoughts drifted to Blake once again.
The girl had almost cast a spell on her, and she couldn't keep herself from falling. Yang thought back to all the times they had hung out since they first met at Ruby's party. All the little stories they'd shared, little - and big - secrets they'd told each other. Blake had told her things she hadn't told other people and vice versa. She had to thank Ruby for that dinner party later, making Weiss bring a friend. And Weiss for picking Blake to bring along.
The light turned green and Yang moved along, and was about two minutes out when she was hit with a sharp chest pain. She pressed her left hand to her chest, shocked and confused as to where the pain was originating from. The sudden urge to cough overwhelms her and it gets so bad she pulls over to the side of the road, her vision blurry from unshed tears. She covers her mouth with the handkerchief Weiss always made her carry and after a few minutes of coughing and dry heaving, she finally spits out what she felt in her throat.
And all life and color is replaced with dread.
In the hankie, surrounded by pieces of leaves, covered in mucus, with little drops of blood on it - was a crumpled purple amaryllis lily.
Yang's breathing gets heavier when she realizes what this means and quickly throws the flower out of the window and pulling out her phone and turning to the front facing camera, makes sure no traces of her incident are apparent. She tidied herself up as best she could, and got back on the road and continued driving to her destination, her mind in turmoil.
She finally made it to the café and hurried inside, knowing full well she's late and Weiss will undoubtably question it. And Blake, the girl was a busy person, being manager to several high profile people. She'd fought for this occasion, just to see her, and no, she couldn't say it was for Weiss, since Blake and Weiss lived together.
Spotting them in a corner booth near the back and almost practically hidden from view, Yang let out a sigh and composed herself before walking over, her usual sexy gait back in place. She quickly took a seat next to Blake, who jumped slightly, having been so engrossed in her conversation with Weiss. The woman looked breathtaking, dressed in a purple blouse that hugged her bust before flowing until it got tucked into a pastel yellow pencil skirt to which she added some black stilettos. For accessories she wore a simple gold necklace with a delicate lily at the center, and her earrings were small gold studs and she carried a medium sized purse. Weiss also looked fantastic, though nowhere near as fantastic as Blake did. She was wearing a pair of high waisted white slacks with a red halter top that made her bust look larger than it was, and paired her outfit with white Louboutins and her accessories consisted of simple silver earrings with a ruby at the top, and her hair was in a bun tail, pinned up by her signature silver tiara and she carried a clutch.
The three quickly fell into conversation, with occasional pauses when Yang would cough into her hankie, or clear her throat harshly. Yang clutched her crossbody tightly to help dissuade the urges to cough and to keep from grabbing Blake unintentionally. They ordered off the menu, not being too choosy, seeing as all this was courtesy of Weiss, who certainly had the money to pay for it.
She ordered for herself an omelette stuffed with mushrooms and some fruit on the side, with her drink being a tall glass of mineral water. Blake ordered next, her order being an everything bagel topped with an exceptionally large serving of lox with a small salad on the side, her drink being a tall glass of iced tea. Weiss ordered last, her order being a medium sized fruit bowl with all sorts. Some fruits Yang knew and others she did not. Like, what on earth was guava? It looked like an oversized yellow grape.
After their order came, they paused their conversation to eat, and after a few bites of the delicious meal, Yang once again was hit with the same feeling she had gotten when she was in the car on her way here. She quickly excused herself and made her way to the bathroom, barely containing herself until she had ducked into the farthest stall from the door. Once inside the stall, she coughed and coughed, choking and gagging until she finally spit out a total of two leaves, four petals, and three small buds.
Once again the same purple amaryllis lily.
She cleaned herself up, and managed to catch herself from wiping her fingers from the pinkish bile she'd coughed up on her clothes. She exited the stall, making sure to flush away the evidence of her fit. She knew deep down what illness now ailed her, and she also knew she didn't have much options. She wasn't gonna go for the surgery, she didn't want to die, but the last option...
The last option was completely out of her control.
After rinsing her mouth several times to rid herself of the taste of vomit, she slipped her hand into the crossbody she refused to take off, and pulled out a small perfume bottle. After spritzing her neck and a little bit on her wrists, she deemed herself presentable and walked back out towards the table with the other women. Weiss raised an eyebrow and Yang shrugged it off, but she could tell she wasn't convinced. Blake on the other hand, was standing by the booth, a face of anguish on her face.
"Are you alright? Yang, you ran off and you were choking I was worried - oh! Do you need some water?" Blake rambled on and on and Yang lifted a finger and delicately placed it on Blake's lips, instantly shushing her. Blake's eyes grew wide and her face flushed and Yang felt her chest tighten again.
This was going to be a pain.
She coughed lightly and a little bit of bloody spit landed on Blake's shoulder. Yang flinched, but luckily Blake wasn't wearing white so it wasn't super noticeable.
She hugged Blake and told her repeatedly, "Hey, hey I'm fine, my food just went down the wrong pipe. Don't worry your pretty head about it, hm?"
If it was possible Blake blushed even harder at those words. Weiss coughed lightly from the table to get their attention. Both women smiled sheepishly while taking their seats and continuing on with the meal.
Throughout the next couple hours the three spent there, they talked about a range of different things while taking bites of their food. Yang excused herself to the bathroom seven times in that period, where she would hack up amaryllis buds, leaves, petals, stem pieces, and sometimes a crumpled flower.
The trips and constant coughing and dry heaving were beginning to get to her and there was only so much she could take in one day. She knew there was no way she could use the "food went down the wrong pipe excuse," again, and she also couldn't use the "I'm on my period and bleeding heavily," excuse. All she could do was hope the other two women didn't ask.
After a particularly nasty trip to the restroom for the eighth time, the three finally decided to part ways for the day. Weiss quickly gathered her things and said she had a meeting and then a dinner date with Ruby. Then she turned to Blake and said,
"Don't panic or wait up. I'll probably stay over at her house tonight, if that's alright?"
Blake nodded quickly, her left hand cupped in front of her, almost like she was holding something. "Yeah, no, no worries, Weiss! You deserve to go out with your girl, not babysitting me at home. Live your life!"
Weiss looked at Blake sadly and pulled the girl in for a hug.
"Practice what you preach, darling."
And with that she was gone. After a few tense seconds, Blake let out a huff and turned towards Yang.
"Hi um, I know you probably have plans and weren't really planning to hang out with me after this, but Weiss just took the car we both came in, so, if it's not too much of a bother of course, can you drop me off at my house please?"
Yang looked at Blake's face and wondered how on earth anyone could say no to those bright, happy, hazel eyes and quirky half-smile Blake sported. She nodded, not trusting herself to speak and motioned for Blake to follow her to the car. Once they reached it, Yang walked around to the passenger door and quickly opened it and held it open while Blake flushed and muttered a polite "thank you," while trying to keep her skirt down and get into the vehicle. Once situated, Yang closed the door and walked around over to the drivers side.
She got in and turned the car on, then realized she had no idea where Weiss and Blake lived. She turned towards Blake who quickly looked away, embarrassed at being caught staring.
"Can I have your address? It's no big deal to drop you off, most of my work is done anyway."
Of course, most of her work wasn't done, but she wasn't actually going to tell Blake that, was she? No, not at all.
Blake started telling her the address while she punched it into her phone, waiting for the little device to tell her where she should go. After she pressed go, it started speaking in its monotone little robotic voice and off they went.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Blake called her name, startling her.
"Hey, Yang? This might be personal but, do you have hanah- !" Yang immediately interrupted, not wanting to hear the word that would bring the reality of the disease crashing down on her.
"That is a bit personal, kitten," she shifted in her seat, doing her best to sound playful and not upset and surprised that Blake had hit the nail right in the head. "First, take me out to dinner before we start getting into each others heads."
Blake stammered out a "B-but -!" but Yang just shook her head. She wasn't going to lie to her she knew full well she had the disease, but was about to tell Blake that? No, no she wasn't.
Blake turns in her seat to look out the window and refused to talk the rest of the ride, something that on a separate occasion would have bothered Yang, but right now, she didn't trust herself to speak, what with the flowers and all.
Yang finally pulls up to a large house - more like a mansion - and exited the car before going over to the passenger door and helping Blake out. She nodded out of courtesy, but kept her face averted. She started walking up the steps and Yang started back towards her car, when Blake called out to her.
"Yang!"
She turned at the call, unsure of what else to do.
"Yeah? Is there som-!"
Blake had come careening down the front steps and enveloped her in a hug, burying her face in her shoulder while Yang stood frozen, her heart rate skyrocketing. She immediately burst into a coughing fit, and luckily it subsided quickly, but not before she spit out a couple amaryllis buds. She saw one of them hit the ground and was relieved. Yang didn't notice one of the buds had gotten tangled in her own curls, and Blake pulled away and covered the bud on the floor with her heel before the fact only one bud hit the floor registered in Yang's head.
"Go on, I'll wave goodbye."
Yang got back into her car and drove away slowly, casting glances at her rearview mirror to where Blake stood, waving, just like she said she would.
It wasn't that bad of a day overall.
Blake waved until Yang had turned the corner and was well out of sight before moving her foot and bending over and picking up the small bud. Her free hand clutched her chest, and she couldn't think of what to do. What would Weiss do? She was the one that had always helped her when she was stuck in tight situations, always did the talking in business deals, had always been the best when working under pressure.
Maybe she should just call her. Weiss could also tell Ruby to keep an eye out to see if any flowers ended up in the garbage that she didn't throw away. She stood up straight and made her way inside, fumbling around in her purse for her notebook. Opening it, she compared the flower petal she had grabbed earlier when Yang left for one of her many bathroom visits and it had fallen from her hair.
She knew what it was but she couldn't bring herself to face it.
She'd already lost so many to this disease, why did she have to keep on losing?
Why couldn't she just be happy?
After entering her room and depositing her belongings on her bed and beginning to shed her outfit, she madd up her mind and dialed Weiss, knowing the girl would be livid she was interrupting her date but it was the only thing she could come up with.
Placing the phone on speaker and chucking it on her bed, she carefully removed her earrings and necklace, careful not to get any of it stuck in her hair.
That would be a pain.
"Why on earth are you calling? Is the house on fore? Is there something wrong? Are you okay? Did you fa-!" At this point Ruby interrupted Weiss rant and Blake couldn't help but smile. They really were meant for each other.
"Hey Blake! What's up? What gives me and Weiss the pleasure of hearing your voice today?"
Blake paused mid zipper on her skirt, doubting herself. What if she was just jumping to conclusions? She had been known to do that before...
"Well? We were kind of busy here, so if you just called to waste time, I'm going to hang up Blake. There's food in the fridge and don't forget to take your medicine."
"Wait! Um...hanahaki!"
Blake groaned audibly, this was not how she thought this was going to go. Why, oh why, could she never speak properly in these types of situations?
"What? You? I'm coming over -!" Then Ruby's voice a bit faint but still audible, "I'm coming too!"
"NO! I don't have hanahaki - though I have reason to believe Yang does."
Silence.
That was all that came over the line before Ruby's voice came over the phone, a calm, threatening tone Blake had never heard before.
"Blake Belladonna, you better have evidence to back up your suspicions, or so help me I will hurt you."
Okay, thank goodness Ruby was giving her a chance to explain herself.
"Ruby, do you by any chance have in your shop a budding amaryllis lily?"
"Let me go check." After the door clicked open and shut, Weiss' voice came over the line.
"Blake, are you sure? This can't be fluke like last time, you're really hurting Ruby even though you can't see her. She's crying right now, the idea is terrifying to her."
"Okay, so Weiss, remember how earlier at the brunch Yang kept excusing herself to go to the restroom? So one of those times, an amaryllis lily bud fell out of her hair. I picked it up, and afterwards I asked her to drop me off at home, and when she did, I gave her a hug as thanks and she started coughing. I gave her pats on the back and she spit a bit. She spit out a amaryllis bud on the floor. I have that bud."
Silence. Blake forced herself to continue with her routine and finally rid herself of her skirt, quickly putting it in her hamper and and taking off her blouse and after ridding herself of her brassiere, slipped into her black slip and sat on her bed.
"Weiss I'm scared, I can't, I just can't!"
Blake let out a small cry and missed the sound of the door clicking shut that came over the line.
Ruby had heard her, she'd been standing in the doorway and Blake had no idea but Ruby knew she was right. She didn't deal with lilies often unless someone asked her to include them. They were fragile flowers, delicate. But if cared for properly, they could last.
She sat down next to Weiss who jumped and looked at her sadly. Ruby spared her the pain of repeating what Blake had said and just fell into the older woman's arms mumbling "I know, I heard her." After a few seconds of sniffling, she grabbed the phone and spoke.
"Blake, I rarely dabble with lilies, and I don't have a single amaryllis lily in my shop or apartment right now."
A choked sob was heard before the phone call abruptly ended and Weiss tilted Ruby's head up to look at her.
"Listen to me. I know you're falling apart right now, but you need to pull yourself together. I need to go check on Blake before she does something incredibly dumb just because she's terrified out of her wits. And you need to check around your apartment for any traces of amaryllis. Yang will most likely place it near a similar flower, knowing the trash can is too obvious. Go. You're a strong woman, I'll be back in an hour and a half okay baby? We're not brushing this off. And I know you care for her very much, and I swear I will be with you every step of the way."
Weiss placed a long kiss on Ruby's forehead and then another long one on her lips. Ruby blushed as dark as her namesake, and gave Weiss one last squeeze before letting her go.
"Please come back to me."
Weiss squeezed Ruby's hand before taking off her tiara and placed it in the woman's hands before closing her fingers around it.
"I give this to you as my promise that I'll come back. I won't be gone long, you won't have to try and be strong alone. I'll help you. I'll call Lie and Nora to go over and stay with her tonight. They'll understand. Yang came in a while ago so while I'm gone, check the apartment to see if there are any traces of amaryllis."
Ruby nodded, a couple tears streaking down her face.
Weiss grabbed a random pair of shoes, her keys, and zipped out the door.
Ruby sat on the bed a few minutes longer, staring at Weiss' phone. She didn't want to believe it. She didn't want to think that her sister was dying and there was little they could do. She knew how stubborn Yang could be and knew the woman would refuse the surgery leaving her with one option. And since she didn't know who her sister loved, she couldn't even talk to them about it.
And they can't force the feelings, the disease would know and only double in force. She pulled Weiss' jacket around her and decided to do as she'd suggested, look around the apartment and see if she could find any traces of amaryllis. She wasn't entirely sure what type it was, all she really knew was that it was a lily.
She walked downstairs and into the half bath and checked the trash can and nothing. She walked to the hall closet and nothing. She traced her sisters steps from the front door up to her room. She went to the living room and checked around the couch and near the television.
And nothing.
She decided to stop by the kitchen on her way back to her room and grab a few things for the movie marathon that was sure to happen when Weiss came back so they could avoid talking about the issue at hand.
After picking out some drinks from the fridge, she made her way over to the pantry for some chips and cookies. She noticed a couple rose petals on the floor and made a mental not to stop running through her apartment with bouquets in progress. She was about to leave the kitchen when her foot kicked something across the floor.
She placed the snacks on the counter and kneeled down to see what she'd kicked. And there it was, in the space between the dishwasher and the floor.
A blood spotted amaryllis lily bud.