#2: Defiance - Blake had a hard time accepting her feelings. Yang had a hard time understanding why she left.

"You've said all there is to say." Yang says, but it sounds feeble, inarticulate, and far too dejected to ever harbour any real venom. Yang is not a cruel person. Of all the things Yang is: smart, beautiful, inarticulate, graceful, ridiculous, hilarious, thoughtful – she is not cruel. She could never be cruel, for she is filled with love and happiness and optimism, and that is why Blake loves her. "You're with Sun. You love Sun. You want Sun."

Blake can only shake her head, take a step forward and watch the hurt flash through Yang's eyes as she takes a protective step back. She thinks she has to protect herself, Blake knows, thinks that Blake will hurt her. It's not an irrational thought. Blake has already hurt her; she has taken Yang's full-force, glowing heart and smashed it on the concrete without ever meaning to – like Yang's heart was in the palm of her hand, and Blake was walking across the double yellows of a busy highway. She was so busy with concerns of herself, of her safety, that she did not think about the delicate life pulsing in her hands, and when she stumbled she chose to save herself and any premonitions of Yang's heart had left the second she had lost her balance. Yang's heart had flown from her grasp before she could even attempt to clutch it and pull it close again. And then it – she – her – Yang - hit a speeding van, and any hopes of salvation were crushed by Blake's selfishness, and her stupid, stupid clumsiness.

"No, Yang, I haven't said everything." Blake replies. She tries to ignore the aching in her chest from the way Yang looks at her. A look that says Blake is her everything. And a look that says she now has nothing. "You misunderstood –"

"You don't want me."

The words hurt, even though they shouldn't; she doesn't deserve them to. But they do and she flinches, but the warped look on Yang's face shows it was far harder for her to say them than for Blake to take them.

"No, Yang," she says, raising a hand to stop Yang continuing, but she feels flustered now and doesn't know what she's saying or how she's saying it and what she wants is completely blurred to her now – "you misunderstood."

Yang seems baffled by this. Not a shock baffled but an angry baffled - a baffled that makes her take another step back, her heels smacking against the wall, and her forehead creasing with unspoken emotion, a flicker in her eyes like a fire being lit - a small, controlled fire that she comforts and warms herself by, but a fire nonetheless, and Blake knows, at that look, that Yang's next words will not be pleasant.

"I misunderstood?" she says, her back against the wall but her determination clawing at her skin, trying to pierce the delicate, soft pinkness to escape and unleash a world of terror that Yang will not allow. "I'm sorry – when I admitted my feelings to you and you reciprocated with a kiss, and then when you ignored me for weeks and weeks afterward just to show up with some new stupid monkey boy –" Blake flinches, Yang doesn't stop "and then act like nothing happened – how, Blake, tell me – how – how – did I misinterpret that? How?"

Blake stays silent and Yang laughs, runs a hand through her gorgeous blonde hair. It is uneasy, angry laughter and it shakes and splutters and has moments where there are no sounds– and then they are floating, and when Yang gets her breath again they both collapse to the floor, and the tension is broken.

Blake weaves her fingers together and feels her sweaty palms as she thumbs at them. "I just –"

"What?" Yang growls.

"I just – I -"

"What?"

"I got scared!" Blake suddenly yells, and then there's a weight on her chest as Yang deflates in front of her, Yang's feet shift and she stares at Blake expectantly. The pressure is suffocating. "I just – I kissed you and I didn't know – I didn't know where it had come from or why I had done it and – and it was all too much and I didn't know what to do. I was – scared, Yang." Her shoulders slump, she looks down to the floor. She mumbles: "I was scared of my feelings for you."

And then Yang is in front of her, taking one hand in her own solid, if slightly shaky one, and her other reaches up and traces the curve of Blake's jaw. Blake eyes flutter shut.

"And now?" Yang mumbles. Blake looks down but Yang lifts her head gently, and forces their eyes to meet. Her lilac eyes are so gorgeous, Blake has always thought so. They stared like they knew more than she said, and they shimmered with humour at every insignificant thing, and they looked upon Blake gently, like she was – like she was –

Perfect.

"I don't know," Blake says, but she pulls at Yang's clothes to move her closer so their bodies touch, and her eyes glaze over at the smell of Yang, at the sound of her levelled breathing, at the simple proximity of their daring bodies.

Yang's head dips down a little bit, their noses touch and Blake feels her legs collapse beneath her, but Yang's strong arms keep her standing. "Oh?" Yang whispers, but as their eyes stare into each other's she knows Yang is smirking, because she can feel it in her voice and see the shimmer in her eyes –

It makes Blake clutch at her desperately, and as their foreheads gently rest against one another she feels her eyes closing against her will. Her hand rests against Yang's chest; she can feel it pounding rhythmically, fast but steady, and she realises Yang is nervous but it comforts her, and all of a sudden she can only feel the blood pounding in her own ears.

"Kiss me," is what she says, but run is what she feels. Her hands loop around the back of Yang's neck, her finger teases the skin, and she pushes Yang closer. "Please."

It's a sort of whispered whine, she realises, and then she momentarily hates that she came across so desperately but Yang seems to love this, like it reassures her, and when their lips meet she can feel her smile. The breath is physically knocked from her body at the gentle caress of Yang's soft lips against her own, and she thinks – how did she ever live without this?

So her arms wrap more securely around Yang, and when she deepens the kiss Yang doesn't seem to mind, but deeply complies with Blake's tender insecurity by grasping at Blake's hair and holding her so close and gently that Blake feels safer than she has in her whole life.

And when they part, desperate for breath but content to suffocate, they smile at one another. And Blake blushes at the realisation of what she has just done – kissed Yang, her best friend, a girl, and wanted to kiss her until Blake could no longer stand – but it does not scare her. It embarrasses her, to feel this needy. This desperate for something she is holding in her arms, but still feels it is not enough. And so she opens her mouth, gently, and closes it, and then she murmurs: "I was never dating Sun."

Yang licks her lips, "I didn't know that," she says, and it sounds apologetic, in a way, but mostly it sounds teasing. Teasing towards herself, maybe, that she had presumed without ever really asking –

"I care for you." Blake says, but it takes far too much energy to say it and she wonders if she is truly ready for this. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner."

"It's okay." Yang says, but Blake feels as if it's not. "Can I kiss you again?"

Blake blushes again, but, this time, she doesn't run away. Instead, she nods slightly, and she cherishes the moment Yang smiles and joins their lips again.