Yang drew another shallow breath through clenched teeth as she hammered her fist into the punching bag.
Damn it Yang!
Two left jabs and a right hook.
Why does this piss you off so much?
A roundhouse kick.
The damn Princess was just being a sore loser-, but…
The threw all her uncertain rage into a final hit, nearly knocking the bag off of the hook before stepping back to catch her breath.
…But I guess I know why now… Hell, it kinda explains a lot….
"Damn it Yang!" she hit the punching bag again, "Why'd you have to read her friggen diary, "Then you could just be mad at her!" Letting out a heavy sigh and taking the punching bag in both hands leaning forward, pressing her forehead into the piece of gym equipment, "The damn Princess takes herself too seriously, but then… I guess I don't have the moral high ground here…"
Then, out of the corner of her eye she saw Pyrrha walk in, a copper-red towel slung over her shoulder as she made for a bench press, Jaune close behind, Pffft. Like he can spot worth a damn… Yang shook her head, No Yang. They didn't do anything to piss you off-, no, that was you and the Princess.
But then Yang had an idea, "Hey Pyrrha!"
The redhead heard her name called and turned to acknowledge Yang, "Oh, hello Yang. We appreciated the pizza party – I hope there aren't any hard feelings…"
"I could've done without the anchovies…" Jaune whined.
Pyrrha shot him a dirty look.
"Na, no hard feelings," Yang shrugged, not for you guys anyway, Yang jerked a thumb over at one of the nearest boxing ring to the right of the row of punching bags, "Wanna go a round?"
Pyrrha furrowed her brow, but then shrugged, passing her towel to Jaune and answering in a pleasant tone, "Sure,"
"Uh… I'm not sure this is a good idea…" Jaune piped up hesitantly, only to be resoundingly ignored as numerous other gym-goers set aside their weights, got up from their machines and circling around the ring as Yang and Pyrrha got into the ring.
"So…" Yang began, unfazed by their audience, "You any good in a punch-up?"
Pyrrha shrugged again, "You'll have to tell me; I don't usually do this,"
"Fair enough," Yang allowed, rolling her shoulders back a few times to work some of the soreness out from her episode with the punching bag and the match a few hours earlier, "It doesn't just have to be boxing though-, I'm just looking to blow off some steam,"
Pyrrha nodded, "Let's do it,"
As Pyrrha took a wide fighting stance Yang had an absurd thought, What the hell am I doing? She just handed me my ass a few hours ago…
Yang dismissed this notion as she took her own stance though, "Just blowing off steam," she muttered to herself before springing into action.
Pyrrha blocked Yang's first jab with a raised arm, following up with jab of her own. Yang instinctively sprang back on the balls of her feet pulling just out of Pyrrha's reach.
"So you do know some moves,"
"A few," Pyrrha admitted, blocking another two jabs and a right hook, "but they're mostly defensive ones,"
Yang threw two more jabs and an uppercut, and asked, "Hey, can I ask you something?"
Pyrrha deflected the first few blows and pivoted back on one foot to avoid the third, throwing a single punch of her own, "Go ahead,"
Yang was dimly aware that, outside the ring bets were being taken by some of their more enterprising peers, but ignored them; obviously word hadn't gotten out about the practice match yet, "What did you thing of Weiss at the practice match earlier?" She threw another punch and then a knee, just to mix things up.
Pyrrha was momentarily surprised by Yang's kneeing attack, but thereafter was more aware, "Weiss? I'd say she did well. Why do you-," she did a pivoting step forward, positioning her right foot between Yang's two feet and hitting the blonde with simultaneous plows, one to the chest and another just missing the solar-plexus, "Why do you ask?"
Yang cringed as she regained her balance, Defensive moves my ass! It's on-! Wait a minute that wasn't the point here… "Eh," Yang shrugged, "She took Ren off my back before you knocked me on my ass-," She launched a half-dozen more punches with speed that impressed even herself, and a few of them actually connected this time, "And I can't say I was expecting her to last longer than me, you know?"
"Hmmm…" Pyrrha threw another few punches of her own before she continued, "She seemed distracted at the end of it though,"
"Yeah…"
"Do you mind if I ask you a question Yang?"
The blonde's thoughts were yanked back into focus, as she had to block a few more of Pyrrha's punches, "Sure. Shoot,"
"What happened?"
Yang was taken aback and set off guard long enough for Pyrrha to make another jab at her solar-plexus, getting it right this time, "Gah! Dammit!" Taking a second to recover her stance and recovering he breath, Yang nervously asked, "What do you mean?"
"I can tell you're not really into this," Pyrrha clarified, relaxing her stance, "If you were fighting half as well as you did earlier, I'd be down by now,"
That just pissed her off.
Grunting with exertion and sudden indignation Yang stepped forward attempted to take Pyrrha full in the side with a roundhouse kick. Faster than Yang could have believed, Pyrrha resumed her stance and lunged forward, interrupting the kick and taking hold about Yang's shin and heaving her leg upward. Yang's arms worked like spastic pinwheels to restore balance, but Pyrrha had set her much too far off balance to recover. Yang was unceremoniously thrown to the floor on her back, and somebody just lost twenty lien.
Yang winced, Ya know, maybe I was too hard on the Princess… I can see how this losing thing really sucks…
"See what I mean?" Pyrrha extended a hand to help Yang up as the audience, save Jaune, cleared out, "Your heart wasn't in it; whatever it is that's bothering you, you should take care of it. You'll be on the same team for four years Yang; its best to hammer these things out sooner rather than later. I don't know what you and Weiss are fighting about, but it can't be so-,"
"I read her diary," Yang admitted sullenly, getting to her feet without Pyrrha's help, "I was angry and it was a stupid thing to do and now I can't take it back!"
Pyrrha blinked a few times, silenced.
Go ahead, Yang though, waiting for the condemnation, Say it: Yang, you went too far this time-
"You're right," Pyrrha spoke up again, taking her towel from a dumbfounded Jaune and using it to dab sweat from her brow, but rather than twisting the knife, she continued, "You can't take that back, but you can apologize,"
Yang gritted her teeth, Apologize huh? Yeah, I suppose there's that…
Yang glanced over at Jaune, who had a shocked look on his face, "Yeah… I'm pretty pissed at myself too right about now. I'm-, I'm gonna make this right though,"
Pyrrha nodded approvingly, "Good to hear, and when you do, Send Weiss my way-, she could join Jaune and I for a few practice sessions; I think we might all benefit,"
"Uh… Pyrrha?" Jaune asked, sounding puzzled.
Pyrrha punched him affectionately on the shoulder as she finally stepped out of the boxing ring, "Relax Jaune; I won't let Snow Angel hurt you too much,"
Yang couldn't help but snicker despite the circumstances, "She'll hurt you a lot less if you don't call her Snow Angel though,"
"Yang, before I let you in, you have to promise to apologize to Weiss!" Ruby insisted as she stood between her big sister and the door to their dorm, arms spread wide, desperately trying to ignore shaking of her own knees before adding weakly, "I… I'll get Pyrrha if I have to!"
"Relax sis… I actually just came from a chat with her,"
Ruby blinked a few times in puzzlement, "Huh?"
"Just let me in sis," Yang pushed Ruby gently aside, undeterred by her sister's objections and flailing arms.
Once shed forced her way inside the dorm, she quickly shut the door behind her in Ruby's face and leaned up against it, holding the door shut, leaving Ruby to impotently struggle against Yang's weight. The lights were still off in the room, just as before, but Weiss was sitting on her bed, staring down into the little mirror in the makeup kit she'd slapped out of Yang's hand a couple hours earlier.
"Weiss…"
"Stop," Weiss shook her head, snapping the little mirror shut, "Let me go first,"
Yang swallowed, "Yeah, okay,"
Weiss nodded her appreciation, standing up and turning to face Yang, "First," the Princess took a deep breath, "You were right; I was being a child-,"
"Okay I'm gonna stop you there," Yang cut her off, "Yeah, your friggen self-pity rubs me the wrong way," it was Yang's turn for a deep breath, "But I'm the one apologizing here Princess-,"
"Don't call me that," Weiss snapped, her voice suddenly like ice, but it quickly softened again, "Please…"
"Sorry… I… I guess that hits a bigger raw nerve than I thought…"
"You could say that," Weiss nodded.
"So anyway… I guess what I wanted to say was that I'm sorry; I lost my temper and well… I kinda flew off the handle… but I guess that's kinda obvious."
"I won't disagree,"
Yang's right eye twitched, Calm down Yang, you probably deserved that… "So… wanna talk about it?"
"Sure," Weiss obliged, much to Yang's surprise, "You wanted to know why I was so upset about losing? It's because my father doesn't handle disappointment well Yang, but he wasn't always like that," Weiss swallowed, fighting back tears and her stubborn pride, "I… I just want my daddy back, and I'm trying to meet him halfway,"
"So that part about your mom-,"
Weiss shot Yang a withering look.
"Sorry… That's really not my business I guess,"
"No, it's not,"
Yang felt a touch of admittedly unjustifiable frustration at Weiss's unwillingness to share her load, despite having agreed to talk, "Alright, well… you don't need to tell me anything that you don't want to, and again, I am so sorry for reading your diary… can you forgive me?"
Weiss let out another sigh, "I really don't want to,"
Yang's heart sank.
"But," Weiss continued, "If there's one thing I have learned from my Father, if only by negative example, it's that not forgiving people doesn't solve anything; I was angry at Mother too, but no amount of hating her for what she did could undo it or bring her back home,"
Yang wasn't about to press for more details; instead, she stepped away from the wall and gave a startled Weiss a bear hug, clapping the startled heiress on the back a few times, "Thanks Weiss; I promise not to do anything like that ever again."
It was at that moment that Ruby quite literally tumbled into the room, having pushed the door open with all possible force, only to find that Yang had removed herself from the barricade, and thus was Ruby now sprawled on the floor, her red cloak splayed out covering a substantial portion of the floor between the bunk beds.
"Yang! I hope you-!"
"Relax sis, I did-,"
"Yang!" Weiss's voice sounded somewhat strangulated, "Your suffocating me!"
"Oops… He he… Sorry about that,"
Author's Note: Okay so this one is admittedly a bit more of a Yang chapter, but I thought that her perspective was best to resolve their issues. On a different note, seeing as I'm coming up on the end of my semester fast, I can't promise to keep putting out a new chapter for every day of the week… I can however pledge with reasonable certainty to come up with at least one per week as long as I can come up with places to take this story. Anyone interested in seeing as much of this story as possible are encouraged to leave feedback in the reviews. I hope you enjoyed it; hopefully the next one will be done before too long.
