Good morning, good evening wherever you may be! As always, my never ending thanks to all of you who take the time to read my little stories, it means a lot to me. I hope you enjoyed the last installments, if not, well too bad. Here's chapter 7! Sorry, but no lemons this time, wasn't in the mood, but next time, I promise! If you enjoyed it, favorite and follow. Comments, reviews, recommendations, and requests can be sent to et111thompson or to blacklusterheart . Enjoy. –MTFBWY, DFTBA, COAS.
Blake sat up and yawned, rubbing the last remnants of sleep from her eyes. The sun was peeking over the ocean horizon, turning the ocean a light jade and illuminating the hill top where she and Yang had slept. She looked down at Yang, still breathing with the distinct meter of a sleeping person.
Blake watched her for some time, not wanting to break the magic of the moment. It was a perfect, almost picturesque scene, something fleeting and ephemeral, the merest sound or movement could fracture it, so Blake just sat and watched, and listened.
After minutes of silence, it seemed time to wake her. Blake smiled and leaned down over her sleeping figure, and put her lips to Yang's. She kissed her softly, pulling slightly on her upper lip. Yang's eyes opened slowly, and looked blurrily up at Blake.
"'S morning?" She asked sleepily, smiling as Blake kissed her.
"Come on," Blake broke the kiss and stood up, gathering her clothes, "let's go back to the house, I'm starving, and if I know you, so are you."
"Hunger is true," Yang said as she stretched her arms above her head, "But we have a bit of a problem."
"What, I thought you said your mom would be cool with us being gone?" Blake contemplated her underwear, but they were still moist from the night before, so she opted for just her dress.
"Oh, she won't mind, but look at your chest and neck." Yang represed a smile as she pointed to Blake's neck.
Blake looked down, craning her neck to look at the top of her chest. "Shit!" she exclaimed. All along he collar bone and neck were bright red marks from where Yang had bitten her. She took a second look at Yang. She too had a few, less conspicuous bite marks, as well as a set of rather defined scratches down her back.
"Oh, your mom is gonna kill me." Blake lamented as Yang her top. "I am so dead." She could imagine only the worst case scenario, being sent home by Aymie, and then Yang being sent to another school.
"Blake, relax," Yang put her hands on Blake's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "My. Mom. Will. Not. Freak." She spoke solidly, reinforcing every word.
"Are you sure?" Blake's hands knotted the hem of her dress. "Will she really not care?"
Yang laughed. "Oh, she'll care, but only because she'll want details." Yang laughed and turned, walking down the hill back towards the house.
Blake cursed under her breath and followed her down the hill, leaving nothing behind but a circle of crushed flowers.
Back at the cottage Blake stood in front of the door, avoiding the moment she would have to enter the house and face Aymie. She pulled at the low collar of her dress, wishing she was wearing something a little more conservative. She hung her head and groaned. This was going to hurt one way or another. She put her hand on the door handle, taking several deep breaths, like a deep sea diver preparing to submerge, before she turned the handle. She never got the chance.
"Morning, Cat." Blake shrieked, and whipped around, looking for Aymie. It was her voice. "Up here." The voice came from above her, sounding amused and a little smug.
Blake panned up, and saw Aymie above her, wearing flannel pajamas and a bleached [FAKKU] T-shirt with the neck cut off to allow ease of movement, and working on a morning smoke. Blake blanched, her stomach doing some very impressive gymnastic maneuvers before forcing its contents up her throat. Aymie watched her quizzically as Blake emptied the meager remains of her guts into a flower bed.
"You okay?" She called down, tapping the ash from the end of her cigarette into an empty beer can, "I can get you something for your stomach if you want." She looked over her shoulder into the house and cocked her head.
"Why did Yang get back so much earlier than you, she got back almost 15 minutes ago, thought you'd be right behind her." Rubbing out the butt of her cigarette, she dropped it in the empty can and stretched. "You two slept up at the hill together, right?"
Blake felt as if she were shrinking and her mouth didn't seem to want to talk. "…s'the hill, didn think you would wan ta- I mean, us- bein 'gather." Her powers speech seemed to have failed her, and her tongue felt overly large and uncomfortable in her mouth.
Aymie looked baffled for a minute than began to laugh, really laugh, an honest, earthy laugh that involved a fair amount of snorting. "OH GOD! Your precious!" She laughed harder, tears leaking out the corners of her eyes, "Did you think I would really care about the sex, your both almost legal adults!" She wheezed, catching her breath as she came down from the momentary high.
Blake was aghast, "You knew about the… sex?" She spoke carefully, uncomfortably, like there was a pin in her mouth.
"Of course!" Aymie leaned over the rail, still gigging slightly, "Its kind of tradition in this family, the first time most people come out here as a couple, they go up to the hill on the first night, Its actually where Yang was-"
"STOP! STOP NOW!" Yang had stomped out of the balcony door, a towel knotted around her, and water in her hair. "No longer will you accost my girlfriend. Please." Aymie looked a little put out, but she mumbled something about family tradition, lit another cigarette and went inside.
Yang watcher her go, then turned to look down at Blake, still standing on the porch, one hand on the door knob. "Sorry, she tries to tell the story of my conception to any person who will listen," Yang adjusted her towel and wiped water out of her eyes. "You want the bath?"
Blake sunk lower in the tub, blowing little bubbles out her nose and mouth. They tickled her cheeks as they floated to the surface. She submerged completely and her hair floated around her, dark and ambient, like kelp in the ocean. She stared up through the water at the tilled ceiling. It look warped; fluid, like the hot water of the bath was tugging at the fabric of the world and breaking it.
Speaking of breaking. She surfaced, pushing the hair off her face and flicked her ears to get the water off them. Speaking of broken, she felt a little broken. It was like coming to this house had turned her into a wreck. She usually wouldn't have cared what Aymie thought, but she wanted Aymie to like her, and she seemed to nonchalant about Yang and hers relationship. She always assumed that Aymie would wig out, go nuts about it. The lack of a reaction was almost more disconcerting than a violent one would have been.
Blake pushed the plug with her foot, and sat in the bath as the water drained around her, until it was just her at the bottom of it. She sighed, steam coming of her body in little tendrils. She stood up, her skin pink and wrinkled and toweled off, wrapping her hair up in another towel as she slipped into shorts and a loose fitting shirt that used to be Yang's.
She walked down the hallway to the balcony, where Yang was nursing a cup of coffee and watching the scene before her in front of the house.
"Alright girl, let's see if you're as good as my decrepit brother says you are." Aymie was stretching on the lawn, hands over her head as she cracked her back. She was wearing tight black pants and a purple sports bra. Blake's jaw dropped. Starting at Aymie's right shoulder and disappearing around her left hip was a scar, 3 inches wide and at least 2 feet long. It was old, and had blended into the surrounding skin, it was huge.
Ruby touched her toes, cracked her neck, and spun Crescent Rose into her full length. "Ready when you are!"
"You're gonna wanna stay for this." Yang sounded gleeful, and Blake noticed that she had her gauntlets out, and was absentmindedly popping shells in and out of the chambers with the opposite hands.
"Whenever we come out here, my mom always spars with us, to see if we've gotten better." Yang tugged on her gauntlets and cracked her knuckles. "Watch this, it'll be good."
Ruby hefted Crescent Rose, shifting her weight to her front foot, and Aymie unsheathed her sword, tossing the sheath behind her. She flicked her wrist with practiced ease, the blade spinning around her hand like it was a part of her body.
With a crack Ruby fired Crescent Rose, shooting forward towards Aymie, another shot spinning her quickly to bring the blade of her scythe slamming down towards Aymie. She easily parried, the scythe sliding along her sword and catching at the hilt. Aymie stepped into Ruby, and thrust her fist at Ruby's stomach.
Ruby twisted out of the way, firing Crescent Rose and leaping into the air to get away. Aymie laughed, and flipped her wrist. Blake watched as Aymie's sword came to pieces, each one flying up after Ruby, who barely got her scythe up in time to block them. Aymie flicked her wrist again, and all the pieces of her blade reassembled on her hilt. Ruby landed hard, off balance, and leaned on Crescent Rose, breathing heavily.
"How did she do that!" Blake gasped, watching in amazement as Aymie moved her wrist again, and the end of her sword disassembling itself, as the pieces began to orbit around her.
Yang smiled. "Moms a top notch aura manipulator, she can channel her aura into the blade pieces to make them move independently." Yang smiled proudly. "Pretty cool, huh?"
Blake just watched, captivated by Aymie's clean movements. Dodging, diving in, and all while maintaining a level of aura finesses that Blake could hardly comprehend. "Yang…" She breathed, her discomfort around Aymie temporarily forgotten, "Could she teach me to do that?"
Yang laughed. "You can try, but both Ruby and I washed out in the first part of training." She turned back to the fight as Aymie pinned Ruby to the lawn, her blades spinning around her, the glow from her aura just visible in the bright sun.
"Tell you what," Yang sat down, and kicked off her flip flops. "You can fight her first, and if you still want to spar with her to learn, I won't say a word." She grinned, flipping the safety on her gauntlets on.
"Is it really hard?" Blake asked warily, fearful of one on one combat with Aymie, under the current circumstance.
"Yes." Yang was dead series, "And it hurts like all hell, I'm not qualified to actually tell you exactly what happens, but think of it like her aura invading yours and beating the shit out of it. Inside you. Its really not pleasant."
"Ready Yang?" Aymie called up from the lawn as she helped Ruby to her feet.
"Mom, Blake's gonna go first, is that ok?"
Aymie smiled, "Is she now!" She cracked her back and rotated her collar with a series of loud pops. "Tell her to get on down!"
"'Kay, let her go get changed and she'll be right down."
Blake faced off with Aymie, Gambol in a loose grip at her side. She was using rubber rounds, but they were .45s, and those would still break skin, she knew. Aymie readied her sword in front of her, and breathed deeply. When she opened her eyes, Blake could feel the presence of her aura flood out of her. It slammed into her like a wave, and she took a little step back.
"Ready Blake?" Aymie asked as she shifted her sword across her body. "And you can use the bullets, Crescent Rose fires fifty cals, and Ruby was using live rounds, so a little rubber doesn't worry me."
"Wait what?" Blake asked in disbelief, "Ruby used live rounds and not just the propellants?"
"Yep, look over there, tore up the driveway pretty bad." Aymie nodded towards a large hole in the pavement, a crushed bullet visible in the bottom.
"Okay, lets do this." Blake adjusted her grip on Gambol and stood still, looking for an opening.
Aymie moved first, swinging her sword across her body and sending a shower of blades at Blake. Blake turned and dodged easily, and brought Gambol up behind her to the block the blades as Aymie Pulled them back towards her.
"Hey! Nice reflexes!" Aymie complemented her as her blade hovered in pieces in front of her.
Blake moved first this time, dashing into Aymie before her blade reconstructed itself, bringing Gambol up in a wide arc, which was easily blocked against the bladeless hilt of Aymie's sword. Blake took the momentary lull to wrap Gambol's chain around Aymie's sword, and than forced her to let go of it as she followed up it a volley of shots from Gambol.
'Good' She thought as she jumped back and out of the way of Aymie's Blades, 'If I can keep her unarmed, I have the advantage up close.'
She dove in again, twisting out of the way of a spinning blade, and closing the space between Aymie and her with short bursts from Gambol. She brought her blade down on Aymie, who stepped to the side, and taking Blake by surprise, grabbed her by the collar. She pushed her palm against Blake's chest, and she felt her aura pulse.
The next second, she could feel Aymie's presence inside her head, and felt it with every sense. It was awful, like a torrent of emotion, and experiences smashing into her head and trying to be the first one inside. She reeled as Aymie let go, and feel to the ground, her vision blurred, than everything went black.
"How's Blake?" Aymie asked as she put a match to the gas vents in the grill, "She still unconscious?" The flames jumped to life, blue and flickering in the pink light of the last hours of the day.
"She's asleep on the couch now." Yang sat down on a patio chair and kicked off her flip flops, arching her feet against the stone ground, its warmth just discernible as the air began to cool down, and wisps of cold wind blew in off the sea.
"You didn't have to beat her down so hard," Yang said crossly, "You totally scrambled her aura."
"I'm sorry honey, but I wasn't going to insult her skills by going easy on her." Aymie lifted the grill lid and started layering it in strips of meat and vegetable, "I respected her enough to fight her on even terms, and she was a good fighter."
Yang pouted and poked at the holes in the chair. "I get that, but attacking with aura is like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly, it's not like a human is going to get back up after an attack like that."
Aymie leaned down and stuck a cigarette up the grill, lighting it on the pilot. "I'll apologize for knocking her out, but not for my fighting method. A creature of Grim isn't going to go easy on you just because you're inexperienced. I would know."
Yang watched her mother cook for a few more minutes, but no other words were exchanged, and after a while she went back inside.
Blake was passed out on the couch, Ruby sitting at her feet with her lap top, playing Osu and working her way through plate of leftovers from the previous night. Yang plopped down in the recliner next to the couch and pulled her feet up in front of her.
"You know were eating dinner in like, 15 minutes, right?" Yang asked Ruby as she groped for the plate next to her, eyes transfixed on her game.
"First course, I'm just warming up." Ruby found a potato and wedged it in her mouth, her other hand flying back to her keyboard.
"You're gonna get fatter than all hell you know." Yang commented as the rest of the potato vanished down Ruby's gullet.
"Hasn't happened yet, and it never will. I don't get fat." Ruby kept her eyes on the screen and wipped her mouse across the arm rest.
"And every other girl in the world hates you for it."
"Good." Ruby spoke and put in her other ear bud, ending the conversation.
Yang laughed and stood up, walking over to the couch and slipping her arms Blake's unconscious form and carried her to down the hall to their bedroom. Blake had had her bags in another room, but Aymie had instead that they take the master bedroom and had moved into the smaller room that had the balcony so she could smoke outside.
Yang put Blake onto the bed and folded the comforter over her. She walked to the door, and dimmed the lights.
"Sleep well, princess." She left the door open a crack and left quietly, leaving Blake in silence, breathing softly.
