Hey! I'm back! Enjoy this new chapter, I promise I'll try to get another out as quick as life will let me. Thanks lovelies!
Weiss knew she seemed drunker than she actually was (an intentional act, meant to help persuade Yang and Blake to participate, and clearly it worked), but she wondered why Neptune thought it an appropriate time to start hitting on her. Well, okay, any time would be the wrong time to hit on her, what with her on the wrong side of the fence and also already otherwise preoccupied. Quickly, she glanced at Ruby, and she saw her eye Neptune up a bit, furrowing her eyebrows a bit, which Weiss found absolutely adorable, not that she would voice it out.
"So, how you doin' tonight, Snow Angel?" Neptune, his voice coated in sugar and butter and the softest velvet, asked Weiss, his eyelids half hooded like the most seductive seductress in all the lands. Truly, he was going for broke. Weiss stared at him, a loopy little smile on her face, hoping he would just somehow go away.
"I'm fine, thank you," she replied, her speech a bit more slurred than it was a second ago.
"Aite, aite, coo', coo'," Neptune took a sip of his beer, his other hand stuffed oh-so-very-casually in his jacket pocket.
The two sat in silence for a while. Blissful, amazing silence that Neptune sought fit to break.
"You look really pretty tonight," he said. Weiss smiled a little again, catching Ruby's eye.
"Thank you," she bowed her head slightly, returning her attention back immediately to the closet door, wondering what exactly was happening.
"So are you like doing anyth-"
"Dare!" Ruby called out triumphantly as the spinning bottle came to a rest on her, even though nobody had spun it, and everybody was still waiting for Blake and Yang to complete their dare. Everybody looked at her with blank stares. She wasn't even drunk. "Since Blake's in there I dare myself to..." she cocked a hip and placed a finger on her chin in mock-thought. "To kiss Weiss!"
Everybody looked at Weiss, who was at this point wide-eyed and very, very confused. Without a moment's hesitation, Ruby launched herself at Weiss, wrapping her arms around the older girl and giving her a quick peck on the cheek. Weiss blushed uncontrollably and the group cheered confusedly.
"Yay?" Nora went, clapping her hands. Ruby giggled, disentangling herself from Weiss and spinning the bottle, and if Weiss had blinked she would have missed the slightly cocky glare she gave to Neptune, and then it finally registered in Weiss' mind like a cube she finally got into the square shaped hole.
Oh. Ruby was jealous.
Oh. Ruby was jealous.
And at the thought, Weiss blushed again, going absolutely crimson this time. Ruby smiled ever-so-innocently at her. Neptune drank his beer, looking directly away, and around the spaces where Ruby and Weiss were.
The bottle landed on Ren.
"Truth," he said, like it was a solemn confession, which, he wasn't wrong about.
Weiss was also 90% sure Ruby had never met Ren or Nora before. Truth be told, she invited them only because Ren was her best worker, and she knew how attached he was with Nora, one of her most... eccentric workers, and she needed to fill out more people for the gathering-cum-Blake and Yang's happy reunion episode.
"Tell us... how much you like your girlfriend!" Ruby clapped.
Ren nodded, betraying no hint of emotion. He stilled for a few moments, looking like he was composing his thoughts. He looked at Nora's expectant, beaming face, then at the rest of the room, and his hand twitched towards the little box stuffed in his pocket. Ren looked at Nora again, and smiled the barest of smiles.
"I like her a lot. I love her," he admitted quietly. And in a momentous leap of faith, throwing all sorts of caution to the wind, he reached inside his pocket anyway, fingering the little black box in there. "Nora?" he asked, and if Nora wasn't already paying attention, she was now.
"Ren?"
Ren slipped the box out of his pocket and into his closed fist. Ren bit his lower lip slightly, and dully Weiss registered it as the most amount of emotion she'd ever seen the man give away. He held the box out, opening the velvet case to reveal the rose-pink band inside, and Nora thought it was the prettiest thing she'd ever seen. The room gasped collectively.
"Nora, will you-"
"Yes!" Nora shrieked, and all glassware within a two mile radius cringed, feeling their structure start to weaken. "Yes, yes, yes!" And in one swift motion, she stood up, wrapping Ren up in a bear hug to rival bear hugs, and twirled the helpless, smiling man around. The room started clapping, congratulating the very, very impromptu engagement of two mostly strangers. The moment gave Blake and Yang the perfect opportunity to slip out of the closet, Blake having successfully picked the lock. Nobody noticed the tear tracks, or the reddened eyes, or the fact that neither of them spoke to each other. The rest of night was spent in celebration, only not for them.
Yang hadn't been home in a few days.
Yang hadn't been home in a very long few days.
She'd left a note in Ruby's room, saying 'i'm okay. be back in a while. love you -yang.'
She'd left Weiss a note saying 'thank you'.
She'd left the loft without a sound, without anybody noticing.
She'd left and now she was in a fury, because that seemed to be her default emotional state these days. Actually it was more of a wild swinging from cold, emotionless nothing, to white, blinding rage. Her latest victim was the large man behind the bar assaulting a woman, forcing himself onto her. Now he was out cold on the floor, bloody, and Yang felt her hands twitch, ravenous at the chance for a target. Blood pounded in her ears, and as the adrenaline left her system, she began to feel the ache in her knuckles, and she felt the blood (his blood) drip down her hand and onto the cold Valean pavement. The woman had long gone, probably more afraid of Yang than she was the man. She didn't care. Not right now.
Yang stood up straight, taking a few moments to even out her breathing. Briefly she assessed the man. She'd given him a few bruises and broken his nose. Nothing serious, the small, very small, rational part of her mind chimed in in relief.
Yang stomped off, getting on her motorcycle and revving up the engine immediately. The bar owner had provided her with no answers, and she had gotten no closer to any lead, but she wasn't going to give up soon. She could feel the cut up photo in her pocket, its presence almost chilling against her skin, and for a moment she wondered what she would have thought of her actions. She dispelled the thought as soon as it popped up, more interested in finding her than what would happen afterwards. Short-sighted, maybe. But her mind was already full-up.
She didn't even dare to think of her name, she actively suppressed every thought of her. All that mattered now was finding the woman. Finding the truth. All that mattered now.
Qrow hadn't been home in a good long while, and Yang was guessing he wouldn't come home in a better, longer while, so she took free reign in commandeering his place while on the hunt.
She keyed the engine of her bike off, taking notice of her bruised knuckles, covered in now dried blood. She stuffed the keys in her pocket, taking off her helmet and heading into the building, producing the grey card from her back pocket. The guard posted in the lobby flicked his eyes over to her, then lazily returned to the magazine in hand. Yang made sure to keep her hands slightly concealed.
She took the elevator up to the pent-house, entering it and setting her helmet on the kitchen table with a little more force than she'd meant it to. Okay, so maybe she was a bit more than a little bitter that she'd turned up with no information, no lead to go on. All that hard work roughing up people, squeezing information out of crooks and vicious mobsters, and nothing to show for it. Yang sighed, going over to the kitchen sink to wash the blood off her hands.
Dimly, she wondered what her father would think of her using the lessons he taught her to go around beating up criminals for information. She was sure he wouldn't approve. She was sure he very, very vehemently wouldn't approve. She figured that whatever he didn't know wouldn't get her into trouble.
Yang bent over the sink.
Her life was a mess.
She sighed.
"Rough night, spitfire?" A familiar, gravelly voice came from behind her. Yang almost jumped out of her skin, and she thought she made a pretty good job of hiding it, but the same gravelly voice gave off a wheezy laugh, and she mentally cursed. She heard him step out of the shadows behind her, and she turned the faucet off and sighed, resting both arms on the lip of the counter and hanging her head.
"Hey, Uncle Qrow," she said quietly. She heard him hum a little, before appearing at the edge of her vision, leaning oh-so-casually against adjacent counter, clad in his grey suit, faintly smelling of whiskey, a few strands of hair hanging loosely over his forehead while the rest of it was swept back, grey and greying more with age.
"Gonna guess you didn't come over on a social call," he asked. Yang didn't look up. Qrow chuckled again.
The pair stood in silence for a while, with Qrow waiting patiently for his niece to explain herself, and said niece being her usual stubborn self. Qrow could out-wait her. His patience, although worn thin from the people he worked with, was vast for his family. Especially having watched the young girl grow up into the woman he saw before him now. Oh, if only Summer was still around...
"I didn't know you were around," Yang finally spoke, hands now clean of the dried blood, Qrow could see the ugly, familiar discolouration of knuckles. He only gave a slight frown in reaction. "I was kind of counting on you not being around, actually."
"Well, here I am," Qrow said, simply. Yang sighed again. "You mind explaining?" he asked, gesturing over at Yang's figure.
"I-" Yang started, but stopped when she realized she wasn't entirely sure herself. Her hand dropped to the photo tucked in her jacket pocket, feeling its presence, knowing exactly what it looked like. Who it was. Her eyes flicked to her uncle for a fraction of a second, and in the dim light, his hair looked as pitch black as hers, and his eyes almost glowed, in the same way she imagined hers would. If she'd ever met her that is. If she'd ever gotten to know.
"I'm looking for somebody," Yang said finally. Qrow nodded once, standing up fully to slowly walk to the liquor cabinet, though she could sense that all his focus was still on her. "I'm looking for... Raven."
Qrow stopped dead in his tracks at that. The mention of that name. A name he rarely ever heard mention of, much less from her. He clenched his fists a bit, before relaxing them.
"That's her name, isn't it?" Yang asked, now looking raptly at her uncle. "Raven. My mother."
Qrow sighed, opening the liquor cabinet and procuring a clear bottle of honey-coloured liquid. "Yeah, that's her."
Qrow took a swig from the bottle, because he was Qrow and who was anybody to deny him his drink, or his burgeoning alcoholism?
Yang stood in the silence, impatiently waiting for him to speak.
Qrow finally put the bottle down with an exhale, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Of course that's my sister. Of course," he shook his head. Qrow set both hands on the counter, staring intensely into the tiles. He sighed again. Qrow walked over to the window, the immense wall of glass on the far side of the room, his gaze miles and miles away from the sprawling city skyline. Yang just watched as her uncle stood in silence, contemplating and pondering.
Eventually, Qrow spoke. "Take a seat Yang, there's something I have to tell you."
Blake had an amazing, uncanny ability to stuff things away in her mind. She liked to think of it as 'Super Compartmentalization', but most psychologists (most people really) would probably call it 'Repressing Your Feelings'. Psh. What would they know about it?
Blake thought little about it. She needed to do it to survive. Or else she'd slip and fall into the dark hole of her past. The one with the man with blood-red hair and that murderous look in his eyes and the deep growl of his voice telling her that this was necessary-
No. Not today. Not right now. Stuff it. Move on.
She walked out of her room, right past the gray door of the room that didn't exist, and to the front door of the loft.
She opened the door to find a tall blonde figure smiling at her.
"Sun!" she exclaimed, her smile blossoming slowly as she took him in. He had this lopsided grin on his face, one that she could never help but match, and in his hands he held a single sunflower. She definitely didn't falter at the sight of the plant, not even for a fraction of a second, definitely not because of the association long held in her mind about it and nobody in particular.
Instead she let her smile grow and accepted the flower with his kiss.
"Hey," Sun said, his demeanour certainly living up to his namesake. It was infectious. It was one of the many things Blake loved about him, she reminded herself. "I got tired of waiting and I already had the flower and- excuse the pun," he coughed slightly, eyeing the flower. Blake rolled her eyes.
Sun-flower. Har har.
"Was thinking about you when I got it, actually," he smiled sheepishly, fully aware of how dorky he was being. Another check for the 'Things I Love About You' list Blake kept. Blake clutched the flower to her chest, biting her lip and smiling. What a dork, she thought, before leaning up on her tip-toes to give him a kiss.
"Dork," she said, to which Sun smiled. "Let me go put this in a vase," she twirled the flower in her hands. She headed into the kitchen, where the clear glass vase was located on the kitchen island. She paused as she put it in, suddenly catching sight of the photos on the fridge.
Wild yellow hair, pearly white straight teeth, violet eyes. An arm locked around her own, a scream in her throat and a drink in her hand. Her expression was luminescent, and it made the dark-haired girl beside her beam and shine. Bright- far too bright for her to look at.
Blake turned around a little too quickly, her hip catching on the edge of the island slightly, bumping it. She cursed mentally, but walked away quickly all the same, back to the front door.
Back to the messy yellow hair, a shade lighter, the dark-grey eyes, and ultimately the one she chose.
"Shall we?" Blake asked as she appeared back at the front door. Sun straightened up and smiled, offering her his arm, allowing her to wrap her arm around it, just like- just like...
Forget the tear stained pillows, Blake thought to herself. Forget the sleepless nights and puffy eyes and the dull ache in her chest. Forget the niggling reservations and moments of self-doubt. Forget everything- forget her.
Forget her because he was here now, and he was here first. He was there when she wasn't and she couldn't abandon that, could she? How could she?
Blake looked into those gray orbs, and wished, not for the last time, and with a wave of shame, they were violet.
How could she abandon that?
How could she abandon her?
Blake took her arm, and they walked off.
"Did we do something wrong?" Ruby asked, her head hanging almost comically off of the edge of the sofa. Weiss had to admit, when she got the furniture for her office, she wasn't really expecting it to be for Ruby to lounge around on. She had to admit, however, the enormous sense of comfort it gave her that Ruby was around. Weiss paused on typing out the email.
"What do you mean?" she peeked out from behind her laptop. Ruby gesticulated her arms into the air dramatically with a huff.
"With Yang and Blake!" the younger girl almost whined. Weiss gave a little 'ah', then reset her gaze back on her laptop screen. She would just finish up this email, and then she would go over and talk to Ruby about it.
Only Ruby's puppydog sigh and defeated posture stopped her. She could tell that it had been bothering her for the past few days. Especially since Yang was gone, and Blake had pretty much stuck to herself, coming out of her room only in the dead hours of the night. The loft had felt sullen and cold, and not entirely like home anymore- hence why Ruby had taken to spending more time around Weiss' office. The Schnee heiress didn't mind much anyway. Ruby was usually reading or studying, and proved more beneficial than she thought, and less bothersome than she expected.
Plus, there was the added benefit of discreet make-out sessions in her office.
Truly, Weiss Schnee was living the life of a rockstar.
Truth be told, it was bothering Weiss too.
She hadn't gotten the full details from either Blake or Yang, with one being gone and the other barely around. All she knew was that it didn't end in the expected outcome. Her envisioned best-case scenario was that Blake would finally realize her feelings properly for Yang, break up with Sun (letting him down gently of course), then get together with Yang finally, and all four of them could have their happily ever afters, living like family in their loft.
But instead, she got this.
She honestly didn't expect her plan to backfire so spectacularly.
Weiss shut her laptop, giving up all hope of getting more work done in this state. Ruby was staring at her with wide silver eyes, and it made Weiss have to catch herself when her gaze caught them.
"Well, Ruby," Weiss sighed. She really didn't know where to begin. She'd never experienced anything like this. Ruby was supposed to be the one with all the knowledge about emotions and relationships and what exactly to do in situations like these. Situations where Weiss was completely and totally out of her depth. The downfall of Schnees- total lack of ability to articulate emotion.
"I... don't know," Weiss admitted, in an almost pathetic kind of way. She really couldn't make heads or tails of this one. Whatever they'd tried had seemed to make things worse. Did they actually do something wrong? It was entirely possible.
Ruby didn't break her gaze, and Weiss could see the despair in those big silver orbs. Weiss got up from her desk, crossing over to the sofa and settling herself in beside the younger girl, who immediately re-positioned herself into a cuddling position. Weiss put up no resistance. They both sat in silence for a while, their contact a form of comfort for each other.
"Do you think this can be fixed?" Ruby asked, breaking the silence after a while.
Weiss traced small circled on Ruby's back, the deep-red hair tickling her cheek. She hummed slightly. "I think it'll work out sooner or later," Weiss said, as much a comfort to herself as it was to Ruby.
"I hope so," Ruby whispered. In the end, that's all they could really ever do.
The two of them held each other for a while, feeling a part of them missing with the two girls that took it with them.
I know nothing much really happens, so I'm really sorry if this is a bit of a disappointment after the wait, but I can almost certainly promise you it gets better! Hope you enjoyed.
