Here's chapter 10. The next chapter after this may not be out for a couple of days because I need to take care of a few college assignments.
As always, leave a review and tell me what you think of the chapter, so far I only have one person reviewing regularly with compliments and critiques that I can work with. Give me a hand guys so I can dish out better content for you!
Also, yes . . . The Title is a Volume 2 reference . . . There are also two returning outfits you should recognize by name alone.
Happy reading!
POV: YANG XIAO LONG
Chapter 10 - Painting The Town
"Alright, Blake. Start spilling it." The moment I close the door behind me those are the first words to leave my lips.
Now that we're in the privacy of our room, Blake takes off Weiss' bolero from her head and folds it as nicely as she can on top of Weiss' bed. Her ears flutter and dance to fight away the temperature of the room that contrasts to the warmth of Weiss' usual jacket. Blake has all intentions of not talking about her feelings, and while I want to get answers from her, I also need to respect the fact that she's injured in a way I can't imagine.
I take the chance to go into the fridge and take out a can of Monster, then choose to pull out a half gallon of milk so I can pour Blake a cup. Before I start pouring I glance in Blake's direction after the distinct sound of popping the plastic cap off of the container, only for Blake to look over her shoulder and shake her head at me.
No milk? Wow.
I don't press the matter and place the milk back in the fridge, but I do decide to take out a second can and toss it at Blake after giving her a head's up. The catches the can with one hand and much to my surprise, doesn't waste time in opening and taking a good chug. When she's satisfied with the lingering taste in her mouth, she places her can down on Weiss' nightstand and goes back to Weiss' bed to fold and organize the clothes on the laid out suitcase.
In the meantime I take a seat on her bed to watch, debating on what sort of approach I need to take on the issue. This isn't exactly easy, and I'm sure Blake's sorrow could switch to a raging anger at anytime. She's already pissed at me, I don't want to make it worse.
Unfortunately, I don't know Blake's struggles, I don't know how she grew up. The only thing I know is that she left The White Fang, she chose her own path by coming to Beacon, and she just got her heart torn because of the path she chose. For all I know it could've been easy for her to hide behind a mask and let people see her as a monster . . . she would've been with people who understood her pains and difficulties, but I'm glad she stepped away from that. She chose a cleaner life and I got to meet her because of it.
"I won't go with the whole 'I understand how you feel' crap. I don't understand, I may never understand, and I won't try to understand. All I can do is try to help you through it and make you feel better." While I speak I keep my eyes on her to see any change in her body language. No result.
Talking may not work . . . I guess I should just wait with her.
I take another few sips from my can before I take a different approach on the entire situation. I place the can down on Blake's nightstand, then make my way over to her. She doesn't look at me even though she knows I'm right behind her, and instead appears to be organizing Weiss' clothes into roughly six piles of clothing: Underwear, bras, tops, skirts, pants and shorts.
While Ice Queen doesn't exactly have a lot of shorts, she does have a few nice ones that look like they'd be great for a summer day of fun. I watch Blake's organizing method with a bit of interest, mainly because I'm curious what Weiss has in terms of underwear. The first thing I notice are a pair of light-blue lace panties and a matching bra that has a white bow in between the cups. If it weren't for the shock that Weiss had something I can honestly consider sexy, I'd probably be upset that it isn't a front clasp bra.
I wonder if Ruby's seen this one yet . . . Doubt it, Weiss wouldn't plan for that.
The next thing I notice is somewhat of a see-through light-blue skirt that fades to a darker blue the closer to get to the bottom. With how thin the fabric is, I'm left with no choice but to assume it's meant to go with some other outfit, possibly with swimwear to have a nice look at the beach. I wonder if Ice Queen even has beach clothes. She doesn't seem like the 'outdoorsy' type.
"Weiss has some pretty nice outfits . . . I'm a little jealous." I admit to a silent Blake who continues to organize each pile, even having any matching outfits on the same row of each piling column of clothes.
"I like her lace." Blake says in a near whisper. With the tone of her voice it's easy to tell she's still depressed, but I'm a elated to finally hear her speak.
"I didn't figure you for a lace girl. I know one of the places for our date now!" I sike myself up. Ironically, Coco's favorite clothing store just got rebuilt and the grand re-opening was today. I think taking Blake there for a little bit of a clothing run would be fun. I may find something I want, too.
Since Blake is still working on Weiss' wardrobe, I pull down Ruby's suitcase and begin to organize my sister's clothes even though most of the mare already put together in a pretty neat way. If I had to guess, Weiss probably took the time to make sure Ruby's suitcase was proper and voila, perfectly organized suitcase from a very unorganized Rubes.
I decide not to let that discourage me. Instead of trying to find a better way to organize everything, I begin to put her clothes into the proper drawer, having little difficulty with finding a place for her unmentionables with how little she has since she doesn't spend her time looking for anything cute and sexy to wear for Weiss . . . at least not yet.
"Yang?"
I hear my name being called just as I am finishing with the last of Ruby's clothes. I turn to Blake who is sitting down on Weiss' bed, all of the clothes organized and ready to be put in drawers. I'm sure Weiss will re-organize things later, or find a way to yell at me for her clothes being tampered with.
"What's up?" I ask. I move to Blake and take a knee next to her. I place both of my forearms on her left thigh and wait for her to say what she wants.
"Which ones are you wearing today?" Her question makes me raise an eyebrow, and instead of explaining herself, she chooses to reach over my shoulder and tug on my skirt, making me jump in surprise. ". . . I've never seen those."
"Oh, these?" I ask after I recover from the initial surprise. "Well, I kind of had these made before we left Patch . . . I wanted to surprise you with them sometime, but . . . things haven't exactly been up to par for me to show them off."
"They have text on them too, don't they?" Blake lets go of my skirt and starts to beckon me up to my feet. I take my forearms off of her lap and hold my hands out, palms down so she can place her hands underneath mine and give me something I can push off of to get to my feet.
"Duh, you know I can't have anything too ordinary. Nothing but the fun stuff for my Kit- for my Blakey." I correct, not wanting to use my nickname that revolves around her Faunus attribute considering the reason she's depressed.
"Show me." Blake says in her oldschool blunt tone.
"Aww! But I wanted them to be a surprise on a fun night or something! You know I love surprising you with these." I pout, but Blake's glare is unaffected by my response, leading me to sigh and nod my head. "Fine fine . . . but you're pulling my skirt and shorts down."
"You just want me to undress you." Blake observes. I'm glad to have her talking, hopefully it'll keep her mind off of what happened and on me . . . or my boyshorts, whichever works more.
"I mean, wouldn't you want to undress me?" I counter. I place both arms above my head and give my hips a little bit of a shake to mimic a bellydancer. The little tease makes Blake look up at me with that look of annoyance, but the smile on her lips lets me know she finds it humorous. "So, I'm not showing you just yet. No fun if you expect it."
"I guess." Blake groans and leans back to lay on Weiss' bed while her feet are still touching the floor. She spreads her arms apart to show off her full wingspan while staring absently at the bottom of Ruby's suspended mattress. "Yang . . . how much do you know about the White Fang?"
Her question catches me by surprise. To be honest I know little about them as a whole, and I'm not exactly sure what it is they stand for at this point. There's a difference between wanted to be respected as equals and wanted to be feared.
"Well, I know they're a bunch of extremists. Um . . . they've been pretty violent recently, and they hate the SDC." I answer after thinking about the question for a few seconds.
"Well they . . . we . . . weren't always like this. The White Fang was peaceful. We had peaceful protests that I was a part of since I was a little girl. Then . . . the head of The White Fang changed. He had different ideals that people were willing to listen to. PRetty soon our protests ended in violence, sometimes bloodshed. Before long things began to change." Blake sits up and guides me to sit next to her.
I place myself to her left, keeping my right leg on Weiss' bed so I can face her and listen to what she has to say. She mirror's my position and places her left leg on the bed, allowing our knees to touch.
"We were being treated like equals, but not out of respect. Out of fear. So, I left. I decided I no longer wanted to use my skills to aid in their violence. Instead, I would dedicate my life to becoming a Huntress. So here I am, a criminal hiding in plain view, all with the help of a little, black bow."
"Well you're not like the rest of them, Blake. You knew what you were doing was wrong. It was for the right cause, but done the wrong way." I say, spreading my arms apart to offer a hug.
"The problem is . . . violence yields more results, Yang. Punching that guy's face in may have made him stop a lot quicker than trying to talk it out . . . but that wouldn't change anything in the long run. Do you know what the masks symbolize?" Blake places her leg down so she can turn away from me. When her back is in my sight, she leans back and leaves me to support her weight.
"I don't know. I thought they were just masks to identify each other and hide their identities." I admit to my naivety on the subject.
"The masks are a symbol. Humanity wanted to make monsters out of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters. After a while I refused to wear that mask . . . I didn't like the idea of people thinking of us as monsters. We're people . . . we have families that we want to raise. All we want is to live peacefully and without fear of discrimination. Is that so wrong in this world?" Blake sniffles after she asks the rhetorical question.
"It's not, Blake . . . I don't know what's wrong with people. If they just got to know you then they'd understand." my arms wrap around Blake's torso so I can hold her firmly against my body. The thought of her about to cry while she's in my arms makes me shake. If I see a single tear fall from her eye . . . I swear I'll destroy him the next chance I get.
"I know that . . . Even Weiss took the time to know me after the initial shock went by. I consider that one of the bigger strides I've taken since leaving them. Being in Beacon's helped me see certain things differently . . . but the real challenge is when I leave here. That's when I'll either stand tall, or get crushed by the weight of the world."
"You'll stand tall. You always do." I say instantly. "Say . . . it may not be the most romantic thing but ummm . . . how about we take tonight for us? I know our date's supposed to be tomorrow but . . . I think we could both use the night out. How's that sound?"
"GRAVITYYYYY! . . . OOMPH!"
The loud shouting of my sister draws Blake and I to the window to see Ruby seated against a pillar with Weiss kneeling at her side.
"The junior couple is back. Well, Blake? Want to take the night out?" I look at her again while I lean against the windowsill to peek at what's going on with my sister and Ice Queen.
"Sure, let me just get a new ribbon." Blake walks towards her bed and opens up the drawer at her nightstand. She pulls out a ribbon that looks just like the one that was taken and wraps it carefully along her ears to take the form of a bow.
Ugh . . . Do I really have enough for this?
I grit my teeth and hastily look around for a pen and paper. Once I both on the small desk near the door I jot down a note to Ruby and then a section for Weiss, hoping she decides to give me just a little bit of slack to make sure I can handle some of the extra taxes I'll be paying through the night.
"What are you writing?" Blake asks. I turn to see that she's currently in the bathroom, fixing her bow in the mirror to make sure it looks right.
"Just a note to let Rubes and Ice Queen know we're gonna be out." I half-lie. Once I have the note written I pull out my scroll to look at when the next airship departs. Much to my surprise it leaves in about two minutes.
"Hey Blake . . . ummm . . . We have less than two minutes to get to the airship." I say as calmly as possible.
Blake doesn't seem too phased by it and walks calmly out the bathroom towards the window of the room. She peeks out the window, gazing passed the courtyard to see if the airship is already at the docking station. Before I know it, Blake is waving at me and making her exit from the window, leaving me to slap a piece of tape on the note, toss it against the side of Ruby's bed and follow Blake out the window to beat the clock.
To keep up with Blake I dive out the window and end my landing with a somersault that leaves me with enough momentum to keep running at a full sprint. By the time I catch up to her, we're already slowing to a jog with the confidence that we made it just in time. The two of us make our way onto a slightly crowded airship to head down to Vale with a large group of students who have the same ideas as us: Enjoy the city while the Coliseum is packed.
During the airship ride I couldn't ask for a better view to start off our evening. Straight off the horizon is the perfect view of a setting sun with the bright rays dancing off the distant body of water. It's a little bright to look at directly, but it's a view that you can appreciate even if you're squinting the entire time. Blake seems to be enjoying the view a little more than me based on the fact that she placed one hand on the glass while she absorbs the view. It's good to see that she's perked up a bit, although I'm far more than certain that she's wearing a false mask for the time being. I'll make sure her smile is genuine before the night ends.
"You have anywhere in mind that you may want to go first, Kittycat?" I lean down so I don't have to talk over the conversations happening all around us.
"Let's just have a fun night, Yang. Take me to some of your hangouts . . . then maybe some dinner and a quiet walk. You don't need to do much . . . just put in effort." Blakes says back to me.
"My hangouts, huh? I know just the place." I grin.
I reach into my jacket and feel around for a zipper I keep shut. After a little bit of tapping around I find the zipper so I can open the pocket and reach in to find a keychain that holds a single key and a small remote. I hook the keychain with my middle finger and pull it out of my jacket to bring into Blake's view.
"Well, if that's the case . . . it looks like we're taking Bumblebee for a spin."
By the time the airship lands I feel my scroll begin to vibrate. I assume that it's a call from Weiss. Knowing her she's probably waiting to scold me for asking for lien and wants to call me a couple of names for offering a full body massage . . . which I DO know how to do professionally. It was just a hobby I picked up thanks to a few internet videos.
"One sec, let me see who's calling me." I tell Blake while everyone else is leaving the airship.
I pull out my scroll and give a couple of quick swipes after seeing that it's not a call, but an update for my bank account. I'm glad to know Weiss came through for me, the little extra could help me buy Blake something cute at the end of the night before we head back to Beacon . . . Maybe I could get her a nightshade from a flower shop!
"Let's see . . . and there it is." I say to myself, seeing my new funds. "Alright, I have . . . huh?"
I look at the number again after feeling like it's an incorrect amount. I look at it two, three, and four times, convinced that it can't be right. To verify my suspicion I go into my account history and look for the last made transaction, and just like I asked for, Weiss gave me 150.00 lien. It shows that as an unnamed deposit.
"Whatever, I'll check it again later. Ready to go, Blake?" I smile and begin to walk out of the airship with her following.
"Wait, when did you bring your bike to Vale?" Blake asks after we get out of the docking area.
"Oh, I had Dad send it over when we left Patch for Atlas. It's in the garage right around the corner." I explain just as we're reaching the corner to a small one story building that has a single way in or out. Near the large gate is a small booth that I walk up to and find a security guard sitting down and placing Hearthstone to kill time.
"Hey, buddy . . . Mind if I come in and get my ride? Spot 3, motorbike." I say to get his attention. He only spares a moment to look at my direction, then presses a button to open the garage so Blake and I can go in.
It's a pretty damp area that has exactly twenty parking spots. This is one of four lots for Beacon students which lets me keep Bumblebee here for a small fee every month. I usually have that price deducted on its own every month, so I forget about it for the most part unless I realize I'm coming up short for the month.
The garage itself looks like a tiny section of a municipal parking area. The pillars that are neatly scattered about are all insulated to protect from any fires. The moment you enter the small garage you can see my bike sitting near one of the spots at the very front. I waste no time in getting her roaring and ready to take me and Blake out for the night. I already have our first spot in mind, but I think a quick stop for some clothe shopping would be nice. I don't want to go out in my usual outfit.
"So, how about we stop at a Coco's clothing store and get something nice to wear? Maybe something a little semi-casual?" I ask while I sit on top of Bumblebee and rev her engine a few times. My helmet is resting right between the handlebars and while I wait for Blake's answer I pick it up and start to place it on my head.
"Sounds like a nice idea. How far is the clothing store?" Blake asks. She seems to be a little familiar with Bumblebee already. She knows to lift up the very back of the seat to reveal a very deep compartment that has the passenger helmet that is completely black in contrast to the one I have which is yellow.
"I'd say about . . . 2 minutes from here with how I ride." I answer Blake who is already climbing onto the back of my bike and getting herself comfortable by wrapping her arms around my torso.
"Let's get going then."
"Alright, just remember to lean with-"
"Yang . . . I know how to ride shotgun on a motorcycle."
"Yes Ma'am."
Just as I figured, it only takes me two minutes to get to the square where Coco's clothing store is. Luckily enough, since most of the town is in the coliseum we manage to snag a parking spot right in front.
The two of us walk in and come to sight with a heaven of different outfits of so many styles and colors. You could find anything in here ranging from a gothic maid dress to a formal ball gown if you look in the right sections. However, Blake and I both seem to find our immediate matches that are being worn by two mannequins standing side by side.
"I want the Hunter." I say, looking at the beautiful collared cream top, black shirt, a bit of grey near the bottom of the top and a couple of black straps that help bring it all together. The top itself is made a little ridged near the bottom to make it look like it has a built in skirt which I find to be so freaking awesome! For pants the mannequin has on a pretty pair of black shorts that are probably a the same length as the ones I'm wearing now. The shorts have a vertical strap going down from them that end up linking to thigh-high black stockings. The outfit looks beautiful, and the scarf that's wrapped around the mannequin's neck makes me wonder if it'll bring out my eyes anymore.
"That'll look great on you. I'll take the Intruder." The outfit Blake manages to find is pretty plain, but in the sense that it's not too flashy, but still has its own unique flare to it. It's a white v-neck zip-up shirt that has black along the sides and comes up a bit short on the midriff, purposefully done to leave some belly exposed, and with Blake's slim figure she can make it work wonders. The sleeves appear to be able to cover up the elbows while leaving the forearms exposed. The outfit comes with a sexy looking pair of black pants that have a single white stripe going from the hip, straight down the outer thigh and stopping a couple of inches down from the top it all off it comes with a belt that has a frilly black backskirt attached to it that fades into a midnight-purple once it reaches the bottom.
There's no hesitation between Blake and I. The two of us snag the outfits we want, pay for them at the front and immediately run for a changing room to put them on. I'm reminded again that I need to check the funds of my card, especially after the cashier scans my account from my scroll and practically loses her cool for a couple of moments. I guess that means I blew everything I had on only two outfits . . . Thankfully I can arrange for free drinks with where we're going.
The only change I find myself making to the outfit is putting the lilac scarf along my left hip, tucked into the belt to let it hang and sway with my steps. If I kept it around my neck like it was on display then it'd possibly cover up my best asset, and we don't want that now do we?
Once we're both out of the changing room we take a moment to pose and twirl for each other to show off how the outfits look. Blake takes out her scroll to snap a few photos of me, then I take out mine to take a couple of her before we're satisfied with ourselves and head out the door.
So far things are starting off smooth. Blake is happy, she seems to be loving her new outfit, and I'm getting to see her in a bit of a new environment. With our old clothes tucked in our arms we decide to stash them in the back compartment of Bumblebee knowing they'll be safe there since the seat won't lift unless Bumblebee's key is in the ignition. Once we have both of our old clothes put away we climb back onto the bike, put on our helmets and get ready to go to our first real stop of the evening.
"So, where to, Yang?" Blake asks out of curiosity.
"We're gonna see an old friend of mine. The place is called The Club." I say before I flick my wrist and let Bumblebee reel back onto one wheel while we accelerate to a speed I deem comfortable for cruising. The night's still young and I have every intention of making sure Blake has the best time of her life.