A/N: I can't align right. *cries* I'm sorry. I said I'd get all the chapters up in 24-hours, but sleep beckons me.
Hi, Yang. This is Blake. I wanted to give
you your scarf back. Let me know when
you're free.
11-14-2016
Im free now Wer u wanna meet?
Yang, 11-14-2016
Is Mercer okay?
11-14-2016
Yup see u
Yang, 11-14-2016
R u sure u dnt lyk Sun?
Yang, 11-16-2016
Bcus u 2 wud make a rly cute couple.
Yang, 11-16-2016
Yes, I'm sure.
11-16-2016
U 2 seem rly tight u knw
How long hav u known each othr?
Yang, 11-16-2016
Since eighth grade.
He actually had a crush on me.
11-16-2016
OMG! HEARTBREAKER! WAT DID U DO?
Yang, 11-16-2016
I told him no.
11-16-2016
I am not a heartbreaker.
11-16-2016
Y'd u tell him no hes hot!
Yang, 11-16-2016
Then, why don't you ask him out?
11-16-2016
Im not gonna take him from
u blakey i wud nevr do such
a thing 2 u Wat kind of a friend
do u think i am?
Yang, 11-16-2016
Im deeply wounded
Yang, 11-16-2016
But srsly y'd u tell him no?
Yang, 11-16-2016
I liked somebody else at the time.
11-16-2016
Ur ex? Lol but u nevr liked Sun
after him?
Yang, 11-16-2016
Yes, my ex. I don't know. I just don't
like him that way.
11-16-2016
Is ur ex so fucking hot wats his
name anyway?
Yang, 11-16-2016
Adam Taurus. He was cute.
11-16-2016
Pics or didnt happen
Yang, 11-16-2016
No way.
11-16-2016
Come on pls
Yang, 11-16-2016
No, Yang, I am not going to send
you a picture of Adam.
11-16-2016
Pretty pls
Yang, 11-16-2016
No. Not gonna work.
11-16-2016
Even w/ sugar lumps on top?
Yang, 11-16-2016
With a side of coffee?
Yang, 11-16-2016
No. Not with all the sugar in Remnant.
11-16-2016
And I don't like coffee very much. I'm
more into tea.
11-16-2016
Tea drinker!
Yang, 11-16-2016
Ill jst ask Sun then
Yang, 11-16-2016
No! Do not ask Sun.
11-16-2016
Too late hes sending a pic now
Yang, 11-16-2016
Please tell me you're lying.
11-16-2016
Omg he is cute he looks like a dick
tho y u pick him over Sun?
Yang, 11-16-2016
He did not send you a picture!
11-16-2016
He did :p
Yang, 11-16-2016
Douche red hair, smug smile, horns
seen it
Yang, 11-16-2016
Which picture is that?!
11-16-2016
Idk it looks recent
Yang, 11-16-2016
Says the girl who dated a sadistic bully.
11-16-2016
I told u I didnt knw cardin was a bully
Yang, 11-16-2016
Im trying 2 forget I dated him, okay?
Yang, 11-16-2016
Omg i feel so dirty i have 2 go bleach
myself now
Yang, 11-16-2016
Now you know how it feels.
11-16-2016
Ok lets stop talkng bout exes now
Yang, 11-16-2016
I promise not 2 mention Adam if u
promise nevr 2 speak of cardick ever again.
Yang, 11-16-2016
Delete the picture.
11-16-2016
Now.
11-16-2016
Lol nope u're not even in it ;p
Yang, 11-16-2016
Yang, just do it.
11-16-2016
Okok Ill do it 4 u.
Yang, 11-16-2016
Im buying ur silence by deleting Adam's
pic
Yang, 11-16-2016
Thank you, Yang.
11-16-2016
Im gonna ask Sun 2 send me a pic of
you in hs ;)
Yang, 11-16-2016
NO!
11-16-2016
DO NOT DO THAT.
11-16-2016
Yang, please don't. I beg you.
11-16-2016
I'm calling Sun.
11-16-2016
;p
Yang, 11-16-2016
Yang, please delete that picture from
your scroll.
11-17-2016
No flipping way!
Yang, 11-17-2016
U look so adorable! I want 2
pinch your cheeks
Yang, 11-17-2016
I feel like crying now so cute
Yang, 11-17-2016
I WAS SIX!
11-17-2016
And my mom told me to wear that!
11-17-2016
U'd look good as a sheep Faunus ;)
Yang, 11-17-2016
I am going to ignore that.
11-17-2016
Please just delete that picture.
11-17-2016
Lol nope
Yang, 11-17-2016
Pretty please with all the sugar in
all of Remnant?
11-17-2016
Nice try but no im keeping diz
4ever
Yang, 11-17-2016
OMG. No.
11-17-2016
Lockscreend it now everyones
gonna see it
Yang, 11-17-2016
OMG.
11-17-2016
I am going to ask Ruby for your baby
pictures then.
11-17-2016
Ha u dont hav rubys #
Yang, 11-17-2016
What are you talking about? She gave it to
me last week. I'm her upperclassman.
11-17-2016
Hu dafuq says upperclassman?
Yang, 11-17-2016
Do not ask her dat
Yang, 11-17-2016
I do!
11-17-2016
Too late. I already did.
11-17-2016
Im going 2 lock her in her room
if she sends u a pic
Yang, 11-17-2016
She wont b able 2 come out 4
a month
Yang, 11-17-2016
Do u want dat on ur
conscience blake?
Yang, 11-17-2016
Blake
Yang, 11-17-2016
Answer me
Yang, 11-17-2016
Dont ignore me :(
Yang, 11-17-2016
She just sent me a picture.
11-17-2016
Pigtails and a red wagon, huh? It
suits you.
11-17-2016
Im gonna kill her
Yang, 11-17-2016
Lock-screened.
11-17-2016
I wonder how u'll sleep at night
knwing u sealed rubys fate?
Yang, 11-17-2016
Like a baby, Yang, like a baby.
11-17-2016
Shes gonna die of starvaton and
boredom.
Yang, 11-17-2016
Thats my sister and u dont care
wat happens 2 her?
Yang, 11-17-2016
*starvation
Yang, 11-17-2016
Yang, I know you.
11-17-2016
You're not really going to lock her in her
room and let her starve and die
of boredom.
11-17-2016
Hehe tru dat
Yang, 11-17-2016
So u gonna delete that?
Yang, 11-17-2016
Not unless you delete that picture first.
11-17-2016
Well then i guess we'll just hav 2
start flashing our scrolls at everyone.
Yang, 11-17-2016
Fine by me.
11-17-2016
U better watch it.
Yang, 11-17-2016
Goodnight blakey ill see u tomorrow
Yang, 11-17-2016
Are you threatening me?
11-17-2016
Sleep like a baby while ruby weeps
Yang, 11-17-2016
Good night, Yang.
11-17-2016
Tell Ruby I said hi.
11-17-2016
Heeeeyyyyyy
Yang, 11-23-2016
Hi Yang
11-23-2016
So i gotta ask u somethin
Yang, 11-23-2016
What is it?
11-23-2016
Idk if u're gonna like it
Yang, 11-23-2016
Why not? What is it?
11-23-2016
Idk how to ask u either
Yang, 11-23-2016
Yang, just ask the question.
11-23-2016
Promise meou wont n mad me
Yang, 11-23-2016
Why would I be mad?
11-23-2016
Idk just knw dat Im asking u
as a friend
Yang, 11-23-2016
Okay. Go on.
11-23-2016
Its all 4 science alright?
Yang, 11-23-2016
Yang, what is it?
11-23-2016
Im asking bcus im curious ok?
Yang, 11-23-2016
Dust. I am not going to reply until you
ask your stupid question.
11-23-2016
I rly wanna knw ok?
Yang, 11-23-2016
Promise u wont b mad?
Yang, 11-23-2016
I dnt want 2 upset u or anythng
Yang, 11-23-2016
Blakey u still there
Yang, 11-23-2016
Fiiiiine
Yang, 11-23-2016
Pls dont kill me
Yang, 11-23-2016
I was wonderng about ur cat ears.
Pls dont kill me i just rly wanna
knw dnt ignore me forever
Yang, 11-23-2016
I knew this was bound to happen.
11-23-2016
U not mad?
Yang, 11-23-2016
I don't see a question.
11-23-2016
Ok can you hear out of them?
Pls dnt kill me
Yang, 11-23-2016
Of course, I can. Before you ask, I can
hear from afar. I can even hear you
breathing now.
11-23-2016
R U MOTHSFYWAFH KIDDING ME
Yang, 11-23-2016
You just shouted "what".
11-23-2016
OMG HOW DAFUQ DID U KNW
Yang, 11-23-2016
OMG STOP LISTENING TO ME
Yang, 11-23-2016
I was just kidding.
11-23-2016
NO SECRETS R SAFE
Yang, 11-23-2016
I can't hear through walls, Yang. I just
have really sensitive hearing.
11-23-2016
U had me there for a sec jeez dnt
scare me like that ever again
Yang, 11-23-2016
I can hear a pin drop in a noisy
room though.
11-23-2016
I just know you'd shout "what".
11-23-2016
Dat is so cool
Yang, 11-23-2016
I also have night vision.
11-23-2016
Thats it
Yang, 11-23-2016
Your a superhero
Yang, 11-23-2016
I calld it
Yang, 11-23-2016
Haha what?
11-23-2016
Dnt worry, wonder sheep i can
keep a secret ;)
Yang, 11-23-2016
Please don't call me that.
11-23-2016
Ok "blake belladonna" u got it
Yang, 11-23-2016
Good night, Wagon Girl.
11-23-2016
Nice try ;)
Yang, 11-23-2016
Gnyt
Yang, 11-23-2016
Did u get home safely
Yang, 11-27-2016
Yes. You?
11-27-2016
Staying ovr at Noras. We r helping
her clean up
Yang, 11-27-2016
I could've helped too.
11-27-2016
Nah is cool it's a known agreement
btween me pyrrha coco amber
nora and ren
Yang, 11-27-2016
Thanks for tonight, Yang. I'm sorry I laid
all that nonsense on you.
11-27-2016
No its ok
Yang, 11-27-2016
Dnt b sorry im worried about u. U
never rly say anything and im
sorry i never asked
Yang, 11-27-2016
Thank you. I'll be fine.
11-27-2016
Do u wanna tell me wat it is
wats botherng u?
Yang, 11-27-2016
Not now.
11-27-2016
Im here 4 you ik? We're friends
it might not mean much but i promise
ill always b here 4 you
Yang, 11-27-2016
It means a lot to me.
11-27-2016
Gnyt blakey :)
Yang, 11-27-2016
Good night, Yang.
11-27-2016
Heyo wonder sheep
Yang, 12-01-2016
Hi, Yang.
12-01-2016
Do u wanna hang w/ me and
amber later?
Yang, 12-01-2016
Velvet told me u guys alredy met
and talked da crap outta each other
Yang, 12-01-2016
I can't. I promised my parents I'll be
home as soon as my classes end.
12-01-2016
Ok den do u want us 2 walk
u home?
Yang, 12-01-2016
Its gr8 exercise
Yang, 12-01-2016
No, it's okay. It's a twenty-minute
walk, Yang.
12-01-2016
Don't worry. Sun said he'll come
with me.
12-01-2016
Ok talk to u later :)
Yang, 12-01-2016
Take care, Yang.
12-01-2016
U too
Yang, 12-01-2016
Yang, why did you send me a
picture of a dog?
12-06-2016
Thats our dog :)
Yang, 12-06-2016
His names Zwei
Yang, 12-06-2016
Lol dad jst sent me a pic
Yang, 12-06-2016
He is cute.
12-06-2016
I kow u dnt like dogs blakey!
Yang, 12-06-2016
Then why did you send me the picture?
12-06-2016
2 bother u?
Yang, 12-06-2016
It doesn't really bother me.
12-06-2016
R u free this weekend?
Yang, 12-06-2016
Sure. Why?
12-06-2016
Then come with me and Nora 2
rubys track meet :)
Yang, 12-06-2016
Why not? I am her upperclassman.
12-06-2016
And theres that word again lol
Yang, 12-06-2016
Itll b fun convenient its in
beacon too
Yang, 12-06-2016
What's wrong with the word?
12-06-2016
Yeah, pretty convenient.
12-06-2016
Its just unusual haha
Yang, 12-06-2016
Not to me, it isn't.
12-06-2016
I'll see you Saturday then.
12-06-2016
Yeah u too
Yang, 12-06-2016
Oh and wear somethng warm
Yang, 12-06-2016
Decembers a bitch
Yang, 12-06-2016
Yeah, I'll wear three sweaters and a
trench coat.
12-06-2016
Lol I knw how easily u can get cold
Yang, 12-06-2016
Not all of us are blessed with body heat
like yours, Yang.
12-06-2016
I know thats why i always share
wonder sheep
Yang, 12-06-2016
How thoughtful of you.
12-06-2016
Thats what im here 4 :)
Yang, 12-06-2016
Tell Ruby congratulations for me again.
12-10-2016
U've already told her a dozen
times already
Yang, 12-10-2016
Trust me blakey she knws
Yang, 12-10-2016
It wouldn't hurt to remind her.
12-10-2016
Yeah yeah
Yang, 12-10-2016
Did u get home safe?
Yang, 12-10-2016
Yes, I am home with a brand new knife
that I found sticking out of my back.
12-10-2016
Ha ha thats not a good joke
Yang, 12-10-2016
I'm safe, mom.
12-10-2016
Blake belladonna i forbid u from
stepping out of ur room ur
grounded sweetie
Yang, 12-10-2016
My mom never calls me sweetie.
12-10-2016
She calls me honey.
12-10-2016
And here I thought your parents
called you kitten
Yang, 12-10-2016
They did.
12-10-2016
They still do sometimes. But that's
pretty rare.
12-10-2016
Blake?
Yang, 12-14-2016
Yes, Yang?
12-14-2016
How are you? :)
Yang, 12-14-2016
I'm okay. And you?
12-14-2016
Im good r u sure?
Yang, 12-14-2016
Yes, I'm sure.
12-14-2016
Well, I'm a little stressed with exams,
but I'm okay.
12-14-2016
Im here if you ever wanna talk ok?
Yang, 12-14-2016
I know, Yang.
12-14-2016
Thank you.
12-14-2016
And you can talk to me anytime too. :)
12-14-2016
BLAKE USED AN EMOTICON!
Yang, 12-14-2016
Screenshot
Yang, 12-14-2016
I gotta study now. You should too. Don't
want your grades slipping, do you?
12-14-2016
Hell no goodluck
Yang, 12-14-2016
Good luck to you too, Yang.
12-14-2016
TWO WEEKS AGO
Merry Christmas, Yang! :)
12-25-2016
Merry Christmas 2 u too blakey. :)
Yang, 12-25-2016
How's Ruby and your dad?
12-25-2016
Theyre ok how r ur parents?
Yang, 12-25-2016
They're still the same. Dragging me to
more company parties.
12-25-2016
Thas good haha
Yang, 12-25-2016
You okay?
12-25-2016
Yeah im fine :)
Yang, 12-25-2016
I can call you if you wanna talk.
12-25-2016
No im good thnks blake. I'll talk
2 u later
Yang, 12-25-2016
Okay.
12-25-2016
ONE WEEK AGO
Happy new year, Yang! :)
01-01-2017
Happy new year blake.
Yang, 01-01-2017
:)
Yang, 01-01-2017
How are you?
01-01-2017
Im ok u?
Yang, 01-01-2017
I'm fine.
01-01-2017
Thas good
Yang, 01-01-2017
Are you going to Coco's party next week?
01-01-2017
Haha yeah u?
Yang, 01-01-2017
Yes, I am.
01-01-2017
Ill see u there then :)
Yang, 01-01-2017
Yeah, you too.
01-01-2017
SUNDAY
Drafts: Yang, we need to talk. I feel like you're avoiding me. Did I do something wrong? I meant what I said that I'll always be here for you. Please, just talk to me. I miss you.
Four days, seven hours and thirty-eight minutes.
Blake sighed at her Scroll. It had been four days, seven hours and thirty-eight minutes since she and Yang last texted. It had also been thirty-nine days, fourteen hours and fifty-eight minutes since that night she and Yang talked on Nora's roof, the night that she knew that she had fallen in love Yang and had decided that she could love her without asking for anything in return.
The first few weeks since that night were difficult for Blake, but she trudged on. Yang was her friend, the person who had protected her from Cardin when they barely knew each other, the woman who had made sure she was comfortable, that she was safe, the one who always tried to make her feel better. Yang had given her friendship and Blake accepted that that was the extent of Yang's love for her.
It would be selfish to expect more.
So what if Yang would never know how her voice reminded Blake so much of honey, warm and thick; how her long,wild hair was like the sun that kept rising over the lilac skies of Menagerie's beaches trapped in her very irises? So what if Yang would never know the beige couch with the orange throw pillows that they would have in their apartment or how the coffee would smell in the mornings? So what if Yang would never know how she had seen the supernova in her eyes? So what if Yang would never know just how much Blake loved her?
Please don't slip away from me.
Four years ago, she would have called herself crazy for believing love can be found in a crystal ball. Hell, four months ago, she would have kicked herself for saying she was in love with a woman. Constants and variables. Blake, a constant, who once proclaimed that she was straight, that she would never like girls and that she was normal, is now in love with a woman named Yang Xiao Long, a woman she had seen in her vision that cost ten lien one summer night in Menagerie when she was sixteen.
She wasn't straight and Yang was a girl, but she was still normal. Funny how the mind of a scared fool works.
"Honey?" a soft knock and her mother called from the other side of her bedroom door, "I put your dinner in the fridge. Just heat it when you get hungry, okay?"
"Thanks, mom." Blake said dryly as she gently placed her Scroll beside her tea. Yang wasn't going to text her anytime soon.
"What did she say?" she heard her dad whisper outside. He married a wife with delicate hearing who bore him a daughter with the same gift, who was now twenty years old and he still thought he could have a private conversation with his wife right outside a wooden door, "That's it?"
"Shush, Ghira." Kali whispered back, "She can hear us."
"For dust's sake." Ghira boomed before he forcefully opened her bedroom door. He turned on the lights, for common courtesy, and gently pulled his wife to the center of Blake's room with him. They would be quite comfortable standing there if their daughter wouldn't invite them to sit on her bed.
"Mom, dad?" Blake's cat ears folded inwards, "What's going on?"
"We know something's wrong." Ghira announced, his eyes kept darting towards Blake's bed, making it known that he wanted her to invite them to sit, "We've noticed since Christmas."
"Honey," Kali stepped forward, away from her husband and moved towards her daughter, her hands poised to caress their daughter's ebony hair and ears― all four of them if the need arises, "we're worried about you. We were really taken off guard when we heard that our little kitten was being bullied so... your father and I have taken it upon ourselves to be more watchful, to be more mindful of you."
"You're spying on me?" Blake folded her arms against her chest and shot both her parents a suspicious look each.
"No, Blake, we're being good parents." Ghira now sat himself down on her mattress, careful not to sit on her toes and have her throw them outside, "We want you to be happy and to have fun and live your life so when you're not happy and you're not having fun and you're skipping dinners again, your mother and I began worrying. Mind telling us what's happening?"
"Do I even have a choice?" Blake sighed.
"Of course, you do, honey." Kali assured her.
"If you want to start dating," Ghira added sheepishly, "I promise I won't be mean. I'm your dad. I'm required to be mean and overprotective, but I honestly kind of want you to start dating. You're always staring at your damn Scroll, so we guess you are seeing someone."
Oh my dust, no, not the dating speech again.
It scared her to imagine what her parents would think if they found out that their only daughter, their little kitten, was in love with a woman. It took her four years to stop beating herself up at the possibility of being gay, but they were her parents. They had been incessantly talking to her about grandchildren, how Blake should settle down with a man and question her why she's never brought boys over. First of all, Blake did not want children, second she doesn't want to settle down with a man and third, she's brought Neptune, Sage and Scarlet over once. They were boys despite that none of them were her boyfriend.
"I am not seeing anyone." Blake fought the blush that began to creep at her neck, "When I do, I will immediately let you know."
"So you're not seeing someone now?" Kali asked her incredulously.
"Not even whoever you're texting?" Ghira was just as unbelieving.
"Most especially not whoever I'm texting." Blake sighed, "We're not even texting anymore."
"What happened?" both her parents said at the same time, worry in their voice. Why are they worried? Most importantly, why are they being strange while they worry about her?
"We just stopped talking, okay? Are we done? I'd like to go to sleep, if you guys don't mind."
"Honey," Kali said as she brushed Blake's bangs away from her face, "You know, your father and I love you very much."
"Always." Ghira added solemnly, his massive hand over her knee.
What is happening?
"And we will love you no matter what." Kali pulled Blake's head against her breast.
"We read somewhere," Ghira chuckled heartily, "that you should be the one to tell us this because you'd probably be scared and it's not something that we should force you to say, but we thought you're probably scared because you thought we'd love you less so that's why you never say it at all."
"Ummm..." her parents wouldn't be talking about what she thought they were talking about, "What?"
"Honey," Kali said, "we don't want you to keep secrets from us anymore. We don't want to be the last people to know things about you. We're your parents. We may be the worst critics, but we're your biggest supporters too. We're always on your side."
"Let me be honest," Ghira inched closer, "you did pick a good one. She is quite the looker."
"Ghira!" Kali scolded her husband.
"What?" Blake half-sighed, half-shouted.
"Honey, we know. I've seen how you look at her since that time you came home in a mini skirt in the middle of November." Blake no longer fought the blush. Her father was watching her that day, "Your mother and I were just wondering―"
"When are you coming out of the closet, Blake?" Kali blurted with a mixture of impatience and affection that Blake did not think was possible, "We love you, honey."
"Now you don't have a reason not to bring her over." Ghira nodded. She knew who he was talking about. Who else could he have seen with Blake when she wore that damn mini skirt? "Same rules, Blake, home by eleven, not allowed up here, hands to herself and she comes over for dinner."
Blake slowly pulled herself away from her mother's embrace and moved her knee from her father's touch. They knew. They have had an inkling of it for a while now, have extensively discussed it with each other and have come to the conclusion that she might not tell them, so they resorted to fishing it out of her instead. But there was no fishing. It was all bombarding her with reassurances, love and acceptance. Feelings that she never considered her parents would still give her so warmly.
Blake could only laugh. Her parents loved her. They loved her for everything that they raised her to be, for everything about her that she feared they would resent. She was happy. Ecstatic. Relieved. Her parents didn't mind that she wasn't straight, that she loved a woman. She was still their daughter. They still loved her. She laughed even more at the realization that her parents had actually read something about the coming out process that she hadn't even bothered to look into. She laughed that her mother had said "coming out of the closet", that her father noticed her foolish decision to try and look good despite the chill in the air, that they both noticed she had liked Yang then.
Yang.
Blake could only cry now. The tears hadn't even bothered to wait for her laughter to subside before they fell from the corners of her amber eyes. Kali didn't need to step closer for Blake to bury her face against her chest again, to hold onto her as if she were falling off of her stationary bed. When Ghira harshly seated himself closer, in front of her, she threw her other arm around his neck and sobbed into the space between them. There was relief and then there was pain, the sadness of unrequited love.
"Honey, it's okay." Kali cooed, straightening her daughter's hair.
"We love you, remember?" Ghira kissed her forehead, "We always will."
"She's with someone else." Blake managed to whisper in between her sobs. She hadn't failed to realize that they were only telling her this because they thought she and Yang were together, that they expected her to tell them that she and Yang were in love.
Blake was in love. Yang wasn't.
"Have you tried sweeping her off her feet?" Ghira said, "Right under someone else's nose."
"That's not a very good suggestion." Kali chastised him.
"I have." Blake sobbed again. She remembered Sun's plan of swooning, making the gods cry and bending the universe.
"Blake, honey, have you tried being honest with her?"
"I don't want to lose her." She didn't. Blake Belladonna would do everything she could just to keep Yang around, just to keep her close. Even if it meant hiding her love away.
"Any more than you already are?" Kali had said it so softly that the weight of it caught Blake by surprise. She pushed herself away from her parents, to look into their faces, to let them see her puffy eyes, her tear-stained cheeks and her swollen bottom lip.
It had been four days, seven hours and fifty-seven minutes since she and Yang texted and even then, Yang hadn't been responding much to her messages like she used to. Kali Belladonna was right. Blake was indeed losing her and she never even had to let Yang know that she cared about her a little too much for friends, loved her so much more than the other woman knew. Yang was already slipping away.
I love you.
"Honey, I think you should tell her." Kali whispered, wiping the tears off of her face, "You feel so strongly for someone that it starts to hurt inside. You should let it out. It'd be even better when they hear it. Who knows, she just might feel the same way. If she doesn't, then it will hurt, but you won't have to hide anymore."
"She'd be stupid not to love you, Blake." Ghira tried to alleviate the mood and succeeded.
Blake smiled. Even if it was for the briefest of seconds, she still smiled despite the hollowness she felt. "How do I even begin to tell her how I feel?"
"You can start by not freezing yourself half to death." Ghira snorted. Kali glared at him and he muttered a quick apology.
"It's the most common advice in all of Remnant, honey," Kali's hand against her forehead was gentle, warm, loving, "but be yourself. You tell her how you want to tell her. It should feel right for you."
"Stop trying to impress her." her father said, "She shouldn't love you for the mini skirt or for anything else."
Blake bit her tongue and just nodded. She was tired of running away from her feelings, from her sexuality, from the Blake that she had tried to hide away in order to impress a woman who was now slipping further and further away from her. If Yang were to disappear, then she should at least know how she felt, know that she wanted to hear her name laced with tenderness and love, to feel her warmth around her, to taste the honey on her lips, to gaze at the endless skies trapped in her lilac eyes, to watch the eternal sunrise over and over.
Even if it's the last things I'll say, it's okay. I love you. I always have. I always will.
That very same night, in an apartment about a twenty-minute walk and a ten-minute bus ride away, Yang Xiao Long had been thumbing through her Scroll, reading the messages that she and one Blake Belladonna had exchanged since the Faunus had asked to meet her to return her scarf.
About a month ago, Yang would feel her face grow numb from smiling too much at the messages she and Blake exchanged, her rosy cheeks would be even rosier and her heart would race faster than Ruby Rose.
Since the day that she had saved her from Cardin, she promised herself that she would look out for Blake, that she would do everything she could to keep her safe. She was always worried and, oh, how she worried about the other woman. Blake was hurting and from the sound of her voice that night at Nora's party, she had been hurting for quite some time. Four years, Blake said to her.
And Yang never noticed.
You keep saying that you care about her, but you never once asked if she was okay. All you ever thought about was yourself. You're selfish, Yang.
Tonight, Yang was sprawled across her bed, a single bed with a rickety metal frame, over her cream-colored sheets and her orange pillows. She kicked aside some of her bunched up clothes at the foot of her bed. She made it a point to hang them in her closet when she felt like it. Which was going to be a miracle at this point.
I feel like shit.
Yang could never forget that night on the rooftop. How Blake's golden eyes glowed like the sun in the lowlight, how her black hair smelled so much like vanilla, how, even in her monotone, her voice sounded soft like silk. Even when her voice had been shaking and that the sunlight in her eyes was threatening to break and pour out emotions Yang had never thought Blake would hold inside, she felt silk.
She flipped over and buried her face into her orange pillows. Blake had opened up to her that night, had talked to her about the thoughts that swirled in her mind, her fears, her disappointments and Yang had found a way to lead the conversation back to her.
I never should have admitted it. I was fine before I had to think stupid thoughts.
She kicked the clothes tangling around her feet, tightened her grip on her Scroll and repeatedly slammed her head into her pillows. There was little pain, but maybe it would be enough to shake the thoughts out of her head.
Sometimes, the pain of wanting something hurts a whole lot longer to tide over the good feeling it brings for the split-second that you have it.
She had to talk to someone. She had to call someone. She raised her Scroll to her face, ignoring the locks of her golden hair that had gotten into her mouth. She glanced at the last text Blake had sent her before she opened her contact's list and began her search.
It didn't take long. Hers was the first name on the list. She pressed the call button, pressed the device against her ear and waited until she heard her voice.
"About time you called." there was that monotone again.
"Amber," Yang sighed, "I need to talk to you."
