A/N: Wow. I really can't tell you how much the ongoing support means to me. I am so deeply grateful to each every one of you that gives me some kind of feedback, and even to my shy lurkers. I'm grateful for you, too, but would really love to hear what ya think. I promise I don't bite. ^u^
To any and all of my readers: lots of things are happening in the world right now. Stay safe, okay? Take care of yourself. Take care of one another.
Shout-out to Masterpick, who has been very busy and stressed lately but still supports and encourages me. ^u^
…
Three hours later, Yang begins to suspect that something isn't quite right.
Blake takes her weapon upstairs almost as soon as Taiyang leaves. She closes herself in her room, ignoring her when Yang says her name as she starts up the stairs. At first, Yang had thought Blake just wanted to stash the gun somewhere safe. Under her bed, maybe, or in the dresser. But when a few hours go by—her white door latched shut—Yang can't help but feel an increasing sense of worry.
Yang gives it another hour before she knocks on her door. "Blake?"
She's met with silence. Images of an empty room and open window flash through her mind but she shakes them off. Instead, she backs away from the door and tries to ignore the way her stomach sinks a little at the lack of response.
Even though she hadn't really known Blake for long, Yang does know how quiet she is. Private. And though nobody would describe Yang as "quiet" in the same way they used it for Blake, the blonde did know what it was like to need time and space. She didn't know why having her weapon back had made Blake pull away so suddenly, but she was going to press her too much.
Yang turns back to the stairs, her fingers resting on the wooden banister before she sees her sister appear out of her own room. "Hey, sis," Ruby greets.
"Hey, Ruby," she replies, offering a small smile.
Ruby glances at Blake's closed door and then back at Yang. "Is Blake okay?"
"I'm not sure," Yang tells her honestly, her gaze lingering for a moment on the brass doorknob of Blake's room.
"Give her time." Ruby's unfailing certainty in others rings clear in her voice. "I'm sure she'd tell you if something was wrong."
As a habit, Yang tried to not keep a lot from her younger sister. Some things were necessary, especially when she was a detective, but Yang had always known just how bright and perceptive her younger sister is. Growing up, Ruby had been one of her best friends. Then she moved into the city for her job, Ruby went off to college to pursue her passion of weapons engineering, and they stopped seeing each other every day. But they still kept in frequent contact, and Yang had always felt grateful for that.
This time, though, Yang can feel the distance between them. She'd been keeping a lot from her sister recently in order to protect her. Ruby still didn't know much about Blake, or why they broke her out, or any of the rest of it that had led to Yang waking her up and telling her that she needed to get out of the city.
Ruby hadn't even asked. She'd grabbed Zwei and fled with Weiss without any hint of doubt in her sister's choices. Yang had lost track of the exact date, but she knew that the initial amount of time her little sister was supposed to spend with her was almost up, if the date hadn't passed already. Yet here her sister stood in front of her, not mentioning any of it or showing any sign of resentment.
Yang still wasn't sure she deserved quite so much loyalty or sacrifice from the little sister she'd always promised to protect.
"Yang?" Ruby asks, strands of her short dark hair falling into her face as she cocks her head slightly.
"I'm sorry I dragged you into this," Yang says suddenly. "You were supposed to start classes soon."
Ruby gives her a look. "There are other things that are kind of more pressing right now. Don't worry about me."
Yang shakes her head. "Ruby, I didn't ask—"
"You're right," Ruby interrupts, a small smile pulling at her lips. "You didn't ask. So don't worry about it. I was scheduled to graduate a semester early anyway. I can take one off."
For a moment, Yang doesn't know what to say. She looks down at the faded tan carpet. At a small stain at the top of the stairs from when Yang had accidentally ran into the banister with a tray full of food for her parents when she was six because she was so excited to give them breakfast in bed Christmas morning.
"Something big is happening, Yang," Ruby says after Yang's silence, her voice a little softer now. "Bigger than me. Definitely bigger than my classes. I can feel it. So I'm not going anywhere." Downstairs, Yang hears a clatter of dishes and her uncle curse. Ruby continues. "When you're ready for the next step, I'll be there." Yang can hear the trust in those words no matter how hard she's trying not to. Ruby gives her an encouraging smile and shoulders past her.
Yang stays standing in the hallway a moment longer, her sister's last sentence echoing in her head. She had meant it to be reassuring, but Yang can't help but feel like it's a condemnation. I don't know what comes next.
…
The following morning, when Yang heads towards the kitchen for breakfast, she passes Blake on the stairs.
She locks eyes with her, and Blake takes a breath like she's about to say something but nothing leave her lips. Both girls stop, Blake's slender hand resting on the wooden banister as she stands a few steps down from Yang. The silence lasts several moments too long. Yang isn't sure why.
"Good morning," Yang tries. It sounds tentative in her ears and she silently curses herself because never before in her life would Yang have described herself as tentative.
"Morning," Blake replies. A faint, cordial smile pulls politely at her lips.
The silence returns between them and Yang hates it because she doesn't understand where it is coming from. She doesn't understand that look in the other girl's eyes. She doesn't understand why Blake won't talk to her.
"Was breakfast good?" Yang asks instead of any other countless questions pressing at her mind.
The flimsy attempt at a smile falls from Blake's face. She looks, instead, at her hand still on the banister. "Yeah. Your dad's a good cook."
Yang feels a sudden and strong desire to get that smile—any smile—back on Blake's face. So despite herself, Yang cocks an eyebrow and feigns shock. "My dad? As in Taiyang Xiao Long?"
She sees that smile, accompanied by a breath of air that is almost—almost, not quite—a laugh. It's so quick that Yang almost misses it. But she definitely doesn't miss the equally brief, pained look that darkens her honey eyes the next moment. Yang frowns.
"Hey," she says, deciding that she really ought to stop dancing around the subject. She'd never much cared for sidestepping questions anyway, and that pained look she'd seen a second ago bothered her for reasons she can't quite articulate. "Are you okay?"
Blake looks back at her suddenly. "Why do you ask?" Yang hears the guardedness in her voice, like it was during those early interrogations when Yang had still been… working for them.
"You've seemed… distant," Yang says quietly. "Ever since you got your weapon back in the mail."
Blake freezes for a second like Yang caught her doing something she shouldn't. Then she sighs, and Yang sees her grip on the banister tighten slightly. "Yang—,"
"Yang! Ruby! Breakfast is ready!" Her dad's voice calls throughout the cabin. Weiss must already be eating breakfast, Yang assumes.
She closes her eyes for a moment and releases a breath. "Be right there!" Yang calls back, looking apologetically at Blake.
Blake shakes her head. "You should eat, Yang." That forced, polite smile back is back in place. Yang suddenly and ardently hates it. Blake passes her on the stairs and closes the door to her room behind her before Yang can say anything else.
…
Yang slides onto one of the barstools at the kitchen island as Qrow sets a plate of eggs over easy and cleaned strawberries in front of her. Yang stares at it for a moment before picking up the fork and stabbing one of the berries. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Qrow and her dad share a glance.
"Something wrong, Yang?" her dad asks.
Yang thinks briefly about telling him, but decides against it. "Still waking up," she says, which is half-true. She uses the side of the fork to break the yolk of the egg, watching disinterestedly as the bright yellow floods out of the white encasing.
She hears Qrow say something about waking Ruby, and he walks out. Taiyang sighs after he's gone, and Yang can feel his blue eyes watching her. Yang slices a piece of egg white, mops up some of the yolk, and chews it slowly. There's a pile of dirty dishes in the sink.
"Are you going to tell me about any of it?" Taiyang asks softly.
Yang looks up at him, feeling that she should maybe be more surprised by the question than she is. She doesn't even pretend to ask what he means; she knows. Yang still hadn't told her dad what had happened in the past few weeks, but he'd been keeping secrets of his own. Yang still wasn't sure what he'd meant that night she'd heard him talking to her uncle. And regardless, she was pretty sure that her dad already knew.
"You probably know by now," she tells him. "Even if Uncle Qrow didn't say anything, it's been all over the news."
Taiyang folds his arms across his chest and leans back against the counter. "Qrow said he never got the full story, but… you're right. Between him and the news recently on the radio and in the paper, I've been able to piece it together." He pauses, then sighs. "Why didn't you tell me, Yang?"
Yang's grip tightens around her fork. She looks at her plate. "I…" Yang lets her gaze travel down the counter, avoiding her dad's eyes, when she sees the newspaper. Stacked and folded in half, the front page picture in a fuzzy grayscale. She looks closer, and sees a vaguely familiar pair of tall rabbit ears.
Her eyes widen, and she snatches the paper off the counter and unfolds the front page. It's definitely Velvet. Her head is bowed so that her hair partially obscures her face, a coat folded over her hands which means they've been handcuffed. Leading her by the arm is none other than Detective Ni, photograph journalists surrounding them as she's led into the precinct. Above the image, in large bold print reads VPD SECRETARY ARRESTED FOR EVIDENCE TAMPERING, OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE.
Yang pales.
"What's wrong?" she hears her dad ask, but Yang doesn't even know what to say. Velvet had been caught? How? Even more pressing were the images that flashed through her mind, of Velvet trapped somewhere with Mortroach. Or worse yet, Emerald and Mercury. Yang knows it's possible. Even likely.
She doesn't realize how hard she's gripping the paper until it starts to tear in her hands. She lets it drop. Ni's sneer stares up at her mockingly. She has to do something. She can't just let Velvet endure the torture Emerald put Blake through.
"Yang?" her dad asks again, but Yang ignores him. She has to get Velvet out of that. Emerald had almost completely unraveled Blake in a few days. Who knows if Velvet would even last that long. She stands up so quickly that the stool topples over with a loud clatter. Yang rushes out of the kitchen as her dad calls after her, but she doesn't stop until she's in her room and shoving clothes into her backpack.
She doesn't have a plan, and she should. She knows that. But right now, all she can think about is how stupid she was to forget that things didn't stop in Vale just because she left. The world kept turning without her, innocent people left behind.
"Yang. What are you doing?"
It's Weiss. Her calm, strong tone cuts through Yang's thoughts like a knife. She stills, one hand on the handle of her backpack. She clenches her jaw.
"Velvet was arrested."
"I know. I read about it in the paper."
"I have to get her out. She doesn't deserve that."
Weiss's bare feet scuff against the carpet as she steps further into the room and closes the door behind them. Yang still doesn't turn around.
"You're telling me that you're going to go back to Vale, undetected, and sneak back into the precinct, undetected, and break Velvet out like you did with Blake?" There's a certain edge to Weiss's voice, but Yang knows her better than to mistake it for malice. "You're not going to help her that way. You will get caught. And then what? They win, Yang. That's what."
Yang whirls around. She doesn't have to look in the mirror to know her eyes are smoldering red. "I can't just stand by while innocent people take the fall for me, Weiss."
Weiss's long white hair is pulled back in its usual off-centered ponytail. "I'm not saying that either. You always want to plow through obstacles, but sometimes you can get around them without letting them stand in your way."
"You sound like my dad," Yang snaps. He used to tell her that before she joined the force and moved into the city. She shakes her head, takes a breath. "What do you have in mind, Weiss?"
A look comes into the other girl's eyes. A sharp edge that Yang hadn't noticed before, and it occurs to her that Weiss might care just as much as she does. "Velvet's bail is pricey. Too expensive for the normal person. But if you can find some strings to pull, you can get her out from under Emerald's thumb at least for a while before she stands trial. And nobody was more connected in Vale than you were."
Yang runs a hand through her tangled hair. "I'm a wanted fugitive. Nobody's going to help me."
Weiss rolls her eyes and turns back towards the door, opening it. "Maybe. You won't know if you don't ask."
"It's not that simple," Yang shoots back, but Weiss is already gone. Frustrated, Yang shoves her backpack further up on the bed away from her.
…
Hours go by—she doesn't know how many, not for sure—and Yang doesn't feel any closer to an answer.
Weiss is right to say that she can't just try to break Velvet out. It'd be suicide, and on the off chance that they had arrested Velvet as a ruse to get Yang to come back… she'd be playing right into their hands. They were certainly manipulative enough to try it.
None of that actually changed the facts, though. Velvet had still been arrested, which meant that she was still most likely being interrogated by Emerald or Mercury, if not both of them. Velvet shouldn't have to endure that. But who is Yang supposed to call that would have that kind of cash? JNPR? They were always strapped for money as is, and the last thing Yang wants to do is ask them to do anything illegal.
Assuming that they'd managed to stay out from under the VPD's radar. Yang hopes so.
Who did that leave? Sun? Yang didn't believe that Sun was caught up with whoever Mortroach really was, but she still couldn't be sure who to trust at the precinct. Besides, Sun didn't have that kind of cash anyway. The same was true for Neptune.
The room suddenly feels too small to Yang. The walls too tight, the ceiling too low. The air is stuffy and stale and is it hot or is that just Yang? She can't tell. She doesn't care. She just wants out.
Yang makes a beeline for the front door, out of her room and down the stairs. She thinks she might hear someone say her name, but she doesn't stop until she's outside. It's dark now. Just how long did she stay in her room? Must have been longer than she'd initially thought. Remnant's shattered moon peeks just over the tree tops of the clearing in the canopy above them. The stars are out, and it's unusually cool.
The air feels crisp and clean, flooding Yang's lungs as she sucks in a deep breath of it.
I don't know what's next, she thinks for the second time that day, and stares up at the sky for a moment like it might point her in the right direction. She'd fallen in love with the city because of its perpetual motion, but she'd forgotten how much she loved the quiet stillness of the woods sometimes. She's taken, for a moment, back to when she was young and Summer had stargazed with her and Ruby until they'd fallen asleep. Yang closes her eyes and listens to the wind rustling the leaves and the quiet chorus of crickets around her. God, mom. I wish you were here. You always knew what to do.
Yang stands there for a moment, until her arms get goosebumps from the chilly night air and her racing heart calms back down. She breathes in, holding it in her lungs for a moment before releasing it slowly. She digs the toe of her boot into the dirt at her feet. She turns back to the cabin, and takes a step back towards the door when she sees something on the roof. A person, facing away from her and sitting on the crux of the two slants.
Her gaze narrows before she recognizes who it is. She doesn't think she'll ever forget the shape of that bow.
Yang jogs over to the lattice on the side of the cabin and tests her weight on it, smiling faintly with satisfaction and surprise when it holds. She climbs it quickly and deftly, wondering if perhaps Blake had already seen her and bolted. She feels guilty for the thought, but it briefly gives way to relief when she sees that Blake is still sitting there when she reaches the top.
"Blake? Can we talk?"
…
A/N: A crazy whirlwind of a chapter. I'd love to hear what you guys think of everything! It always means so much to me.
I know I said this in my Author's Note at the beginning, but… again: a lot is happening in the world. Be safe. Take care of yourself, and take care of one another. ^u^