POV: YANG XIAO LONG

Chapter 44 – Training, Tailgates, and Trouble

"Alright, thanks for help with the groceries, Weiss. Hm, you know where Ruby is?"

"I wish I did, I need to give that Dolt a piece of my mind." I smile to myself at her response. I place Ruby's strawberries in the fridge for now.

Meh, she'll come find 'em when she gets hungry.

"Alright, since my sis is MIA, you're going to help me with some focus mitt training." I grin, grabbing the unwilling Ice Queen by the arm and bringing her out to the back patio.

"You brute! Let me go! And what are focus mitts anyway?" She asks after I pull her outside. Out of sheer shock I let her go, my jaw dropping at how she doesn't know what one of the most basic boxing training tools are.

"You don't know what focus mitts are? Are you kidding me? Definitely glad I dragged you out now." I shake my head.

"I'm glad you acknowledged that you did in fact drag me out here." She rolls her eyes at me.

"Hey, you and I haven't trained in a while. Might as well do something as light as this." I dispute, walking over towards one of the glass tables in the corner of the back patio, my focus mitts sitting right on top from my quick session early in the morning with Blake. As I walk back to her I place them on my hands while I begin to explain.

"All you do is wear them like this while I punch. All you need to do is either turn your hand sideways, or face your palm to the floor. Depending on how it is positioned I will either throw a hook, or an uppercut. Then on occasion you would swing a mitt at me and I will need to dodge it without moving away. It's pretty simple training."

I take off the mitts and hand them to Weiss who carefully places them on. They are gold mitts with a single black stripe along the side, and in the middle are two black rings and a black circle in the center, making a target sign on the center of each mitt. I reach out to help tighten the Velcro straps around the back of her hands to assure each mitt is secure. Weiss looks at me pretty hesitantly. I guess she expects me to throw a wild punch at her face or something. I usually would, but she just got here; not sure it would be smart to knock out my sister's girlfriend on her first day in Patch.

"Just relax Weiss. I'll keep the power punching away for now. Just hold up your hands and let me show you that it doesn't hurt." I lift myself off of my heels, making baby hops on the balls of my feet and bring my hands up in a defensive boxing posture, hiding my cheeks behind my fists while I wait for Weiss to lift her hands.

"I'm not as weak as I used to be Yang . . . you don't need to baby me . . . but thank you." Weiss looks down after her last words. If I could say one thing Weiss and I will ever have the same personality wise, it's our pride. Although hers does vary from mine slightly. She moves her left leg back, putting herself in a more stable position while she lifts the mitts up to chest level with herself. She is shorter than me, so I am forced to lower myself a bit, but I guess it lets me work on my 'super close range' fighting.

I lower by slightly hunching over, and bringing my arms tighter to my sides. My eyes focus on the gloves, and I can see a slight look of concern on Weiss' face. She's never been my training partner, so I guess she's never used focus mitts with me, so she is not used to the intense stare I go into when I am about to begin. I'm sure she'll realize it after I start. She'll only continue to be scared until she gets used to it.

Alright, Weiss. Let's hope those skinny wrists of yours aren't THAT fragile.

I begin with two quick left jabs to her left mitt, releasing sharp, short exhales that have a hybrid sound between a hiss and a 'tsk'. She handles the two jabs well, her hand barely moving back, and she makes quick work of setting it back into place.

That's it Ice Queen.

I change it up slightly now, throwing a left punch to her left mitt, then a right punch to the other. I begin alternating my rhythm, going from the basic left, right combo to a left, left, right combo, and sticking to basic strikes, since she is not turning the mitts just yet.

"Alright, don't forget to turn your hands a bit. Make me change my punches up, and don't be afraid to swing at me. Those mitts are padded; I won't feel a thing." I exit my stance for a moment while I speak, giving her a chance to lower her hands and rest a moment.

"Yang, I think I may be better help to you without the mitts on." Weiss says while giving me a focused stare.

"What do you mean? I don't want to break your hands." I place my hands on my hips, not sure how many screws that apparent 1,000 meter freefall of hers may have knocked lose.

"You won't. Now help me get these things off, my hands are starting to sweat." She holds out her hands to me, and after giving her another unsure glare I unstrap the Velcro and pull the mitts off of her hands. The moment I do she holds her hands up immediately, this time about head level to herself. It is the perfect height for my usual striking, but I am not so sure about this.

"Weiss, I seriously don't want to break your hands, or sprain your wrists."

Why am I so hesitant?

"You're not going to you Brute! Now stop being such a wuss and punch already!" Weiss snaps at me, holding her hands up with complete confidence.

Wuss? The last thing I am is a Wuss, Ice Queen!"

I sharpen my stare at her left hand. I throw my first punch, softer than most and I am amazed when I feel my hand make contact, but Weiss' hand doesn't move from their spot.

"Come on, Yang. Both hands. Show me those fancy combos of yours." Weiss smiles at me. I must admit, I'm surprised she is encouraging me to go faster.

"Alright, Ice Queen. Be ready" I get a small grin, throwing a quick two combo. One to her left hand, the other to her right. Both punches definitely land, but again her hands don't move in the slightest.

What the hell? Since when does she have any upper body strength?

"Come on, Yang. This is hardly even a warmup for you. PUNCH!"

I AM PUNCHING YOU ANNOYING SNOWFLAKE!

I shout in my head, throwing a firm right hand, and my eyes widen as I see the punch being delivered. I actually put my aura into this one, and it is already centimeters from Weiss' hand. There is no pulling it back. I close my eyes, expecting to hear a shout of pain, but instead I hear an odd noise resonate in my head for a split second, and my hand has a cold feeling along the knuckles. I open my eyes to see it sitting in Weiss' palm. Weiss has a smile on her face.

"There's the Yang I know. Throw another just like that one." She nods her head at me, letting my hand go.

How the hell did she catch that!?

"Alright, these will all have a bit of aura on them . . . be ready." I warn. I take a deep breath, both of my hands getting a golden outline. I clench my fists tighter than before and go back to my rapid flurry of punches, alternating between which hands I target in a swift combination of punches. My eyes widen when Weiss begins to move her hands around, tilting them as I suggested, but when she does it is very unpredictable, and I barely get a look at her palms when she does.

It soon becomes a game of me slowly adding more aura to each punch, wanting to find out how she is doing this, but also wanting to know that I haven't gotten any weaker. My punches are always firm, and on the money. There is not a single person who should be able to block them with such little effort, especially Weiss of all people!

"Yang, this is hardly training if you don't start actually trying. Let's move off of the patio to give you some more room." Weiss puts her hands down and starts walking down the steps and onto the grass. She walks halfway towards the forest that is about 100 meters from the house, giving us a large radius to work with, also meaning I don't have much of a reason to not throw my more serious punches.

"Weiss, how are you taking these? That's not possible, especially for you, no offense."

"You're not trying hard enough, that's why." She says in her coldest tone that is only matched by her stare. If she's trying to make me angry, it's working, and when she places her hands up this time I plan on showing her I am not to be made fun of.

You handle a few jabs and suddenly you're all that . . . I have a punch that will knock that pretty little smirk off of your face right now!

I raise my hands up, bringing my right leg slightly further back than usual. I clench my right hand slowly, one finger at a time. First my pinky, then my ring finger, followed my middle, and index. I see the air around me enter a slight haze from the heat my body is radiating, but the entire time Weiss is just smirking at me.

Get that smile off your face, damnit!

I begin to get angrier, and in her crystal blue eyes I can make out a slight touch of red. My eyes have finally changed color, and I need to blow off some steam with this one punch. I waste no time in swinging my arm. I make sure it is my perfected right cross, twist my hips, and add additional momentum to it when I slam my right heel into the grass at the moment of impact. I keep a firm stare as my fist goes for Weiss' right hand, and my eyes widen at the sight.

I never noticed it before, but with a more powerful punch it is forced to linger longer, and with my right cross I am finally able to see how Weiss has been able to shrug off each punch. I haven't seen her do it since our fight, but she's able to make glyphs right in front of her palms, and more impressively, above both palms unlike before. I stare as the momentum in my punch goes away, along with the aura. At the same instant her glyph disappears and my punch lands harmlessly in her palm yet again.

So this is how . . .

"Trying to kill me, Yang? Sheesh, a right cross of all things?" Weiss scolds me, thinking I didn't see her glyph, but the unamused stare I give her tells the whole story, and she sighs upon realizing I saw it.

"How long have you been able to do that?" I ask, putting my hands down to show I am done for now.

Weiss smiles softly, holding her palm up and forming a small glyph on it. After a moment it slowly expands, doubling in size, but soon shatters like a mirror, and the pieces disappear soon after.

"About a week . . . I tried it out once when I was training with Ruby. It worked, but I didn't want her seeing it . . . she made it clear she was scared of it when I did it during our spar . . . so I started practicing with Ren who would do small aura pulses into my glyph to test how much I can handle. As long as the attack is small and pinpointed I can pretty much block it . . . anything larger than my palm and I have a bit of trouble with it, but I think I am making progress." Weiss smiles, looking down at both of her hands, "I want to be able to be as strong as I was when we fought, and I will be. I just don't know when." Weiss turns her head to look at me, giving me a soft smile.

"Yes you will, Weiss . . . I wish you would have just told me. I ended up using more aura than I wanted and I still need to go do my jogging and pushups." I sigh, starting to walk back to the house.

"Well, think of it as more of a challenge, I guess." Weiss says while she walks with me. I am a tad surprised to see her looking at things a bit more optimistically. That usually isn't something she is known for.

Guess Ruby has really been rubbing off on her. How about that.

"Yeah, I guess I need a little more of a challenge. I'm gonna go get changed. Try not to yell at my sis too much, alright?" I get a nod from Weiss that satisfies me enough. I open the back door of the house that leads into the kitchen and make my way straight upstairs to my room.

I am a bit surprised to see Blake curled up in my bed when I walk in. Her back is towards the door, and it looks like she adapted a more 'cat like' sleeping position with the way she is curled up, although her head is nice and comfortable on my pillow.

I can't believe her. First she asks where my room is, then decides she'd rather sleep in the attic for some reason, and now she is back in my room. Well, plus side to it all . . . I have a kitty in my bed

I smile to myself and nod, taking a moment to walk over and lean over my bed to look at Blake's adorable sleeping face.

I wish I didn't have to take my jog . . . well, I don't, actually. I NEED to take it. I'll get far too restless if I don't.

I let out a quiet sigh, taking the chance to lean down and plant a kiss on Blake's cheek. It's a tough fight to leave my Sleeping Beauty, but I know just what will get me motivated!

Alright, Yang. If you can run your usual 30 miles in only 3 hours, then you can take off Blake's bow if she's still sleeping! Yup, that's my reward!

I grin, carefully moving away from the bed and dashing over to my dresser. I open the very bottom drawer, pulling out my black sports bra from the right side of the drawer. I make quick work of stripping my tops and place it on instead. These things are always a pain in the ass to get on for well . . . D-related reasons, but once they are on the hard part is over. I smile, humming to myself while I take off my current shorts, exposing the black boyshorts I am wearing underneath, and add a pair of white jogging shorts to go over.

Alright, Yang! Out we go!

I search for my scroll in one of the pockets in my discarded clothing, as well as grab my headphones from on top of my dresser. I have been getting bored during my workouts, so with the free scroll that Beacon gave me, I made a point to add an anti-boredom plan onto my scroll. I call it the Yang Xiao Long Entertainment Center – a shitload of music!

I place my headphones over my ear while I leave my room, being very careful to close the door behind me and dash down the steps. As I make my way to the door I peek into the living room a moment to see Ruby and Weiss sharing the couch. Ruby has her head on Weiss' lap while Weiss absentmindedly plays with Ruby's white tips.

Okay, I'll admit . . . they're cute together.

I shake my head with a grin on my face. Deciding to ruin the moment briefly I lean through the doorway and in my softest whisper I startle the two of them so easily.

"Going out for a jog you two. If I find out Blake woke up because you two made too much noise . . . I'll break your hands, Weiss. Then I'll eat all of Ruby's cookies in front of her, kay?" Needless to say, the two of them quickly agrees. The last thing I want is my reward being taken away because someone had to wake my girlfriend up.

"I'm glad we reached this agreement, then. Don't do anything rated-M you two!" I hum to myself and walk outside.

I stand in the middle of the street, lowering into a crouch first to begin playing my music. I find one of my most blood-pumping tracks and set it on repeat, then place my scroll into my pocket. Fortunately my shorts have a zipper over the pocket, so I am able to take an extra precaution to make sure my scroll doesn't fall out.

Do it for Blake, Yang . . . those ears will be mine!

I begin at a gentle jog while the music begins to fill my ears, starting off with building instrumentals. It's not until an hour into my run that I hear one of the songs I've been waiting for. The song that echoes that all of Beacon will Remember The Name of Yang Xiao Long.

This is 10% luck, 20% skill

15% concentrated power of will

5% pleasure, 50% pain

And 100% reason to remember the name!

It's at this moment that I take something out of Ruby's playbook, something not a lot of people notice when she uses her semblance, or at least when she uses her semblance at its best. I slam my right foot into the ground and lean forward, forcing all my weight on my one leg for the split second. With a sharp burst of my aura through that foot I take an explosive step that sends me into my full speed, and from then on I make it a point to never slow down.

My running leads me into town; the same town I was just picking up groceries in, although it's not uncommon for me to make multiple trips here in one day. I dash down the street, moving more towards the curb to avoid any cars that may be coming by, although there are very few times a car passes through. As another one of my songs make a slow fade to transition into the next, I hear a voice call my name. A very close voice actually.

"Where's the fire, Yang?" I look to my right at the sidewalk, surprised to see one of my oldest friends, and also one of the people I have had a momentary deeper sort of relation with. She has hair the same length as Ruby's, except it has a more gothic style to it (on top of being an autumn orange). Her right eye is always covered by her hair, leaving her left eye to do all of the seeing for her. The outer part of her eye is a Halloween orange, and as it gets closer to her pupil it fades slightly to a more yellowish color, but her pupils are a pitch black. When I look into her eye I can see a stare similar to Blake's, although this look is more predatory, and a bit more menacing with how narrow her pupils are.

She's wearing an orange tank top with black shorts that have orange lining. She has tanner complexion compared to myself. She's a bordering becoming a shade of caramel, though is still a tad too pale to be considered as such. She has a relatively small nose, and the grin she is known for flaunts her sharp teeth to their fullest.

On top of her head are two cat-like ears that match her hair color, but are also decorated with black spots. She's one of my best friends, former lover, longtime rival, and the fastest girl in Patch. She is the cheetah Faunus, Shun . . . Shun Hitomi. The rough translation of her first name is Swift. I forgot what the translation of her last name is, but I recall it has something to do with beautiful eyes, and I will admit her eyes have always been one of her best features.

I keep my running pace, but move my headphones off of my right ear to hear her better as the next song starts.

"Doing my running. I need to work on my endurance." I say while I keep at a full sprint, although Shun keeps pace with me at what appears to be a steady jog for her.

"Cool, need a running partner? Will be just like old times." I look at her out the corner of my eye. Her stare is focused on me, analyzing my entire form. It has always been like this when I am near her, and I guess that now since I am with Blake I feel an awkwardness when Shun looks at me. It's an odd feeling, like . . . I'm insecure when she looks at me. I don't like this feeling, yet I can't say exactly what it is.

"Ummm, Hito . . . could you tone that down a bit?" I ask between breathes. I'm still not panting yet, and that's a really good sign so far.

"Stop what?" She asks, her pupils widening a bit to something a bit less predatory and menacing.

"St-staring at me. It's getting me uneasy." I turn my head forward, placing my headphone over my ear and speeding up once again, focusing my breathing while I continue through town. I begin losing myself into my music once again and the next song I hear that pushes me into the next gear is a unique mash up of four songs into a more techno remix. The instrumentals itself are very unique, echoing in my ears as if I am really in a club. The soft trance-like rhythm is replaced by a xylophone-like tune until the first song sets in.

Red like Roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest

White is cold and always yearning, burdened by a royal test.

Black the beast descends from shadows.

Yellow beauty burns . . . Gold.

A smile crosses my lips. I made this track after hearing a song Blake fell in love with. A song she felt described the struggles she has gone through as a Faunus. I personally don't see the super deep poetry hidden inside, but I like the song itself, but I needed more to it . . . something to slowly amp up towards it. So, what did I do? Well, I took an old melody Ruby likes to listen to, techno-fied it, then got a recording of Weiss singing . . . have to admit, the Ice Queen has a great voice, sped it up a bit, altered the background sound, added some instruments, and bang . . . I now have my favorite kickass track.

Okay, maybe I didn't do all that . . . I asked Jaune for help. Wimpy guy is great on a computer, I'll give him that. I kind of wish I made him the DJ for the dance, but I didn't know he could do stuff like that until afterwards when he was bored in class, and started messing around with his scroll. Yup, I was nosey and bored, so I peeked and became impressed as hell! So, thank you Jaune Arc for my awesome music!

Mirror . . . tell me sooooomething

Tell me, who's the loneliest of all?

Fear of . . . what's inside me~

Tell me, can a heart be turned to stone?

I flex my fingers in sync to the metronome in the background. It brings a smile to my lips. I should show this to Weiss. She may kill me for having her voice recorded and adjusted, but it's her fault for singing on the dorm roof. If you don't want to be recorded, you sing in the shower, duh!

"Still cute as ever Yang~" I feel my headphone move from my ear, and I turn my head once again to see Shun staring at me with that predatory gaze of hers. "I'll join you. I need a warm up, and you already have me steaming."

I can hear the purring erupting from deep within her chest. It's a borderline growl but I've known Shun long enough to be able to tell the difference.

"Guess I haven't told you. I'm taken, Hito." I face forward again to continue running. In my left ear I begin hearing the start of Blake's song, and immediately I can picture her smile in my head, and in turn I get the second surge I need. The reminder of the reward I promised myself.

Her ears are mine

I lean my upper body forward more, taking another aura-bursting step to enter an all-out sprint. It's been roughly 2 ½ hours since I started, so now it is the time I should be picking up the base. I started off slow to warm up, and now is when I will make up for lost time.

"Just you having a man in your life is supposed to make me stop?"

Hito, I dumped you. Deal with it!

I refrain from making a comment, and instead continue running. I am just passing by my halfway point – a 3-way intersection with nothing in front of me but a wall.

Hope I can still do this.

I smile, dashing across the street towards the brick wall. Out of the corner of my eye I can see Shun slow down, having no clue what I am doing running right towards a dead end.

"Yang, you're going to break that pretty face of yours!" she shouts at me with a mild concern in her voice.

Idiot, I'm too thick-headed for that . . . or so I'm told.

I jump just short of the wall, turning my body perpendicular to the wall, and parallel to the floor. I squat while I rotate myself in mid-air. A smile crosses my lips when my feet press flatly to the wall. All I can see now is an upside down view of the street I just ran down, and the completely shocked look of the cheetah Faunus standing aside in awe at a new trick I learned for a quick change in momentum, although I admit it isn't my own idea. I got the idea when I saw some professional swimmers doing it when tagging up on a wall.

Then again, doing stupid things I see from sports is part of who I am. I have a way of Yangifying anything I see!

As my momentum brings me to a squat against the wall, I push off with all of my strength as well as twirl myself to spin so I am no longer upside down. My downward fall reminds me of my first trial in Beacon, and when I am close enough to the floor, I extend my palms to the ground to make me roll to my feet, completing a repeat of my landing strategy nostalgia with a loud

"Nailed it!"

I'm coming home, Blake!

I continue running at full speed, looking over my shoulder to see that Shun is still staring in complete shock. I turn forward and direct my eyes far down the road towards the seeable, yet distant edge of town that will change into a suburban scenery. Blake's section of the song is coming to an end, and it is replaced by a portion of a song that I consider to be my theme song.

Come at me,

And you'll see

I'm more than meets the eye.

You think that

You'll take me

You're gonna find in time.

"You're standing too close to a flame that's burning,

Hotter than the sun in the middle of July.

Send out your army, but you still can't win;

Listen up, silly boy 'cuz I'm gonna tell you why."

I begin to sing, my favorite song getting me far too pumped up to just remain quiet while I jog, although my eyes widen when I hear the familiar, purring voice in my ear.

"Still into that Lamar Hall crap I see. So, what's the lucky guy's name?" I turn to where I heard the voice, but she isn't at my right side. I turn to look ahead of me and there is Shun . . . showing off even further by matching my full sprint by only running backwards.

"It's a girl!" I shout, moving to the other side of the street while I run to avoid being distracted by Shun's questioning.

"Oooo, so I'm losing you to a gal? Find her on the streets of Vale or something?"

She's right back at my side, jogging effortlessly to match me. I turn my head to look at her, seeing her gazing over my body once again, but this time I flare my aura. The pure brightness makes her pupils shrink even further, and force her to break sight.

"I'm not yours to gawk at. And I met her at Beacon, now leave me alone!" I snap. When she looks at me again I can see the reflection of my red eyes in her gaze. She pissed me off, and it's about time she realized it.

"I see . . . tell her not to get too comfortable with you . . . I've had my eyes on you since our days in Signal." And there it is. That freaky, fang-flaunting grin of hers as she slows down and leaves me to the rest of my run.

We're through, Hito . . . deal with it

I slow to a jog the rest of the way, making it back to the house with ten minutes left to my deadline. My aura has been raging inside me, burning the sweat from my body before it can even begin to trickle. I open the door as gently as I can, realizing that with my head in such a tear, I could very well yank it off the hinges by mistake.

I close the door behind me and peek into the living room. There is some cheesy romance movie on. On the couch is Ruby, sitting comfortably and being very attentive, and looking lower I can see Weiss with her head on Ruby's lap, equally as attentive to the movie. Both their hands are interlaced with each other's, and it seems their grip only tightens as the movie goes on.

Ice Queen . . . you keep this up and I may start thinking you have a real heart.

I smile, deciding to leave my sis and her girlfriend alone, and instead I head upstairs to my room where Blake is still sleeping soundly in the same position as earlier.

I did it, Blake.

I whisper in my head, as if somehow she can hear me. It was already dark outside when I came in, but I still feel like I need to burn energy. I'm riled up, that grin . . . that fang-flaunting grin was far too certain of victory for my tastes. Just what was Shun Hitomi up to?

I shake the thoughts of a jealous cheetah Faunus from my head while I kick off my running shoes and lay down on my bed next to Blake. I told myself I would take my own reward from Blake. It's a simple guilty pleasure I have. I just want to look at her adorable ears. I carefully reach out with both hands, grasping each end of her bow and slowly pulling until the knot gives in and the ribbon appears to fall apart from her furry attribute.

There's my pretty kitty

I smile, tossing the ribbon over my shoulder to land on the floor somewhere. I inch myself closer to her, pressing my chest to her back and placing an arm around her.

"Blake. I'm never leaving you. I don't know what Hito is planning, but I know you won't fall for it. I worked too hard to finally get you."

I lean in and press my lips to her cheek, inhaling the familiar fragrance in her hair from the shampoo she uses. I carefully hook my arm over her abdomen while I slide myself as close to her as possible, trying not to wake her, even though deep down I want her to. I want her to wake up and scold me for bother her. I want her to roll her eyes and scream at me for being an annoyance. I feel so uneasy and worried, but I can't tell her about Shun. How will she react? She'll see that Shun's a Faunus and go back to thinking I only wanted her because of her cat ears. That I saw Shun's image when I first met her, and all I wanted was to rekindle an old flame.

I don't want Blake to think that for a second. Blake was so mysterious and had a hostility to her that drew me in even closer. I was eager to see what the mysterious, bow-wearing girl was hiding underneath the tough exterior. Blake is Blake. Shun is Shun. Shun and I are done. Blake and I are just beginning, and that is how it is meant to be.

I give Blake's cheek one more kiss, then add another kiss to the tip of one of her ears, smiling as it flutters from the tiniest touch to it.

You're just so adorable.

I decide to lay with her for a bit longer. A few seconds turn into a minute. That single minute turning into ten minutes, then an hour. I fight myself to eventually pull away from her.

"Let her sleep, Yang." I whisper to myself. I place my headphones back over my ears, then take my scroll out of my pocket and put it on the bed behind Blake. My music has been playing the entire time, but I must have tuned it out. This time my favorite song is entering my ear, and I begin to feel my body start to twitch with the need to exert whatever energy is left.

This is the song for it, Yang! Push-ups!

I take a few steps from Blake and drop down to my knees. I lean forward to plant my hands on the ground, and then lift my knees off of the floor. I make sure I adapt a perfect posture. The lyrics echoing in my head with each motion. It's the same lyrics that were playing from the mashup I asked Jaune to put together, but now the second verse is kicking in . . . my favorite part of the entire song.

"Hotter than sun, feel my fire.

Pyromaniac: My desire

Thought that you could see the truth,

'Till I just burned down the booth

Human Torch can't fuck with me,

Johnny Blaze: Suspect B

Strike 'em quick, lighting fast;

Melt them bitches down to ash!

Gasoline, kerosene;

Strike the match, ignite the scene.

Shit will never be the same;

Feel the fury of my flame!

Beg for mercy it won't help;

Embrace the ending you were dealt.

Seems you fucks will never learn;

Now sit back and watch me burn!"

Right now this entire verse reflects my feelings towards Shun. I want to burn her, scorch her and make her know that I will never turn on Blake.

I'll put her into the hospital if she even comes near Blake . . . There's not a thing that I won't do to protect my Kitty . . . Even if it means-

I snap out of my darker state of mind. There's a weight on my back and a sweet fragrance nearby. I turn my head to look over my right shoulder but my hair is in my way. I don't need to wait long before gentle fingers brush along my skin to move my hair from my face.

I'm happy to be greeted by Blake's relaxed grin. She's as emotionless as ever in appearance, but I am happy to see that slight gleam in her eye.

"Hey Kittycat" I say to her, a smile uncontrollably taking charge of my lips, although there is an unamused look in her eyes.

Guess she's mad about the missing bow . . . if she's noticed yet. Not sure she did.

"Did I say stop your workout? Keep going. How many have you done so far?" She asks. At the same moment, I face the floor and prepare to lower. I drop myself slightly, waiting for Blake's instinct to get a better grip on me to take hold. Almost instantly I can feel her arms tighten around my abdomen, and I take that as a sign to continue my motion. It is not until I do 5 pushups that she breaks the silence and offers me a challenge that I cannot refuse.

"If you can do 50 of these, I'll keep my bow off for the night." My cheeks begin to redden, her breath is brushing over my ear, and she's speaking in the hushed whispers that draw out shivers to my spine. "Speaking of which . . . do you know how it came off of my ears?"

Fuck, she noticed . . . Guess I'll find out how pissed she is soon enough

"I have no idea, Kittycat," I lie, "But I guess it's not going on until tomorrow. 50 is not a problem for me!"

I'll do as many as you need me to . . . and then some.

I'm never losing you, Blake Belladonna.


Disclaimer: The song lyrics here are not owned by me. One of the song owners is Fort Minor (Remember the Name) The other is of course RWBY! Please don't sue me . . .