You Always Need A Sun
And A Moon

Pt.I

He woke up with a nudge to his side, alerting him to any possible threat. Looking around the dark bedroom, Sun was hyper-focused on anything that was about to hurt him.

"She's awake again," came Blake's sleepy murmur. All at once, his body relaxed, and he let out a groan as he snuggled tightly to her under the blankets of their bed. His tail wrapped around to coil around her waist protectively as he tried to fall back asleep in her arms again. "You should go check on her, your better at that stuff than me," She was right, of course, but it did not mean that he was not upset about being rudely woken like that.

With a groan, Sun pulled himself out of his warm bed and began to quietly walk through the small home towards the source of Blake's discomfort. If she woke him up, that only meant she had been awake at the first sound threatening to boil over. Being a sensitive sleeper does that to people as he had learned and knowing Blake, she would not be able to fall asleep unless he helped now. Reaching the kitchen, he turned on the light that illuminated the person who woke her up in the first place.

Yang flinched at the sudden illumination of the kitchen that spilled over into the small living room, divided only by border of tile and carpet and a tiny island that sat between the two rooms. She sat on the couch, a blanket was thrown off, and the pillow looked like it had been punched a few times. Yang had dark lines under her eyes, and her hair was dishevelled. She looked like she had just gotten out of a fight, and if what Ruby said was true, she probably had been fighting in her sleep since they came back.

"Hey," he yawned as he scratched his bare stomach and wandered around the small kitchen.

"Hey," she replied as she rubbed her face. "I didn't wake you, did I?"

"Nah," he pulled a glass from the cupboard and began to run some water from the sink. "I needed some water," He never liked lying to Yang, but if he told her the truth, she would probably feel even worse about sleeping on their couch for the last week and a half. "What about you? Why are you up?" He turned the sink off and took a sip of crisp cold water. The chill woke him up a bit as Yang struggled to find her words.

"I, uh. Had a nightmare,"

Tonight and every night since you've gotten here…

He did not want to say that out loud. He knew how vulnerable Yang was to certain things, and this was one of them. Instead, he just nodded and set a kettle to boil some water while they waited. "Blake always says that tea helps calm the mind, I'll make you some."

"No, it's fine,"

"Too late, water's already boiling." He said as he pulled two mugs from Blake's overfilled section of the kitchen and set them to the side. "I know what'll fix you right up, though," He said with a smile as he opened up another small cabinet filled to the brim with half-empty boxes of all of Blake's teas. "The ol' Sun special" that at least got a smile out of her as she raised her eyebrow.

"The Sun special? What makes it so special?"

"I take two teabags at random and toss them in together." To prove his point, he kept his eyes on her while his tail went to work on grabbing two bags at random and tossed them into one mug then repeated it for the second one.

"Doesn't that taste terrible?"

"Not all the time, sometimes I get some pretty good combos, but I don't know which two they are so, oh well." He smiled as the kettle gave a click, and he poured the water and took both mugs to the couch. "Plus, Blake keeps buying more boxes of tea before finishing off what she already has here, so if anything, I'm helping her."

"You're enabling her bad habits of buying tea," Yang laughed as she accepted the mug and took a small sip. Setting down next to her, Sun leaned back and kicked his bare feet onto the table and nodded.

"Well, I think it's a good compromise compared to her book addiction," That actually got a chuckle out of Yang as she settled back next to him and nodded. The silence dragged on, and he watched the smile disappear just as quickly as it appeared, and her eyes start to stare out at nothing. Sun knew that look, and he sighed. "You wanna talk about it?" his voice was gentle in the night.

She did not answer. Instead, she tapped at the mug with her metal finger, filling the room with nervous energy. Sun knew he had to choose his words carefully now like he was diffusing a bomb. The wrong word would either make Yang completely explode in fire and anger or shut her down entirely and disappear without a word.

The tapping stopped, and Yang took a breath. "What did Ruby tell you guys?"

Everything.

Sun remembered the frantic phone call to Blake out of the blue that day. Ruby called, saying that Yang grabbed a bag and ran out of their shared apartment as soon as they got back from a mission. She then told the couple precisely what had happened, and the two of them started getting things ready. Their small apartment did not have a spare bedroom, but they had a couch and plenty of extra pillows. Blake sent him out to pick up some food, and by the time he came back, Yang was already there, looking scared and unsure of where to go. She did not even shower from her mission.

Every night since she came to them, Yang had nightmares. Both Sun and Blake did their best to respect Yang's right to privacy, but it was getting worse. This was the first time either of them really got anywhere when they tried to reach out to Yang to talk about it. Sun just hoped he did not screw it up, or Blake would never forgive him.

"Not really," He shrugged. "Just a few things, but whatever happened out there has you really spooked."

Yang was silent again, he could see her jaw tensing and her human hand shaking with the mug still being held. Her breathing was coming in shallow and fast. He could see tears starting to form in her eyes as she struggled to stay calm. "I'm supposed to be her big sister," A whisper through gritted teeth. "I'm supposed to protect her! And I- I almost…"

Sun acted fast. He took Yang's mug out of her hands with his tail and set it next to his on the table before he pulled her into a hug. She clung to his skin as he tucked her face into his shoulder and squeezed tightly. Strangled sobs came from her throat as she tried to keep her voice as quiet as she could, and she clung to Sun like he would disappear from her grip. Silently, he ran his fingers through her hair, trying to calm her down. He knew if he had tried this before, she probably would have pulled his spine out with his tail if she ever caught him.

He did not know how long he sat with her, whispering reassurances to her until she had finally calmed down. He held her until he felt her release his body and pushed herself back up. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she leaned back again and shook her head. "I'm sorry about that,"

"Hey, it's fine," He smiled as he used one of the napkin stacks on the table to dry the tears on his skin. "Sometimes you just got to let it out, ya know?" She just nodded as she picked up her mug and took a careful sip from it.

"Thank you,"

"Hey, anytime and every time. Better now?" Sun smiled at Yang as he stood up and picked up his tea. She nodded, and he smiled more. "Good, have a good night,"

"You too,"

With a smile, he finally took a sip from his drink, only to spit it back out. "Ugh, that tastes like boiled tree leaves," He complained as he walked back to the kitchen to dump the now, lukewarm liquid.

"That's what tea is, banana brain," It was nice to hear her laugh again. Yang always looked so wrong when she was not smiling.

"Yeah, well, it still tastes like licking a tree."

At Yang's request, he left the light on before making his way back to Blake in their bedroom. As soon as he climbed in, Blake wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close to her. Getting comfortable, he ran his hand up and down her back as she rested her head on his chest. "How is she?" She asked.

"She needs help," Sun whispered in the darkness of the room.

"It's a good thing she's got us then," Blake yawned as her ears finally stopped twitching to every little sound Yang was making in the other room. Sun replied with the same response to when his friends ask for help, when Blake asked him if he loved her and when anyone asks if he was there for them:

"Always,"