It was fortunate that Yang Xiao Long didn't have anything she needed to do today. After working yesterday, and spending all night searching for Ruby… she really could have used some rest.
Unfortunately, it didn't come easily. The image of Ruby's flesh being blasted away remained at the forefront of her mind. Sure, Ruby had gotten back up, but… it was still disturbing, and it kept bringing back flashes.
Flashes of Ruby's glassy, dead eye after the car hit her.
Flashes of her mom holding onto a bleeding wound on her stomach, telling Yang it would be okay for the very last time.
Flashes of holding a shotgun to the back of Weiss's head - someone she had only recently hoped could be her friend - knowing full well what would happen should she pull the trigger.
Flashes of Ruby, in pain, with imagined torture scenarios to give her those wounds. Weiss cackling madly in the background.
So as much as Yang's body screamed for sleep, her mind wouldn't allow it. So instead she laid face down in her bed. Nauseous. Trembling. Wick tracing warm lines across her shoulders and back in an attempt to help her relax.
And now she knew why he kept disappearing every morning. It was not a comforting thought. Was it as painful for him as it looked to be for Ruby? Maybe this Blake person could teach her to create wards of her own.
When Yang finally fell asleep, her dreams were nothing more than loosely connected nightmares about the very things that had occupied her waking thoughts.
Her alarm finally freed her from a dream involving an insanely unhinged Weiss torturing both her and Ruby by repeatedly skeleton-ifying parts of them.
She groaned as she swiped at her phone in an attempt to silence it. Happy as she was to escape the dream, she'd only gotten four, maybe four and a half hours of sleep.
She had about half an hour until sunset. Half an hour to get to the address Ruby had texted her.
Apparently Ruby could text her during the day. Whether this was due to it just being important enough this time, or the fact that she was going to start working with Ruby, or something else, Yang didn't know, but she appreciated the change.
Yang quickly threw some clothes on, and snuck out into the kitchen to make herself a sandwich and a slice of toast for Wick. It was fascinating to watch the sprite eat; it was a mesmerizing combination of chewing and burning. Maybe food hadn't actually been part of their loose agreement, but he seemed to enjoy it, and Yang enjoyed watching him.
Plus, he did a great job of cleaning up the crumbs.
Upon finishing her meal, Yang was able to sneak out the front door without any awkward encounters with her father, hop on Bumblebee, and arrive at the address just in time for the sun to set. It appeared to be a multi-story apartment building. The type that was just ostentatious enough on the outside to call itself "luxury" but internally was anything but.
Yang parked her motorcycle and made her way to the front entrance to wait for Ruby.
It didn't take long for her to be caught in a flash of quickly disappearing rose petals.
"How long have you been waiting?" Ruby asked, catching her breath as her red cloak disappeared in scattering of petals.
"Like… thirty seconds?" Yang replied, frowning at the look Ruby was giving her. "What, did you think I was just going to sit here all day?"
"Maybe." Ruby shrugged, pulling out a set of keys from an inside pocket on her suit blazer. "After what happened with the playground…"
"Hey! I wasn't there that long!" Yang insisted.
Ruby unlocked the door, and gestured for Yang to enter.
"Sure, Yang." Ruby rolled her eyes.
They took the elevator up to the fourth floor, and Ruby led her into an apartment. #402, Yang couldn't help but notice.
"Alright, I'm going to get out of this monkey suit." Ruby said as she headed into one of the rooms, before leaning back out to add: "Blake should be here soon."
Not sure where it might be appropriate to sit, Yang elected to awkwardly stand near the entrance, and watch the door.
With nothing else to do, Yang busied herself with quick glances around the apartment that Ruby was now staying in. There were three doors near the entryway. One was cracked open to reveal a bathroom tastefully decorated in lavender. The other two seemed to go into bedrooms, which meant Ruby had her own. That was good… especially considering Ruby's new predilection towards the fairer gender… Yang didn't really want to think about the possibility of Ruby being in a relationship with her mentor.
Visible from the entry was a small kitchen perpendicular to the wall the bathroom and other bedroom were on, with a small island and a pair of stools separating it from the entry area, and a window centered over the sink. Around the corner from the door Ruby entered, the room opened up to reveal a full sized couch set back a good distance from a small, cheap TV. The wall the TV was against also had windows; it seemed they were in a corner unit. No fire-escapes, though. Perhaps there was one in one of the bedroom Windows?
All in all, it was a cozy little apartment. More modern and open than what they'd shared with their dad, clean and well decorated, but… it wasn't home. And Yang missed having Ruby home.
Still, it meant Ruby was living well, at least, and Yang turned most of her focus to the door...
...Until she was caught off guard by a familiar voice coming from behind her.
"Yang? You're Ruby's…? Shit."
Yang turned to see her therapist climbing in through the window. The window. The fire-escape free window over the sink.
Her therapist.
It took her a few seconds to connect the dots. To remember her therapist's name - which she was pretty sure she hadn't heard since the very first appointment - and realize that everything lined up.
And that delay had nothing to do with how good Blake looked in a suit, thank you very much.
It was a nice suit, though. Dark black, not "charcoal" or "dark grey", but a proper, clean black. And the purple shirt under the blazer contrasted well with the golden tie that matched her eyes, still as gold as they had been at the last appointment, but her sharp gaze was no longer obstructed by the disarming little glasses she was always wearing. It was a sharp look. Nothing like the conservatively non-aggressive sweaters she wore in their therapy sessions. Yang was just jealous that she didn't have a suit like it of her own. That's all this was.
There was also the pair of cat ears atop her head. Plus the unorthodox method of entry. Those would be a good excuse for explaining her apparent confusion. And why her eyes were probably red, given the pounding of her heart.
"You're Blake?" Yang eventually asked, after picking up her jaw.
Blake responded with a heavy sigh as she climbed over the sink and shut the window behind her.
"The one and only." Blake deadpanned. "I guess we're going to need to get you a new therapist."
"What? Why?" Yang asked, starting to calm herself. "I like you as a therapist."
"Because it's improper for me to be your therapist while I'm basically your sister's boss." Blake explained, before raising her voice and directing it at the door Ruby had disappeared behind. "Something I would have figured out earlier except Reapers are supposed to change their names after they die!"
"What? I did change my name!" Ruby shouted back, muffled by the wall. "My last name! And I told you that I was going to bring Yang over! Couldn't you have figured it out then?"
"You told me you would bring your sister over! You never gave me her name!" Blake shouted. "And I can hear you just fine without you shouting!"
Ruby's response was quieter. Too muffled for Yang to make out. Given the way Blake frowned at it, though, it didn't seem like she had any trouble hearing it.
"Is it because of the extra ears?" Yang blurted out, noticing that she also had normal human ears in the usual spots.
"They do help." Blake nodded. "But all Reapers have sharper senses in Soul Form."
"Soul Form?" Yang asked. "That's what… this is?" She gestured in Blake's direction. "Wait… does Ruby have cat ears too? I noticed that she had something under her cloak and-"
"They're not cat ears!" Ruby announced as she dramatically swung the door back open, now dressed in a hoodie and skirt.
"Ruby's a little embarrassed by hers." Blake said with a bemused expression.
"Your what, Ruby?" Yang grinned the kind of grin only an older sibling who has found something new to tease their younger sibling about can. "Come on, Ruby, show me!"
"I… I don't wanna." Ruby flipped her hood up over her head and pulled on the drawstrings.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Ruby." Blake offered reassuringly.
"People are either going to freak out or think I'm some kind of weirdo." Ruby mumbled.
"After all the weird stuff I've been through in the last week, I doubt this'll make much of a difference." Yang said.
Blake rewarded her with a soft elbow to the ribs.
"It's a perfectly natural part of your new body, Ruby." Blake said gently. "And… I guess it's not the hardest thing you've ever had to share with your sister, is it?"
"I guess not." Ruby grumbled, before a cloak appeared on top of her hoodie, and she reached up to pull both hoods back.
As an extra pair of ears popped up, Yang almost accused Ruby of lying to her. It looked an awful lot like she did have cat ears. But… on closer inspection, the fur was thicker, and they seemed a bit more rigid than Blake's.
But either way, she was going to have the same reaction:
"Oh my goodness, Ruby! They're sooo cute!" Yang squealed.
Ruby shot Blake a resigned look, like this was exactly what she was afraid of.
"They're… wolf ears." Ruby said quietly.
Yang reached out to feel one.
"They're… so soft."
"Yang, please don't!" Ruby said as a blush crept up her face.
"Why? Dogs like this." Yang said as she scratched around the base. "Doesn't it feel good."
Ruby was as red as a tomato at this point, and tried to squirm away.
"You really should stop." Blake said from across the room as she opened the refrigerator. "You wouldn't want someone to just start playing with your ears."
"But dogs like it." Yang insisted.
"I'm not a dog!" Ruby said, squeezing her eyes shut.
Yang opened her mouth to reply, but lost the words as something clamped over her earlobe.
Something soft, a little moist, with some gentle, harder bits on the inside. A slight nibble, and something flicking against her piercing sent a shiver down her spine. Yang immediately released Ruby's ear to grab at her own. Her fingers impacted soft skin. Someone's face?
Yang looked over to the fridge. Blake was still there, taking a drink from the beer bottle she'd pulled out.
Yang's earlobe was released with a wet smack.
"Not as fun when you're the target, is it?" Blake's voice whispered directly into the assailed ear.
Yang's heart rate skyrocketed as she pulled away. Her back slammed into the wall as she turned to seek out what had been nibbling her earlobe.
For a split second, Blake was standing behind her with a cheshire cat style grin, but she faded into shadow and disappeared. Was it a trick of the light? A quick glance showed that Blake was still standing by the refrigerator, finishing the drink she'd started when Yang last looked.
Was Blake just pulling off a very impressive ventriloquism act?
Ruby started laughing next to her.
"It's okay, Yang." Ruby managed between guffaws. "Blake's just messing with you. You don't have to be afraid."
It wasn't fear that Yang was feeling, but it was… somewhat adjacent. Closer to… anticipation? Something to sort out later. In the meantime, Yang took deep breaths, and worked on controlling her heart rate. It… wasn't as easy as usual to bring it down. She couldn't stop thinking about it.
"But seriously." Blake said as she sashayed over. "That's a bit more of an… intimate touch than I think you want to share with your sister."
"Oh… I uh… sorry, Rubes." Yang sighed.
"It's okay… I understand why you…" Ruby trailed off. "But… gods, that was awkward."
"I… it won't happen again."
Ruby nodded, and her extra ears and cloak disappeared in a shower of rose petals.
"So… why do you get a cloak and Blake doesn't?" Yang asked, desperate to change the subject.
"I could have one if I wanted." Blake replied. "We can create clothes and other simple accessories if we want to. It's one of our powers. Though if I wanted to hide my ears," she shot Ruby a look, "I'd probably just go with a bow or something."
"Cloaks are awesome though." Ruby grumbled.
"You're probably going to get called weird for that more than the ears." Yang teased.
Ruby responded by blowing a raspberry.
"Alright. Fine. You do you." Yang offered.
Blake sat down on the couch, lounging against one of the armrests, and gestured for Yang to take the other side. Something she did with a small amount of hesitation. Yang wasn't sure that she could keep her eyes from going red again in close proximity to Blake, even if she wasn't entirely sure why.
Ruby, meanwhile, plopped down on the floor in front of the couch with absolutely no hesitation or fanfare.
"So," Blake began, "Ruby tells me you're looking for someone to teach you more advanced magic? Why don't you start with how, exactly, you managed to fireproof your hair against the sprite hiding in it. That's not a beginner-level sort of spell."
Wick popped out above Yang's shoulder and happily chirped upon being mentioned. He didn't seem to mind having his hiding spot exposed. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying the attention.
Yang, on the other hand, was struggling just a bit with it. Had Blake's gaze always been so… intense during their therapy sessions?
"I… didn't really do anything?" Yang said. "He just… never burns me. I figured that was because he didn't want to."
Blake's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and Yang found herself shrinking back.
"A fire can't choose what it does and doesn't burn, Yang."
"I thought it was weird, too!" Ruby piped up. "Like, her clothes got burnt, when I… uh…" Ruby quietly rushed the next part: "pulledheroutofaburninggrainsilo" then resumed speaking normally: "but she wasn't burnt, like, at all!"
Blake gave Yang a look.
"Why were you in a burning grain silo? I don't…" Blake shook her head. "That's not important. Have… you ever been burned?"
Yang thought back. Thought back hard. She… couldn't think of a time when she had. She remembered a shell casing falling down her shirt when she was… being unwillingly kept away from home. Miraculously, no burns. Sunburns? She'd always gotten lucky, even when she forgot sunblock. A memory of her childhood, where she'd grabbed a pyrex casserole dish when it was fresh from the oven, only to have her mom scold her. She remembered the look of confusion on Summer's face when her hands remained unharmed.
"Now that I think about it?" Yang said. "No, actually. Never."
"What do you mean, never?" Ruby asked. "Didn't you… uh… wait… actually… huh."
"Interesting." Blake said, before drawing in the air with the tip of her finger. Glowing, dark purple lines stacked a cold glyph on a water one, and Blake held her bottle up in front of it. "See if you can't chill my drink for me."
"Alright." Yang shrugged, placing her hand against the floating glyphs and finding them… remarkably solid. "I have to warn you, though, Weiss said I was pretty powerful."
"Humor me." Blake said humorlessly.
Yang shrugged, and pushed a small amount of magic into the glyph, resulting in… nothing? She tried harder, still nothing. Yang pushed with all her magical might, and was rewarded with… a few, quickly melting snowflakes popping out of the center of the glyphs.
"Okay, what's the trick? What did you do?"
"There's no trick." Blake said, but the edge of her lips curled up, like there was one. "Ruby, show her how it's done?"
Ruby shrugged and stood up. Yang leaned back, watching for anything special Ruby was doing as she placed her hand on the glyph. Blake was up to something, and Yang would get to the bottom of it!
She couldn't find anything unusual in Ruby's demeanor as the bottle was surrounded by a thin sheet of ice, causing her to frown.
"Seems normal to me." Ruby said. "So why couldn't Yang do it?"
"I have a hunch, but there's one more thing I need to test." Blake said, waving her hand through the glyphs she previously drew and shattering them, before replacing them with a heat and a wind glyph facing noticeably away from anything and anyone. "Yang, make the smallest flame you possibly can out of this."
"Is… that safe?" Yang asked as she cautiously reached towards the new glyph stack.
"Hopefully." Blake offered with a shrug. "You have some self control, right?"
"Right…" Yang said, pushing as little magic into the glyphs as she could.
The flame that emerged was akin to a torch. It painted the room in a bright, dancing orange.
"Can you make it any smaller?" Blake asked. "Candle sized, perhaps?"
Yang tried, she truly did, but she couldn't make it shrink. Instead, she accidentally blasted it up to the size of a campfire, causing her to yelp and pull away, cutting off the magic.
"Hrm…" Blake seemed unphased. "Ruby, your turn. Just like we practiced. Big as you can go."
Ruby was less eager this time, placing her hand on the glyph sheepishly. She seemed to strain against the glyph as it created a flame only slightly larger than the campfire-sized one Yang had unleashed on accident.
The flame suddenly cut off, and Ruby doubled over, exhausted.
"Good Job, Ruby. Thank you." Blake said.
Ruby was out of breath, and, in lieu of a verbal response, simply gave Blake a shaky thumbs-up.
Yang's protective big sister instincts kicked in.
"Was that really necessary?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I figured it would be a good visual aid." Blake shrugged. "But no. Ruby here, when not in Soul Form, is… roughly average. That's about all most people can ask to get, even after a great deal of magical training. Flames are a difficult magic to do." Blake leaned forward, propping her chin up on her palm. "Not for you, though. But then, something as simple as a little ice is nearly impossible for you, isn't it?"
"So, what, are you saying I'm a 'fire type' or something?" Yang scoffed.
"It's called an affinity, but… effectively, yes." Blake replied. "It is extremely rare for humans to have affinities, but they do exist."
"So… fire's easy, I can't do ice, and I'm immune to heat. Anything else I should know?"
"Not immune." Blake shook her head. "Just… highly resistant. I wouldn't recommend jumping into a volcano, for instance. Besides which, you are not going to have an immunity to smoke."
"Yeah, we… sort of figured that out the hard way." Yang rubbed the back of her head. Wick took the opportunity to climb onto her arm, zipping down to her elbow with an apologetic chirp.
"Charming." Blake gave Wick a wary look, before returning her gaze to Yang. "You're also likely pretty resistant to magic-based cold and ice."
"Huh… guess that explains why it was so easy to break out when Weiss froze me." Yang paused as noticed the looks both Blake and Ruby were giving her. "What?"
"Weiss froze you?" Ruby asked with a hint of alarm.
"I mean, it was an accident at the time." Yang shrugged, and Wick shot back into her hair. "I, uh… pranked her, and she freaked out when I tried to help fix it, and… I mean, it didn't work very well. I'm fine."
"She froze you on a reflex?" Blake was less alarmed, and more intrigued. "Did she already have the glyphs drawn out?"
"No." Yang shook her head. "I was a little confused, but never got a chance to ask her about it. Does that mean she has an affinity, too?"
"No." Blake shook her head. "I mean, it's still possible she does, but even with an affinity, a human will still need to draw out the spell to do it. Perhaps it was hidden?"
"I've only ever seen her with long sleeves." Yang said. "Maybe she's hiding it in there?"
"Could be." Blake nodded. "Sewn into the lining? Or maybe it's tattoos…"
"Well, either way," Ruby added, still slightly breathless, "we know she can do it, so we can be prepared for it in the future. And whatever else she might be hiding the same way."
Yang nodded, and smiled at her sister's tactical thinking.
"With any luck, she'll keep her distance for some time." Blake said. "But in the meantime, we all need to be ready for it. So I suppose I better start teaching you both some magic."
l - - - l
Hours later, Yang was struggling to keep her eyes open, but she had learned a few new glyphs, ones for light, sound, record, metal, rock, and living material. Blake had demonstrated a few of these by having Yang and Ruby create a pair of holographic video walkie-talkies, powered by their own magic.
"I think for Yang's sake, we ought to call it a night." Blake announced.
Yang whispered a quiet "thank you" not intended to be heard by anyone, but judging by the way Blake's lips quirked ever so slightly up, it appeared that she heard it anyway. She was still in Soul Form. Was she ever not?
"Still have quite a ways to go before I can teach you wards, but you did well, Yang." Blake continued. "I'll… see if I can't get you set up with Dr. Fall herself for your future therapy appointments. She… she's aware of the supernatural, so you won't have to hide anything from her."
"Thanks. I appreciate it." Yang stood up, and prepared to leave. "Don't stay up too late, Ruby."
Ruby stifled a giggle, before losing herself to uproarious laughter, as if Yang had just said something hilarious.
"What?" Yang asked, looking between Ruby's cackles and Blake's barely hidden smirk. "What?"
"I don't need to sleep anymore, Yang." Ruby managed between diminishing giggles. "Bedtime no longer holds power over me!"
"We don't need sleep," Blake clarified, "but we can if we want to. Sometimes it's nice to take a little… catnap. Still, Ruby and I have plenty we'll need to accomplish, so we can't afford such luxuries tonight."
Yang blinked at them drowsily.
"Well, I'm mad jealous." She said humorlessly. "But I guess I'll see you both tomorrow?"
Blake nodded. Ruby, meanwhile…
There was a trail of red petals leading away from where she'd been sitting as a weight wrapped itself around Yang. Yang looked down and wrapped her arms around her sister. There was no cloak to hide her extra ears this time.
"See you tomorrow, Yang." Ruby nuzzled into her. "I love you."
"I love you too, Ruby." Yang giggled and ruffled her sister's hair, careful to avoid the ears.
Even if she couldn't come home, Yang loved having her sister back.
