You, Me, and the Daisy Chain

Yang and a diary? Nope. How about some letters? Eh, better but not enough. Okay, how about an album full of memorabilia? Perfect.

The idea here was to have Yang's teenage kids find her old album that wasn't full of pictures but of old things she collected over her relationship with Jaune. She'd sit them down and tell them the stories behind it.

This excerpt was from the first chapter called "Sky Lantern" describing some loose bits of spare wax paper.

I loved when he used to play.

Jaune had a shoddy old guitar he pried from his dad's attic. We fixed it up with spit and prayers but then it made sounds, and it didn't matter that it didn't make any real notes or that anything he played could barely be considered music. We were ten, but we thought we were so cool. Didn't help that our friends thought we were too. I fancied myself the vocalist. I couldn't sing. Still can't. We didn't care.

Then an actual musician, his sister Sable, heard the noise we were making and she sat us down with actual lessons. I didn't stay long when it turned out that making music wasn't for me, but he left that summer for camp and by the time we'd meet up again, he'd learned a few chords and joined the music club when we got into high school.

I remember kicking back at the end of the day by the grass and he'd find me like he always did. He would go on and on and on about this girl he had a crush on. Weiss was her name. I thought she was kinda hardcore. She ran away from some elite prep school and fancy living in a mansion to live with her older sister here in Glenn.

I didn't think much of it at the time, but then I actually met Weiss and she was actually cool and I realized his feelings for her were real and… Well, I got jealous.

I had feelings for Jaune when we were eight but then mom told me I was too young for love and that was that. When I turned fifteen I'd already gotten the basic grasp of what love actually was. Those feelings resurfacing suddenly threw me into a panic.

Luck was on my side though. Turns out, Jaune was too nervous to confess to Weiss so he thought he'd hype himself up by practicing a song to sing for her. That month I spent so much time in that music room after class that I was starting to come home late. Mom thought I was doing drugs until Jaune confessed to holding me hostage to practice guitar.

He wasn't a very good singer either, but I loved the way he played. The strings echoed through the empty room, and shook my bones, and my cheeks were flush and… and the way his eyes closed halfway when he was really getting into it just drew me in.

Entranced. That's what it felt like. I liked it a little too much. We did this every day for a month. And I know it's weird to call it our special time when we spent most of our lives attached at the hip anyway, but I loved sitting in that room alone with him, letting him play till his fingers ached and his throat had gone dry.

I even forgot he was singing for a different girl.

It was February when I told him to drop the singing and just play. And he did. No more lyrics or cobbled together confessions. He just played. It went on for an hour.

Remember when I said his eyes would go half-lidded when he played? When he stopped singing, his eyes shut. Like he'd let go of something he didn't need anyway. And when he opened them again after playing his heart out, I kissed him.

It was the day before Valentines. You can tell where this is going. I panicked on the last day and wedged my confession in on the last minute.

He didn't mind.

Remember when I said Weiss was cool? She took me shopping so I could pretty up for our first date. I showed up in a dress and done up my hair in uncle Qrow's tiny little daisies like I was living flower bed. He showed up in a dark red polo and a necklace from one of Sable's favorite bands.

I told him we should've switched outfits. He said he'd totally do it and rock the dress better than I could. Ok, so Jaune was cool, too.

He took me up a trail that had this great view of the town by a cliff and he set up a picnic for us. Only he came up here the day before with half our friends and stuffed everything in a duffel bag and mini cooler. The food was fine but the ice cream was half melted.

It was strawberry and I loved it anyway. We got some on his shirt and we knew it'd stain. He panicked cause it wasn't his, it was Cardin's, and I panicked cause I didn't know what a girlfriend does when you aren't just his tomboy of a best friend anymore. So I kissed him, and when that worked, I decided I'd do that every time.

We ate and talked about algebra being the absolute pits and that I might get a license before he does. I promised to take him around town and pick our next date.

Then it happened.

When we visited Mistral a year ago to meet Blake's family for an annual festival in her hometown. It was crazy cause they had exotic snacks like bananas covered in hardened sugar, purple bread, little cakes made from coconut milk and eggs, and chocolate-filled balls made of pancake mix. They capped the night with these wax lanterns and I thought they were going to let then into the river or something. But no, we held them up and the candle carried the lantern into the wind.

And as I sat there with him on that cliff and the lanterns filtered into the night sky like stars I could touch. My heart soared cause it was beautiful and it felt like something that'd only be ours cause we held that lantern together and I know he couldn't have possibly known how much that moment meant to me but somehow he did.

He pulled out a lantern from the duffel bag and we spent minutes putting it together. He was afraid of lighters so I lit it for him and we sent the sky lantern after the rest.

Jaune wasn't a singer but he'd slaved over a poem with Ren. He fumbled over his words and my blush turned into laughter and he gave up trying to say it. He got worked up about not getting it right and ruining the night.

I told him to stop trying so hard. Cause when he stopped singing, and it was better when he just played. And I was sure that if he told me what he wanted to say without needing a poem to get all his feelings out, it'll turn out better that way too.

So he pulls out a necklace – a cheap gold chain with a gold ring at the end – wordlessly ties it around my neck and when I think he's not gonna say anything cause, honestly, he didn't need to, he ends up asking me out to everything.

His Valentine every year. His date to every dance. His plus one to all of his too-many-sisters' weddings. And I say yes, and yes, and yes. To everything. All of it. Forever.

We were fifteen but that didn't stop me from coming home feeling like I'd just gotten married. And I know it's silly, being so young but so sure. But isn't the best thing about it? Love like that can only be pure.