There was a rule in RWBY dorm: don't set any alarms. Ruby is your alarm. If not Ruby, Weiss's loud insistence that Ruby leave her alone so that she can go back to bed would be your alarm. That morning, though, Weiss was gone, which left Yang with only one option:
Being shaken awake by tiny, tiny hands on her shoulders.
"Yang? Yang! Get up!"
"Ruby?" Yang had enough experience with this to not freak out - which was good, because these moments used to result in Ruby getting launched into the ceiling with only her aura keeping her nose intact. Instead, she opened her eyes just enough to confirm that, yes, her pajama-clad sister was looming about a foot over her, her hair wet from a recent shower.
Yang's eyes slid over towards the window, and discovered just enough light filtering in to confirm that dawn had come. Ruby had been having nightmares again.
"Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" Yang groaned, sinking her head forcefully down into her pillow. She'd been asleep for maybe five hours. She was not ready to get up.
Ruby refused to take the hint, as always. She plopped down on the bed, drawing the covers so tight over Yang that she scooted over, trying to free up more space to wrap herself in. To show how serious she was about falling back asleep, she flipped around, burrowing her face into the pillow now.
Ruby wasn't fazed. "You have to tell me about your date! I was asleep when you got back; what happened?"
Yang let out a nasal grumble, muffled through it might be. She wondered if her irritation could cause enough flame to get Ruby off of her bed. If Blake weren't sleeping on the bunk above, Yang might give it a try.
Yang gave up completely when she heard the huff of Zwei jumping up onto her bunk, though, the tiny depressions of his paws alerting her just seconds before he climbed onto her back. He didn't even find it a decent resting spot - he just wanting to paw around like a jerk.
Yang was awake, and there was nothing she could do about it. She cocked her head to the side, leaving her face mostly enshrouded in her hair but giving her some more room to breathe.
"I told you last night. We went dancing, then we came right back."
"That's not what I meeeaaannn," Ruby said, poking her sister's cheek through the veil of hair. Maidens, it was like living with a toddler. "I mean, how was Neon? Was she cool? What did she wear? Is she a good dancer? What do her tattoos mean? Do you like her? Does she like you? Are you-"
"Ruby," Yang interjected, raising her hand slightly. "My turn."
Ruby offered out her hands, ceding the conversation.
Yang sighed, trying to more accurately recollect her thoughts. What came to mind about Neon?
She was a bad fighter.
We're going out again.
That face.
"Yeah, uh, Neon's cool. We're hanging out again today. She's like, super forward. But, I don't know. She's cool."
"Forward?" Ruby asked, clearly confused. Then, with a sharp intake of breath, she asked, "Ooo did you guys kiss? Huh?" She poked Yang again on 'huh', but Yang's hand shot up and smacked the probe away. Probably a little harder than necessary.
"No," Yang replied, defensive. This conversation was clearly getting the better of her. She didn't like it.
Yang pulled up a little, prompting Zwei to bail from her back to her bed, which was now incredibly crowded for surface space. Yang drew up her legs and sat up, leaning against the wall. She wiped at her face, feeling smudged from planting her face in the pillow, even if she hadn't slept with makeup or anything to actually get smudged.
Ruby was pouting. Clearly, she'd wanted tales of a far more adventurous, romantic, or at the very least irresponsible night. It's not like previous experience with Yang hadn't taught her to expect that very thing - it's just that, usually, Yang was the one pushing these things along. Now here she was, being pursued straight out of the gate, and it left her uneasy, cautious. Not her.
But still . . . she was already looking forward to that second date.
"Well?" Ruby started, face expectant. "You're hanging out again - do you like her?"
Yang's leg was propped up against her chest, and she lowered her face down onto her knee. "I don't even know her," she replied. It wasn't really an answer, even if it was the truth.
"Well, the Vytal festival's going to end soon . . . you should get on that." Ruby blinked, realizing something; "I guess you are."
Yang's lips pursed, serving only to smoosh her face worse, what with her cheek puffed out on her knee. "But, like. If she's about to go back to Atlas, what's the point?"
Ruby gave a full-body shrug. "I mean, it's never a bad time to fall in love."
Yang rolled her eyes, then raised a fist to her crown, extending a finger in the air as if she were trying to imitate Blake's ears. "One, Ruby, what do you know about love? And two, have you brushed your teeth yet? Your breath stinks."
Ruby flushed red with the readiness that only her sister seemed to possess. "I, uh . . . nothing. I mean, I watch movies and stuff and . . ."
Ruby was rapidly becoming overwhelmed by this first question, and Yang was yet again struck with how adorably hopeless she was. Ruby was going to have to learn how to hide her feelings a bit better one of these days, or else someone other than Yang might catch a peek at them.
Yang leaned forward and shoved her sister's shoulder, almost forcing her off the bed entirely. "You. Go. Brush your teeth. Let me get up and shower if I have to be awake."
"Ugh," Ruby whined, though she stood immediately. "Fine." She grabbed her bathroom stuff and made her way to the door, opening it up before turning back towards Yang. "But I'm still going to bug you later!"
"You always do!" Yang replied, waving her sister away dismissively before she closed the door behind her.
Yang planted her feet on the floor, sighing into the fresh silence. She felt the fight from yesterday even more than she had last night, and combined with the dancing and lack of sleep, her body ached. Physical training had long since stopped leaving her with any pain, but the fire that boiled her blood, the frantic pumping in her heart, the surging, synergistic wave of her body and soul becoming one - that, that never stopped hurting. The singles round would begin tomorrow. She hoped she wouldn't be competing - she didn't want this heavy feeling going into another fight. It was going to be tough enough to manage on her date.
She stood and grabbed her toiletries as well, making her way to the door. A shower would help ease the ache, she was sure of it.
She stopped in her tracks, feeling eyes on her back. She pivoted slowly, and saw Blake's bright amber eyes on her. She was curled up, her blanket still over her, her head just cocked to the side from her pillow, but her eyes were wide open. She didn't say anything immediately, so Yang thought she might just be waking up.
"Hey," Yang greeted softly.
It was a few seconds before Blake replied, but it was much higher and neater than it would be if she'd just gotten up: "Did you have fun?"
Yang shrugged. "I mean, yeah."
Blake blinked slowly, but her ears twitched underneath her bow. Then she replied, "That's good."
"Yeah."
Weiss was kind enough to grace everyone with her presence a little after breakfast. She was a lot like Ren, constantly getting migraines after fights and sleeping as much as possible. Normally, she'd just swallow some pills and try to pretend it wasn't happening. This time around, though she just opened the door with an exhausted sigh, didn't respond to anyone's 'hey's, and dropped into her bed. Total aura depletion would do that to a person.
After a few seconds, though, Ruby was not so content to be totally ignored.
"Weeeiiiissss?" she asked hanging down from her top bunk.
Weiss only groaned in response.
"Are you going to the fights today?"
"No," she replied, straight into sounding exasperated. Despite the fact that it couldn't be doing anything for her comfort, Weiss still had her hair up in a tight ponytail, although she was still in the pajamas the gang had brought her yesterday. Apparently, even being ill left her with standards.
"Just going to nap today?" Yang asked. They still didn't need to leave for another thirty minutes for a ferry, even if they were looking to get good seats, but Yang had been sitting and brushing her hair for the last ten minutes. Getting any more ready than that would leave her feeling like she had to leave immediately, but she was couldn't settle down enough to just chill out and play video games or something. Even though she wasn't fighting today, nervousness was bubbling inside her.
"Yes."
"Can't you just like, use your time dilation and just skip your way through a nap and go with us?" Yang wasn't quite certain why she wanted Weiss to go so much, and from the look Ruby was giving her, she wasn't certain either.
"That's literally not how anything works."
Weiss turned her head towards the center of the room, catching Yang, Zwei, and assumedly Blake in the look.
"Who's even up today? I didn't hear who went after us."
Yang shrugged, but Blake was always much better when it came to details: "Team SSSN went yesterday, and so did Emerald's team. Team . . ."
There was a short pause, but Yang quickly felt the same weirdness as Blake. What was her team name? There was Emerald, Mercury, Cinder, and . . . who was the fourth girl? She never hung out with them.
"I, uh, I don't think we ever learned their team name, actually," Yang offered after a few seconds.
"Well, team JNPR's up today. Jaune and the others came over for video games while Yang was out last night - Pyrrha and Nora are fighting today. It should be a sweep." Blake sounded bored, disappointed. She must have been hoping for a less surefire team. Then again, anyone + Pyrrha . . . how close could a fight even get?
"That sounds . . ." Weiss struggled to find the right word for a moment, then, "Actually, that sounds awesome. I'll try and stream it."
"We'll get out of your hair," Yang said, planting her hands on her bed to practically fling herself off of it. "Try and get some sleep."
Blake plopped down to the floor and was quick to follow, but when Yang opened the door, she turned back to the interior of the room. "C'mon, Ruby, that means you too."
"Egh, fine, all right, just let me get my shoes on."
It was a sweep.
When Yang found out she had chosen to advance into the singles, she'd started reviewing the matchups from previous days of the tournament. She had seen the fight with Emerald's team in the Teams matchup. It had been a slaughterhouse, humble though she might have tried to play it. And this? Pyrrha and Nora versus two kids from Mistral? This was over even faster.
Blake, Yang, and Ruby were quick to get out of their seats to go congratulate them, but they weren't quite quick enough. Almost as soon as that final matchup was decided and RWBY were out of their seats, Blake tapped on Yang's shoulder.
"I think your second date is about to start," she said, pointing across the battlegrounds.
Yang quickly noticed what she meant. Neon's rainbow blur was making its way around the arena, and it was going to make it here much quicker than they'd be able to make it over to JNPR. Yang stopped in her tracks, a little amazed at the tiny zigzags she was making, dodging people that Yang couldn't even see as distinct entities at this distance.
Then Ruby, the only one to have made it to the stairs yet, suddenly gasped. She turned around, nearly blocking Yang and Blake as they squeezed by people at their seats.
"Wait!" She exclaimed, "Does this mean we get to meet Neon! I really want to meet Neon, please tell me we can-"
But Blake grabbed Ruby's wrist as she passed her, dragging her down the steps ahead of Yang.
"Come on, Ruby, let's go say hi to Pyrrha and Nora."
"But I-"
"Bye Yang! See you tonight."
Blake turned as she neared the bottom of the steps, waving to Yang. Yang smirked and waved back.
"See ya!" She called, and made her way down the steps, waiting to greet Neon down on the sidewalk.
Yang had a whole gag ready. She knew Neon would reach her before she could pull off anything too clever, but she was at least able to cross her legs and look really, really bored, as if Neon had been keeping her waiting. She'd show up and they'd have a laugh about Neon being tardy. Ha ha.
No. Because of course not. As Neon zoomed closer, Yang smirked, standing up straighter to start.
"Took you long e-" but Neon wasn't stopping. Instead, she was hurtling straight towards Yang, a rainbow blur with her arms outstretched in front of her, something in her hands offered forward. Yang didn't even have time to see what - only thanks to the years of practice dealing with projectiles did she even manage to pivot, grabbing the sides of Neon's hands. The momentum as Neon left her semblance was far, far too much, though, and Yang toppled right over, her grasp on Neon only serving to pull her forward.
If Neon had been going much, much slower, they might have just awkwardly tumbled onto each other. Instead, Neon screeched as she was flung over Yang, properly belly-flopping onto the pavement. Luckily, she didn't crush anyone on her way down, as people seemed eager to avoid the rainbow streak, but now both Neon and Yang were sprawled out in the middle of the walkway.
"Oww, oww," Neon moaned, picking herself up.
Meanwhile, Yang rolled over, thoroughly convinced that she was concussed if not actively dying at this moment. Was she bleeding? Maybe? Her scalp was super warm for sure, but that could just be pain instead of blood.
"Why," Yang asked, not yet able to pick herself up, "why didn't you stop?" Everything in her vision was pulsing. Was it supposed to be doing that? Was the sun pulsing? It probably wasn't intended to do that.
"I thought you would stop me!" Neon whined, pushing herself up just enough to sit cross-legged beside Yang, who was still working on that "having functional limbs" thing. "You're really strong - I just thought I'd stop in my tracks or you'd lift me and it'd be cute."
At this point, people on the cement had realized that this accident involved two cute girls, and Neon started to shoo them away. It was even worse when they realized that they were tournament participants, but Neon just cradled her scraped face in her hand and told one of the random strangers, "Dude, I'm gay, leave me alone," as if that were more important than her healing factor.
Yang finally managed to get enough feeling back to push herself up to her feet. She immediately stumbled, but caught herself, lifting her arms higher when somebody tried to grasp her upper arms to support her. "I'm strong because of my aura, and I don't just - are those roller skates?"
Neon looked around, initially confused at the question until she realized that her hands were empty. She finally caught sight of a pair of roller blades a few feet off to her side, then quickly scrambled to her feet to go and retrieve them.
"Dammit! Yeah!"
Maybe it was because the physical manifestation of her soul wasn't busy fixing all the damage done to her brain yet, but this left Yang so confused that she didn't even move from the spot she was in - including leaving her arms raised above her head to keep anyone from touching them.
"Why do you need a second pair of -" and then it clicked, and Yang lowered her arms as well; "Oh."
Neon rolled back on over to Yang, much more slowly this time, offering out the skates again. "They're for you."
There were a few questions that rolled through Yang's mind. A really great one was: you're taking me roller skating? But such a reasonable, well-paced question is not what escaped her mouth. Instead they were just left with, "How did you get the right size . . .?" because, on brief inspection, they were the perfect size, assuming roller skates followed ordinary shoe sizes.
Yang was immediately embarrassed by the question she actually managed to vocalize. What she hadn't been expecting was that finally, finally, Neon looked a little embarrassed herself, her face turning down to avoid Yang's eyes.
"Aha, well, so," she said, briefly stalling while offering the skates again.
Yang took them, and Neon continued, "Flynt stopped by to see Schnee yesterday - I think that whole geyser trick really won him over yesterday. Anyway, he kind of got her scroll number -" Yang blinked and almost interrupted at this development, but Neon only started talking faster, "- and I sort of immediately abused this resource to ask her what your shoe size was because I thought you guys were friends and she'd know what your shoe size was and she did."
Yang scratched her head, running her fingers through her hair where she had been concerned about bleeding. Cool, no blood, all good. "Oh, um, that's cool." She had no idea if it was normal for friends to know each others' shoe sizes or not. She didn't even know Ruby's.
There was a beat, and Yang decided to try and salvage this whole conversation.
"So, you're taking me roller skating?" she asked, holding up the skates as if Neon would have forgotten them.
Neon shuffled in place, and Yang grinned as she realized that her legs left smaller rainbow streaks every time she did so.
"Well, I mean, it's more like you're taking me roller skating. I don't really know downtown very well, but, well, I hear this ice cream shoppe-"
"Pete's?"
"- yeah Pete's but I haven't found it and I want you to take me."
Another beat, and then Neon pouted, placing her hands on her hips as she shuffled her feet. "And, you know what, normally I would have capitalized on that double entendre but my face honestly hurts and I didn't even wink or anything."
Yang decided to ignore that last comment, instead evaluating the skates, then Neon, then the skates again. "Okay, wow, yeah, that actually sounds great!"
Yang flipped her hair over her shoulder, then grabbed the skates with her off hand before reaching out, grabbing Neon's hand. The poor girl barely had time to look pleased or shocked before she was suddenly being dragged down the sidewalk.
"Look who's forward now!" Neon called, as if the sudden acceleration suddenly deafened them. Yang started jogging through people, making sure not to swing Neon into any of them.
"Oh shush; everyone's getting on the ferries and downtown's gonna be flooded! We've got to go fast!"
"If you say so!" Neon replied, but when Yang looked over her shoulder, she was grinning.
There was something about their brutal collision that made things click into place. Yang stopped playing on the defensive and finally got some flirty comments of her own in - like when Neon tried to tease her about them holding hands, and Yang shut her down with a, "So, I wanted to hold hands with a babe - sue me," which got a smirk but no further contest.
They kept it up until they were almost to Pete's, and Yang remembered exactly where it was. Now she remembered why she hadn't gone recently - it was in the square where the Grimm had burst through earlier this semester. There was still a sectioned off area indicating where the train had blown a hole in the city, although all of the infrastructure itself had been repaired that same day.
Yang got a little quieter when she noticed where they were, and Neon picked up on it just enough to scan the area.
Upon noticing the sectioned off square she asked, "Oh hey! This is where the Grimm attacked, right? I wasn't in Vale so I only heard but . . ." she didn't quite seem to know how to finish the thought.
Yang shrugged. "Yeah, that's the spot. And you didn't miss much - it only took us like fifteen minutes to kill them all."
"Us as in Vale or . . ." Neon shot Yang a side eye, and Yang met it with a shrug.
Neon's eyes popped, "No way! You were there?!"
Yang smirked, turning into the doorway of Pete's while an old bell on the door handle let everyone know they were coming. "I, ah, actually, team RWBY was on the train that burst through here. Weiss is the only reason we're not all a red stain on the bottom of the street."
As they rolled up to the counter, Neon's eyes were rapidly becoming in danger of shooting rainbows themselves. When they finally reached the counter and Yang braced herself against it, Neon shoved her futilely. "You didn't tell me you were awesome! Why were you even on a train?!"
Yang laughed nervously, not sure how much she should disclose. Plus, the girl at the counter was giving them a weird look thanks to the roller skates, so Yang decided it was best to try and act normal through this sale. It was hard enough just from the fact that the skates made Yang so much taller that she towered over the girl at the counter, and the counter was only at about waist height.
"Um, a large double fudge please. In a waffle cone. And whatever she wants," she said, tilting her head towards Neon.
Neon shot her another look, but this time instead of looking excited she just looked uncomfortable.
"You don't have to pay for me, you know. Like, I have money."
Yang hadn't even really thought about that. It was just her automatic assumption that on a date, she would be paying. There had been some guys at Signal who really didn't like that and would insist against it, but Yang hadn't had any trouble paying for girls before.
"Oh. Yeah. I know that. I just . . ."
Come to think of it, Yang really didn't know why she just assumed.
Yang shrugged. "I just like it."
Neon's eyebrows shot up in an almost sarcastic appraisal that lingered. Then she simply replied, "Weird kink," before turning her attention back to the girl, who looked deeply uncomfortable to be dealing with these two; "I'll do a medium rainbow sherbet. In a cup. Thanks."
While the girl set about getting them their ice cream, they rolled by the glass case filled with all the different flavors down by where you pay. Neon used a bit of her semblance as she arrived, swiveling around in a rainbow blur before rolling the rest of the way backwards.
"So, train? Adventure? Epic beatdowns in the streets of Vale? Spill."
"Eh, it wasn't really that exciting-" it totally was "- and I'm not really supposed to talk about it -" true "- but basically some people rigged explosives on an abandoned train to lead Grimm into the city. We technically foiled them and got the guy, but team CFVY and some teachers from Beacon were there so we just kinda became like, a foot note."
"So, let me get this straight," Neon said, leaning up against the wall, delicately balancing so that her skates wouldn't shoot out from under her, "you were on a train. Filled with explosives. Being chased by Grimm. When you smashed into the underside of the city. And Weiss Schnee saved your skin."
Yang's eyes scanned the room while she scanned her own brain for a way to qualify that summary. But no. That was pretty much exactly it.
"Basically, yeah."
The girl came up to the end of the counter, and Yang traded her custody of her credits for the cone. Neon picked her cup up from the counter while the girl worked on issuing change.
"I seem to have made a mistake," Neon said before pushing off the wall, rolling towards the door. "Schnee is the cool one. I should have asked her out. I wonder if me and Flynt can still trade." The door jingled as she grasped the handle, stopping herself from another untimely collision.
Yang rolled her eyes with a "Pfft," accepted her change with a 'Thank you', and decided that she shouldn't bring up how she got her ass handed to her by a girl Neon's size with a parasol. Then she rolled on after Neon, who held the door open for her.
"Sorry girlfriend," Yang answered properly as the door bell jingled, "I'm nonrefundable."
"I'm okay with that," Neon said with a smile, and offered out her hand.
Despite the fact that they had technically held hands earlier, nervousness immediately sunk into Yang's stomach. "If - if we hold hands, how are you going to eat your ice cream?"
Neon looked down at her cup and spoon. "Okay, quite honestly I didn't think this far ahead, but now I'm committed so . . .?" she tilted her hand up to make it prime hand-holding real estate.
And Yang just couldn't shoot something that cute down. Her heart softened, and she reached out. "Here, to save you any embarrassment," and they laced their fingers together.
Neon beamed.
As they started off, more slowly than before, along the sidewalk, Neon started up again, "But yeah, that sounds so cool! I wish I could have beaten up a Grimm horde attacking the city like that. Foot note status isn't too bad for a seventeen year old Huntress. Hunter. Hm." Neon's lips pursed. "I'm not sure what to call you."
Yang snorted, but again, she appreciated that Neon even made it a thought. "Let's just . . . stick with Huntress for now. Hunter sounds like the awkward kid in class whose hair is never combed and who's allergic to deodorant." Yang licked her icecream, trying to look thoughtful. "Besides, if the White Fang keeps up like this, a lot of us are going to end up as foot notes."
Neon grinded to a halt, and Yang found herself jerked back. In her effort to stabilize herself, she clenched her hands - the one keeping her attached to Neon was a good idea, but the other only managed to crush her ice cream cone, coating her hands in a freezing chocolate mush.
"Shit!" Yang cried, referring to only too many things from the last few seconds. "Super strength!"
Neon's voice was flat, flatter than Yang had ever heard her: "It's a waffle cone, I don't think you need super strength. Did you say the White Fang? What do they have to do with . . ." she trailed off, but Yang could see from her eyes that she was working it out.
A long string of curses started to pour through Yang's mind at her clumsiness (physical and verbal), but all Neon said in response to these thoughts was, "Did the White Fang set up the train? Like, this was an attack?"
Yang really wanted to deal with the icy soup all over her hand, but with Neon still holding onto her hand, she didn't have a lot of room to go find a napkin or a bathroom or anything just yet. Neon had only responded to Yang's tightened grip by tightening her own.
"I . . . um. I don't." Yang's eyes darted around, looking for a way out. She wasn't good at lying. She had never been good at lying. "I mean, it could be? I don't really-"
"Bullshit," Neon replied, and Yang flinched at the harshness. "The White Fang attacked Vale during the festival? Seriously? And we haven't heard about it?"
"I mean, I think they just didn't want people to-"
"To panic?" Neon asked, interrupting Yang. She dropped her hand, looking very thoughtfully down at her sherbet. Her voice quieted down as she said with a hint of disgust, "I guess Vale is just like Atlas, huh?"
And Yang didn't know what to say to that. She wasn't really sure there was anything to say, because as far as she understood, Neon was completely right. She had already said more than she was allowed to - in fact, she had said precisely the thing that she wasn't supposed to by connecting Torchwick and the White Fang. But, for right now, she just needed to fix her ice cream hand.
"Yeah . . . I mean, I mean I guess. But, um . . . could you get me some napkins."
Neon blinked. And then, "Oh!" She snapped back into her regular self, "Yeah, sure, totally! Wait right here. If you're worried about any of your clothes just take them right off; I'll carry them for you."
"Ha. Ha," Yang replied, but neither of their hearts were in the banter for the moment. The looming doubt embodied by the airships overhead had returned, and now she had the opportunity to share it with a pretty girl. Wonderful.
They were much more quiet when they resumed their skating downtown, though they quickly left the site of the attack in hopes of dashing it from their minds. Chatting about the shops and, more importantly, reviewing their selections and customer service proved to be much more important, especially interspersed with Neon curving in front of Yang while jabbing a spoon of sherbet at her face in hopes that she'd eat it. Finally, though, on the fourth or fifth try, Neon ended up just spattering the goop on Yang's nose, which finally got her to laugh.
"I'm so sorry!" she said, though she was practically cackling. "Your body just can't resist Pete's ice cream."
"Egh," groaned, disgruntled wiping it away with her palm before lapping it up. It couldn't look pretty, but it had to look better than her face being in sherbet. "I'm going to need to take a shower after this. And it's all your fault." She made sure to shoot Neon a bemused glance so she'd know she was playing. With her non-gross hand, she checked her hair and confirmed that yes, despite all the skating, it was still wet.
"My hair's not even dry yet," she whimpered, knowing full well that it usually took a full day, even spending it outside.
"Couldn't you just, like, do your fire thing to dry off?"
The question was so innocent, and yet so off the wall that Yang just had to laugh. Neon swiveled around and started to skate backwards in response, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning a little forward. Show off.
"I don't know about you, but I'm not big into using my aura for stuff like that. Plus, for some reason, I'm down a lot of aura right now." A pointed look at Neon only prompted a mischievous grin. "Besides, most of my aura techniques are based on how I'm feeling. If you'd played a little more fair you probably would have beaten me instead of pissing me off."
"Well, so's my semblance, but I still manage to use it for fun."
That seemed to give Neon an idea, though, because she stood up straighter and began to decelerate, prompting Yang to follow suit.
"What is it?" Yang asked.
"I . . . you wanna get your hair dry real fast?"
Now that was a weird question. "What? How?"
As a response, Neon just looked both ways down the street, then dropped down from the sidewalk into it. She skated out into the middle before turning around, offering out a hand to Yang. "Come on," she said.
Yang glanced down the road. "Are you sure that's safe?" she asked. She figured she could take getting hit by a car or whatever, but she wasn't so sure a car could survive a hit from her.
"Does it matter?" Neon asked in reply.
Yang let out a hollow chuckle, but Neon just shuffled back and forth, tiny and cute and jittery and bright-eyed and oh all right.
Yang dropped down from the sidewalk and made her way over to Neon, clasping their hands together. The nervousness bubbled back up inside her gut.
"Hold on tight. It's going to feel pretty weird."
Yang nodded her head, and then they began to skate down the street. A perfectly normal speed, then a little fast. Even when they had to make a turn and Yang was a little nervous about the speed, Neon just kept her eyes focused forward, starting sprints that Yang could only keep up with because of her longer legs.
And then, everything around her vanished as they lurched forward, and her vision was consumed with radiating colors. She knew she was going fast, faster than she ever managed with Ember Celica or Bumblebee, but she couldn't see where she was going - everything was an incoherent prism, beautiful and nonsensical.
But they didn't hit anything. All Yang could hear was the wind and a rush of noises she couldn't identify, and her own whooping as she ceased to be afraid.
She had no idea they were at the docks until the rainbow suddenly disappeared, and Yang realized she was flying forward. She was decelerating but everything seemed faster now that she could see how the ground disappeared underneath her skates, and the only thing keeping her from spinning out and smashing her face into the ground was Neon's hand. She hit some tiny bump in the road, such a small detail that she never could have noticed, but as she toppled over, as her legs gave out from under her, she was yanked forward. Then she was spinning, around and around, and at first she didn't even realize that Neon was holding her as they spun out. Neon was laughing. This was just easy for her. This was just fun.
As they finally spun to a stop, Yang was able to plant her skates safely again, hold her own weight again. Neon's arm was around her waist, and they were both laughing, light-headed from the speed and the dizziness.
Yang wasn't sure what she said, or what Neon said. She could only remember what she thought.
We should kiss, she thought, despite the blazing sun and despite the sticky feeling on her hand and nose from all the ice cream.
We should kiss, she thought, watching Neon's tail twitch with delight as she laughed.
We should kiss, she thought, as they both quieted down and looked at each other, fully aware that they were thinking the same thing.
The moment lingered, and it was warm, and it became stale.
Neon sniffed, as if suddenly becoming aware of where they were. "That's . . . clam chowder. And tuna!"
"Oh, maidens," Yang said, they're embrace breaking so she could put her hands on her hips, "you're just like Blake."
Neon coughed out an awkward laugh, but they both immediately understood how much that was the wrong thing to say. Neon's smile was so, so fake, the warmth in her eyes dying away too fast again.
"Yeah, I don't think I'm really in the mood for seafood though." She shuffled around again, her hands behind her back. It was getting too easy for them to touch. Too easy too fast. "Maybe we should just get like, campus food."
It's not that campus food was bad. It's not like going back to campus meant they had to stop hanging out. But Yang knew, if they did that, the date was over.
Yang shook her head. "Nope. Sorry. Date's not over."
She reached out a hand again, along with her best attempt at a curtsy in roller skates.
And maybe it wasn't as bright as before, but Neon still smiled. After a second of hesitation, she untangled her hands from behind her back and grabbed Yang's hand again.
"Where to?" she asked.
When Yang brought Neon to the forest of Forever Fall, she wasn't entirely sure what she intended. Although it was technically filled with the malevolent presence of Grimm, small groups of people were unlikely to be detected without a lot of negativity. Seeing as it was only about two miles from campus and many upperclassmen had vehicles, the cliffs of Forever Fall overlooking the ocean had proven to be a popular date and hookup spot for students of Beacon. Yang thought of it as a change of scenery, as the prettiest place around, but there was so much expectation, so much context to the place, that it was hard not to let her thoughts wander about bringing Neon here.
She wondered if Neon knew what this place was. She wondered if she knew its reputation. She wondered if she was thinking the same thoughts, too.
They lay side by side near the cliffs, and they could hear the breaking of waves every so often below them. Empty paper bowls sat on either sides of them, remnants of a Forever Fall syrup cereal that a lone man had been selling on the side of the road in. They'd left Bumblebee with him, leaving him with a bit of a grin as they disappeared into the forest.
It was much cooler here than in Vale, with the slightest ocean breeze and the cool touch of the grass. The red-brown leaves scattered even this far from the treeline, and they smelled sweet like the tree sap, and Yang was worried that her hair would get sticky and gross. It reminded her of the time in elementary school, long before the years at Signal, that a boy had stuck gum in her hair; she cried when she had to cut it, even though it wasn't that much.
Neon had pulled her hair free of its ties, seemingly unafraid of the mess it would become as it spilled out, red as the leaves on the grass. Neon lay on her side, and her hair was poofy and wild, much too wide for how it was long. It looked silly. Yang wanted to touch it, but she still didn't want to be 'that guy'.
"So, I guess the White Fang's a big thing here too, huh?" Neon's eyes were big and empty, without the disdain or anxiety from the first time they'd been brought up.
Yang lay with her head in her hands, fingers laced together into a pillow. "I mean, yeah. Aren't they kinda big everywhere?"
Neon did her best to shrug, despite being on her side. "I didn't think they were anything here like they are in Atlas. I never thought things could be worse here."
"It didn't used to be like this," Yang replied, but she didn't know that. Things had been bad ever since she started at Beacon. They'd seemed bad before. Maybe she had only been too much of a child to see how bad things were between faunis and humans before.
"I . . . I've heard things are really bad in Atlas," she continued. While she'd certainly heard that, she'd never known any of the details until Weiss and Blake got into an argument about the Schnee Dust company. Mention of the company, even in connection to the White Fang, had been a forbidden topic for months now. "Attacks on businesses, political assassinations, jailing of suspected White Fang members. I can't even imagine."
"I don't know," Neon said, turning to lay on her back now. "I guess you just try not to think about it."
"I don't get that. Isn't it scary?"
"Oh, it's scary. People just don't want to admit how scared they are, like that makes it real. But they're so scared they'll do . . . they'll do some pretty messed up stuff to feel safe." Her voice was a little shaky when she said that. She gave a hollow laugh after it, but the words themselves had felt heavy. They sounded scared. Yang hadn't heard it before.
Now it was Yang's turn to turn on her side. She got her first clear look at Neon's profile, the red and pink too messy to quite frame her face. Her nose was so pointed and her lips were so small, and Yang wanted to pet her. She wondered if that would be soothing. She didn't want to ask. She'd gotten far too close to asking Blake when things had been getting rough, but she knew it was stupid.
"What do you mean?" Yang asked.
Yang watched the tiny saccades of Neon's eyes as she thought, lips still pursed as she swallowed deeply. A few seconds later, she asked lightly, as if changing topic, "You remember what I said about elevators?"
Yang wracked her brain for a few seconds before remembering when it had come up; "Oh, that they're tiny death boxes?"
"Yeah," Neon replied.
At first, Yang thought that that was it, but then Neon continued, "And you know that guy I beat up when I got my semblance?"
Yang just nodded in reply, but she could tell Neon could see it.
What she didn't expect was the way that Neon's eyes widened and refused to blink. It was a familiar look, like when Ruby talked about her mom.
Yang felt her gut clench, but not out of nervousness, out of concern.
"Yeah, so, um. Like, this one time, he and a bunch of guys kinda . . . ambushed me."
Yang rolled a little more, now onto her stomach, but she stayed quiet, her eyes trained on Neon's own that refused to blink.
"I don't really know what was up with them, exactly, but they were pissed, and they didn't hurt me but they locked me in one of the lockers. You know, like the rocket ones you guys have here. And I thought they were just going to launch me somewhere - people do that sometimes, I mean, like, as a prank - but they just left me in there."
Neon's fingers dug into her own clothes, looking for something to grasp but there was nothing solid enough. Yang reached out and grabbed one of them, squeezing as hard as she could.
Neon squeezed back, acknowledging that Yang was there, took a deep breath, and continued.
"I thought they would just leave, but they stuck around for a while. One of the guys made sure nobody came in but the rest stayed. They said that I didn't belong at that school, that I was part of the White Fang. They asked me if I was happy about this train that had been attacked that had been in the news - some White Fang thing where a bunch of people were injured or killed. And I told them no, like of course I wasn't happy - people died - but there was this fucking guy, I didn't even know him, he kept saying that I liked it. That I liked that humans were dead."
Yang wasn't sure what to say. What she should say, or what she could say.
She said, "And you've been claustrophobic ever since?"
Neon's eyes finally slid over, though they still weren't blinking very much, as if she just remembered that Yang was there. The way she held Yang's hand let her know she hadn't forgotten at any point, though.
Neon said, "I mean, I guess? I just meant, like . . . people get so scared. I would have been scared with them - it's not like faunis didn't die on that train, too. But they just . . ."
And whatever words Neon was trying to say curdled in her mouth, and she choked on them. Her skin flushed redder with fury, or shame, or something, but it was warm and toxic and she squeezed Yang's hand as tightly as she could.
Yang thought she might know what those words were. "They caged you like an animal."
And Neon blinked once, twice, breathing deeply. Her teeth were gritted together so that her breath became a teeth-baring smile, barely letting out a "Yeah."
Neon didn't cry. Yang would have felt better if she cried, but instead her eyes just just flickered about, as if she were still back then instead if here, now with Yang.
Yang sat up, scooting herself next to Neon before dragging her into her lap. Neon complied as well as she could, lifting herself and sitting down, letting herself be enveloped in Yang's arms, gripping the sides of her jacket. And Yang combed her fingers through Neon's hair, hoping that it would comfort her.
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault."
"But people are hateful, and I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, too."
Why does she trust me? Yang wondered. The days where Ruby let her pain show through, where she let Yang hold her, those days had passed. And yet here was this honest stranger in shambles.
"Yang?" Neon asked, after a long pause.
"Yeah?"
"I still wanna know about your semblance."
And Yang gave a snort in response. "How about just one of us breaks down at a time, okay?"
A beat, and then, "Okay, that's fair."
"Someday," Yang said, "I promise."