Upon closing her door, Yang shot Ruby a panicked and frustrated look.
"Ruby! You can't just go around randomly inviting people to my room!" Yang exclaimed.
"I think-"
"I haven't seen her in days and now she's going to hang out with both of us? What will we even talk about?!" Yang continued her rambling, too panicked to realise that she just interrupted Ruby.
"I was saying-"
"What if our hangout becomes too awkward and she'll hate me for ruining her perfectly good afternoon of reading and she'll start avoiding me and I'll stop hearing her beautiful singing in the shower and no longer see those dazzling amber eyes and never hear her melodious laugh ever again?! " Yang gesticulated wildly with a frantic look in her eyes as she paced back and forth.
Sensing her sister's impending spiral, Ruby quickly stepped in front of Yang and grabbed her face, forcing her to look her in the eyes.
Upon seeing that she finally had her sister's attention, Ruby soothed her while stroking her hair, "Yang, relax. Take a deep breath. I actually brought Combat Ready with me. We can play that! We haven't played in soooo long!" The redhead's eyes sparkled with excitement, "Please Yang, can we play? Pleeeeease?"
Yang pondered Ruby's suggestion for a moment. "That… is actually a good idea! Wait, how did you know?!"
"Yay! You're the best Yang!" Ruby jumped for joy. "Wait, how do I know what?"
"How did you know that Blake would be a fan of RWBY?" Yang asked with a smirk, knowing this would trigger the impending freak out from the massive RWBY fan in the room, "OH MY GOODNESS! Yang, are you serious? No one at Signal watches RWBY! Penny was the only one nice enough to watch it with me… You have good taste, sis" Ruby said, "Blake's cool!"
Yang smiled and patted Ruby's head, glad that her sister had already taken such a liking to her… potential girlfriend? She felt her heart swell at the thought of that possible future but tampered it down to avoid getting her hopes up too quickly. "Speaking of which, we did casually mention to each other to watch RWBY together after the end of finals, but we haven't gotten round to asking each other again," Yang recalled.
"Yang, that's great! We can have a RWBY marathon!" Ruby could barely contain her excitement, vibrating slightly.
"Slow down, Rubes! Let's play the game first. That already takes at least 2 hours," Yang said. Besides, it would be nice to watch RWBY with Blake alone… Yang thought to herself wistfully, her mind getting lost in the sweet daydream of sitting next to Blake on her two-seater sofa, their shoulders touching, faces close to each other… when a hand starts waving frantically in front of her face? What?
"Yoohoo! Earth to Yang!" Ruby smirked, jolting Yang out of her fantasy, "You looked kinda deep in thought there, sis. What's on your mind? Could it be… your Real Estate assignment? Food? A party? Or were you perhaps thinking about alone time with your dearest… Blaaaake?" Ruby teased, seeing her sister's ears burning red.
"I- Uh- No- ugh fine. I need to get a grip," Yang took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, "Let's set up the game."
Together, the two sisters opened the box and set up the board, cards, and figurines.
Knock knock. Two soft knocks sounded at the door, alerting Yang and Ruby to the arrival of their guest.
Glancing at Ruby, Yang steeled her nerves and went towards the door.
Here goes nothing, Yang thought to herself as she turned the door handle and pulled.
"Blake! Come on in!" Yang beamed, welcoming the raven-haired girl into her room.
Giving a small smile, the faunus shyly made her way into Yang's room.
"Hey Blake!" Ruby greeted, jumping up to give their guest a hug. Blake was a little surprised at Ruby's display of affection towards her even though they had just met, but she patted Ruby's back and returned the hug before Ruby pulled back and said, "Oh, sorry. I'm just so excited since Yang mentioned you watch RWBY! You are SO COOL! No one at my school does! Have you played Combat Ready before? Yang and I used to play it all the time but ever since she left for Beacon, I've no one to play it with…" Ruby pouted, "I brought it with me today, would you play with us?"
Blake smiled earnestly, "Of course, I'd love to!"
The three girls sat on the floor around the board game, with Ruby sitting on the opposite side of Yang, and Blake in the middle. The Rose-Xiao Long sisters quickly explained the game to Blake, with Yang chiming in, "Don't worry about it, it's pretty simple. We'll learn as we go along!"
After the 1st round of them drawing their cards, it was determined that Ruby was the ruler of Vacuo, Yang the ruler of Mistral, and Blake the ruler of Atlas.
Rolling the die, Ruby shrieked with delight as she got the highest number, "Yay! I'll go first!" Looking up at Yang with a devilish glint in her eyes, Ruby exclaimed, "Yang, as ruler of Vacuo I hereby launch a military invasion of Mistral for the crime of stealing my cookies last summer!"
"Oh no you don't! I won those cookies fair and square by kicking your butt at Street Fighter!" Yang swiftly slapped a card down onto the floor to counter Ruby's attack. Ruby whimpered as Yang's counter took over half her army, while Blake was watching the pair with an amused look.
"I believe it's my turn now," Blake piped up, skimming over her cards in hand, "I'll reinforce Atlas' state-of-the-art military by investing in AI research and weapon upgrades", Blake declared, internally shuddering when she realised just how much she sounded like Weiss, who hailed from Atlas.
"Pfft. Boooring!" Yang teased, "Blake, sorry not sorry, I'm sending Grimm into your kingdom!" Yang mercilessly destroyed the defences of Atlas since the Atlas "military" took 2 turns to set up.
"Yang!" Blake huffed, slightly miffed.
An hour passed and Yang was winning by a landslide, having crippled Blake's kingdom and taken most of Ruby's troops. "Ha! Take that suckers!" Yang gloated, oblivious to the glares from Ruby and Blake.
Locking eyes, the ladybug pair silently agreed to collaborate and do whatever it took to defeat the blonde tyrant. Blake's eyes sparkled mischievously as she announced, "I've decided… I'm sending all my money and Atlas military equipment to Vacuo."
"Woo!" Ruby pumped her fists up in delight as Yang stared at Blake in disbelief, slack-jawed.
"Gee, Blake is such a generous Atlesian lady. Thank you, o' kind leader of Atlas!" Ruby mock saluted as the amber-eyed girl giggled at the redhead's antics.
"W-wait!" Yang piped up, panicking, "This is against the rules!"
"Actually Yang, cooperation is allowed," Blake dangled the manual in front of Yang's face, pointing to the section on Kingdom Collaborations. "It says here that rulers can choose to send over resources anytime, and that no formal allyship needs to be formed," Blake smirked.
Groaning, Yang watched in horror as Ruby declared, "With my newly minted Atlesian warships, I rain bombs on Mistral! Take that sis!" Alas, this turn of events caused half of Yang's army to be wiped out.
The ladybug pair high-fived as they quickly took control of the game and backed Yang into an embarrassing defeat. Sighing, Yang took out the white flag from the box and waved it, to the excited squeals of Blake and Ruby. "Alright, alright, you win… I can't believe both of you ganged up on me like that!" Yang huffed, though secretly she was elated at how well two of the most important people in her life were getting along.
"You asked for it Yang, you big meanie! You spared no mercy even though it was Blake's first time playing!" Ruby replied indignantly, while Blake chuckled upon seeing Yang's pout, and her heart skipped a beat at the blonde's adorable expression.
Yang smiled softly upon seeing Blake laugh so freely. She knew the faunus did not let her guard down around just anybody and was heartened to see her being genuinely comfortable in their company. Besides, she was normally already gorgeous, but when she smiled or laughed… her brilliant amber eyes would twinkle and wrinkle around the corners. Yang couldn't believe how sappy this girl had made her already; she truly felt the room light up whenever Blake's smile graced it.
Just then, said amber eyes locked onto lavender ones, and Yang sucked in a breath upon being caught staring, but Blake just ducked her head shyly and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear while saying quietly, "I had a lot of fun, though."
Leaning forward unconsciously, Yang replied just as quietly, "I'm glad. I really enjoyed it too."
"Ahem. YOOHOOOOO, LOVERS! Get a room!" Ruby teased.
Ruby's exclamation broke the sanctity of the moment, and the pair jerked away from each other out of shock and embarrassment. Blake flushed beet-red and looked down awkwardly while Yang grabbed her pillow and proceeded to attack Ruby, "We DO have a room Rubes, we're in MY room in case you haven't noticed!"
Awkwardness successfully diverted, Blake chuckled gratefully at the scene before her which had now evolved into Ruby trying her best to defend herself while erupting into fits of giggles as Yang continued her merciless assault.
Sensing this would be an appropriate time to leave, as she was still slightly embarrassed by Ruby's comment, Blake stood up and said, "Yang, Ruby, thanks for having me over, this was fun. I don't want to overstay my welcome, so I'll make a move now, see you around!" With that, Blake all but bolted out of Yang's room.