You stretch. It was too cold and rainy to go for a walk, so Ruby was skipping exercise for the night and you were hitting the gym. After that heartfelt talk with your girlfriends, blowing off some steam seemed like a good way to unwind. You pass by the halls and eventually make your way to Beacon's gym.

A sound analogous to cannon fire hits your ears as you open the door to the gym, followed shortly by several more loud bangs. That sound is strange, considering that the gym seems empty; a quick glance tells you that no one was on a treadmill or a weight machine, so whatever was making that noise must be around the corner. As another deafening slam rings out through the gym, you peek around and inspect the source of the noise.

Yang decks the ever-loving hell out of a punching bag, knocking it clear off the chain connecting it to the ceiling. It joins three more punching bags on the floor against the large mirror wall as Yang starts working on the fifth. At a glance, you could tell that she was absolutely pissed; even from across the room, you could see that her eyes were beyond crimson, but that wasn't the most fear-inducing thing about her look. Rather than workout gear, or even her favorite outfit, Yang was wearing a dress and heels, along with a jacket. She didn't even have gloves on but was striking with enough force to shatter buildings.

If you had to guess, Yang's rage had emptied everyone out of the gym. Sensing danger were you to stick around, you start to turn; Yang takes a second to breathe and sees you in the mirror. Seeing as she acknowledges you being here, you have no choice but to engage, lest she gets even angrier. Swallowing and preemptively gathering Aura, you start walking closer to her.

A bit unsure of how to proceed, you take a seat on a bench next to where Yang is laying into the punching bag and wait. Nothing about Yang's disposition changes and she continues hitting like a truck. It takes several minutes of silence for her to speak up before she says, "When are you going to ask?" Despite asking a question, her pace doesn't stop, and she continues punching.

Finding no options, you relent and ask, "What's wrong?"

"My date didn't go well."

You look at Yang's outfit again. It was quite unlike her to wear such feminine clothes; she usually rocked leather jackets or bustiers or another sexy getup, but instead, she's in a very cute, girly dress and heels, the jacket presumably left over from the poor weather. Her hair was also straighter than usual, and she'd put extra effort into making herself look amazing. In short, she wasn't trying to get a man, she had one and was looking for romance.

"What happened?"

"Men are assholes." Yang didn't even look at you, a man, as she continues punching with twice her normal strength.

"What did he do?"

Yang pauses her onslaught for a moment. Placing her forehead against the punching bag, she closes her eyes and lets out a deep breath. "You know the guy I've been going out with?"

"Uh… Othello, right?"

"Yes."

"What did he do?"

Yang's face twists back into her cold anger. She restarts her assault on the punching bag, each hit against the thick cloth representing a blow she'd give to who you assume to be Othello.

"Tonight was our month anniversary. I know it's stupid to celebrate stuff like that, but he said he thought it'd be important to me. We went to dinner, flirted a little, and I thought it was…" Yang pauses both her story and her punches. "I'm only gonna tell you this because I'm angry. Do NOT spread this around."

"Okay. Of course."

"I was going to have sex with him. He's a dude, so he wanted it, obviously, and I thought I'd led him on long enough."

You tilt your head. That didn't really feel like something Yang would keep secret. She'd never been shy about sharing things about her relationships, and she'd even casually mentioned that she wasn't a virgin. As far as you know, she'd slept with at least one person since coming to Beacon, and that wasn't even her first time.

Without waiting for you to reply, Yang continues. "We get a little tipsy, catch a ride back here, find an empty room, and start making out." You notice Yang's punches start to lose impact as if she wasn't putting her all into it anymore. "He takes a sec to use the bathroom, right? And he leaves his scroll out." Yang makes certain to look you in the eye for the next part, "Now, I know how it sounds, and I KNOW you're not supposed to go through your partner's phone, but I grab it. I was gonna take a couple of naughty selfies for him to discover later because I think it'd be hot; I open up the camera, and there's that preview of the last pic you took."

You start to see this story go in a direction that would justify Yang's seething anger. Wondering what level of bad it could be, you ask, "What was it?"

Yang throws a savage punch, sending a visceral shock wave from the point of impact on the punching bag. "My ass. Like, candid creepshot of my ass. We went out yesterday and I had a miniskirt on." Once again, her blows pick up and start raining down on the punching bag. "I can remember exactly when he took it, too; he, 'accidentally,' dropped his wallet and asked me to grab it for him. Must have prepped his phone and grabbed the pic." Yang's punches become slower, but more organized, striking the same place over and over again, creating a dent in the cloth. Each one makes that loud cannon sound you heard when you walked in. She punctuates, "Had a freaking thong on, too," with a powerful-looking knee to the same spot on the punching bag.

"What did you do?"

"THAT WASN'T THE WORST PART," Yang says, now kicking the punching bag. Each one looks like it could decapitate a Beowulf. She lets out another deep breath to calm down, then finally stops her combos and holds the bag until it stops swinging. "I promise I'm not this type of girlfriend. I promise, but I had to know. I check his photos, and, in addition to the sexy pics I'd sent him… I mean like, one time I pulled my sports bra down after a workout for a cleavage shot; no nudes or anything, just flirty, sexy pics. In addition to those, there's a bunch of candids of my boobs, my ass, and even one of me deep throating a hot dog as a joke."

"Wow… that's scummy."

"THAT STILL ISN'T THE WORST PART." Yang's eyes turn an even brighter shade of red as she stares scornfully at the punching bag. "That SON OF A BITCH was sending them all to his friends!" Her breathing gets heavy and uncontrolled as rage paints her face. "BUT WE STILL AREN'T DONE."

You sit in silence, wondering how much worse this can get.

Yang, seething with rage, spits her words through her teeth. "In ADDITION to sending all those perv shots to his friends, he was ALSO only going out with me because he thought I'd bang him on the first date! That BASTARD was telling his friends that, 'That she is TOTALLY gonna put out tonight.' He had a PLAN! And it was WORKING! I was going to have sex with him until I HAPPENED to see that."

"Brothers Grimm, dude…"

"And you know what I did? I played it off. I pretended I didn't see that JUST so I could check something. I acted all sexy and asked him what he saw in me, why I got the privilege of being his girlfriend. And you wanna know what he said?"

"…"

"He said, 'You're HOT,'" Yang screamed as she let loose a final, deafening punch. Her hair turned pure white as her fist made contact. The impact tore the punching bag off of the ceiling, sending it sailing across the room where it exploded in a burst of grainy sand.

You narrow your eyes and ask, "…And?"

"THAT'S IT." Yang steamed, still hanging in her after-punch position. "We'd been dating for a MONTH, and ALL he could say about me was, 'You're hot.' He didn't even know Ruby's name."

You let Yang simmer for a few minutes. She doesn't reel back from her punch, electing to stay with her body twisted and her fist outstretched. Eventually, she returns to a standing position. Looking at you with her crimson eyes, she demands, "Get in the ring."

You look at the fighting ring, set up for quick hand-to-hand training. It was a standard boxing ring, with ropes and all you'd expect. Despite your body begging you not to get into a boxing match with Yang on a normal day, you feel like this is one of those moments where you have to put someone above yourself. Yang kicks off her heels and joins you on the flat floor.

Before Yang rushes at you, you take a fighting stance and say, "On my mark." Thankfully, Yang has enough sense about her to actually wait, not immediately start gunning for your head. You know that she still sees you as a friend, so she wouldn't intentionally mangle you any worse than your previous spars, but you still focus Aura to be safe. Swallowing the lump in your throat, you count down, "3, 2, 1, go."

Yang rushes at you and throws a devastating punch that… you easily dodge. Even without using your Semblance to misalign her aim, you step to the side with plenty of extra space. Throwing too much weight in, Yang goes for another attack, which you also dodge. She begins a fast-paced assault, but each swing was wide, each straight was careless, and every attempt she made at contact resulted in you harmlessly pushing her fists aside. You were worried, but for all of Yang's monstrous strength further bolstered by her anger, her emotions were leaving her wide open. Sure, she was in a dress, but that shouldn't have this much of an effect.

You start taking advantage of Yang's careless attacks. After every wide swing, you land a quick strike on her. You almost can't believe what's happening; you were beating Yang Xiao Long in a boxing match. Any other time, you would be celebrating, but now it only served to remind you that she was in a debilitating headspace. Gradually, you wear away at Yang's defenses until she starts getting desperate; though her Aura was far, far stronger than yours, she fails to take advantage of it.

Yang decides that her strategy of blitzing is getting her nowhere and only increasing her frustration. She starts mixing it up a bit, throwing in unpracticed kicks and other moves that, while surprising, were still easily countered or dodged. Yang hadn't gotten a single good hit on you while you've tagged her dozens of times. All of that culminates in her attempting to lull you enough to get a good hit in; after you land yet another blow, she sees an opening in your guard and goes for a burning uppercut. Her hair lights up as she swings upward with enough power to cut the air.

However, you saw Yang's attack coming. She was growing beyond desperate, and you were waiting for her to blow her Semblance on a lucky shot, so you easily avoid her knockout blow. Taking advantage of her huge opening, you give her a powerful jab straight to the face; your fist connects with her nose, sending her stumbling back.

Yang takes several steps back with a stunned expression. Her bottom lip starts to quiver as she reaches up to touch her nose. Completely lowering her guard, she sniffs her nose as tears start welling up in her eyes; she turns away from you and covers her face, not wanting you to see her cry.

Suddenly feeling incredibly bad about what you just did, you take a few steps towards Yang. Getting her ass kicked when she was feeling this bad was probably the last thing she wanted. You raise a hand to put on her shoulder and say, "I am SO sorry. Are you okay?"

With a streak of yellow, Yang twists her body faster than you can react. You feel her vice-like grip sink into your arm as she grabs it. Your body leaves the ground as she throws all your weight over her shoulder in an expert display of a martial arts throw; you hit the ground hard enough to bounce, then feel Yang's weight pin you to the mat.

"Fooled you."

You regain your sense of up and down just as Yang's evil-looking grin meets your eyes; she'd completely played you by making you think she was crying, and she now sat on top of you with a pleased, if dark, expression. You're not sure if it'd be worse if she WAS crying, but you don't think this next part will go in your favor.

Before you could move your arms to block, Yang pummels your face several times with her titan strength. Thankfully, you were untouched to this point, so your Aura takes all of the damage in time for you to raise your guard. Planning for this, Yang grabs both of your wrists and pins them to the mat, leaving you helpless as she sat on top of you.

Yang looks down at you. She takes the stalemate as a chance to breathe, taking in all the extra air she'd exhaled in her useless assault. You rest up as well, though you don't see a way out of Yang winning; she had your arms pinned and was on top of you, so she'd be the first to land a hit once you both recover.

Yang takes in one last gulp of air before asking, "So, you wanna give?" Her grip around your wrists tightens, letting you know that, no matter what, she was able to fight. She leans down to gloat, her familiar smirk finding its way onto her soft pink lips.

You race through every one of your options. Your Semblance couldn't move Yang, you didn't have enough Aura to take her by surprise, and your legs couldn't do anything but flail. You look up at Yang's (thankfully much calmer) sweating, panting face and watch her blink her eyes back to her normal lilac color. Though her breaths were heavy from her workout, a small smile was on her face now that something had finally gone right for her tonight. Mixing her carefully applied (and apparently sweatproof) makeup with the joy from her little victory gives you a sudden, if somewhat risky, idea.

Hoping this doesn't turn out horrifically bad for you, you answer Yang's challenge with, "You're beautiful."

Yang blinks, taken completely off guard. "Wha– OW!" she cries as you put all of your power into a head butt. Her arms fly off your wrists to hold her forehead, freeing you enough to follow your surprise attack up with a punch. You send Yang sprawling off of you, then quickly mimic her actions, climbing on top of her stomach and grabbing her wrists. In an instant, you turned the tides so now you were the one pinning Yang instead of the other way around. If she was going to play dirty, so were you.

Yang tries to lift her arms up to try to fight, but you already focused all of your Aura into holding them down. In reality, you were bluffing; Yang pummeling your face had all but taken out your Aura, so you were using what was left to keep her pinned. She makes one last attempt to throw you off, then gives up.

Reversing Yang's earlier statement, you look down at her and ask, "So, you wanna give?"

Yang looks up at you, unable to express whatever emotion she was feeling. She seems to settle on surprise, opening her mouth ever so slightly to wonder how you managed to beat her. You feel any attempt at struggling fall away until she allows you to pin her, accepting her defeat. In fact, she looks almost relieved as you press her arms into the mat. Looking up at you, she eventually fades into catching her breath, contemplating her options. Though it's clear she gave up, she still takes several minutes to say, "You win." Thankfully, Yang didn't seem angry at you for beating her or the way you did it. She even looked a little happy, which *you* are very happy for.

Still being careful, you keep Yang's arms pinned to the mat and don't get off of her. You both catch your breath as you sit on top of her.

Eventually finding a smile, Yang chuckles a bit and says, "So I'm beautiful now, am I?"

"It worked, didn't it?"

Yang scoffs. "Come on. I know that you didn't JUST say that."

"I'll admit, I stole it from a movie. Ruby showed me that anime flick with the wolf princess on our last date." You fondly remember laying down next to Ruby in her bed, watching one of her favorite movies on her laptop. Sure, the woman had a knife to the guy's throats in that scenario, but it worked out for you in the end.

"Gotcha. Still, you had to say that AFTER what I told you?"

"I mean, it's not like you're not attractive..."

Yang narrows her eyes and asks, "…And?"

"You're fun to be around, you make dumb jokes that make people laugh, and you throw a really, REALLY painful right hook," you say, releasing Yang's arm to rub your aching cheek. Letting go of her other arm, you climb off of her and take a seat with your back to the corner of the ring.

Yang shimmies up to a seated position, adjusting her dress. Thankfully, you didn't accidentally pull her dress up when you pinned her, but she still fixes it to be past her knees. "See? It's not that hard to find good things to say about me." She lets out a melancholy sigh. "I'm not JUST eye candy."

"Of course you aren't. Sucks that people can't see that."

Yang throws her head back, bouncing slightly on the ring ropes. "Look, you saw me at a really bad time. Heck, I'd say it isn't even over. But… Sometimes I feel like that's all I am."

"Yang, what are you–"

"–I'm saying that some people think I'm a pair of boobs with a big fist. Look, I know I'm… I know I'm attractive, but when the guy you were going to have sex with tells you that the only notable thing about you is that you cause erections, it… it doesn't feel good. Sometimes, it feels like everyone just thinks I'm just another blonde bimbo meant to be shopped around."

"Get up," you say, adding all the power possible into your voice.

"Why?" Yang asks, confused.

"So I can punch you in the face for thinking that."

Yang settles on a half-hearted chuckle in response. "Thanks. I think."

"I mean well."

"I think you do, too. I do have some reasons for thinking that, though."

"Are they GOOD reasons?"

Yang looks away from you. "I don't know if Ruby ever told you about our family, but this isn't the first time I've been abandoned."

Oh… That's an unpleasant way to phrase that. You connect that Yang must be talking about her mother; Ruby's mom died while Yang's mom was alive, but abandoned Yang (and to a lesser extent, Ruby) when she was a young girl.

"Whoever did is an idiot," you say, finding that the best way to try and lighten the mood. You are not nearly experienced enough in abandonment issues to say anything really meaningful, so you hope to change the conversation a bit. "They clearly don't see the person you really are."

Yang turns back to you, her eyes narrow. "Now you're trying too hard. Go back to complimenting me."

"You're secretly a genius. I know because Weiss always complains that you don't study, but you still do better on tests. She also mentioned you plan on getting a pilot's license before your dad, and that's more than likely going to happen."

Yang starts snickering. "Oh, baby, talk DIRTY to me."

"It amazes me how many things you're able to juggle at once. You have school, homework, training and studying, but it still feels like you have all the time in the world to game, watch let's players, cook, go clubbing, and work on your bike."

"Work the SHAFT, boy."

"I think you could probably beat Pyrrha Nikos in a fight." You don't necessarily mean this, but Yang was definitely number two if she wasn't number one. She at least would provide the superchamp with a considerable challenge, which meant a lot considering Pyrrha easily took out an entire team in her own.

Yang mimics giving herself a handjob and says, "Splurt," as she ends with inferring shooting a load.

"And you also make jokes like that. You're Yang Xiao Long, the hot, smart, work-balancing punch girl that makes dick jokes."

"And the girl that let herself get her ass kicked for twelve minutes before losing her only advantage because a boy said she was pretty."

"The circumstances were not with you, that's for sure. You leave yourself wide open when you're angry."

Yang touches one of the several areas where you punched her. "I noticed." She climbs up to stand, then extends a hand. You grip it and let her pull you up with her. She hops out of the ring and starts putting on her heels. "Hey, can I ask a favor? Err… two, actually."

"Sure."

"One, don't mention this to anyone. Not the specifics at least. Especially not the part where I fake-cried; I have an image to maintain." You nod. "Two… Can I crash at your apartment tonight? I promise I'm not crazy angry right now, but I think I want to be alone for a bit."

"That's fine with me. Here." You pull out your keys and take off the one that opens your downtown apartment. You toss it to Yang, who puts in her purse that was one a bench.

"Thanks. I'm gonna go grab some clothes and duck out." Yang makes for the door. She pauses right as she's about to leave, then looks back over her shoulder. Her words catch in her throat before she settles on, "Thank you."

You wave Yang off and watch her leave. Quickly pulling out your scroll, you text Ruby, Weiss, and Blake, "Yang's going to my apartment for the night. Don't ask questions when she comes in, I'll be right over to explain." You wait a moment, then start heading to RWBY's dorm. You wait around the corner until you hear Yang leave, then go in to let your girlfriends know what's going on.