CHAPTER 1
...
The battle is over.
They've won. They're panting in a lair of black webs, gurgling red lava, and broken pillars, and they've won.
Yang stares at Salem's body, her pale skin and red veins withering into black, before crumbling away into ash—ash that the wind brushes away.
It's fitting.
Yang locks eyes with Ruby, then Weiss, then Blake. Blake, who mirrors her disbelief.
They've won.
The words sound strange in her mind. How can they win? What does winning mean for them? What does winning mean for the world?
"No more Grimm," Ruby says, her voice rough and sandpaper dry.
Yang blinks again, the tension in her body disappearing. A world without Grimm—what would that be like?
"She's dead," Weiss says, more of a breath than a voice. A strange laugh tears from her throat. "She's really dead."
"Yeah."
Ruby meets Weiss' eyes, and something passes between them. Then, they're running into each other and hugging and—
Oh.
"Oh wow," Yang says, more to herself, averting her eyes and finding Blake's own amused ones. "Did you know about this?"
Blake raises one eyebrow. "Didn't you?"
Fair question. Ruby is her sister. If she's got the hots for someone, Yang should be the first to know. But, well, she's been distracted. The world is ending, after all. Well, it was, and now it's not, because they've saved it. (They've saved the world, they did it, it's all over, and Yang can't wrap her head around it.) But that's not the only thing distracting her.
"Hey," Blake says, closer than Yang realises, close enough for her to see each strand of her hair, "you okay?"
Yang blinks. "Oh, uh, yeah, totally." Blake's eyebrows flatten, and Yang releases a breath, trying for a grin. "I guess it's just… wow. It's over."
"It is," Blake says, still watching her.
"Yeah," Yang says, unable to take her eyes off of her.
Then, an airship flies over them, and they hear Nora's voice yelling, "Please don't tell me we were late to the most important battle in all of Remnant!"
Laughter breaks between them; high-pitched and teary and crazy, but free. So, so free.
...
Weiss and Ruby won't let go of each other's hands during their ride.
On normal occasions, Yang would tease the hell out of them. But this is not a normal occasion. Yang isn't in a teasing mood. Yang isn't sure what sort of mood she's in. Relieved? Happy? Confused?
Lost?
The airship lands. Yang sees her dad and her uncle, and hugs them like she wants to crush them. They hug her with the same intensity. Weiss' mom and siblings are there too. And Blake—
Blake is watching, from afar, a tiny smile on her face.
Yang can't accept that. She pulls away from her family and hugs Blake. Soon, Ruby is joining in. Afterwards is Weiss, who does so huffing and blushing and threatening to smite them if they ever speak of this again.
...
"Hey, uh, Yang?"
Yang may not have noticed Ruby's growing affections towards Weiss, but she does notice her hesitance now. "What's up? Did Weiss offer to take you on a honeymoon or something?"
Ruby blinks, then breaks into a chuckle. She rubs the back of her head. "Sort of."
"Wait, what?" Yang's eyes widen. "Seriously?"
"She, uh… She sort of asked if we could, err, travel for a bit. Explore Remnant. Just the two of us. As a…" Her face turns bright red. "As a partner. As in, a romantic couple. As in, we're together-together."
Yang rolls her eyes. "Could you be more specific please?" Ruby stares at her, searching for something. It takes Yang a moment to understand what it is, but once she does, she places a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "If you're asking for my blessing or whatever, then yes. I do approve. There's no one I'd like more to keep you out of trouble." Pause. "Even if she is the ice queen."
Ruby chuckles, and lightly shoves Yang, giving her a mock-glare. "Hey, now. That's my girlfriend you're talking about." Yang laughs, and Ruby's face softens. "You should try it too."
"What, traveling?" The idea has its appeal, but if she's being honest, all she'd like to do for the next year—maybe decade—is to lie in bed and never get up again.
"No," Ruby says, shaking her head. "Spending time with Blake."
It's Yang's turn to have her cheeks burning bright. "Blake, huh?"
Ruby gives her a pointed look. "Give me some credit, Yang. I'm not stupid." Oh, great. Not only did Yang not know about Ruby's crush, but Ruby has always known about her own crush. "C'mon. It'll be fun."
"Err, I don't know, Ruby."
...
Later on, lying on a too-nice bed of a too-fancy room, Yang hears her door knock. "Come in," she says. The door opens. It's Blake. Yang shots up to a seating position. "Oh, hey. What's up?"
"Hey, Yang." Yang pats the empty space on the bed, and Blake sits down, her legs brushing the floor, staring ahead. Yang maneuvers herself so they're side-to-side. "So, uh, I sort of wanted to ask you a bit of a favor."
Blake wraps her fingers together, fidgets. Yang gives her elbow a faint bump. "Ask away."
Blake doesn't look at her, but she does smile. "It's been a while since I last saw my parents. I really miss them, but I'm…" She swallows. "I don't think I'm ready to see them again."
"But Blake, they're your parents." Yang can never imagine "not being ready" to meet her dad, of all people. It's her dad! And her mom—even after all of these years, Yang would never not be ready to meet her. Then, she remembers what Blake did, all those years ago. "Haven't you fixed things with them? You know, back when you—" Abandoned me. Yang clears her throat, but isn't able to keep the venom from her voice when she says, "Back when you were with Sun, or whatever?"
Blake, to her relief, is too wrapped in her dilemma to notice. Either that, or she does notice, and elects to ignore it. She sighs. "That's the thing. I—I did fix things with them. They forgave me, Gods know why, but uh… I'm not ready to… I'm just not ready. I don't think I can meet them. Not alone."
That's when she looks at Yang.
Yang blinks once. Twice. "You… you want me to tag along?" Blake gives her an uncertain nod. She's nervous, Yang realises. "Of course I'd come with you! I mean, they're your parents! Plus, it'd be fun to go to the beach! It's been a while since I show off these guns!" Yang waggles her eyebrows, then kisses said guns; the metallic one, then the fleshy one.
Blake laughs. "You're ridiculous."
Yang fingerguns her. "Ridiculously awesome, you mean."
"Sure. Yes. Whatever you say."
...
And so, despite their refusal, Weiss gives them a private airship, complete with a pilot. It's one of the fancy ones too, with leather seats and a holo-screen full of TV shows and movies. Yang chortles when she finds a fridge full of wine (all fancy, all old.) She wants to crack a joke about underage drinking, then realises she's not underage anymore. Neither of them are.
She slumps in her seat, taking in this realisation. "Wow," she says.
Blake, in the seat next to her, blinks, her eyes still on the pages of her book. "What is it?"
"We're old."
Blake blinks again. Places a bookmark between the pages. Then puts it aside. "Yang. We're twenty-one."
"We're twenty-one."
"Yes. Exactly."
"Ruby's nineteen."
"Wait, wasn't her birthday last month? She should be twenty now, right?"
"Ruby's twenty." Yang looks at Blake, her lower lip trembling. "Gods, Blake. I didn't even remember."
Blake's face falls. "None of us could've. We were too busy trying to save everyone."
Yang's jaw hardens. "That doesn't give me an excuse to forget my own sister's birthday."
Blake grabs Yang's hand, then squeezes it. "Well, you won't forget any of her future birthdays. That's what matters."
"Yeah," Yang says. "Yeah, I guess it does." Yang squeezes back Blake's hand. "Thanks, Blake."
"Don't mention it," Blake says, smiling then letting Yang's hand go.
Yang misses the contact.
...
They arrive at Kulanakauhale, which is, according to Blake, three hours away from Kuo Kuana. "That's my hometown," Blake says, giving Yang a light shrug and a lighter smile.
Yang smiles back. "Can't wait to see where Little Blake grew up!"
Blake chuckles and shakes her head, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. Yang tries not to pay much attention to that.
Yang has to wonder; what sort of a place is Menagerie? Patch's schooling refuses to teach her about it, or about Faunus in general. They touch nothing more than the basics. And, as much as Yang hates to admit it, she didn't care. Not until she went to Beacon, where the professors weren't hesitant to shed light into the prejudices of humankind. Not until Blake revealed that she was a Faunus too.
They land on a large, crowded airport, full of Faunus. Faunus who give her strange—and, in some cases, dirty—looks. Yang wants to shrink into herself. Or cover her body as much as possible to blend in.
Blake glares at each and every one of them, and Yang's heart melts.
They grab their luggages, walk out of the airport and into the bright sunlight, and—
"Wow, who the hell is that for?" Yang asks. In front of them, standing out against the regular cars, is a limo. An actual limo, black and shiny with a driver standing guard. "Man, is the king back from a trip, or something?" She chuckles, though she's not sure if Menagerie has a king. She elbows Blake. "Talk about privileged, right?" Blake, besides her, is red-faced. Her ears are pressed flat against her head. "Blake?"
Blake meets her eyes, then looks away again, clearing her throat. "Yeah, uh, the thing is… that for us."
...
A/N
Hello, there. Here's a mini-story with 4 chapters and (I think) around 10k words. It'll explore weirdly "heavy" topics in a way I think has never been explored before in RWBY stories. Okay, well, it's less "heavy" and more... strange. And it's also based off of my personal experience.
You'll... see what I mean.
If you do decide to read the next chapter when it comes out.