CHAPTER 2
...
It's not until they're away from the bustle of the airport and inside the limo that Yang says, "What the hell, Blake?" Blake, sitting facing her (because the limo is large enough to have seats that face each other), winces. She looks at Yang, then away again. "Blake? Are you secretly a princess, or something?"
Blake's ears point down. "I'm not a princess!" she says, too quickly. Yang blinks. A blush spreads across Blake's cheeks. "I, well, it's… complicated."
Yang half smiles. "Well, I'm not in a hurry."
Blake worries her bottom lip. Looks at Yang. Then away again. "So, uh… My dad, he, um, used to be the leader of the White Fang. Back before it, you know…" Blake shrugs "... turned horrible."
"Whoa," Yang says. Blake's dad—the leader of the White Fang? "How come you never told me this?"
Blake's ears press against her head, and her shoulders pull up. "I… guess I didn't know how to bring it up. I was so used to trying to hide who I am that not hiding was just…" She meets Yang's eyes. "Besides, I've gotta preserve some of the mystery."
Yang, despite everything, grins. "Oh, really now? It makes me wonder what else you're hiding from me, Belladonna."
"Why don't you find out then, Xiao Long?"
A beat of silence. Then, laughter. One that erases any tension before it can bubble.
There have been moments like these before. When Yang and Blake would playfully flirt, only was it playful at all? When Yang would catch Blake's eyes on her—during training, after a shower, whenever she's taking off her clothes.
But with everything happening, she couldn't think about it, much less act on her feelings.
Now, with Salem dead (she's dead, she's dead, the Grimm are no more, and it's over), Yang has no more reason to tuck away her feelings.
Only, she still is. She can't seem to stop.
So, to distract herself, Yang pulls out her scroll and video calls Ruby. Ruby responds with a high-pitched "Yaaaaang!" that makes her smile. Blake smiles as well, and changes seats so she can see Ruby as well.
"Heya, Rubes!" Yang says, then squints her eyes. "What are you wearing?"
Ruby blinks. "What are you talking about?" she asks, unaware of how disastrous her fashion is—a short-sleeved shirt, jeans, but also her cloak.
"You know what, nevermind," Yang mutters.
"Where's Weiss?" asks Blake.
"Oh, she's dealing with the hotel booking stuff." The camera shifts and shows Weiss, at a hotel lobby, talking with the receptionist. "I wanted to wait with her, but, eh—" Yang can hear Ruby's shrug "—it was getting kinda boring, so." They ask more about the trip, to which Ruby responds that she has no idea. "We wanted this to be, like, an unplanned thing. Like, a real adventure!" After that, Weiss calls after Ruby, and Ruby tells them she's got to go, and hangs up the call.
Yang pockets her scroll, then clicks her tongue. "An adventure. Yeah, sure. I'll bet there's gonna be lots of adventuring going on, alright."
Blake bumps Yang's elbow. "C'mon. You're not really mad, aren't you?"
"Not mad, no," Yang says, chuckling. "I mean, it's Weiss. How can I be mad? It's just…"
"You're still upset about not knowing."
"Yeah! And the fact that she wouldn't tell me!" Yang huffs, crosses her arms. "Hell, she's still not asking me anything now. I mean, Weiss is her first girlfriend, isn't she, I don't know, nervous or something?" Yang knew she sure was, when dating her first girlfriend.
Blake smiles. "Well, yeah, Weiss is her first girlfriend, but that doesn't mean she has no dating experience." A heaviness settles between them. Blake's face falls, and her ears shoot up. "Wait, you don't know?"
"Don't know what?"
"Ruby and Oscar's… fling?"
Every muscle in Yang's body goes rigid. "Ruby and Oscar had a fucking fling?!"
...
The longer the drive goes on, the smaller the road gets, and the scarcer the buildings are. They travel up through the mountains in twisting, turning roads that, honestly, makes Yang nauseous, before spiraling down down down.
The car stops on a sign that says "Welcome to Kuroyuri", with a small path towards it.
Blake gets out of the car, and Yang follows suit. "We'll walk from here," she says to Yang, and Yang nods. Together, carrying their suitcases, they travel down the path to Blake's home.
Even before Yang sees the ocean, she can smell and taste the salt in the air. Giddiness washes over her, mixed in with apprehension. Blake's home. She's going to see Blake's home. And Blake's parents too. What if she makes a bad first impression? She asks Blake this, and Blake laughs. "Yang, I already told them about you. They love you already."
Yang's heart skips a beat. She wonders what Blake tells her parents about her. "Oh, yeah, my partner, Yang, she's hotheaded, and airheaded, and kind of all over the place." Blake wouldn't say anything like that, but still.
Dirt changes into sand, and the trees change from the "foresty" kind to the "beachy" kind. The sound of the town starts off as a hum, then, the nearer they get, the more it changes to a buzz.
Once they've arrived, Yang blinks, then blinks again. "Wow," she says, "it's beautiful."
"Thanks," Blake says back, stopping to see the view from above. "Now, c'mon."
The dirt road slopes down, and is full of activities. Faunus, of all kinds, doing all sorts of activities. A few of them steal glances at them. Most openly gape at them. It unnerves Yang. She's used to attention—hell, back in her younger days, she loved it—but this is a different sort of attention. Less of a "wow, you're hot" thing and more of a "wow, you're different" thing.
They pass by what must be the marketplace, and Blake asks if she's hungry. Yang isn't, but she does need a break from the walking, and also to take in the scenery, so she says yes.
They walk into a shop, and upon noticing them, the seller's eyes go wide, and he acts extra polite, bowing and smiling and thanking them more times than needed.
Once they take a seat, Yang says, "Okay, that's, like, the third weird thing that's happened." Blake's face remains passive, but her ear twitches and bends. "Care to tell me something you've obviously not been telling me?"
Blake swallows, links her hands together, and looks away. "So, the thing about me is…" She glances at Yang, furrowing her brows. "Okay, promise me you won't make a big deal out of this."
"Pretty sure I'm already making a big deal out of this," Yang says, chuckling, "so I can't exactly promise you that."
Blake sighs. "Fair point." She unlinks her hands, then links them again. "The thing is… my dad's sort of… well-known here."
Yang raises her eyebrow. "Well, yeah, he's the ex-leader of the White Fang. You just told me that."
"Well, he also sort of… found it."
"What?"
"And he's also maybe the chieftain of Menagerie."
"What?"
Blake buries her face in her hands, groaning. "I told you not to make a big deal out of this."
"And I told you that—" Yang stops short, her throat going dry. "Does that mean you're a princess?"
Blake pulls her hands from her face, her face paling. "What?"
"Oh my Gods," Yang says. "You're a princess." I have a crush on a literal, actual princess.
"I am not a princess."
"But you are, though. A chieftain is like Menagerie's king—the one in charge of everything."
"Well, yes—"
"And your dad is the chieftain. Which makes you a princess." Blake's ears fold against her ears as she grips the edge of the table, pursing her lips. "Oh, Gods, I'm right, aren't I?"
Blake doesn't answer her, which is enough of an answer for her.
This explains so much. The looks they've been getting; it's not directed at Yang—at least, not all of it—it's directed at Blake. The daughter of the leader of the Menagerie, and the ex-leader and founder of the White Fang.
It would be like if Weiss' mom not only inherited the SDC, but she was the one who built it from the ground up. And oh, yeah, she's also the president of Atlas.
No big deal.
Yang ruminates on this as their orders arrive. They eat in a bubble of comfortable silence amidst the clutter of the town. When they finish, the seller insists it's on the house, despite their protests. After sharing a glance with each other, Yang shrugs. "Hey, free food is free food." Blake gives in, but gives a generous tip.
On the road they go. This time, Yang takes better attention to the attention they're given. Some would murmur and point in Blake's direction, others in Yang's. If Yang strains her ears, she might catch them saying something along the lines of, "It's the chief's daughter, and she's brought a human with her."
Blake doesn't pay attention to them. With a start, Yang realises it's because she's used to them.
When Yang spots a big-ass house amidst all of the little ones, she thinks to herself, Ha, what if that's Blake's house? Wouldn't it be funny?
Turns out, that is Blake's house, and it's not funny at all.
Oh, Gods, Yang thinks, the situation dawning on her, I'm about to meet Blake's parents.
...
A/N
You know, something similar to this happened to me before. Two times, actually. Once, I caught my dad talking with his friend, who happened to be a musician. I sort of thought to myself, "Ha, wouldn't it be funny if they were talking about me?"
Later on, my dad told me to come downstairs and was like, "So, my friend and I—we were talking about you…"
The other thing was when my sister was hanging out with her friends and I sort of tagged along with them to the mall (we were out of town, and we only had one car), and my sister told me, "Look, it's awkward for you to hang out with me and my friends, so why don't we separate?"
So I was like, "Pshhhh, who said I even wanted to hang out with you and your friends?" while internally dying because I don't wanna look like that sad lonely girl in the mall. So I went to the bookstore while they supposedly "hung out and had a good time", and afterwards, I went to Starbucks to grab myself some coffee.
Guess who I found there?
That's right—the bitch who abandoned me and her friends. (Just kidding, I love her.) Turns out, they've all been in Starbucks the whole time, just sitting there and doing nothing all afternoon.
Oh, yeah, very cool indeed. I so, so regret not hanging out with them. Boy-oh-boy am I jealous!
… sorry if this turns out to be a rant.
Has this ever happened to you? Where you jokingly thought something and it turned out to be true?