"You know, you don't have to keep buying me these."
"But you liked the first one so much!"
Blake laughed at that, then looked down at the box of macaroni and cheese in her hand. This one was shaped like characters from Scooby-Doo.
"They aren't very healthy either," Blake said.
Yang gave her a look. "Alright, fine, next time I'll get you a bunch of celery, how's that?"
"Perfect. Very romantic of you," Blake deadpanned.
"Well, we ALL know celery is the most romantic of the vegetables." Yang grinned as she pulled on her blazer.
It was a fairly warm day for late October, eliminating the need for any heavy coats. Although they would have gone out in any weather. The second and final debate of the mayoral race was in three days, and Yang was getting as much canvassing as possible in before then.
They had been at it for weeks now, and Blake still disliked it just as much as the first time they had gone. Talking to strangers, giving a rehearsed speech, often getting a door closed in their faces. None of it was Blake's cup of tea. Yang's presence was pretty much the only thing keeping her sane during those long hours since she, as always, found a way to make the task entertaining. After each house, she would covertly whisper some speculation to Blake about the homeowner. Something like "She's definitely in witness protection. Why else would she only open the door two inches?" or maybe "They've gotta be a spy...bowtie looked like a hidden camera to me" or even "Aliens, all of them. Or hostages. No human would willingly paint their walls that color."
Today, they split up into pairs and selected routes through various neighborhoods. Jaune and Pyrrha took West Vale while Ruby and Qrow headed East. Ren and Nora, who had closed the cafe for a couple hours to help, took the Southern quadrant and Blake and Yang began their afternoon in North Vale.
Yang drove, humming along to some rock station on the radio, while Blake sat beside her quietly reviewing their map one more time.
"Oh." Blake said.
"Oh?" Yang said in reply.
"My friend lives around here with her girlfriend. I actually think we're going to their house." Blake smiled at the thought of seeing Velvet again. They hadn't met in person since she and her "roommate" Coco had officially started dating.
"Coco and Velvet? You know them?"
Blake blinked in surprise. "Yeah, I worked with Velvet for a while. You know them too?"
"Ah, was that the News N' Stuff days? What a time." Yang shot her a snarky grin.
"We don't speak of that time." Blake grumbled. "And keep your eyes on the road."
"Yes of course, my mistake," Yang chuckled. "But yeah, I met Coco a while ago through, well, boxing."
"You box? That explains the arms..." Blake said.
"Not anymore. And I've had these guns since birth, baby!" Yang flexed her arm.
"Both hands on the wheel," Blake said. But she couldn't stop herself from aiming a sideways look at Yang's bicep. Certain scenes from certain novels she had read started flashing through her head, and she blushed a little. "Stupid Ninjas of Love," Blake muttered under her breath.
"Here we are!" Yang announced, pulling into an average-looking neighborhood. Blake forcibly shook herself out of her fantasies and exited the car.
Yang handed her half of a stack of informational brochures containing details of her platform, the upcoming debate, and how to vote in the election. Blake looked at the smiling photo of Yang on the front, with her dazzling purple eyes, and found herself smiling back.
"You know, the real thing's right here." Blake raised her eyes and was immediately struck by the same smile. She reached out and brushed some of Yang's hair off her face.
"I know. Should we get started?"
The next two hours passed slowly but bearably. The temperate weather made it a nice day to be outside walking around, and they even had fewer rude door slams than usual.
Everything was going fine until about two-thirds of the way through their route as they were walking down Emerald Drive, their bodies as close together as physically possible. Every so often their hands would swing too close and gently brush against each other, skin contact that Blake for one definitely appreciated. But eventually, she got impatient. Blake casually reached over the short distance between them and took Yang's hand in her own. Their fingers interlocked easily, and each of them smiled softly. They took a few steps that way until Yang suddenly stopped in her tracks and pulled her hand away.
"...what's wrong?" Blake asked, trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.
"Nothing's wrong! It's just...we're in public so we can't really...it would seem weird if someone saw us, you know?"
"Oh. Right, of course," Blake said hastily. The perfect weather and Yang's intoxicating presence had made her somehow forget that they needed to be discreet. If the regretful expression on Yang's face was any indication, she had forgotten as well. They resumed walking in silence.
After a couple minutes, Yang sighed. "I'm sorry, Blake."
"Don't apologize! It's only for a little longer anyway." Blake gave her a smile that Yang struggled to return.
"You shouldn't have to deal with all this crap, though," Yang said.
"Yang, it's okay." Blake hesitated, then spoke again. "You're worth waiting for."
Yang turned red. "Geez Blake, give me a warning before you say something like that!" She fanned herself with the brochures while Blake resisted the urge to laugh.
They stopped in front of the door to the next house, and Yang rang the bell. She cleared her throat and straightened her hair. "Great, now you've got me all flustered," she said with a smile.
Blake shrugged. "What can I do? You make it so easy." Yang looked ready to make some, probably vulgar, retort when the door swung open.
"Good evening! I was wondering if you have a few minutes to talk about the upcoming mayoral election?" Yang's smile was charming as always.
The woman who had opened the door eyed the two of them suspiciously. She was middle-aged, with wispy brown hair that was starting to go gray. Her mouth was set in a seemingly permanent frown.
"I recognize you," she said stiffly, staring directly at Yang.
Yang soldiered on, completely undeterred. "That's great! Being engaged in local politics is extremely important. Would you like to hear about the key points of my platform? We also have this great pamphlet with some information about the election." Yang offered one to the woman, who shrank away like it was poisoned.
"I don't want anything from one of you," she growled, starting to close the door.
"One of what?" Blake asked, exchanging a perplexed look with Yang.
"You know what you are..." She closed the door and locked it, leaving them to ponder her weirdly ominous statement.
"Oookay, definitely a witch. But like, not the cool kind of witch." Yang shook her head and started trotting back down the path leading to the house.
Blake followed behind her. "More like the kind of witch that traps children and feeds off their screams."
"Damn, that's dark, I love it Blakey!" Yang seemed to have already recovered from the experience. "Probably also the kind of witch that hexes anybody that enters her forest just because she can."
"Oh, undoubtedly," Blake agreed. She rang the bell of the next house.
This time a teenager opened the door. She looked to be going through some sort of goth phase, judging by the black clothing, spiked wristband, and dark purple hair.
"Hello, are your parents home?" Blake asked.
"Oh my god!" The teen's face lit up at the sight of Yang. "You're Yang Xiao Long, right? Oh my god!"
Blake stared at her blankly, her mouth slightly open.
Yang's brow was furrowed. "Uhhh, yeah that's me?"
"Oh wow, I'm screaming." She actually wasn't screaming, but was speaking in a fairly normal tone. "Sorry, I'm freaking out a little. Listen, you are SO inspiring, and me and all of my friends are backing you the fuck up!"
"Um, thanks a lot?" Everything Yang said sounded like a question at this point.
"Wait, can I get a picture?" She didn't wait for an answer before pulling out her phone and posing for a selfie with Yang. "Can I post it on tumblr?"
"I'm...wha-" Yang couldn't even get the thought together.
"Serena, is someone at the door?" A voice called from within the house.
"Yeah Dad, it's that politician, Yang Xiao Long!" Serena called back.
The dad appeared a few seconds later, and swiftly pulled his daughter back inside. "Nice to meet you! Sorry if she was a bit excitable," he said to Yang and Blake with a smile.
Yang seemed too confused to speak, so Blake took over.
"Nice to meet you too, sir. We're out to talk to some citizens and give out these brochures -" she held one out and he took it "- which have information about Councilwoman Xiao Long's platform as well as the election."
"Thanks." He smiled again. "The Councilwoman definitely has my vote. It really is about time that Vale has an openly gay politician!" The words made his daughter make some high-pitched noise of excitement.
Blake's heart stopped beating for what felt like a full minute. Yang looked like she had been punched in the stomach. "I'm sorry, what did you say?"
"Oh, did you two not see the news yet? It's all they've been reporting for the past hour." He looked a bit sheepish now. "Sorry if it was a shock..."
"N-no, it's fine," Yang stuttered. Blake glanced at her face, which had gone rather pale. For a minute she was worried that Yang was going to faint.
But luckily they managed to get away from the house without further incident. As soon as they were back on the sidewalk, Yang stopped walking. She was breathing heavily.
"We need to see what's on the news," she said shakily. "Do you think...did someone see us?"
"No, no way," Blake reassured her. "We held hands for maybe 5 seconds, and that wasn't even an hour ago. They must be reporting something else...I'm sure it's just a dumb rumor."
Yang took a couple deep breaths. "Okay, you're probably right."
Blake checked the map. "Hey, Velvet's house is on the next street. Want to skip ahead so we can check the news?"
Blake laid a comforting hand on her shoulder, trying her hardest to seem platonic. Yang gave her a grateful look. "Yeah, let's do that."
The walk to Velvet and Coco's house was fraught with nervous tension. Blake found herself obsessing about what news could possibly have broken. Did somebody tell the media about Yang's sexuality? It seemed impossible. Only Yang's family and close friends knew, and none of them would ever do something like that. Maybe somebody let it slip on accident... She gave Yang a worried look. If she herself was this rattled, there was no telling how anxious Yang must be feeling.
Her eyes drifted down to Yang's right hand, which was holding Blake's pen tightly. Blake sighed silently. All she wanted to do right now was hold Yang's hand. But that would obviously only make matters worse, so she kept her hands to herself.
They finally arrived at the house and Yang practically ran down the footpath to the door. She rang the bell and waited, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
"What if they're not home," Yang whispered. Before Blake could reply, Velvet mercifully opened the door.
"Blake?" She looked super happy to see her. "And Yang! How are you two doing today?"
"Well, we were out canvassing this neighborhood, but..." Blake winced. "Do you mind if we come in?"
"Of course not," Velvet said. She had immediately turned serious after seeing their faces and hearing the tone of Blake's voice. "What's wrong?"
"Apparently they're reporting something about Yang on the news," Blake explained as they filed into the house. "We haven't seen it yet either."
"Oh dear." Velvet frowned. She led them to the living room and turned on the TV. "Should I leave the room?"
"It's okay," Yang said, speaking for the first time. "Everybody will know soon enough anyway."
Velvet flipped the channel over to the news just as Coco entered the room.
"Velvet, do we have guests - oh, Yang!"
Nobody answered her. They were all too busy reading the breaking news bulletin flashing across the screen.
MAYORAL CANDIDATE MAY BE A LESBIAN: RUMORS ROCK VALE
"Oh, fuck." Coco said.
A clip of Cinder Fall, which Blake assumed had been essentially on a loop for the past hour, was in the middle of playing.
"If was just after the first debate - I went to congratulate Ms. Xiao Long on her performance, and, well, I couldn't believe it but she started coming onto me! I believe there is footage of that event that might show the encounter." Cinder shook her head like she was in shock.
The footage in question began playing immediately. Although they were far away from the camera and obscured by several people in front of them, it was clear that Yang and Cinder were standing very close together, until Cinder suddenly moved away and walked back over to where Mercury was standing.
"I've really struggled with revealing this information," the clip of Cinder continued. "I do feel that this...peculiarity...is Ms. Xiao Long's business. However, coming onto people as she did is always unbecoming behavior for a potential mayor of Vale. And more importantly, the people of Vale have the right to know exactly whom it is they are electing." She paused and looked directly into the camera. "Yang Xiao Long has been lying to us all about who she is for a long time now."
The clip ended and the anchors immediately started talking. "Well, there you have it, the SHOCKING accusations leveled at Councilwoman Xiao Long from the campaign manager of her closest opposition. It really is-"
Velvet muted the TV. Three pairs of eyes stared directly at Yang.
"Yang?" Blake asked cautiously.
Yang looked up at the three of them, then burst out laughing.
"Is that the best they could come up with?" she asked, still laughing.
Coco smiled hesitantly. "It is a pretty stupid rumor... but, aren't you worried? You know, since it's true?"
Yang waved a hand. "Come on, give it a day to settle and most people won't believe it. We'll call it out for what it is: an unsubstantiated rumor from a campaign that's 15 points behind me in the polls."
"So you're going to deny it?" Blake asked.
"Not directly...More like, not justify this stupidity with a real response." Yang chuckled again. "You were right Blake, there was no reason to worry."
"I see." Velvet sounded a bit unsure. "Well then, would the two of you like some tea?"
They both nodded and she scurried off to the kitchen. Yang plopped down on the couch and Coco sat beside her.
"Do you think maybe you're trying a bit too hard to brush this off? It's gotta be pretty scary," Coco said.
Blake sat down on the other side of Yang and put a hand on her thigh. "It's okay to be scared," she stated. "It's good that they don't have any 'evidence' per se, but it's still a bit unnerving."
Yang sighed. "Yeah, but there's nothing I can do about it."
Blake winced again. It was like she always found a way to say the exact wrong thing. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be gloomy when you were trying to be positive."
"Nah you were right. I am scared. My numbers will probably take a hit since realistically some people will believe this garbage, and most of them will be the type that take it as a reason to not support me." She sighed again. "But more importantly I'm scared what'll happen if they actually do find 'evidence,' or whatever. There's so much backlash already and it's only a random rumor. Damn, how did she know to go for this in particular?"
Blake moved her hand up to rub Yang's arm gently.
"It's alright, we'll just have to hope nothing happens to legitimately out me," Yang said. She was definitely trying to reassure herself at this point.
They sat in silence for a minute, until Coco cleared her throat.
"In other news, how long have you two been dating?" She regarded them both with a raised eyebrow.
"God, we're really bad at hiding this," Blake said. She didn't bother to remove her hand from Yang's arm.
"Only a few weeks," Yang answered. She gave Blake a fake look of exasperation. "It's meant to be discreet but someone can't keep her hands off me."
"Every day is a constant struggle," Blake responded.
Coco laughed. "It's cute. You guys are cute." She smiled at them.
"What's cute?" Velvet had chosen that moment to return from the kitchen with a tray full of teacups and scones.
"That these two are dating," Coco revealed.
"Oh yes, obviously," Velvet said, putting the tray down. "That was clear from the moment they set foot in here."
Blake stared at her. "What? No it wasn't."
Velvet gave her a look. "If you don't want people to know you're in love with Yang, you shouldn't be looking at her that way all the time."
Blake sank back like she was trying to fuse with the couch. Yang, on the other hand, looked like she had just won the lottery.
"Well, well, well, well, well!"
"And same goes for you of course, Yang," Velvet continued. That shut her up pretty fast.
Coco laughed again. "Useless, both of you. Now drink your tea." She passed them each a cup.
Blake accepted the teacup gratefully and settled back into her spot, leaning against Yang perhaps a bit more than necessary. She glanced up at the television, which was still showing the news on mute. They were now interviewing an aide from the Black campaign.
Blake's heart stopped beating the second that she saw his face. She gasped quietly, her hands shaking uncontrollably. The teacup slid out of her grip and shattered on the floor.
AN: Main drama of this story is INCOMING folks! I'm also hoping that this past hiatus will be the last one for this fic (sorry again for my long gaps between updates). Drop a review if you're feelin it!
Have a nice day/night!