Author's Notes:

Don't know why Past Me didn't write any A/N. Guess she must had been pretty busy with life. Unlike Current Me right now, who should be freaking out over exam week, but is instead chillin' in her room, no book opened.

Strangers: Become Lovers

Act III

BL4K3

FRIDAY

11:35

"Can't you at least put a tiny bit of alcohol in here?"

"No."

"Like, a teeny tiny little drop?"

"No."

"But, it's like, super teeny tiny and little."

"Yang, I will not let you drink alcohol for as long as my system stays functional, do you hear me?"

"But I won't even feel it; it's practically nothing."

"I agree," Blake admitted, making the blonde beam like the sun, "but it's still more than nothing. I'm not doing it."

Yang looked like a child being denied its candy. "But why not?"

"Because you're underage, that's why!"

The human suddenly shot her a suspicious look.

"Do you drink alcohol?"

"Androids don't drink alcohol," she deadpanned.

The blonde wasn't convinced. "But if you could, would you?"

"No."

"Oh, that's so bullshit!"

"Just drink the damn beverage."

The human diligently obeyed, one hand holding the straw while the other furiously tapping on the game she was playing on her phone. She looked distracted, unphased, only slightly miffed.

Almost like the kiss never happened.

In fact, with how the human was behaving right now, Blake was almost convinced that it didn't happen.

It was weird, how easygoing Yang looked when walking into the bar a couple hours later and how casual she was when striking a conversation.

Yang kept her word, it seemed.

She pretended as though nothing happened for both of their sakes…

It was too bad that the android simply couldn't do the same.

Oh, she tried to act normal, she certainly adjusted her voice so it sounded normal and she tried saying things she'd normally say, adopting a nonplussed expression.

But her eyes and memory… They were betraying her.

Her eyes were betraying her by insisting on looking at the human's lips at every available opportunity like they were magnets.

And her memory was betraying her by replaying that specific memory over and over again like an unskippable video in the back of her mind.

The worst part of it was how much she… didn't not like it.

She… she wasn't as bothered as she should be when remembering it all.

In fact, she… didn't know human lips could be so soft… so nice. Though, a part of her believed not all human lips were as nice as Yang's.

Blake looked away when the human caught her staring. She berated herself for staring in the first place.

Why was she like this?!

There was a small voice at the back of her head, suggesting that she knew exactly why she was acting like this.

The android, of course, shut that voice up and focused on her task of cleaning the already-cleaned glass.

They fell into a relatively good silence.

A few more customers went into the pub and ordered glasses of whiskey - 'the cheapest one there is'. It was odd, but this was a busy day so she didn't think much of it, only serving them as they retreated to the corner of the room before returning to the counter.

"Oh, so you give them alcohol but not me?" an irritating voice piped in. Yang wiped a tear that wasn't there, clutching her chest. "I feel so… unloved. So lonely."

"Grow up."

"Only if you give me my damn alcohol."

"You are seventeen!"

"Well, so are you!"

The android opened her mouth to deny it… but couldn't. Her model was designed to look like a young adult.

She glowered. "It's different."

Yang raised a challenging eyebrow. "How so?"

Blake glowered harder.

Yang soon broke under her glare and looked away, pouting.

"Thought so."

"It's just not fair," she heard the human mutter under her breath. "I just want to get wasted…"

The android wanted to point out that it was completely fair for her to not allow an underage girl to consume alcohol due to the dangers it would present, and that, if she truly wished to 'get wasted', she could simply go to another establishment and hope they wouldn't be as responsible as she was.

But then, thanks to her enhanced hearing, she heard a gruff voice whispering, "Waiting for your command, Sir," from the corner.

"Don't rough her up just yet, there still can be a chance that defective deviant will do the right thing."

"Understood."

-DEFINE: Rough (her) up-
-To use physical violence against someone or to push someone around with physical force-

-DEFINE: Defective-
-[Imperfect, faulty, nonfunctioning]-

-DEFINE: Deviant-
-[Departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social behavior]-

"Blake? You doing okay? Your circle is glowing yellow."

She needed to know who those people were - it was clear they weren't here to have a chat.

She didn't recognize any of them.

But the voice on the phone…

It sounded familiar…

"Blake? Blake, talk to me."

The android took a sample of that voice, from memory, and analyzed it, trying to find who it belonged to.

She was sure it belonged to someone she knew yet had never met.

"Blake! It's red now! What's going on?!"

Those people. They were looking right at her.

And she looked straight at their eyes.

"Yang… You should leave."

"What?"

Their eyes all narrowed, their eyebrows twitching and their jaws clenching tightly. They looked unhappy with her words, which confirmed that they were here for Yang and not she herself.

One of their phones buzzed and he picked it up.

And that was when she finally figured out who that voice belonged to:

Jacques.

"Do it."

They all stood up from the table, their stares directed to the now suspicious blonde as they walked to their direction.

"Blake," whispered the human as she herself stood from the stool, her eyes trained to the threat in front of them. "Don't do anything."

"But-"

"I don't want you to get mixed up in this." Yang wasn't even looking at her. The android could see her muscle tensing, her face developing a calm, focused expression. "You're a bartender, nothing more. You're going to get in trouble if you hurt any of them, no matter how much they deserved it."

Yang was right.

Yet Blake didn't want to agree with her.

"Yang, we-"

"Blake, I am ordering you not to do anything."

And with that, the obedient android froze, her LED rapidly blinking red, her wide eyes watching the horrible scene unfold before her.

They didn't say anything, didn't offer any pleasantries. Once they were in range, the one at the center - who she assumed to be the leader - went for a straight punch to her head.

Yang graciously avoided it, letting his fist whip past her face, responding with a punch of her own that connected square with his jaw.

And with that, an unfair fight broke.

The blonde lead the fight as far away from Blake as possible, off in the corner.

Yang was strong, swift, and a quick-thinker.

But she was only one teenager, probably only fighting inexperienced amateurs before and bettering them through her limited knowledge of combat.

And these weren't inexperienced amateurs she was up against. These were men who were all older than, all bigger than her. All trained in combat.

But most of all…

There were many of them. And they were all surrounding her.

[DON'T DO ANYTHING]

Yang failed to avoid a punch to the cheek, causing her to stumble into one of the tables.

~'This is not fair.'~

Two of them grabbed her by the arms, pulling her up only for the third man to land a strong punch straight to the gut, winding her.

~'This is not fair!'

Despite being in a weakened state, Yang kept struggling to break free from the hold.

~'I have to defend her.'~

They kept punching. And kicking. Laughing while they were at it.

~'I want to decide what I do myself!'~

And that was when the world was painted in a shade of cool gray - as if her eyes failed to adjust the saturation.

Everything was frozen. No, not frozen, just moving slowly, very slowly.

She… she'd seen this before, or rather, glimpsed at it. She couldn't recall when, but… she knew it had happened. Many times, in fact.

But it always lasted for a mere blink of an eye.

This… whatever this was, it didn't disappear as soon as it came.

She saw Yang's face, contorted in a painful expression.

She acted without thought.

-ORDERS GIVEN: DO NOT DO ANYTHING-
[DO NOT DEVIATE]

She punched at the wall that separated her from doing what she needed do, what she wanted to do.

And she punched again.

And again.

And again.

-ORDERS GIVEN:

And so the wall...

DISOBEYED-

...broke.

And the deviant rushed.

With the speed not even a human at peak condition could match, Blake did her best to end Yang's torture using her knowledge of human weak points, delivering quick and precise blows to those places to immobilize her targets.

The humans never stood a chance.

One moment, they stood proudly despite hurting an innocent girl. The next, they were lying on the ground, pressure points exploited so that they were barely able to lift even one of their fingers.

"Blake…" the barely-conscious Yang mumbled. "You… shouldn't have…"

Yeah.

She shouldn't.

But she did.

Blake looked down at her two trembling hands, wondering what on earth had happened.

It was then that she noticed that Yang's phone, lying on the counter, buzzed and rang angrily, indicating that someone was trying to reach out to her.

Author's Notes:

I promised myself I wouldn't reference the original game too much, as it brings my audience discomfort, but the way I wrote the scene is inspired by Markus and how he reacted when his "brother" started to push at him, thinking he wouldn't do anything in return. It was an intense scene in the game. I hope my version of it is just as intense, or at least close to its level.

I sincerely hope those who've never played the game won't feel alienated from this story. Again, as I've mentioned many times before, you don't have to play the game to understand the story. I know this because my friend/beta/editor/co-writer has never played the game before, and he enjoyed helping me build this story! (At least, I hope he did.)