"Wow," Blake said as Yang got into the front seat next to her. "You look incredible."
Yang's cheeks turned a deep red with blush. "I can easily say the same about you."
"I don't think I've ever seen you in anything outside of work clothes," Blake said, still taking in her date's appearance with wide eyes. "You're… gorgeous."
"I- th-thank you," Yang stammered.
Blake smiled, turning her steering wheel and pulling away from the spot where she had been waiting for Yang to come down from her apartment. "You're cute when you're flustered."
"You aren't allowed to compliment me three times in a row, and not let me compliment you! That's like, totally against the rules!"
"What rules?" Blake asked with a smirk as she turned the car onto the road, bringing them out of the parking lot behind the apartment complex.
"The rules of first dates, duh," Yang replied. "First rule: equal compliments must be given."
"Well, I believe you have some catching up to do then."
"Your hair looks incredible," Yang replied instantly. "The curls at the bottom really suit you. They complement your ears well."
Blake blushed, the ears on the top of her head swerving. "Thank you. I don't usually do my hair often. Only for special occasions."
"Glad to know I'm special enough then," Yang said with a smile. "By the way, where are we going, exactly?"
"Oh, yeah, that's right." Blake glanced at Yang quickly, the evening light catching the bright yellow fingers on her right hand. Blake's heart tightened slightly, remembering her father's reaction to the arm. "Francine's. It's a very good Italian restaurant in the Faunus District. I hope you don't mind going there…"
"Mind? Why would I mind?" Yang asked. "Italian food is delicious!"
"I more meant… going somewhere in the Faunus District."
"Oh. I still don't know why I would mind, though!"
"Yang, how often have you gone to the Faunus District?" Blake paused after the question for only a moment, before quickly adding, "Besides the cat rescue."
"Uh… Sometimes on deliveries, or a few times when a store there had something I needed for cheap, but really not that often," Yang said with a shrug.
"Have you ever noticed people staring?"
"At me?"
"At your arm."
Yang blinked twice at the question. "Blake, I have a bright yellow robot arm. People stare at it wherever I go, literally all the time. Even I catch myself staring at it sometimes. It doesn't even phase me anymore. I promise you, you don't have to worry about it."
"But do you know why they stare in the Faunus District?"
"Because it's a bright yellow robot arm?" Yang was confused. She'd thought she'd made her experiences with her arm rather clear.
Blake shook her head. "Because the only place that makes robot prosthetics like that is Atlas."
Yang's heart dropped into her stomach. "Oh." She had never, not once since getting her arm, had even put a single thought into people making assumptions about her opinions on Faunus because she had an Atlassian robot prosthetic. It had just never been something that had been relevant in her life. Just like the sign, or lack therefore of, in the coffee shop.
But now, here and now, with Blake, it was relevant.
"Yeah."
"I- I'm not… I don't support the way Atlas treats Faunus, at all. I got this arm, well... because...-" Yang trailed off, words failing her as she attempted to finish her sentence.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Blake assured her, before Yang could continue. "I know you don't support Atlas. I highly doubt you would have even bothered to come to the rescue in the first place if you were, let alone say yes to a date with me. But not everyone else knows that. I just want you to be prepared if people are a bit more rude to you than you're used to."
"I'll be fine," Yang said, waving her right arm in the air. "I've had more than a few horrid customers across my jobs. Honestly, at this point, there's very little someone can say to me about my arm that will phase me. Will you be okay though? With remarks or looks?"
Blake glanced at Yang before returning her eyes to the road. "It's something I'm certainly used to too, just usually not outside of the Faunus District. I'll be okay though. I just wanted to make sure you were aware going in."
"We're going to have a good time, okay? Don't worry about me, I promise you it'll be fine."
"Okay," Blake replied with a gentle smile. "We're almost there."
Yang looked out the front window to see a plaza directly ahead. It wasn't too unlike Kuana Plaza, with shops on the first floor, and apartments above them. The main shop here was, to no one's surprise, was Francine's Italian Cuisine.
Blake had led her date into the restaurant, giving her name at the host's stand for their reservation. It wasn't too packed yet, but there was a steady flow of folks coming and going.
Despite the exterior looking as if only one of the shops in the plaza was occupied by Francine's, the interior was huge. Yang guessed she could fit three of the cat rescues into the dining area alone, not including whatever kitchen hid behind the large doors in the back of the dining room.
"Right this way," the host said, leading them to a table towards the back of the restaurant. As the pair followed him, Yang kept her right hand inside the front pocket of her jacket, unsure if she should take it out yet or not. It felt like it weighed a million pounds in her pocket.
Sure, she had told Blake that she'd be okay, but she really wasn't sure. Not because of how she might feel if someone said something to her, but because of how she might make others feel by wearing an Atlassian robot prosthetic in a Faunus-owned restaurant, in the heart of the Faunus District. She felt like it painted a huge target on her right now, and not her usual "I don't give a fuck" target that she wore most days when people began pointing and staring. The target currently felt like it read, "I'm a giant racist and I don't give a fuck that you know it."
It wasn't true. Yang knew it wasn't true. Blake knew it wasn't true. But would anyone else?
Yang let out a silent sigh of relief when she realized their table was located in the back of the restaurant, where few people sat. They were directly next to a gorgeous portrait of a woman with a lion's tail wrapped around her body, clutching a wooden spoon with her tail as she crossed her arms, giving a closed smile at the viewer.
"That's Francine," Blake explained after the host had left them with their menus. "Her son runs the place now, but she died about ten years ago. There's portraits of her all over the restaurant. This is one of my favorites."
"Why's that?" Yang asked.
"In most of the others, you can't see her tail, or just barely. This one, she's proud of it, and using it to get her work done." Blake looked up at the portrait and smiled. "She moved to Vale at a time in which the Faunus District didn't even really exist. She didn't care though. All she wanted to do was make good food for people."
"Good evening, ladies," a waitress said, smiling at them both. "Can I start you off with something to drink?"
"A water will be fine," Blake answered.
"Same, a water is good," Yang said.
The waitress gave a nod before dipping back into the kitchen.
"I hope you don't mind I requested a table this far back," Blake said, opening up the menu. "I really do love this painting, and I kind of forgot tonight is kids eat free night here."
Yang's face lit up with a smile. "I don't know, Blake, rule number two of first dates says that you have to be run into by a tiny screaming child at least once."
Blake laughed at the comment, smiling back at her date. "Guess we're going to fail tonight then."
"Never say never," Yang replied, opening her own menu. "There's always a chance we'll fall victim to a child stampede."
Blake giggled, the giddy grin unable to leave her face.
"What do you recommend here?" Yang asked, flipping to another page in her menu.
"Well, I'm a sucker for seafood, so I usually get the shrimp scampi, or the swordfish alla Siciliana, or the flounder mediterranean…" Blake listed off, looking at the seafood list on her menu. "But honestly, anything is good here."
Yang furrowed her brow, looking back down at the menu. "Hmm… have you heard anything about their chicken parm?"
"Oh, that's incredible too. It's usually the only non-seafood dish I'll get here, if I'm feeling like it," Blake replied with a nod.
Yang smiled and shut her menu. "Great, that's what I'll get then."
The waitress appeared a few moments later, two glasses of water on her tray. After placing them down in-between the girls, she asked, "Are you ready to order?"
Both girls nodded at the same time. Yang waved at Blake to go first.
"I'll take the shrimp scampi," Blake said with a smile, "and Thousand Island for my salad dressing."
The waitress nodded, jotting it down on her pad. "And for you?" she asked Yang.
"I'll have the chicken parm," Yang replied.
"And what type of pasta for your side?"
"Um, spaghetti," Yang answered quickly, figuring it was a safe bet.
"And your dressing for your salad?"
"Italian," Yang answered, hoping that an Italian restaurant would have Italian dressing.
Luckily, she was correct, as the waitress quickly wrote down the order. Both girls went to hand their menus to the waitress.
The waitress reached out, but stopped suddenly when she saw Yang's menu, clutched by bright yellow fingers.
She'd used her right hand without thinking.
"Sorry," the waitress muttered quickly, taking the menus and dipping away back into the kitchen.
Yang shoved her hand back into her jacket pocket, feeling her face grow bright red.
"Hey," Blake said softly. "Don't worry about it, okay?" She reached her left hand across the table, waiting to be met by Yang's right hand.
Yang hesitated for a moment before pulling her hand out of her pocket and putting it into Blake's hand. Her heart skipped a beat the moment she touched Blake's hand.
Blake let her fingers weave in and out of the yellow fingers, closing around the back of Yang's hand. "It's okay. Don't worry about them."
"Okay," Yang replied, giving a soft smile. "I'll try not to."
"Good." Blake returned the smile. "Next time you can pick the spot, and we won't have reactions like that, okay?"
"Next time," Yang hummed. "I like the sound of that."
"I do too."
Yang's heart skipped a beat. She was glad Blake was holding her robot hand- she wouldn't be able to tell how clammy the other one was.
"Did you come here a lot growing up?" Yang asked, trying to bring the conversation back to something other than her arm.
Blake nodded. "It's one of my mom's favorite places. We came here at least once a month when I was a kid. For a while it was a celebratory dinner after we got a cat adopted out. That stopped when Francine's moved locations and was closed for a while, and we never really got back into it."
"Well," Yang said, raising her glass of water in her left hand, "this can be your celebratory dinner for Mezzaluna then."
Blake smiled, raising her glass in her right hand. "To Mezzaluna."
"To Mezzaluna."
They each took a gulp of water before placing their glasses down, still holding hands.
"Can I ask you a question about your arm?" Blake asked hesitantly.
Yang nodded. "Of course. Don't worry about offending me, okay? I've heard it all, and I don't think you could ever offend me anyways."
Blake blushed at the last comment, but tried to regain her composure to ask her question. "How… how much can you feel?"
"It's like wearing a glove," Yang said, having used this explanation many times before. "I can move all parts of it, and I can feel pressure and general touch, but I can't feel textures that are smaller than a finger, moisture, or temperature."
"What do you mean by smaller than a finger?" Blake asked.
"Let me show you," Yang replied, pulling her hand away from Blake's, who regretted asking the question at once. Yang picked up a napkin off the table, and folded it in half before laying it flat again.
"I can feel the imprint of the bend," Yang explained, running her right pointer finger over the napkin, "because the bend is bigger than the width of my finger. I can only really sense pressure, so I can feel the pressure change when I go over the bend from the rest of my finger. But this?" Yang pointed at the flower decorations along the border of the napkin before placing her finger on it. "I can't tell any difference between this and the rest of the napkin. I can technically feel two 'textures'," she said, placing air quotes around the last two words, "existing, and not existing."
Blake nodded, glancing between the napkin and Yang's face. "I think I get it."
"It took a lot of getting used to," Yang said with a shrug, lifting up her water glass in her left hand again, "and a lot of new rules for myself too. Like, I don't let myself pick up glasses of liquid in my right hand, since I can't tell how slippery they are. It took a few too many shatters before it became second nature to only use my left hand on glasses." She took a long sip before putting it back down again.
Blake let out a little giggle, causing Yang to raise an eyebrow at her. "I'm just imagining you with a line of glasses, constantly forgetting to only use your left hand and dropping each one of them with your right."
Yang laughed at the thought too. "I think my bosses would have liked that better. It only would have meant one clean-up, not ten."
Blake smiled, grateful for Yang's humor about the situation. It made asking awkward questions a lot easier.
"Enough about me and old handy over here," Yang said with a wink, causing Blake to roll her eyes at the pun. "Tell me more about you and your day."
"Well, not much happened after I got back from the coffee shop," Blake admitted. "I mostly just got ready for our date."
Yang laughed. "Same! Although like, half of that time I had to spend calming my sister down. She was almost as excited as I was, and she will literally bounce off the walls if excited enough."
"I know, I almost saw her do it at the cat rescue." Blake scored another laugh from Yang, causing her smile to widen even more, somehow, as if her date hadn't been making her beam like the sun all evening.
When Yang finally stopped laughing, she shook her head with a smile. "She's going to want every detail about tonight the moment I get back."
"Same with my mom," Blake admitted. "I'm very close with both her and my father."
"It certainly seemed like it. They seem like great people."
Blake smiled at that comment. "Yeah, they really are. I'm pretty sure the only two things they care about in this world are me and our cats, both our cats and our rescues."
Yang let out a laugh. "Ever since I met your father, I just keep imagining him with a bunch of kittens all over him. It's such a funny image."
"Oh, I've seen that, with my own two eyes. It's fantastic."
"Ladies," a voice cut out, signaling to them that the waitress was back. "Your food."
Yang had never seen salads brought out at the same time as the entrees, but here they were, being placed in front of them on the table. After an exchange of thanks, the waitress whisked away back into the kitchen.
"That was fast," Yang said, cutting into her chicken, taking a bite. Her eyes widened as she chewed and swallowed. "Oh my Oum, that's good."
"I told you," Blake replied with a smile, poking her fork into her salad. "They're incredible here."
"The food isn't the only incredible thing at this table tonight." Yang winked as she took another bite of her meal.
Blake's face turned as red as the sauce on Yang's chicken as she swallowed her bite of salad. She opened her mouth to say something else, but Yang waved her off.
"Nuh uh! I still have one more left until you get to compliment me again."
"But if we're forgoing rule number 2…"
"We won't know if rule number 2 was broken until the end of the night!"
Blake rolled her eyes with a smile at Yang's comment. "Fine, fine. But the rules go out the window for the second date."
"The rules are only first date rules, so of course they don't apply to the second date."
A sly grin formed on Blake's lips. "So, Yang, do tell me. Is the last first date rule a kiss?"
"Well," Yang replied with a wink, "you'll just have to wait and see."
The rest of the date had continued smoothly. They ate, talked, and laughed until dinner had been over. Blake had paid for the bill, despite Yang's protests, insisting that since she was the one to invite Yang out to dinner, she would be the one who paid. She didn't even let Yang see the bill, which Yang wasn't exactly thrilled about, but she was willing to let it pass.
She'd just have to get it next time.
Probably at a place less expensive than a nice Italian restaurant.
"So," Blake said, as they left the restaurant, holding Yang's left hand as they walked, "would you be interested in walking around the park together for a little while?"
"I'd love to," Yang began, "but it's getting kind of late. Well, for me anyways. I have a shift that starts tomorrow morning at 5am, which means I have to be up by 4, which means that even though it's only 8pm, it's almost my bedtime…"
"Oh, well, that's okay! I'll get you home then."
"I'm sorry," Yang said as she got into Blake's car. "Really, I really want to, but it's just not going to work tonight."
Blake placed a hand on Yang's shoulder. "It's perfectly okay. I'd rather you get enough sleep and then see you another time anyways."
Yang smiled. "Me too. I'll send you a picture of my schedule for the week when I get home, and you can see if it matches up with any of your free time, and we'll plan for whatever works for both of us? My treat this time."
Blake nodded and returned the smile. "That sounds like a plan." She moved her hand from Yang's shoulder, putting her keys into the ignition. "Now, let's get you home. You have a sister and a cat to spill all the details about our date to."
Yang laughed. "Mez is such a good listener. She just sits there and makes little cat noises at me while I talk to her. Way better of a listener than Ruby. Don't tell her I said that though."
"Your sister or the cat?"
"Both."
Blake let out a string of giggles as she turned onto the main road. She couldn't even remember the last time anyone had made her laugh as much as Yang had done in one night.
Blake had walked Yang up to her apartment, holding hands the entire elevator ride up. Once outside the door to apartment 636, they stopped and turned to each other.
"So," Yang said.
"So," Blake replied.
"I get to tell you about the last rule now."
"Oh?" Blake smiled. "Do tell."
Yang tugged Blake closer to her by her held hand, causing Blake to let out a little squeak.
"The rule is… we kiss on the first date, if you want to," Yang whispered, smiling softly down at Blake.
Blake smiled, closing her eyes and leaning in.
Her lips stopped when they met Yang's. Warm, soft, gentle, but explosive. Like a thousand fireworks had gone off in the small space in between them. Blake felt Yang's hand drop from hers, and her arms wrapping around the back of Yang's waist. Blake lifted up her own arms, hooking them behind Yang's neck and pulling her in closer, kissing her more passionately.
It was not a moment that either of them wanted to end.
AN: If you'd like updates on this work, as well as others, you can follow me on tumblr at SuperbBirbFics , or my main for spicy rwby memes and other various content at PancakesWithKetchup . And, if you'd like to help support me and my writing more, you can buy me a ko-fi ! My username there, as with most places (except for tumblr, because the url is taken rip) is SuperbBirb ! Thank you all so much for your continued support in my works, I endlessly appreciate it and love you all!