The first thing that Yang heard when she woke up was a deep rumbling.

Did Mezzaluna come sleep with me tonight?

She cracked open a single eye, expecting to see her yellow pillowcase. Instead, she was met with a sea of black.

Black? Did Mez fall asleep in front of my face?

Her other eye opened.

That definitely isn't fur.

Memories came flooding back to Yang. She was in Blake's bed, curled up into her side, staring straight at her hair. And the rumbling…

Well, the rumbling was surround-sound. She glanced down Blake to find one of the two black cats curled up on Blake's stomach, purring happily in her sleep. Which cat it was, Yang wasn't sure. She hadn't really gotten a chance to be formally introduced to Blake's cats.

The second source of rumbling came from directly behind Yang, pushed up against her back. She could only assume that the other of the black cats was curled up against her back, enjoying the warmth in the same way as the first.

There was still one more source of rumbling. It was stronger, lower, and… larger? Yang didn't quite know how else to describe it. She glanced around the room, looking for the source, assuming Chief or Sienna were hiding somewhere.

Yang's eyes grew wide as Blake shifted in her sleep, pulling Yang closer to her. She relaxed her muscles, allowing herself to melt into Blake's embrace.

Oh, that's not Chief or Sienna.

Yang's lips turned upwards into a grin as her ear was pressed up against Blake's chest.

Blake was purring.

It had to be literally the cutest noise Yang had ever heard.

Warmth.

It was a strange, yet comforting sensation that was slowly stirring Blake from sleep. She curled up closer to it, not wanting to wake up and face the world yet.

A gentle breeze brushed against her neck at a steady pace. Soft, not enough to be uncomfortable, but enough to be noticable.

Strange. I don't think I left the window open last night.

Perhaps it was just Gambol or Shroud that had curled up on her pillow and was breathing against her neck. Yes, that was probably it.

But why was she so warm?

All of this thinking had forced her out of her sleepy state, her brain fully awake now. She let out a grumble, trying to roll over and get comfortable again, but something stopped her. There was a weight half on her, half against her, that prevented her from turning.

Amber eyes shot open to meet a sea of yellow. Lilac eyes looked up into hers.

"Good morning," Yang said with a soft smile.

"Good morning," Blake replied, reciprocating the smile. "Did you sleep well?"

Yang nodded. "Best sleep I've had in months. No nightmares or anything."

"Good." Blake planted a kiss on Yang's forehead, causing her to blush and melt more into Blake's arms.

"Cute," Blake hummed, pulling Yang closer. "You're very warm, are you okay?"

Yang nodded. "I'm always warm. I have a naturally higher base temperature. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh, that's something I can definitely get used to." Blake pressed her head against the top of Yang's. "Do you know what time it is?"

"No clue," Yang replied, nuzzling in closer, "and I honestly don't want to check."

"Hmm… I suppose we could stay like this for a little while."

"Yaaay," Yang murmured. She was quiet for a few more minutes before speaking up again. "Hey, Blake?"

"Yes Yang?"

"What are we?"

There were several moments of silence.

"What do you want us to be?" Blake finally asked.

"Well," Yang began, fidgeting nervously under Blake's arms, "I'd like to be your girlfriend. If you want to be, that is."

Blake smiled, placing her hand underneath Yang's chin and pulling her up for a kiss. It wasn't particularly long, but it got its message across.

"I'd like that too," Blake said after she pulled away, as if her kiss hadn't said that enough.

They were interrupted by a soft meowing that came from Blake's stomach.

"Good morning to you too, Gambol," Blake said with a smile, reaching down to offer some head scratches. "I wonder where Shroud is."

"Curled up against my back," Yang replied instantly.

Blake rose an eyebrow, peering over Yang's body. Sure enough, Shroud was curled up at the small of Yang's back, still fast asleep. She gave another smile at the sight. "Seems she likes the warmth as much as I do."

"What can I say, I attract a lot of p-"

"Don't finish that sentence," Blake warned, earning a chuckle from Yang.

"Blake?" a voice called from the hallway.

Blake let out a quiet sigh. "So much for staying in bed…" she muttered, before calling out "Yes Mom?"

"I heard that," Kali said with a smirk, twitching her ears, appearing in the doorway. "I made some breakfast, if you girls want some."

Blake looked down at Yang, who shrugged. "Sure."

"Okay, we'll be out in a few minutes," Blake replied, watching as Kali disappeared from the room.

Yang detached herself from Blake, sitting up in the bed and stretching. She tried to spin her right wrist, but it was jamming up, taking significantly longer to actually spin on the ball joint than it should have.

"Hmm," Yang hummed, twisting her right hand with her left.

"Is everything okay?" Blake asked, eyes wide at the way that the joint stuck for a second at a time.

Yang nodded, continuing to manually twist the wrist with her left hand. "Jammed up from under-usage. Just need to… get it… moving again…" she said through gritted teeth, twisting it a few more times before trying it on its own again. This time, it spun correctly, loosened up and fully functioning.

"Do you have to do that every morning?" Blake asked, pushing the blankets off of her and climbing out of bed.

Yang nodded as she got out of bed herself, much to the displeasure of Shroud. "Every time I don't use it for a couple of hours. It tends to stick the most in the mornings, since that's usually the longest I go without using it. Today's was pretty sticky though."

"Well," Blake said, checking her scroll, "you did sleep for twelve hours."

Yang's jaw dropped open. "Twelve hours?"

Blake nodded. "You fell asleep sometime around 9pm. It's almost 9am."

"Oum," Yang cursed, shaking her head. "I literally don't know the last time I slept for that long."

"Well, you certainly needed it." Blake walked up to her girlfriend, giving her a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Come on, let's go get dressed and get breakfast."

It didn't occur to Yang the extent of the situation she had found herself in until she was sitting at the small kitchen table with Blake and Kali, eating some scrambled eggs and toast.

She was sitting at the kitchen table with her girlfriend and her mother, who probably knew more than Yang had initially thought, given the ears that her daughter had obviously inherited. She'd had a mental breakdown, run to her girlfriend's apartment, who she'd only previously been on one date with, told her practically her entire life story, and still didn't have answers to all of her problems.

Oh, and she didn't know where her girlfriend's giant of a father was. She had met him previously, of course, but as a patron of his business, not has his daughter's girlfriend. Her mentally unstable, disabled, and

"Where's Dad?" Blake asked, pouring herself a glass of orange juice.

"We got a rescue call at 8am this morning. Whole litter of kittens without a mother found in the Business District," Kali explained. "He's out dealing with that."

Blake's eyes widened. "Do we have the space for that?"

"Not really, no," Kali replied with a small smile. "But you know your father. He's not going to say no to orphaned kittens. He promised he'd check around the shelters and other rescues to see if there are any recent mothers who can help nurse."

Blake nodded, opening her mouth to say something else, when Kali's scroll went off.

"Speak of the devil." Kali unlocked her scroll and brought it up to her face. "Hello?"

There were a few beats of silence. Yang noticed the twitching of Blake's ears. She wondered if Blake could hear the other end of calls. A question for later, Yang decided.

"Alright, I'll be right over," Kali said with a sigh. "Send me the address? Okay, see you soon. Love you too."

She shut her scroll, pushing it back into her pocket. "Well, looks like I'm heading out to the Business District too. Seems there's double the kittens he anticipated and needs some additional help."

"Do you want me to come too?" Blake asked.

Kali shook her head. "The two of us should be fine. I'll call you if we need any extra help." She stood up from her chair, pausing for a moment before turning to Yang. "I know we didn't get to talk much today, but I hope your day is better today."

A gentle blush crossed Yang's face as she smiled. "Thank you."

Kali gave a small nod and a smile before heading for the front door. "Oh, and Yang?"

"Yes?"

"You're welcome here anytime."

"Thank you," Yang repeated, smiling and nodding back as Kali headed out the front door.

Blake gave a small smile. "She likes you."

"Good," Yang replied, turning her smile to Blake, "cause I have a strong feeling this isn't going to be the last she'll see of me."

"I sure hope so." Blake poked her fork into her eggs. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Yang said. "The sleep helped a lot. I don't think the exhaustion helped the whole mental breakdown thing much."

"Yeah, I can't imagine it would help much." Blake looked up, making eye contact across the table. "Do you think you'll be okay to talk to your sister and your uncle today?"

Yang nodded. "I had some time to think things through before you woke up this morning. I think I know what I'm going to say and how I'm going to move forward from here."

"You were awake before me this morning?" Blake asked, tilting her head slightly. "For how long?"

"I dunno," Yang shrugged. "Thirty or forty-five minutes maybe? Not too long. You seemed peaceful. I didn't want to wake you up. Besides, it was easier to think with the calm purring."

Blake blinked, her eyes going wide. "Was I… purring this morning?"

Yang nodded. "Is that unusual?"

"No," Blake said, blushing, "not really. I just… don't usually let people see that side of me."

"Well," Yang said as she reached a hand across the table, "I thought it was very cute and calming. It's like an infectious happiness."

Blake tilted her head to the side slightly. "What do you mean?"

"Well, purring means you're happy and content, right?"

"Yeah, mostly."

"Well, knowing you were there with me, happy and content enough to be purring in your sleep, helped me stay positive while I was thinking through everything. It was impossible not to smile when you were so cute and happy, purring with me and your cats all around you."

A small smile crossed Blake's lips. "Well, when you put it that way…"

Yang smiled back, swallowing another bite of her eggs. "As much as I want to stay here all day, I do think I should head home after breakfast. There's a lot of stuff to talk about."

Blake nodded. "I figured as much."

"Can I call you afterwards if I need to?" Yang asked softly.

"Of course," Blake said immediately. "I'm also here if you need anything physically."

"Thank you." Yang smiled again.

"Mraww!"

Both girls jumped at the sound. Blake let out a laugh after processing what she'd heard.

"Chief," she scolded, sticking her head under the table to find the large cat staring at her expectantly.

"Mrawww!"

"Something tells me the only breakfast my mom remembered was ours," Blake said with a smirk, pulling herself back above the table before standing up.

"Surprised it took them that long to start yelling." Yang watched as Chief followed Blake to the kitchen where she would prepare breakfast for the four cats. "Mez always starts screaming within ten minutes of one of us waking up if she hasn't been fed."

"Oh, he was probably yelling earlier. Mom was just probably ignoring him until she finished with her breakfast. And well…" Blake's voice trailed off as her eyes glanced to the half-full plate on the table. Her brow furrowed for a second. "Probably means the cats downstairs need to be fed too."

"Would you like some help?" Yang offered, standing up and putting her empty plate in the sink.

Blake shook her head. "It's going to take a while, and you should get home."

"Are you sure?" Yang asked, coming to stand next to Blake as she was measuring out wet food into the four cat bowls that now sat on the counter.

"Yang," she chided, turning to look her in the eyes, "no procrastinating. You know what you have to do."

Yang frowned slightly. "I know. That doesn't mean I want to do it."

Blake leaned forward, catching Yang off guard in a long, passionate kiss on the lips. The two stayed connected for several minutes before Blake pulled away, only after her lungs had been depleted of all of their breath.

"Go," she said with a gentle smile, cupping her hand on Yang's cheek.

Yang blinked, nodding. "Okay."

Yang stood outside the door to her own apartment, taking in a very deep breath.

I can do this.

Key in the lock, turn.

Yang walked into the apartment to see Ruby and Qrow sitting at the table, eating cereal.

"Yang?" Ruby asked, looking up with wide eyes.

"Hi Rubes, hi Uncle Qrow." Yang closed the door behind her before looking sheepishly at the ground. "I'm sorry for disappearing last night. Life's been extremely stressful lately, and… having to relive everything last night and dealing with all the flashbacks sent me into a full mental breakdown."

Qrow dropped his spoon at once. "Yang…" he muttered, standing up and striding towards her. He embraced her in a hug, which she quickly returned. "I'm sorry for making you go through all of that again."

"It would have had to have happened eventually," Yang said with a sigh as they pulled apart. "I'm okay now. I got more sleep last night than I probably got total in the last week, and I'm okay. I just don't want to talk about the specifics of the accident again, if that's okay…?"

"Of course it is," Qrow said at once, placing his hands on her shoulders. "We go forward from here, okay?"

"Okay," Yang said with a smile and a nod. She looked over at Ruby, who was now standing next to her chair awkwardly. "Come here, dork."

Ruby dashed forward, joining her sister and her uncle in a group hug. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Me too, sis, me too."

After the three pulled apart again, Yang took another deep breath.

"So," she said, looking sheepishly at her uncle, "were you serious about quitting your job?"

Qrow nodded immediately. "I know I said I'd go today, but I didn't realize today was Saturday… and the office is closed till Monday. I'll be heading in first thing on Monday morning though."

"And an apartment together?"

"The moment I have a job lined up, we'll start apartment hunting," Qrow said with a smile.

There was a sigh of relief that escaped Yang's mouth, causing Qrow to give her another hug.

"When we're all settled in," he said as he hugged her, "I want you to go back to trade school… if you want to, of course."

Lilac eyes widened. "Yes, of course I do! The amount I could make as a mechanic would make the diner look like pocket money."

"Not that you're going to need to worry about finances for a while," Qrow reminded her.

"Now that," Yang said with another sigh as she pulled apart from her uncle again, "will be refreshing."

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!