Things were moving at a very fast pace, but no one was particularly complaining.
Qrow, Ruby, and Yang all returned to the realtor's office the Monday after they had gone to tour homes. They were able to sign a lease for the house that they had picked out that same day, and were told by their new landlord they could start moving in on Friday.
It was a super fast turnaround, way faster than any of them could have ever imagined, but they were trying to go with it and keep up for as long as they could. They were technically still paying rent until the end of the month in their old apartment, but no one was particularly worried about losing that money anymore. They spent the week packing, looking at furniture online, and, in Yang's case, making sure she could get the whole weekend off so she could move. She was down to only working at the diner now, so it hadn't been too difficult, but it did end up being a week-long task.
When Friday morning finally rolled around, everyone was up bright and early. The Belladonnas arrived only an hour after Yang, Ruby, and Qrow had gotten up, armed with coffee and donuts for breakfast. Once they had all inhaled their food and downed their drinks, everyone set off to work on getting things moved.
Most of their furniture ended up on the curb- the futon, table and chairs, and crappy TV stand would be gone by the evening from whoever stopped to take them. The landlord had bought the old dorm furniture they used in the bedrooms from the girls, hoping that it would make the place a bit more marketable to new tenants.
Most of the belongings that got packed up into the Belladonnas' van were smaller items- clothing, photo albums, cups, plates, small kitchen appliances, cat supplies, and the decor that had once filled Ruby's bedroom, which had easily been the most decorated room in the apartment. The largest thing they were bringing with them to the new house was the TV, which wasn't even all that big to begin with.
Moving their belongings over to the new house was the easy part, which only took the morning on Friday. The rest of their weekend would be spent going between the house and furniture stores, bringing new furniture into their house, setting it up, and slowly unpacking the smaller items as the furniture that they could be stored in came in.
They had a list of items in mind- things that had to be bought in a certain order. Beds came first, both frames and mattresses. Those took up the bulk of the afternoon, as putting the frames together and moving the mattresses in took far longer than they had expected. They only had enough time to pick up some other bedroom furniture, like bedside tables and dressers, before the sun began to go down and they decided to call it quits for the day.
The combined families sat around in the empty kitchen, some on the floor, and the three younger girls sitting on the countertops. Ruby rested her head against a cabinet, leaning back gently. Yang rested her head on Blake's shoulder, the pair holding hands as they sat next to each other.
Qrow hung up his scroll with a smile, pushing it back into his pocket. "The pizza will be here in twenty."
"Oum, it is so nice to be on the other end of a pizza call for once," Yang said with a laugh. "Never again."
"That's right," Blake replied, squeezing her hand softly. "Never again."
"Thanks again for helping us today," Qrow said, looking over at the Kali and Ghira, the former resting in the arms of the latter. "And tomorrow too," he added a moment later.
Ghira smiled. "It's not a problem. We're more than happy to help."
"I'm very glad to see the three of you out of that tiny apartment," Kali added, leaning further back into her husband's arms. "Blake said it was small, but I didn't realize the entire thing was pretty much the size of our living room."
Qrow's face fell at Kali's statement. Between the look on Qrow's face, and the glare Blake shot her, Kali immediately knew she had said the wrong thing, but before she could move to apologize, Ruby cut her off.
"It served its purpose," Ruby said with a shrug. "We're moving on up though, together."
Yang nodded. "Yeah. Together. That's all that matters."
Qrow looked at his nieces. "Together," he repeated, allowing a small smile to form on his lips.
The following day was just as, if not more, exhausting than the first. Ghira and Blake arrived at the new house bright and early. They came supplied with coffee and donuts again, much to everyone's excitement.
"Where's your mom?" Yang asked, as she helped Blake set up the coffee and donuts on the countertop.
"She'll be back later, around noon, probably. She said she had something she had to get done this morning, but she didn't give a lot of details," Blake answered with a shrug.
"We'll probably still be at the furniture store around then," Qrow sighed, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the communal box the Belladonnas had bought from the donut shop. "If we buy all the furniture in one go, we can get them to deliver it here so we don't have to make a thousand trips back and forth in the van."
Ghira let out a low laugh. "Now that's music to my ears." He paused for a moment, before clarifying, "Not that I wouldn't want to help with the van, it'll just be a lot faster."
Qrow nodded. "It might turn Saturday-and-Sunday project into just a Saturday-only project. I getcha, Ghira."
"Don't you mean, I Ghir-cha?" Yang wiggled her eyebrows, smiling wide at her own pun.
There was a collective groan at Yang's pun.
Ruby shook her head, picking up a donut. "I'm going to wait outside, away from the puns."
"Good thinking, Rubes." Qrow picked up his cup of coffee and grabbed a donut before heading out after his niece.
Ghira laughed only once Qrow had followed Ruby out of the house. "I knew I liked you for a reason, Yang."
"Oh no," Blake gasped, her eyes widening. "Don't encourage his dad jokes!"
Yang's smile grew five times in size. "Oh, really? You're a connoisseur of dad jokes too?"
"I do believe you mean cat-isseur," Ghira corrected.
Yang was howling in laughter, barely able to hold herself up on the counter to stop herself from literally rolling on the floor.
"I'm doomed," Blake sighed, shaking her head.
"You love me," Yang quipped back between giggles.
"Hmm. Maybe."
"Blakeee," Yang whined, barely noticing Ghira slip out of the room, wanting to give the two girls a private moment.
Blake sighed. "Finee, I guess I love you."
"You guess?" Yang leaned forward, giving Blake a peck on the cheek.
Blake turned toward Yang, wrapping her arm around Yang's lower back and pulling her close. They became locked in a kiss, only pulling away long enough for Blake to whisper, "I know I love you."
"I love you too," Yang whispered back, bringing Blake back into another kiss.
"Come on, lovebirds," Qrow called from the doorway, causing the girls to jump and quickly pull away. "We've got shopping to do! You two can christen the house later, when no one else is home."
"Uncle Qrow!"
Six hours later, the group returned back to the house, awaiting the arrival of both Kali and the delivery truck with the rest of their furniture. They'd managed to get everything at the same shop, making for a very happy salesperson who had secured such a huge sale that day.
They'd found the rest of the furniture for their bedrooms, including a desk for Ruby and a vanity for Yang, the dining room, kitchen, and living room furniture, as well as a complete set of rather fancy looking furniture for Qrow's study, and even some patio furniture for the backyard.
"Just got a text from Kali," Ghira announced to the group that sat on the front porch, waiting. "She says things got a little more complicated than she'd expected, and she's going to be a couple hours late. She's super sorry, but says it'll be worth it."
Qrow raised an eyebrow at the last part of the statement. "It'll be worth it?"
Ghira shook his head. "I'm sworn to secrecy."
Yang shot Blake a glance, who only shrugged. "Whatever they were planning, they didn't tell me."
"Because you can't keep a secret from Yang," Ghira chimed in with a chuckle.
"Okay, well…" Blake's face lit up bright red. "Yeah, you got me there."
The group let out a short laugh, even Blake, before Qrow waved his hand in the air.
"Tell Kali not to worry about it. Between the five of us, plus the delivery guys, we got this under control."
Ghira nodded, shooting a response back to his wife before slipping his scroll back into his pocket.
"Speak of the devils, and they shall appear," Yang said, standing up as she saw a large box truck coming down the street with the words Arc Family Furniture painted on the side. "You all ready to make this house a home?"
Her question garnered a collection of nods from the group, and a very enthusiastic "Hell yeah!" from Ruby, causing everyone to burst out laughing yet again.
Yang shook her head with a smile as she watched Ruby bounce down the steps and towards the driveway, where the truck was backing in. "Never change, Rubes. Never change."
By four in the afternoon, the group had finally finished setting up all of the furniture. To everyone's surprise, only a few things had to be put together, and Ghira was some sort of extreme handyman, so he'd been able to do it in record time with only help holding things up on occasion. Most of the furniture had been moved in by the delivery guys, and rearranged a few times by Yang, Qrow, and Ghira once everything had been put into their respective rooms and the delivery guys had left. The only thing left to do were some minor decorations, which they decided they would hold off of until tomorrow, when they wouldn't need the Belladonnas' help anymore.
The group collapsed in the living room, on the brand new couches and chairs, as Qrow passed around water bottles. He finally took the last seat as they all chugged, taking a long swig from his own water bottle. Mezzaluna trotted around on the couches, in-between the laps of various people, happy to finally be let out of the bathroom now that all the moving had been completed.
"Is everyone okay with pizza again? I hate to two nights in a row, but I really don't have the energy to cook tonight… Nor any food to cook with…" Qrow trailed off, thinking about the empty fridge in the other room.
"Fine with me," Ruby replied, letting out a yawn. "I don't have the energy for much else either."
"Actually," Ghira said, looking up from his scroll, "Kali just got here, and her surprise is ready."
Yang and Blake exchanged looks, neither making a move to get up off the couch and let her in.
"Tell her the door's unlocked, and we're too tired to move," Qrow replied, taking another long drink from his water bottle.
Ghira stood up, shaking his head. "No worries, you all relax. I'll help her bring it all in."
Yang and Blake shared another look.
Blake gave a small shrug as she watched her father head out the front door. "I seriously have no clue."
Ruby sniffed the air for a moment. "What's that smell?"
Qrow tilted his head back, sniffing into the air. "Whatever it is, it smells good."
Blake's eyes grew wide as she took in the smell. "Oh, I know what they did now."
Yang shot another look at her girlfriend. "What do you mean?"
At that moment, the door burst back open, Kali and Ghira entering the house with thermal bags in hand.
"Surprise!" Kali exclaimed, a wide smile on her face. "Sorry it took so long. I wanted to make sure you all had a home-cooked meal for your first night, and I ended up getting a bit carried away."
"Kali, this is enough food to feed a small army. I think you got more than just a bit carried away," Ghira said with a laugh. "I'm going to put this all down in the kitchen, if that's alright."
Yang leapt up from her seat, nodding with wide eyes. "Absolutely." She turned to her sister and uncle, who were still sitting on the couch in shock. "Kali's cooking is incredible. You aren't going to want to miss this."
"She's right," Blake added, getting up from her spot. "There's nothing quite like homemade Menagerian dishes."
Ruby didn't need to be told twice. She followed them to the kitchen, her nose still twitching at the smell of the food. Qrow wasn't far behind, his exhausted limbs gaining extra drive from the smell of the warm food in the kitchen.
Twenty minutes later, they all sat around the table, which was covered in tupperware filed to the brim with the multi-course meal that Kali had spent the entire day preparing. They still had their various mismatched plates and silverware from their old apartment, but Kali had packed paper plates and plastic silverware so they wouldn't have to worry about any dishes.
The Belladonnas had tried to leave the house, and allow the family to have their first real meal in their new house together, but Qrow had insisted they stay. There was no way the three of them were going to be able to finish all this food anyways, and he was able to correctly guess that Kali had only made food for them today, and probably didn't want to cook anymore tonight. When she admitted that he was correct, he finally won them over in convincing them to stay and eat with them.
"Yang wasn't kidding," Ruby said after swallowing another bite of food. "This is amazing."
"Why thank you," Kali replied, a smile on her face. "I can give you all some recipes, if you'd like."
Qrow nodded. "That'd be great. I doubt I'd be able to make it nearly as well though. I'm not exactly much of a cook. Tai usually did most of the cooking."
"Me neither, unless it's a hot drink. I could make those in my sleep." Yang let out a small laugh. "I think I did actually make them in my sleep some days."
"I can vouch for her lattes. I don't think I saw much other than Ramen or food from the diner in the old apartment though," Blake admitted.
Ruby raised her hand shyly. "The ramen was mostly mine. Yang usually just ate easy mac. We made a lot of pancakes too, but that was usually the just-add-water batter."
"Oh dear, well, I can certainly give some cooking lessons to the three of you." Kali shook her head, giving a small smile. "We can start out with some easier stuff, and work up to something as complicated as this." She gestured to the meal surrounding them.
"That'd be great," Qrow said with a smile.
Yang leaned back in her chair, glancing around the room. Kali had moved the conversation to Ruby and her schoolwork. Ruby was rambling away about her projects for the semester, and her research into the chip that Penny had sent to Yang. She was only a few weeks away from being ready to install it, if she didn't hit any more bumps in the road. Yang's eyes shifted over to Qrow and Ghira, who were having an animated conversation about Qrow's new job, and the wild personalities of all of his students. Ghira was comparing them to the many cats they had in the rescue, much to Qrow's amusement.
Lastly, Yang looked over at Blake. She caught her eyes, realized that Blake had been staring at her, and then smiled.
Sure, life had been moving extremely fast in the last week, but damn, if she had told herself a month and a half ago that she'd be this happy this soon, she wouldn't have believed it.
Yet, she was just that happy.
She was more than okay with that.
AN: Wow folks! We're almost at the end here!
Sorry for the delay in chapters. I've had a crazy busy week and I wanted to make sure I could do the last two chapters justice. Plus, writing endings is really hard for me. I just don't want it to end! Alas, I will be ending this story, and not going into indefinite hiatus. The next chapter is the Epilogue, and will be shorter than most of the other chapters in the story thus far. I will hopefully have it up very soon. Within the next day or two!
I don't really want to do an author's note at the very end of the story, so consider this to be the final AN of Two For One. First of all, thank you all so much for your support in this story. I had no clue it would blow up the way it did, both with audience interaction, and with how much I would end up falling in love with this story. I'd love to come back to the setting of this city sometime, because I really do love this AU version of Vale. I even have a map drawn and everything! I probably wouldn't use the same characters, so like, different versions of Yang and Blake, but in the same city, if that makes sense. An AU of an AU, if you will. However, if that does ever come, it's not going to be for a while.
I have plotted out the majority of my next fic, as well as picked out a name. The next fic I will be publishing is "there's no time like the present". It's a bit of a deviation from my typical writing style, and it will be a primarily angsty fic, but it'll definitely be a good one! Once tntltp is done, I will be returning to Beecon University and at least publishing some new chapters, if not finishing that fic in full. We'll see! But I do promise that there will be more BU content after tntltp. I don't know what the plans are after that, but we'll see as things go along.
Again, thank you all for your support for Two For One. I'm so happy to have been able to have you all join me on this journey and see your reactions to every chapter. I'll see you all in the final chapter, and in the next fic!
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!