Yang wen into the church's kitchen and turned on all the hobs on the oven, then after looking through each cupboard she found and managed to find four metal pans. She got to work turning in the electric cooker and cooking the soup as she looked some more and found several bowls, Ruby helping her.
Everyone else outside meanwhile rearrange church pews into a circle facing each other. Yang and Ruby eventually coming in and giving everyone a bowl of soup. And soon they were sat around facing each-other, sitting on pews eating soup.
Yang and Ruby sat next to each other with Weiss at the other end of the pew, Sun and Neptune sat next to each other on another pew. Jaune and Pyrrha sat opposite them on their own pew and Ren and Nora sat together on the final pew.
"So…" Said Yang after she had a spoonful of soup "I'm Yang, Yang Xiao Long" she looked at Ruby who shrunk slightly under all the attention.
"Ruby Rose" she said quietly, but loud enough to be heard.
"Weiss Schnee" Said Weiss looking and gauging everyone's reaction.
"Sun Wukong" Said Sun giving a little wave of his hand
"Neptune Versailles" Said Neptune giving a charming smile.
"Nora Valkyrie!" Said Nora grinning brightly at everyone
"Lie Ren, everyone calls me Ren" Said Ren calmly, a complete contrast to Nora.
"Pyrrha Nikos" Said Pyrrha giving a gentle smile
"Jaune Arc" Said Jaune awkwardly.
"Right, well" Said Yang as she looked round "I was in Vale because I was going to go to Beacon academy-"
Almost everyone else's heads perked up at that.
"What a weird coincidence" Said Pyrrha "because me and Jaune were also here to attend Beacon academy"
"So were I and Nora" said Ren
"I was going into Beacon" Said Weiss.
"Wow" Said Yang shocked and surprised "well, I was going to study engineering"
"Economics and business" said Weiss "to learn to be able to take over the company"
"I was going to do psychology" Said Ren, his eyes flicking to Nora who was eating the soup contentedly and swinging her legs idly.
"I was here to do sports" Said Pyrrha
"Economics and science" said Jaune quietly
"Me and Neptune were just here to have a look around, pretty cool place before the world got fucked" said Neptune
"You can say that again" nodded Yang.
"What even were those things?" Whispered Jaune.
"Grimm" Said Ruby then flushed under all the attention "I-its just that when they were killed they sort of… unraveled? Into a bunch of Grimm" she said sheepishly
"What are Grimm?" Asked Ren
"And is it a food? Cause it sounds tasty!" Said Nora excitedly
"Grimm is what Atlas calls the liquid and the… things out there" Said Yang, jabbing a thumb at the radio behind her before she turned to Ruby "and you killed them and saved us all. Stop selling yourself short"she said patting her in the shoulder.
Ruby simply nodded as she continued to eat, not really good with people or social interaction. Guns she understood, they were simple and did one defined thing and were predictable. People on the other hand were unpredictable and could be capable of anything.
"So, what are your plans?" Asked Ren
"What do you mean?" Asked Weiss suspicious
"What did you plan to do?" Asked Ren "we can't just hold out in this church forever"
"Well we were trying to find a way out" Said Pyrrha as Jaune nodded "we had hoped to get out of the city and maybe find somewhere safe"
Yang nodded slowly as Ruby looked at her, head tilted. Weiss looked at Yang unsure of what she was about to do.
"I have a plan" she finally said "it just had a lot of… factors"
All attention was on her now as she looked at them.
"Basically it involves finding transportation and leaving Vale" she said, setting her empty bowl aside "but not a car because that would attract too much noise, and definitely not a bullhead or something similar. I doubt anyone here knows how to fly and even then if there was a bullhead sitting around you'd think it would stay that way for long?" She rhetorically asked
"No, my plan involved getting to the Vale docks and getting a boat"
"But that's such a long journey!" Said Nora
"And surly the sea is completely contaminated" pointed out Ren
"And where would we even go?" Asked Pyrrha.
"Answering those in order" Said Yang "without any transportation it's gonna take a while, maybe a few weeks. Grimm doesn't like salt water, haven't tested it myself but it's what the radio said. And we have two possible locations we could go" she held up two fingers "one is Atlas, under martial law and likely not too kind to outsiders sailing up to their carefully controlled quarantine zone"
"But two is Patch, isolated and remote. It's effectively a safe zone and they'll actually let us in, granted after a very long and arduous quarantine process where many things we love may be burned or we may just be made to stay in the boat for a while" she shrugged "doesn't sound too bad to me"
The group slowly took in the plan and thought it over.
"Dude that plan sounds better than anything I came up with" said Sun encouragingly
"But it will be dangerous" said Pyrrha "the Grimm themselves are the main problem, but what about other survivors? We can't take too many even with our excess of supplies"
"I think we can cross that bridge when we get to it" Said Yang
"That's a terrible idea" Snapped Weiss "we should be prepared before we do anything!"
"We should also think about medical supplies" Said Ren
"So we're agreed that this is the plan then?" Asked Yang as she looked around "since we're all contributing parts"
"We just all trust each other?" Asked Jaune raising an eyebrow.
"Well, why should we want to fuck each other over?" Asked Sun looking round.
"We might kill each other for supplies" pointed out Pyrrha "not that I would, but I feel we still lack trust"
"Well we've only been talking about 15 minutes" shrugged Yang "maybe we should play some sort of trust game?"
"What, tell a fun fact?" Asked Weiss mockingly
"Well please, Miss Schnee. Tell us mere plebs what we could do stop killing each other in our sleep?" Asked Yang aggressively.
Weiss narrowed her eyes before turning away, scoffing.
"Yang" said Ruby, staring at her quietly.
Yang looked at her and her eyes softened and her fists unclenched as she took a deep breath. An awkward silence descended upon the group as the only noise was the sound of scraping bowls and spoons.
"I grew up in a town" said Jaune awkwardly, breaking the silence "I have seven sisters, they used to braid my hair and dress me up in dresses"
That drew out some chuckles and the tension in the room slipped away.
"I never had siblings" said Nora "but I've known Ren my whole life! We were practically raised together!" Ren nodded in agreement.
"I never had siblings, so I was often doted on by my parents" sighed Pyrrha "it's nice and all but…" she trailed off.
"Tell me about it" muttered Weiss.
"Don't you have a sister and a brother?" Asked Sun
"Winter ran to the Atlas military to escape our father, Whitley is simply a young version of my father as has taken along a lot of his characteristics, including the distance part" she sniffed "They… didn't survive the crash" she rubbed her eyes "I wasn't close to them but… it still hurts"
"I know how that feels" said Sun "my parents abandoned me to the streets of Vacuo"
"That must have been rough" said Yang
"It was at first, then I lost my moral compass and started stealing and boom!" He waved at himself with his hands and everyone chuckled, except Weiss who narrowed her eyes but remained silent.
"I hope you don't take this the wrong way" said Neptune awkwardly as he looked at Yang and Ruby "but you said your sisters right?"
"We don't look alike?" Asked Yang and Ruby at the same time, then they smiled at each other and high fived.
"You get that question a lot?" Asked Sun
"Oh yeah" nodded Yang
"All the time" agreed Ruby
"Basically we have the same father" said Yang
"He's great" Said Ruby
"We got different moms though" Said Yang though both girls visibly deflated at the mention of their parents.
They talked for a while longer as the sun descended outside, Yang turning on lights as they discussed plans for tomorrow. They decided on staying in groups of three, two groups could go out and get supplies and other needed material while three stayed behind and looked after the church. But the groups hadn't been decided upon yet and would likely change day by day.
After a lot more searching round they ended up having to share the culminated blankets, it was easier when Ren and Nora produced their own blanket and said they'd sleep together. It gave Yang an idea and she decided that she and Ruby could sleep in the same bed.
"Like when we were younger and we'd have sleep overs" she'd said as she tried to bring Ruby over to the idea.
"Huh! They were fun!" Ruby had said excitedly, her eyes wide.
"Yeah, they were weren't they?" Said Yang "and we can easily pick up some more blankets tomorrow"
Only Sun was left without a blanket, but he waved off offerings.
"I'm fine. I slept rough for years" he waved off with a bright grin.
But it still left the topic of who would take first watch and Yang decided that she would volunteer for first watch.
Pyrrha offered to take second watch and Sun volunteered for third as they agreed on three hour shifts.
Yang walked up to the top and immediately shivered because of the cold, but she was stubborn, and since she was already up here she decided she wouldn't go back down, the cold keeping her sharp.
The street lights still worked and lit the city up, obscuring the stars above because of the light pollution, a cold breeze blowing by and Yang shivered again. She rubbed her hands on her arms and watched her breath go up in a small cloud of condensation.
"Are you cold?" Asked a voice behind her and she whipped around, hand going for her gun but she stopped when she saw it was the faunus girl.
She stared in surprise and titled her head.
"Your Blake, right?" She asked
Blake nodded as her eyes looked Yang over "are you going to tell me yours?"
"Oh yeah, how rude of me" Said Yang, relaxing. She didn't know why she felt so at ease around this girl "names Yang" she said giving a little bow
"Yang" said Blake, as if testing how it sounded
"Blake is a very pretty name, I see that it also belongs to a very pretty girl" Said Yang giving a charming smile.
Blake's blush was obscured in the night time but she chucked as she tilted her head "we're in the middle of the apocalypse and I'm a faunus girl who saved you once and your trying to flirt with me?"
"Eh, I don't think much of that matters" shrugged Yang "unless you don't swing that way?"
Blake tilted her head again and gave a smirk "I could swing that way for you"
Now Yang was slightly surprised but quickly covered it "that's good then, now I can keep it up" she smiled before frowning "so what brings you to our neck of the woods?"
"You've seen the creatures right? The wolves?" Asked Blake.
"Yeah, nearly got killed by one. Rescued some people, got quite the little group going on right now" Said Yang nodding to the stairs.
"That's good, just wanted to make sure you were okay" Said Blake
"you could join if you want, always room for more" Said Yang hopefully
Blake paused and looked at Yang in surprise and curiosity "you barely know me, yet you invite me to join you?"
Yang shrugged as she looked out over the city "haven't done me wrong yet"
Blake bit her lip at the irony in that statement, this entire situation was entirely her fault, hers and the white fang's.
"I may join you at some point" she finally settled upon.
"Well, we're gonna be going out to the docks at some point, it'll be a long trek through Vale and we could always use extra hands to help get out of this hell" said Yang.
Blake tilted her head again "I'll think about it" she finally said.
They stood there for a while, both calmly watching the city. Yang shivered again and wrapped her arms around herself for warmth. Blake looked at her and then took off her purple scarf, walking up and wrapping her scarf around Yang.
Yang stiffened and Blake froze when she realized not only what she had done but also how close they were, so close she could just feel Yang's breath on her cheek and closed her eyes at the warmth, wanting to get closer. She drew back and took several steps away, surprised at how difficult she found it to do.
"I'll warn you if I find out any new developments" she said, then Yang watched as she fled into the night. Her hand coming up and touching the purple scarf wrapped around her neck, the scent of Blake still attached to it.
~§~
Sorry for this being both delayed and short, I juts struggled to find inspiration to write longer and decided to keep this part short in the end. Quality over quantity ya know?
For anyone who thinks that I might be foreshadowing future relationships, I might be… except Yang x Ruby.
If you thought I was shipping Yang x Ruby… you should probably evaluate how you got to the point where you saw any sibling relationship as incest :/
On that depressing note
See ya!