Aaaaaaahhhhhh. I'm back.

I am so very, very sorry for the horrendously long wait time between the updates. 2 MONTHS?! Absolutely mad. Life has just been getting in my way of writing, and that kind of sucks really hard, but I hope this can make up for it just a little bit. Again, super sorry.

Yang woke up feeling weird. She could only see out of one eye, and something fuzzy was covering her other eye. Her left arm felt really stiff and everything everywhere ached. The room was spinning a little bit.

Oh. More than a little bit.

A wave of nausea hit her, and she leaned over to her side and retched, only her stomach contracted painfully and nothing came out except acid and globules of foamy spit. She coughed and hacked, trying to regain her surroundings. This was not exactly how she had intended to wake up. Although she supposed it was good that she woke up at all.

The dull light of what she now recognized to be a hospital ward beat down on her, making her head pound a little. Yang breathed in deep, trying to collect herself. Her thoughts were still a little fuzzy, and the world was still spinning, man oh man what exactly happened? She should remember what happened, but Yang didn't recall anything after...

After meeting her Uncle Qrow?

It came to her in flashes and textures, and only bits and pieces of it. Blood and the smell of smoke and loud flashes and cracks of guns.

Yang retched again, and again nothing came out. She breathed heavy, and her body felt weak and tired and the room was still spinning.

"Oh," somebody called out from far away, very far away. "You're awake, goodness," they said. Then a blurry figure came into view, blocking the light, and Yang, in the briefest of moments, thought the black, shadowy figure to be Blake. Then the figure did something, and Yang's vision cleared a little bit as her heartrate slowed. Then everything slowed down, and Yang could catch a glimpse of the large man in scrubs standing over her as she drifted off to sleep, and her last thought was that that was decidedly not Blake Belladonna. How disappointing.

Yang went back to sleep.

"What happened?"

Blake stood at the foot of the bed, arms limp at her sides as she looked at Yang on the bed, head covered in bandages. She looked serene in her sleep. Like she wasn't covered in bruises and cuts, and there wasn't a thick wad of bandage wrapped around her head and a cast on her left arm. Yang looked peaceful, which was more than she could say for herself.

Blake walked over slowly to the side of the bed, and she let her fingers ghost slightly over Yang's wrist. She almost couldn't believe that Yang was back. She wished Yang hadn't come back right from the exit of a wood chipper, but there you go. That was Yang. Subverting everybody's expectations when they least expected them to. Fall in love with her at your own behest.

Her breath caught in her throat. She couldn't help but feel that this was her doing. Her fault. It was silly, and childish, and the real reason was probably more complex than that. But standing there over her broken form, Blake felt mildly responsible. There was an ache deep in her chest, and she took a deep breath to calm herself down.

"We don't know yet," Weiss said finally, sighing. "She came to the loft bleeding and bruised. She passed out on the way to the hospital, and I don't know if she's woken up since."

Blake crossed her arms, taking a step away from the bed, trying to recollect herself.

Yes, she definitely felt more than a little responsible for her.

"Blake," Weiss grabbed her elbow a little more than gently, snapping her out of her reverie. Weiss' steel-blue pierced through her, grounding her for a moment. She relaxed herself, if only marginally, taking a half step back. Weiss sighed, brushing a hand over Blake's arm momentarily before returning it to her side.

"What are we going to do?" Blake asked, in a way that was naked and lost and afraid, and Weiss' heart ached for her. She couldn't even imagine how she was feeling.

"We wait," Weiss said softly, mustering up what littler certainty she had left in her. Willing up hope beyond hope.

Yang dreamed.

Yang dreamed explosively.

A bang, flash of yellow, a mixture of red and grey and stars all around her. The technicolour morphed and ebbed and flowed all around her. She swam through the dream, floated through with ease. It happened in the way that things did in dreams. They just were. No rhyme or reason or cause and effect. She felt and saw and heard things whizz past her quickly, before the sensation of drowning hit her, and the sharp clang of metal hitting metal.

Scenes and scenes and scenes morphed and transformed before her.

Then it all stopped. Like somebody had stopped the film reel. Colours stayed in place, then slowly dulled and melted away. Everything turned into nothing.

Clear as day, Blake Belladonna appeared out of the shadows.

"Hi," Yang said to her after an indeterminable amount of silence. "Hi, Blake."

"Hello," Blake said, and Yang could already feel herself settling down. She relaxed into the couch that they had picked out and bought for the loft because the previous one was lumpy and gross and uncomfortable. The sun was just setting, and through the windows the sunlight framed Blake perfectly, like a scene out of a movie.

"I've missed you," Yang said. She sighed heavily. "I've missed you a lot."

Blake didn't respond.

"I can't even remember what I did but I remember I always thought about you right before I went to sleep. You were the last thing on my mind every night. It was driving me a bit crazy, actually. Then again, that's pretty normal, huh?" Yang sighed again.

"You left," Blake said, and Yang shrank a little bit.

"I did," Yang said.

"We didn't know where you went," Blake said, her voice even. Not hurt, not disappointed, not relieved. Just flat. Somehow Yang thought that was worse. "We didn't know if you were okay."

"I know," Yang said, and they left it at that.

"How's Weiss and Ruby?" Yang said after a while. Blake shrugged, her gaze permanently fixated on the wall. "How's Sun?"

Blake looked at her.

"Oh, Yang..." she said, only it was the funniest thing, her mouth didn't move. Blake looked up, and Yang followed her gaze, and everything blew away like it was made out of sand. "Yang..." the voice called out again and Yang's heart sank and a pit formed in her gut. Blake's voice had always been distinctive to her.

Light came to her slowly, through heavy eyelids.

Blake had never been happier to see the colour purple. It almost seemed to beam out from the single half-open eyelid. It froze her right on the spot. It stilled her heart for a moment, and at the same time, made it almost burst out of her chest. A purple iris, slowly focusing onto her. Blake had always thought Yang's unique shade of lilac was beautiful, but right now it seemed like the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.

"Ow," Yang croaked out, soft and small and her lips curling up ever so slightly. Blake wanted to throttle her and hug her and kiss her and scream at her, but she instead chose to settle with laughing.

"Yang," she said, her throat tight. What else could she say, really? "Yang," she choked out again, and immediately dove in to hug her. Dimly it occurred to her to be careful, but at the moment, she was just relieved.

"Hi," Yang whispered, and her arms gingerly wrapped around Blake's form. Yang winced a little from the overload of emotion and sensation. But one thought cut through the haze in her mind- Blake was here. Nothing would have made her happier.

"Oh, god, Yang we were so worried," Blake said, muffled as she buried her face into Yang's shoulder. Yang began to wince more noticeably now, and Blake recoiled. "I'm sorry! Sorry, I- Are you alright?" she bit her lip, mentally berating herself for her carelessness. She ran a hand through her hair; god, she was a mess.

"I'm okay," Yang smiled. Not quite her toothy grin, but she had just woken up from a really long nap. "I'm really glad to see you. Do you have any water?" Yang swallowed thickly, suddenly feeling the dryness in her throat. How long had she been out?

Judging from Blake's behaviour, way too long. Blake withdrew a water bottle from her purse, handing it over to the blonde. She hesitated as she watched Yang's weak grip on the bottle.

"Here," Blake said, uncapping the lid and helping Yang drink. She took a long swig and mumbled out a thanks.

"How are you feeling?" Blake asked as she set the water down. Yang closed her eyes and sighed. To be honest, she didn't really know. She wasn't in excruciating pain right then and there. The pain was there, but without her moving it would be a bit difficult to tell how bad it was. Yang touched the bandage covering her left eye, slightly poking at it. She looked down at her form. Her left arm was in a cast, and she could feel the myriad of bandages criss-crossing her body. She looked worse than she felt really, but she didn't feel particularly good either.

"I'm... okay," Yang responded tentatively. Blake bit her lip again.

"You don't need me to call you a nurse or...?" she trailed off, looking off to the side at the door.

"Nurse? No, I'm- I'm okay," Yang said in a breathy laugh. She swallowed thickly again. "Blake... what happened?" she closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. Her head was hurting now, the more she tried to think about what she remembered.

"I... don't know, Yang," Blake replied, small and uncertain. Yang brought up a hand to her temple. Her mind felt like it was splitting in two. She saw a bright flash and heard the loudest crack she'd ever heard, and she felt nausea threatening to overtake her. God, god, god what happened? Her eye that was shut tight in concentration and effort and pain opened and she saw Blake looking down, more than a little concerned. She looked downright frightened. Yang took in a large gulp of air, trying to steady herself. Sound slowly started fading, like somebody was trying to turn down the volume on reality.

The nurse Blake called for rushed over with a syringe, and the last thing Yang saw before she went back to sleep was Blake Belladonna and she thought, that was okay with her.

"Yang!"

"Ruby!"

Ruby hopped from one leg to the other on the spot. The early morning couldn't stop the young girl's energy and exuberance. By now, there was a sneaking suspicion among the tenants of loft 4B that nothing short of the apocalypse could.

"Aaaaahhhhhhcanihugyou?!" Ruby squealed, at something short of subsonic speed and frequency. Luckily her sister was proficient in both dolphin and blue hedgehog.

"Yes, but really carefully!" she replied.

Ruby bounced over to Yang's bed, doing her best to gingerly give her sister a hug. Yang responded in kind, wrapping her free arm around Ruby's neck as she nuzzled into her neck. God, she had missed her baby sister.

"I'm so glad you're okay," Ruby said, quietly and sounding far, far older than she had any right to be. Yang should have expected that Ruby would grow up right behind her back.

"I'm glad I am too, sis," Yang smiled. She was feeling better and better by the minute.

Ruby pulled away from the hug and looked at the others surrounding the bed.

"Weiss, come give Yang a hug!" she beckoned the girl over. Weiss folded her arms and quirked a brow at the younger girl. Ruby pouted a little bit. Then she pouted a lot, and Weiss could almost roll her eyes out of her skull. She sighed, and went over anyway, because who was she kidding? She gave Yang a quick embrace that was less awkward than it could have been.

"I'm happy to see that you're okay. Relatively okay," Weiss said, giving a genuine smile. One that Yang returned.

"Yay!" Ruby threw her hands up. "Blake, you get in here too!"

Blake didn't bother rolling her eyes, because she knew that when Ruby wanted something bad enough, it was just an eventuality. It was a known fact that adorableness beat every wall, shield, door and general resistance that was ever put up.

So they all had a big group hug, and it was great.

And for a little while, everything seemed great.

The days and weeks went by fine. Better than fine. The days and weeks went by happy. Each girl would rotate out their shifts on seeing Yang. Ruby would drop in in the mornings. Classes were starting back up soon, as the days got a little warmer, and Ruby's second year would start soon. She'd obviously aced her finals in what she described as a stroke of luck, but what Yang knew to be just her little sister being the genius she always was. In the afternoons, Weiss would come in for her lunch break, usually with food in hand, and the three of them would have lunch together after Weiss gave Ruby a quick peck on the lips-

OH, WAIT. WHAT?

Yang did a spit-take, coughing and choking on her water. She felt her bruised ribs ache dully, but she was more preoccupied with the newfound development in the- with the- Weiss kissing and-

"What?" Yang managed to ask in between fits of coughing. Ruby thumped her back slightly in concern, while Weiss clenched her fists and stewed in beet-red embarrassment. "No, no, what?!"

"Relax Yang!" Ruby soothed, in the least soothing tone of voice. Her panic was etched onto her face as she look between Weiss and Yang frantically, her brain kicking into overdrive to figure out a solution. Her sister was dying and her girlfriend was- Heh, her girlfriend-

"When?" Yang finally ceased her coughing fit and gingerly ghosted over the bruises on her ribs, soothing the pain. Ruby walked over to Weiss and linked arms with her in what could only be described as an act of concentrated adorableness. Truly, Yang thought, these precious babies were too innocent for the world. She grinned wide, making the both of them blush madly. Yang leaned forward onto her tray table, holding her chin up with her free hand and smiling wide. Ruby met eyes with Weiss and nodded, and Weiss nodded back, their eyes full of steely resolve now. Yang almost laughed right then and there.

"Yang," Ruby began. She faltered, clearing her throat several times as she looked back and forth between the two again. "Uh..."

"Me and Ruby," Weiss stepped in. "Ruby and I," she swallowed thickly. "We-"

"Weissismygirlfriend!" Ruby blurted out suddenly, cutting the older girl off. She clamped her hand immediately over her mouth as her eyes widened.

Then the giggles started. Ruby first, then Yang, and even Weiss had to laugh.

Yang recovered, even though it made her ribs twinge she still had to laugh. "Oh, congratulations you guys. I knew it'd happen sooner or later," she sighed a little more than wistfully. "Just wished I hadn't missed it."

Both of them gave Yang wide smiles, and Yang couldn't have been happier.

She drummed her fingers on the tray enthusiastically. "So!" Yang said, leaning back in on her free hand with a wide, dopey smile on her face. "Give me the details. How's the se-" She paused, then tilted her head a bit, considering Ruby, wide-eyed and genuinely curious about the end of Yang's sentence. Then she shifted her focus to Weiss, whose face had already morphed into one of anger and mortification. Yang sighed, blowing a stray lock of hair out of her eyes. "How'd it happen," she conceded, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

Weiss blew out breath she was holding in as Ruby launched into an excited tirade. Slyly, Yang wiggled her eyebrows at her, and Weiss felt the blush heat up her neck as she swallowed thickly, then chose to be very, very invested in Ruby's retelling of how it had happened.

The days kept going by.

"Okay?"

"Okay," Yang said in-between gritted teeth. She clenched her eyes shut, taking in a deep breath. Blake held her side, supporting Yang on one side as she leaned against the support beam on the wall. Yang breathed in deep several more times before putting more weight on her legs. Blake kept a wary eye on the blonde, ready to catch her if she lost her balance, ready to help her in any way she needed. Yang grunted as she rested the full weight of her body on her legs. "Ta-da," she laughed weakly. Blake laughed, squeezing her arm slightly.

Physiotherapy was going well.

This was the part that the books and movies never told you about. They always covered the big fight, where the hero gets injured, but never the small moments, the slow plodding of the days going by as they attempted to pick their pieces back up. The movie that was to be made about Yang would cover her adventures, not her grueling moments in the hospital where it looked like she was heading nowhere and making no progress. Well, the movie would cover Yang's adventures if she could ever recollect those adventures. Other than vague images and scenes, Yang still had no clear idea of what she had done in the weeks she was gone. Blake supposed it didn't matter. Still, she was curious.

"Okay, Yang, I think that's a pretty neat trick," Blake nodded, impressed.

"Aren't I just the best?" Yang huffed out another laugh before gently shifting the weight off her legs and supporting herself back on the beam. Out of the corner of her eyes, Blake eyed the strain Yang was putting on her forearms. It was impressive, for reasons other than what other might have had in mind. Yang may have been beaten, but she was certainly not broken.

"That enough for today?" Yang asked.

"That's enough for today," Blake affirmed, feeling a little bit more than proud of the blonde. "Let's get you back in the chair and I'll get the nurse," Blake said, supporting her friend as they moved towards the wheelchair.

Yang settled into the wheelchair with a sigh of relief, wiping a bead of sweat off of her forehead. "I'm pooped," she said, slumping in the chair. Blake rolled her eyes, giving her arm a little poke.

"Just a little bit of standing, Yang. Nothing to it," she said.

"Nothing to it," repeated Yang with a little laugh. Yang smiled, looking up at Blake. She swallowed thickly, looking away and biting her lip, and opened her mouth, something clearly on her mind. She then shook her head, closing her mouth.

Blake quirked a brow at her, and Yang sighed.

"Blake," Yang said, very carefully.

"Yang," Blake said, very incredulously.

"Are... are we...?" Yang twirled a lock of hair around her finger and cleared her throat before sitting up straighter and resting her hands in her lap. "Well, I mean, are me and you- you and I... okay?"

Blake's ears twitched a little bit, and she suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to run, run as fast and far away as she could. If she was honest with herself, the thought had crossed her mind more than several times since Yang had come back, but more important things had come in the way, like making sure Yang wasn't dead. Blake had mostly been happy that Yang was alive and back at all, never mind either of their unresolved feelings for each other. But now that Yang was better...

Blake loved Yang. Unequivocally, whole-heartedly, unconditionally. Blake loved Yang.

But Blake was scared, and confused, and Blake didn't want to ruin things for everybody because everywhere Blake had been before, there usually tended to be a trail of destruction that followed.

Only those things didn't seem to matter too much when Blake was with Yang, which scared her half to death because it made it feel like the enemy was gone, when Blake knew that what was broken inside her wasn't fixed because of Yang, it was just hidden. She knew, and she wondered if Yang understood.

Those big pools of purple didn't seem to care too much, though.

Blake sighed internally.

Blake loved Yang. That wasn't going to change. It made her heart jump a little bit at the unexplored possibility of that. That Blake loved Yang so much and Yang loved Blake just as much, and she could be in love with her and she could be just as in love with her and that it would all work out. It made her heart inflate at just the thought of it, and Blake had to pull the brakes on that line of thought, because Yang was still looking at Blake, and Yang was sitting in a wheelchair, and things were better, much, much better than they were before but it still wasn't perfect.

"We're okay, Yang," Blake said, taking Yang's uninjured hand in her own, looking right into her eyes. "I'm so glad you're back," she whispered, lifting the hand up and placing a gentle kiss on a knuckle before squeezing it and letting go. It was a promise, to the both of them, of the things to come.

We're getting so very close to the end, lads and ladettes! The next few chapters should be very exciting. I promise I'll get them out faster than this one.