"Oh no." I say as soon as I leave the bar. "Oh hell no. I am not riding on that." I cross my arms and look to the side. Nodding to myself. Resolute in the fact that no matter how much I just drank that there would be no way that I be drunk enough to want to get atop that monstrosity.
And what a monstrosity it is.
Over the years Yang had turned Bumblebee from a lean sports bike into a growling monstrosity of steel and gasoline. Painted the same shade of neon yellow mixed with black that had given it its name, the large thrusters present on the back of the so called 'bike' combined with the large - almost comically so - tires made the bike a weapon in and of itself. I can testify. I saw her run over a Beowulf with it once.
"Oh come on," she walks over, takes her key from between her cleavage - which I swear I wasn't looking at - and twisted the ignition. The thing roared, light flickers of flame spouting from the thrusters. She caresses the thing, giving me the illusion that the abomination of a bike was purring under its master's ministrations. She probably did it on purpose, just to freak me out, "Don't be such a baby. Bumblebee's completely safe."
I give her such an incredulous look that she looks away and coughs, laughing nervously.
"Well. Mostly safe."
"Wow. That is so reassuring. I am completely and utterly okay with riding on that thing now. Thank you, Yang." I say sarcastically.
Yang heaves herself atop the thing. Turning to give me a grin, "If you don't get on. I'ma run ya over."
I turn to her with wide eyes, "You wouldn't dare." Despite my words, I still back away though. Yang simply grins at me. Oh what are you saying, me? She totally would. This is Yang you're talking about here, Jaune. And she would do it as a joke.
So, deciding that getting on it is better than getting run over it, I hesitantly clamber atop on Bumblebee, behind Yang. She turns to look at me smugly. Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.
"I'm so glad that you saw reason, Jaune." How could a person that sounds so sincere be so scary at the same time?
"Wasn't exactly a very hard choice to make. Given the options." She giggles at my answer. She really does have a beautiful laugh.
"Hold on tight."
My eyes dig into the back of her brown trench coat. "What exactly do you mean by that?" I say suspiciously.
The engines roar so loud that it hurts my ears, and I get my answer.
The force of starting up Bumblebee almost throws me off the bike, would have, if I had not frantically grabbed onto the closest object in order to steady myself: Yang.
I hear the vague noise of laughter over the roaring of the monstrous bike, and feel Yang's shoulders shaking as I hold onto her for dear life. My face warms in embarrassment.
The bike - thank the gods - slows down after its explosive start, still fast, but not ludicrously so. We drive past the entrance-way of the town, past startled watchmen, and past through the sign denoting the town's name - unfortunately we are going too fast for me to read it. A shame.
"You are the worst." I inform Yang.
She just glances back at me - I don't bother telling her to keep her eyes on the road. She's a lost cause - and has the audacity to wink, smirking smugly all the while.
Eventually the road we are taking splits off into two paths. Yang heads right, to Vale City.
"You're getting awfully cozy back there aren't you, Lady Killer?"
I raise a brow, confused at what she means before my eyes widen in realization. Over the course of the ride, my wandering mind has put my body on autopilot and it has taken the most comfortable position it can. I am leaning on Yang, my arms firmly wrapped around her midriff. I recoil, momentarily surprised, and lean back further, loosening my grasp around her; admonishing myself for being so careless. Showing such a lack of awareness before the Grimm were exterminated could have gotten me killed.
"Sorry about that," I apologize. And if my both of my arms around her - and wow, that was a thought that could be taken out of context if there ever was one - I would have been rubbing the back of my head sheepishly.
"It's fine," she says, and I can practically hear the smirk she is no doubt wearing, "I know that men can hardly keep their hands off of me."
I roll my eyes, at that. "Hardy har har."
It's a long ride to Vale, and Yang keeps me on my toes by periodically adding random bursts of speeds through the journey. We chat about little, inconsequential things, until eventually a comfortable silence falls upon us. I close my eyes, just planning to relax until we reach Vale and help Ruby with whatever problem she's having.
Yang shatters that silence, as she is wont to, "So. You dating anyone?"
The question comes from absolutely nowhere, so I have no time to think on it. I give her the honest and slightly emasculating answer.
"Not really. No."
"Really?"
"Why do you sound so surprised?" I ask her curiously.
"'Cause I am," she shrugs, "you're a nice catch. Relatively well off, famous, good-looking." She rattles off a list of my desirable qualities. "How has a girl never asked you out before?"
"Oh they have," I reply, "It's just that they wanna get with me because I'm 'Jaune Arc, famous Huntsman', not because I'm 'Jaune Arc, person'. Get me? I don't really have high standards for women, but gold diggers are a bit of a turn off for me. I want a something a little more genuine than that."
She giggles.
"What?" I ask her, a little defensive.
"Nothing," she waves me off, "It's just...I never took you for such a romantic. You believe in true love, too?"
"Well," the question gives me pause, "depends on what you mean by true love. Do you mean, like the soulmate stuff?"
"Yeah." I see her nod, a curious tilt of something in her voice. Something flips in my stomach, it's like I'm back to being a teenager again. It's neither welcome nor unwelcome.
"Not really."
"Hm?"
"Really? How naive do you think I am?" I question her with a little bit of indignation in my tone. I may have believed in stuff like that when I was younger, sure, but I grew out of it as I matured.
"Yeah. I don't really buy all of that true love stuff; people aren't just in love with another person. That's more lust than love. Love takes time to build up, I think. You need to actually understand, be friends with a person to truly understand them, to love them." Before I know it I go off of a tangent on love of all things to Yang of all people.
"That was pretty deep." She says after a short pause, a little surprise in her voice.
"Damn straight. I'm Jaune Arc, Huntsman by trade, Lady Killer by nature, and philosopher by circumstance."
"That your resume?" She laughs, I do too. No matter how much I complain about Yang's wild behavior, she's a truly fun person to be around.
"What brought on all of this stuff about love anyway? You finally get a boyfriend?" Even I don't what I'm feeling at the thought of it. I know I should be happy for her if she does, but still, something in me tugs in displeasure at the idea, platonic protectiveness, or something more?
"No." No joke, no inflection.
"Why not?" I ask, but I already know the answer. As much as Yang ragged on me about being a 'romantic' earlier, she is much the same.
"Same problem as you," she sighs in displeasure, "except with the addition of guys going after my killer bod too." What a brilliant display of humility.
"Oh? You a fellow romantic?" I say jokingly.
She chuckles. "Maybe."
I'd like to say that the sight of Vale gives me a sense of accomplishment and accomplishment, of what humanity could accomplish given enough time and resources, of what my forefathers had died protecting; a feeling of protectiveness curling around in my chest like a Mama Ursa ready to protect her little death machines. It would be the the Huntsman thing to feel. It would be what those pedestrians waving at us from down the street would think I am feeling, it would be what the kids looking at us in awe and out-reached hands would think I am feeling.
In reality, the only thing that Vale gives me is a headache.
If I had to describe Vale in one word, it would definitely be 'bustling'. Businessmen rushed to their commutes in their starched suits and and briefcases, the workers were going crazy, tearing down walls and defenses now that there are no chances of Grimm breaches. It's a flurry of activity that my poor village-boy mind cannot comprehend.
At-least the monstrosity that Yang is riding is causing the citizens of Vale to give us a very wide berth; at least it's good for something.
"How's it like to be back?" Yang asks me, as we nearly run over a slow pedestrian. I give the man a pitying look, and then turn to answer Yang's question.
"It sucks ass."
Yang barks a laugh, "Wow. Blunt, much?"
I shrug, even though she can't see the motion. "What do you want me to say? I mean, it's really great and all that people are less terrified of going out of their homes. But it's so crowded. It's honestly too much for me."
"Hm, I never knew that you hated crowds?"
"Well," I consider for a moment, "Vale when we were attending Beacon was pretty tense, what with Roman, the White Fang, and all of that other stuff, Vale felt like it was one second from pushing the 'evacuate all of the civilians' button. It only got worse after the Fall. People were too scared to get out of their homes. It just never came up, I guess." I shrug.
"So that's why you never visit the major cities," Yang observes, to which I nod.
"Yeah. I just can't get over how crowded they can get. Especially Mistral." Yang groans as I mention the kingdom.
"Don't even remind me about Mistral. I went there a few months ago to meet a contact, and for some reason there was a festival going on. It was like a sea of bodies, like, holy crap. It was like a goddamn tidal wave of people."
I pat her back in sympathy, "I barely survived Mistral on normal day. I have no idea how you could handle it being a festival day."
"Mostly luck. And a lot and I mean a lot of revving Bumblebee 2.0 up." And there went all of my sympathies.
"Anyway," I say. "Where does Ruby live, anyway?"
"It's just around that corner over there." It takes only a scant few seconds to pass said corner. Jeez, this bike is fast. That corner was like, a few hundred meters away. "Yeah. It's that building over there." She floors the breaks, and I have to grab onto to ensure I don't get tossed off of the bike by the sudden loss of momentum. She's doing it on purpose. I'm sure of it. I look at where she's pointing: a nondescript apartment building.
I don't even know why I'm surprised at this point. 'Humble' and Ruby are pretty much synonymous at this point. Kinda makes you feel like trash. Goddammit Ruby, givin' me an inferiority complex even when you're not here.
Yang parks in front of the building. She gets off the bike. I am quick to follow her lead. Goodbye, Bumblebee. I won't miss you at all.
We enter the building, and head to the elevator. Yang presses the button that takes us up to the second floor. We stand in silence for a few seconds.
"Kinda weird how she lives in an apartment of all things."
Yang chuckles, just shaking her head. "Tell me about it."
"Isn't that kind of a bad idea? What with her adoring fans and all?"
"You might think that this building's a regular apartment building; it isn't. This building doesn't have anybody living in it except for Ruby."
I look at her, wide-eyed, "You're shitting me."
She shakes her head, expression turning serious.
"Why didn't she just buy a house?"
"It's easier to hide in an apartment building than an actual house that you own."
I frown, "That makes sense. But still...living in this apartment building...all alone. That sounds so damn lonely." Goddamit. Why didn't I check on her sooner?
Yang looks pained, "It's not that bad. Me and the team still visit her."
"How regularly?"
Yang winces, evidently they hadn't been visiting Ruby as regularly as she wanted. A flash of fury goes through me - I squash it down. A condemnation by me out of all people would be beyond hypocritical. I thought I moved past the war, I congratulated myself because of moving past those hellish memories, drowning myself in bottles of memories and pleasurable past times. I was escaping. Escaping my past. My pain. My friends. Sure I called. Sure I visited once in a blue moon. But it wasn't enough.
"Jaune?" Yang's arm is on my shoulder. Warm and comforting. I look into her eyes. Lilac, beautiful and worried for me. No trace of the pain that used to lurk in there after the Fall, after Raven, after Salem. How can she be so strong? How can I be so weak?
"I'm sorry," I say, voice choked, "I'm sorry for not being there for Ruby."
Yang's face turns shocked, "What?" The elevator dings as we reach the second floor. We both ignore it.
Words flow out of me, "I've- I've not been a good friend. I've been so obsessed over myself and my problems that I couldn't check on everybody else's. I've been dwelling over everything while everybody else moved on. I'm sorry." Shame colors my voice. I look down.
Yang laughs. I look to her in betrayal.
"Wha-!" She cuts me off with a shake of her head. A sort of amused but firm look on her face - the kind of face she wears when chastising Ruby. It's a look that makes me feel like a child all over again.
"You don't have anything to apologize for."
"No I-!" I begin to protest
"No you don't!" Flecks of crimson appear in those lilac eyes. Her hand on my shoulder feels like iron. I shut my mouth. "I see that all of those years haven't done anything about your damn hero-complex. Guess that's why you and Ruby were always so buddy-buddy."
"You always believe that you can do better. That you're always the one at fault. You're wrong." She glares. I can't look away from those eyes.
"But-!"
"No 'buts'!" She hisses, "You're not the only who can't move past everything. Blake and Weiss throw themselves at their work, deluding themselves into thinking that putting almost all of their time to making the world a better place won't hurt everyone closer to home."
Yang looks sad, tired. I realize the pain in those eyes hadn't disappeared. They were just hidden better. They were dulled, muted even - but that didn't mean that they weren't there. She had lost a piece of herself during the war, I realize. We all did.
"Yang..."
"Ruby never had a choice. She had to be someone - no, something perfect for Remnant. The Grimm Reaper. The hero. For everyone, but not for herself and those who love her."
Yang looks pained. I hate it. I thought we were past all of this. That we had healed, but here we are. Just as hurt.
"And then there's me. Instead of staying and supporting my sister like I should have. I- I ran." She spits out the words like they're ashes on her tongue. There was sadness there and a self-loathing so different from her signature assurance that it throws me for a loop. This isn't the Yang that I know and respect. This is the Yang behind the facade. The Yang that she shows to no one but herself. I wonder if I even know her at all. "If you're going to blame yourself. Then blame us as well. You're not the only one who ran away."
She chuckles ruefully, "I'm exactly like Raven."
{Play: Cowboy Bepop OST 1 - Waltz for Zizi}
I'm silent for a moment. Yang mistakes my silence as one of stupefaction, and presses the button to the button that will take us to the second floor once more, as during the time that we were talking the elevator had gone back down to the ground floor. For an awkward moment the only sound that can be heard in that uncomfortably small and horribly bright elevator was an annoyingly catchy tune.
The elevator doors open. Yang moves to step out. And I think about letting her. I think about everything I know and believe about Yang Xiao Long. Every smile and every word of encouragement she has ever given me out. Every act of kindness. And you can bet your ass that I grabbed her by the shoulder and stopped her right then and there. She rounds on me, a question on the tip of her tongue. I shake my head and interrupt her.
"You're wrong." Earlier I asked myself if I knew who Yang really is. The answer is I don't. Not completely. I know that she's a fun loving person that cares deeply about her friends. But is that really something that everyone doesn't already know? I don't know her completely, and that's fine. Because who can claim to know a person's every desire, motive and emotion? The best we can do is to strive to understand as much as we can. And I understand Yang enough to know that what she's saying is completely and utterly wrong.
She opens her mouth, maybe to protest, maybe to agree. I'll never know, because I raise up a hand and gave her a stern look. "You said that I had a hero-complex, and maybe- no you're definitely right. I'd save everyone. I'd take on everyone's burdens by myself if I could, I'm stupid like that."
"I-" I breathe. "I hated looking back at the war. And when I looked back at you guys - at Ren and Nora, at you, Ruby, Blake, Weiss I-"
"I remembered. And I drifted away, never noticing that you guys were doing the same. You made me understand that, you're right in the fact that I'm not the only one at fault. I see that now - but you're wrong on one thing."
Ruby had her silver eyes. Weiss had her dust. Blake and Ren had their speed and stealth. Yang and Nora had their raw power. Me? I had the men and women of Remnant that were tired of the way things were. My weapon was my resolve taken into the spoken word. My weapon was self-expression painted into the most favorable light possible.
But I don't use an ounce of nuanced word, or charisma, or persuasive language that I had used on them as I talk to Yang. She doesn't need to be coerced, she needs to see. "Raven wouldn't care about what she was becoming, or who she was hurting, as long as her damned tribe survived to see another day."
My hand squeezes her shoulder. I look into her turbulent eyes, and I still can't see what she is thinking. That is fine.
"To me: Yang Xiao Long and Raven Branwen are worlds apart."
Of that, I have the utmost faith.
AN
Heya, guys. Still not dead. As you can see by this chapter. Sorry for the delay, I've really got no excuse. Was just being my lazy, unproductive self. The Senior is taking a while as I'm unsure about the direction I want that story to go (I'm thinking half-serious half-satire?) and I'm too lazy to get out of my comfort zone and start completing Volume 5. Second Flash's chapter is almost done, just needs some refinement. I've tentatively begun Desperate Measure's next chapter.
I'm unsure about the confrontation at the end there between Jaune and Yang, and while I feel that both of them were relatively in character, I'm unsure if the way they've aired out their grievances were conveyed well. So, I'd appreciate any comments about that.
I do hope you guys enjoyed my choice of OST. Was partly inspired by Kur0Kishi's (An amazing fanfic author, go check them out) tendency to do so.
Anyway, Leave a review. See ya.