"Oh, hey kids, just getting a midnight snack," Ghira stated sheepishly to the two girls on the sofa.
The only response he got in return was a pair of piercing glares.
"Hey! I wasn't the one who broke into someone's house tonight, don't make me the bad guy here!"
Blake continued to glare at him, though Yang couldn't help but cough and try to avert her gaze. The man did have a point, after all.
"Yeah a snack sounds good," Yang finally relented, eliciting a sigh of relief from Ghira as she stood up and took Blake's hand in her own, leading her to the kitchen. The Belladona patriarch followed behind, slightly grinning. Kali may have said it to save his ass, but ice cream did indeed sound good right about now.
His smile curled downwards as he entered the room, though, his eyes bulging at the state of the kitchen and his body locking up in fear. A few feet ahead, Blake was equally frozen.
"What?" Yang asked. "Blake? …Blake? BLAKE!"
"Yang, shhh," Blake said, pointing at the table.
"What? It's just an empty carton of-"
Before Yang could say another syllable, Blake moved with a speed she had never seen before, covering the distance between them in an instant and clamping her hands over the blonde's mouth. The faunus looked at her with such a serious fire in her eyes that Yang briefly found herself wondering if Blake had stolen her semblance.
Blake shook her head slowly, then withdrew a hand to point at the window, then making gestures with it to indicate Yang needed to be quiet and get out. If she had any doubts, Ghira had already jumped through it, the big man moving astoundingly quietly compared to his earlier buffoonery.
"Mister B, Mister B, how's it going?" the cashier asked from his place behind the counter. Yang thought that the man was surprisingly chipper for working graveyard shift at a corner store, but faunus had great night vision so maybe that translated into a more active nightlife. She was positive she saw a few restaurants and bars still open on the way in – it was a little hard to tell with how fast the two Belladonnas had been forcing her to sprint to the store – but she made a mental note to keep those in mind if she wanted to ask Blake on a date.
"I'll let you know once we manage to replace Kali's ice cream," Ghira replied, apparently known as the so-called Mister B. "I really need to get some ice cream now and leave, so I have to cut things short."
"Naaaah, forget about it, Sun just left with that blue-haired friend of his, big old bags filled with one of every type of vanilla we sell," he replied. "Couldn't remember the brand so they got everything and then ran away like a packa' Grimm were on their tails. Which means the only crisis you need to worry about is why you haven't yet introduced me to the new girl."
"Oh uh, this is Yang, she's Blake's… girlfriend?" Ghira looked at Blake for confirmation, getting a shrug in response, while Yang gave him a pair of thumbs-ups.
"Oh girlfriend huh? Haven't seen you around before, how long have you two been dating?" the cashier asked Yang with a gaze that seemed a little too judgmental for her liking.
She knew exactly what this was.
It wasn't quite clear what caused the phenomenon she was witnessing, but she had seen and heard about it enough with friends in the past to recognize it. For some reason when a guy and a girl started dating, the girl's extended family and friends started to come out of the woodwork to try and assert some sort of protector status in her life. Third cousins, former neighbors, mailmen, the veritable bottom of the barrel when it came to people with the loosest connection to the girl in question – they all had to say their peace.
Seriously, Blake left home for years, had only been back a matter of months, probably never spoke to this guy beyond 'I have a coupon for the tuna', and he still felt some sort of need to give approval on who she dated? If he said something stupid like 'if you ever hurt her' she felt like she would have trouble resisting the urge to clobber him right in the face.
Although, as she mused in amusement, that meant that people seemed to think she was the man in the relationship. Probably because of her biceps. She supposed she at least would look good in a suit. Wearing a suit meant that Blake would be the one wearing a dress….
Wait, right, he had asked her something. No need getting worked up and making up weird backstories in her mind about random cashiers.
"Uhh, about…" Yang stalled, looking up at the big clock on the store's front wall. "Forty five minutes or so?"
"Honey, here's that ice cream you asked for, which was the reason I went to the kitchen," Ghira said loudly from the hallway, giving Yang and Blake a wink. Yang returned his gesture with a thumbs-up, while Blake simply sighed.
There was no response, though as he approached the door Ghira could hear laughter. Walking through the threshold, he saw Sun and Neptune were seated on their bedroom sofa, while Kali sat on the nearby desk, all three individuals drinking hot tea from mugs. Behind her was an empty bowl with a spoon in it.
Sun paused in the middle of whatever story he was telling, and looked up at the big man.
"Normally a husband walks in on his wife and two shirtless boys in the middle of the night, he has a few questions," Ghira said, dumbfounded.
The three of them burst out laughing again.
"So I guess we've got some privacy again…." Blake coughed, trying to cover up the squeak in her voice.
"Huh, yeah," Yang replied.
"So…."
"So…."
"Forty-five minutes?"
"Hey!" Yang replied. "I was being honest!"
Blake couldn't help but laugh at that. Half a year and half her arms missing, but she was still Yang, of that she was certain.
"Don't mind me."
Turning around, the two girls saw that Blake's father had quickly returned from the bedroom and was walking right past them. Without any other comments after his first one, he curled up into another sofa in the living room, faced the seat back, and fell asleep in what seemed like an instant.
"Is he…?" Yang whispered.
Grabbing the blonde's hand, Blake pulled her away from the living room for the second time that night. Yang wasn't familiar with the layout of the house, but after a few seconds they entered a new room and she realized she was now standing in Blake's bedroom.