Yang POV
Over the next couple of weeks, I found myself looking forward to the times Coco would enter the coffee shop. I still hadn't seen her at Beacon, but those short conversations with her during slow periods at work became the highlight of my day. There was just something about her; she was a great person to be around. My roommate, Blake, always got this knowing look on her face when I mentioned Coco, which was more often than I cared to admit.
One day, after I'd finished chatting with Coco, Blake walked into the store. Whether it was coincidence that she'd come for coffee when she knew I'd be working, I wouldn't find out. She passed Coco on her way to the counter.
"Yang, when are you gonna ask her out?" she asked after ordering a double espresso.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," I replied, looking daggers at the Faunus.
"Your expression says otherwise, as does the frequency at which you talk about her at home."
"…Shut up."
"You're not helping your case, Yang," Blake told me, raising an eyebrow. I kept silent. "Well, if you ever want to talk, I'll listen." She took her coffee and left the store, leaving me wondering about what she'd said. Did she think I was falling for Coco? Furthermore, was she right? There was no denying that Coco was fairly attractive, even if she tended to cover half her face with sunglasses. For some reason I really liked her voice, but I couldn't explain why. Admittedly, I talked about her a lot at home, but even so, I didn't think I liked her, at least not in the way Blake seemed to think I did.
When I got off work, I went to my dorm to get my training gear and headed to kung fu practice, hoping it would clear my head a little. After donning my uniform and tying my hard-earned black belt round my waist, I headed outside to make the short walk to the gym where I trained. Along the way, I wasn't expecting to bump into Coco. Not literally, mind you; she was sitting on a bench with her laptop, drinking what I figured was probably a salted caramel hot chocolate with soy milk, whipped cream and no foam. I got a weird feeling in my chest when I realised someone else must have served it to her.
"Oh, hey, Yang," she said as I walked past.
"Hi, Coco," I answered. "What's up?"
"Not much, just doing an assignment. Didn't feel like sitting inside. Going to train?"
"Yeah. You can come watch, if you want," I offered, then mentally smacked myself. Why would she want to sit and watch me practice the same techniques over and over for an hour and a half?
"Okay, sure. Just give me a minute," she replied, to my surprise. I figured she was saving her work, because a few seconds later she closed her laptop and put it in her bag. Picking up her drink, she asked, "so where do you train?"
"A couple of blocks away. My uncle owns the gym. Shall we go?"
"Yeah, sure. You sure he won't mind me just watching?" she asked, sounding genuinely concerned about that thought.
"Nah, it's fine. He'll probably ask if you want a trial class, but don't do it if you don't want to."
"Okay. I might sometime, but I can't exactly do kung fu in this outfit," Coco said, gesturing at her clothing. I realised she was wearing the outfit she had on when I'd first met her, and smiled.
"Good point. You know, it's strange, not serving you hot chocolate."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I've also never seen you with your hair up," she replied.
"Qrow doesn't let me train with it down. I hate tying it, even if it's just a ponytail."
"Ironic that a hairstyling student prefers not to style her own hair," Coco pointed out.
"Yeah, well. But seriously, I tried to go to practice without tying my hair back once, and Qrow got a bei dao off the wall and threatened to shave my head if I left it down." Coco cracked up, then asked what a bei dao was. "It's a curved one-handed sword," I explained. "Generally you slash and cut with it rather than stabbing."
"Ah. He threatened to shave your head with that?"
"Yup. He's a pretty cool guy in general, but he's mildly terrifying when he has a traditional Chinese weapon in his hands. Still, he's nice enough if you stay on his good side," I answered. By this point, we had rounded the corner onto the street where Qrow's gym was located, and I saw an unfamiliar boy of about fourteen entering the building with who I assumed to be his dad.
"Does he have a lot of students?" Coco asked.
"A fair amount, but he's pretty strict about dedication. He doesn't like people who want to learn the art as a pastime, unless they have a lot of time to pass."
"Ah," my companion replied as we entered the gym.
"Hello, Yang," Qrow said when he saw me. As usual, he was dressed in his teaching outfit, which consisted of a black silk garment with an elaborate white dragon design down one side, and black silk pants designed for maximum manoeuvrability. "Who's your friend?"
"This is Coco. Coco, this is my uncle Qrow," I answered. "And no, she doesn't want to train, before you ask. She's just here to watch."
"I might give it a try some other time," Coco told Qrow. "But I'm not exactly dressed for the occasion."
"Yes, I can see that," the grandmaster replied. "Anyway, Yang, we have a new student. Mind taking him through the warm up?"
"No, that's fine, Shifu," I answered, now in the disciplined mindstate of a martial arts student. I made my way on to the mats where we trained and saw the boy I'd seen a few minutes ago, looking a bit nervous. "Hey. What's your name?" I asked him, in a gentle tone. I was used to talking to younger people, having grown up with Ruby.
"Alex," he answered quietly. He had short black hair and a pale face, with strikingly blue eyes.
"Don't be nervous. We're all really chill here. We're gonna start with the warm up, okay?" I said. He nodded, and I went through the standard warm up routine. This routine prepared all of your muscles for practicing, and took about ten minutes if you did it properly. When we were done, Qrow came over and began teaching Alex some basic kicks and punches. Meanwhile, I started practicing the many individual movements I knew, ranging from the most basic of strikes to more complicated attacks which, executed properly, could theoretically stop an untrained opponent immediately. Several times I looked at Coco, who was sitting in a chair at the edge of the room, her face impassive. It was when I got to the jumping spinning kicks that she looked impressed. These kicks were exactly what they sounded like: a three hundred and sixty degree spin in mid-air, hitting the opponent with either the inside or the outside of the foot, depending on the variant of the technique.
"How many times did you fall when learning those?" Coco asked.
"Uhhh…" I answered sheepishly, not wanting to admit the difficulty I'd once had with them.
"Oh, at least three or four times a class," Qrow called from across the room.
"Yes, thank you, Uncle," I told him, slightly annoyed, as Coco laughed. I then moved on to the kati, long sets of movements which accounted for multiple opponents fighting you. Again, I started basic and got to more complicated ones later. When I finished those, I started on weapon training. While I preferred to fight unarmed, and also found unarmed techniques more useful considering I was unlikely to carry traditional weapons with me to defend myself, Qrow always insisted that I became proficient with the four main weapon types of ancient China: the dao, which was a single-edged sword; the jian, which was a double-edged sword; the gun, which was a staff; and the qiang, which was a spear. When I had finished with the weapons, the second most experienced student at the gym, Lie Ren, asked if I wanted to spar.
"Ren, when don't I?" I asked. He shrugged as if to say fair enough, then took up a stance for the match. I also got in position, and signalled to Ren to make the first move.
Coco POV
Watching Yang train was quite interesting. It was clear from the speed of her attacks that she'd earned her belt, rather than getting it by being the niece of the teacher. What was the word she'd used? Sifu? Shifu? Whatever.
I found myself leaning forward in my chair as she and her fellow student began to spar. The guy was about Yang's age, with long black hair in a ponytail with a pink streak down one side. He wore a green tailcoat with black and gold trimming, with white pants. Not exactly a great fashion statement in the Western world, but he would have fit right in in twentieth century China. He didn't have a belt on, but I could tell he was on Yang's level. The two exchanged blows almost too fast for me to see. Eventually, I could see that Yang had a slight upper hand, as her opponent began to tire. They sparred relentlessly for a good five minutes before the guy forfeited.
"You did well, Ren," Yang told him breathlessly. "But I was better." She's so cocky. Why do I like that? Ren grunted in response. "Oh yeah, this is Coco," Yang said, gesturing at me. I gave a small wave. "Well, I'm gonna get going," the blonde announced. We left the gym together and headed back to Beacon.
"You were really good," I told Yang on the way.
"I'm a black belt. What do you expect?" she replied. I rolled my eyes. The rest of the walk was spent in silence, until we got back to the school. Yang and I were in different buildings, so we had to part.
"See you tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.
"Sure. Bye," she replied. I made my way up to my dorm, where my roommate, Velvet, was lounging on her bed.
"Where were you?" the Australian rabbit Faunus asked. "I thought you were going out for an hour."
"I saw Yang, and she invited me to watch her train. I took her up on the offer, because why not?"
"Oooohhhh," Velvet replied.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked.
"Nothing. Just that you went out with Yang for an hour and a half," Velvet teased.
"So?" I asked, blushing somewhat.
"I'm not stupid, Coco. Wanna talk about it?" she asked, sounding as though she actually cared, rather than wanting something to gossip about. Considering it was Velvet, I figured I could talk to her.
"I…I may have a small crush on Yang," I said, flopping down on my bed.
"And?" Velvet prompted.
"And what?" I asked.
"Anything else?"
"I don't know if she likes me. And I don't wanna tell her, because it might fuck up our friendship," I explained.
"You'll have to do something," Velvet told me quietly. "You might get lucky. Besides, from what you've told me, it sounds like you have good chemistry. Just don't stress about it, okay?"
"Yeah, you're right." With that, I entered the bathroom to change into my pyjamas, then headed to bed.
A/N: There you go. Second chapter. First one seemed moderately well-received, so I'll keep going. I didn't mention in the first A/N, but this story is set in our world, except there are Faunus, hence Velvet being Australian and all that. The Shifu is the name for the teacher in kung fu, and according to Wikipedia is pronounced similar to "sure foo". I don't know the exact pronunciation, because at my kung fu class it's very informal and we call our teacher by his name. I don't think there were any more kung fu-related terms I didn't elaborate on, but let me know if I missed any, or just Google them. Whichever you prefer. Don't ask me how fast Yang and Coco's relationship will progress, because I don't plan stories. I write and go with it, so I don't know the answer. Oh, thanks to everyone who followed or favourited so far. That's all I have to say, so leave a review and follow/favourite if you want. Merci pour avoir lu.