Sitting at the front desk, Blake Belladonna read through a hardback copy of A Sunny Day in Vale Town. The library also had the author's first and second books on the bookshelves—both in hardback and mass-market paperback formats. Well, they didn't get picked up much, she thought about it, thinking away from the book she was reading, so they might get cleared up for the next book fair in a month. Or two? Maybe two, she guessed as she looked at the calendar.
Back to the book, she also noticed some gothic horror influences, especially with the antagonists. Well, that's what the author's companion book said, Blake remembered and shrugged at that. She had also heard that the movie adaptation took a lot of duties with the themes—and controversy came out of it, including the author himself! Funny thing about people trying to adapt books into movies.
Ding!
She heard the bell chime and looked up from the technothriller. It was Ruby Rose, wearing her red hoodie. "Hello, Blake!" She greeted, albeit in a low voice, as she walked over to the front desk.
Blake closed her book and placed it on the desk. "Good afternoon." She accepted Ruby's library card, inserted it into a computer, and her details popped up on the holographic screen. Once she made sure the details were right, she removed the card and returned it to Ruby. "Fairy tales and comics again?" A nod. "I see," and she was back to reading her book again, while Ruby walked into the library, probably either heading for the fairy tales or comics section. To be fair, she didn't exactly require the card just to read books—it was mainly for borrowing books, anyway.
With that out of the way, she loved the library's quiet atmosphere. She had been running it for some time now. I could have accepted the offer to work in Beacon's library, Blake reflected, but it's much nicer to work in a place like this. And she believed that it was a good decision, with a good payoff—being left with tons of books to read, although she had to admit that she was blushing when she came across a copy of Ninjas of Love, in its first edition hardback glory.
She could have brought a nicely brewed, warm cup of tea here too if it weren't for the 'no drinks or food allowed' sign. Because of that, she had to grab lunch outside.
Speaking of outside, it was winter.
That's right, the dreaded winter season.
This morning, she did put her black bridge coat—popular with the sailors—on the hatstand to the left of her table, along with a paper cup that used to be filled with warm tea, which now stayed in the bin, empty. She had finished it before arriving here. The library was built to look old-fashioned: For the floors, it was made of varnished dark hardwood panels, although there were some carpets placed underneath the reading tables. The walls were also made of wood, too, although there were some bricks, the general design did give off some Gothic vibes. That's the way it was the whole time, though. Electric chandeliers were one of the few modern touches the library had—including the computer and for security reasons, closed-circuit cameras—and when flickered on, they gave off a comfortable orange-yellow lighting. It could have been plain white, oh well.
Blake checked the clock that was hung up on the wall. It was about 1 PM.
Five hours later…
Having turned off the lights and flickered the 'open' sign to 'closed', Blake locked the library door. She turned the doorknob to make sure it was locked tight—it was. Once that was done, she turned and began walking down the streets of Vale.
It had already begun to snow two-and-a-half hours ago. The sun had already begun setting to her left. Buildings had their lights on now, Blake saw, along with the vehicles' headlights and lamps. She then walked right, down the sidewalk.
The trees were now left bare, she observed as she approached a corner, before stopping at a crossing with the red light while cars crossed. Might not be a very great time to jaywalk, Blake said to herself. Of course, it wasn't illegal, she was aware of that—but better safe than sorry. The cars stopped as the crossing light turned green, and she crossed the street along with the pedestrians.
She walked further down the block, before stopping and then entering an apartment building.
It was warmer than outside, probably thanks to heaters being installed in this case. Granted, there weren't any air conditioners in the case when summer rolled around, but she did feel more comfortable now. Blake checked the mailbox and found nothing new. Let alone letters—they're mostly replaced by Scrolls, anyway, she noted as she walked away from it and began walking up the stairs to her room, which was on the second floor—a short walk up the stairs, and then another brief walk ahead was the door to where she lived.
Inserting the key and unlocking the door, Blake entered her apartment. She unbuttoned her bridge coat and hung it up on the hatstand. She was wearing a white cotton shirt with long sleeves beneath the coat, along with a maxi-length black skirt made out of fabric. She also wore black slip-on loafers.
Over on the couch, Yang Xiao Long was lying on the couch, drinking a can of energy drink while watching the TV. Natural habitat, Blake commented on that, popping up a light smile at it.
Yang finished her energy drink and got up. "How's work, Blake?"
"Alright," she replied as she went over to the kitchen, and opened a counter. Picking out a cup, a teabag—a black tea blend flavoured with Bergamot orange's essential oil. She put the teabag into the cup and reached for the electric kettle. There was still water for a couple of cups. "Yang, do you want tea?"
"Nuh-uh," she showed her the energy drink and smiled. "Doesn't have enough kick."
Just as I expected. Blake turned on the kettle and waited for it to boil—which didn't really take quite long. A minute later, it was done boiling. She picked up the kettle and put the hot water into the cup, and replaced it. The tea bag was shaken inside the mug before it was put in the bin. Although it was still cold outside, she wasn't going to drink it right away. Instead, Blake walked over to the couch and decided to see what her girlfriend was watching. It's not the news, the ceiling lights are still on, and the sound is still quiet—that's good.
She went over to the bookshelf and picked out a leather-bound book: The Girl Who Fell Through the World. Blake could only wonder what was the author on while writing this, despite the very strange sense of familiarity she felt while reading it. Well, she shrugged, wordplay and logic games can be confused for that. She went over to the armchair, popped out her reading glasses and picked up where she left off… It's a Saturday, is it not…?
Fluttering her eyes open, Blake found herself on the bed, with Yang on the other side of the bed, sleeping. Did I finish reading that book yet? She thought to herself, before remembering that yes, she did finish reading that book. Then to the clock: 7 AM. She was wearing a tank top and a pair of boxers, as she discovered, before yawning—hopefully not too loud—and getting out of the thick blanket.
In the bathroom, she made up her hair and stared into her reflection in the mirror. Blake Belladonna, age twenty-three, now currently working as a librarian in Vale. Studied and obtained her Huntress licence at Beacon along with team RWBY. Her library is usually open from 8 AM until about 6 PM and is closed on Sundays and Wednesdays. And the most important thing about herself, as you already know… she looked down into her amber eyes and focused on the cat ears that stuck out of her ash-black hair. She had gotten into trouble… about too many times to count for her Faunus heritage.
But it's still herself.
Still me.
Blake was brought out of her thoughts when she heard someone step into the bathroom. She snapped, only to see it was Yang.
"Morning," she said to her as she panted, eyebrows coming back to where they belonged.
"Morning, Blake," Yang reciprocated after yawning and then smiled—before putting up a suspicious look. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She tried to smile, playing it cool as best as she could.
Yang was unconvinced, before walking over to give her a hug. "Don't worry, it'll be alright," she added with a kiss on her cheek.
Today's breakfast was scrambled eggs—made from two eggs cracked into a bowl, and beaten with a fork. Then, pepper and salt were seasoned into the egg bowl. Meanwhile, a bit of butter was put into a medium-heated pan to be melted into a pool. Once the eggs are added to the butter pool, it's better to put them into low, and then give it whisking until they become solid. Herbs are optional. And served—on toasted slices of brown bread. Blake was responsible for the choice of bread, perhaps from her readings of health magazines and books. It was also sided with two pieces of fried tomatoes and bacon.
For the drinks… Blake had a warm cup of breakfast black tea. It was brewed using a tea bag. Yang had a glass of orange juice.
"How is Weiss?" Blake tried to break the ice for the morning, eating some scrambled eggs.
Yang drank a bit of the juice. "She's in Argus for a couple of days. Business meeting, I guess," she shrugged. "I think she should be back in Atlas by now."
"Mm-hm. Taiyang?"
"Happy as a clam while catching fish," she chuckled. I still felt bad for Ruby being dragged by that catfish, though.
Blake sipped from her teacup. "I see." After placing down the teacup, she drummed her right-hand fingers briefly, before going back to her breakfast. I'm not quite sure why did I do that, but it still made me quite comfortable.
On the other hand, Yang's new prosthetic arm still worked like a charm. Well, it's the same model as the old one, right? She had to agree with what Blake thought of change: If it works well, then it works. No reason to change it. Hell, it was already coloured yellow! Now that's another plus, Yang grinned. Either way, she still worked as a Huntress, although not too very often nowadays. Probably she might get back to it again someday, Yang guessed. On the other hand—being a mechanic sounds fit for me.
Now that it was a weekend, what would the two of them do today?
It's still winter, after all. Thank the Gods that I haven't got the flu yet, Yang chuckled.
Over at the park, Blake sat on a bench as she watched Yang and Ruby engaged in a snow fight.
Behind a tree, Yang peeked out to see if her sister was in sight. Nope, clear. Ruby was probably either hiding behind another tree or a pile of snow.
Ruby, kneeling behind a small mountain of snow, peeked out. Yang wasn't in her sight, although she did hear footsteps to her left— Still no one.
Yang was lying behind a bench covered with snow. A peek— Ha! She made a ball of snow and prepared to— "Hey, what the…?" Looking up, she saw rose petals falling down and discovered that Ruby was behind her. "Hey, that's cheating!"
Spectating the whole firefight, Blake smiled. Yang being Yang, I suppose. She pulled out a newspaper she had bought earlier today… No, nothing very interesting today. Not even a paparazzi article on Weiss and her opera singing career, although I doubt that she still does that. That made her wonder if the press is much less prying in Argus. Still, she had nothing to like about journalists who would go to any lengths to get their stories, truth be damned. Well, provided those article writers get their easy money. That's what those tabloids are for.
In economics, nothing much. Atlas had lifted their Dust embargo several months ago, although Ironwood still has his iron grip on that kingdom. And it's going to stay that way, no matter how many protests in Mantle are taking place, although almost everyone's happy that the embargo was lifted. Will Ironwood be much more cooperative later? Blake shrugged at that consideration—
Suddenly, a stray snowball hit her face. She could hear Ruby apologizing.
"It's okay," she deadpanned in response.
Still a dreaded winter season, Blake said to herself as she wiped the snow off.
A/N: Hello, and thanks for reading this. I'm not sure if this might fit into the fluff category neatly, due to later chapters being moodier, so I decided to give it a Fluff and Angst tag. Also, unlike the earlier fics in the series, it's not a oneshot. I'm not quite sure if I should put characters in unpublished chapters in the tags, though. (mind you, this is a holdover from AO3, but I'm keeping it, anyway)
Anyways, why the moody tone? Well, it's a pretty long story. I'm in a pretty poor mood after scrapping about four fanfic drafts (two of them are Persona 5 fanfics, mind you), and I decided, 'Screw it,' and sort-of made Blake a self-insert. Well, mostly self-insert, to be fair. She's the perfect blorbo to blender for this!
Also, the book that she's reading is supposed to be Patriot Games by Tom Clancy. In fact, as of writing, I am currently reading it right now, and like the chapter title, I took it from the book's opening chapter.