Author's Note: As a reminder, uncensored versions of my stories can be found on my profile on AO3.
Interlude – Dragon Rider
"Ow!" Yang snapped, cringing under Weiss' hands. "Careful. Skin's a lot more sensitive than scales." She winced again as Weiss cleaned another sensitive cut, her own fingers knotted in the tunic pulled down to her waist, squeezing tight as she braced herself for the next stabbing pain.
Weiss rolled her eyes, then pulled the bloodstained cloth away and cleaned it in the basin at her side. She sighed, the sound echoing off the stone walls of the cavern, across the layered pools they had made in the floor. Her eyes on the basin, she swirled the cloth in the water and wrung it out, the water dripping down and matching the occasional drop from the stalactites that lined the ceiling. A touch more gentle, she pressed it against another wound on Yang's back.
"Maybe you should take your own advice," she said and wiped away a bit more of the dirt and blood. "You're the one who nearly caused a cave in because you had to see if a statue was intact."
Yang grimaced. Weiss had a point. After Schnee's men caused the first cave-in, the upper sections of her soon-to-be former lair were unstable at best. The lower levels, especially the pools, were safe. They were far enough down that the only sign that anything changed was a little dust knocked from the cave roof. That was why Yang insisted on moving their bedding down to the dry area along one wall. She wasn't going to risk Weiss' fragile human neck by sleeping in one of the treasure rooms.
The problem, and the reason she had been caught in another cave-in, was her hoard. Half of it was buried beneath stone and dirt, wrecked or ruined or buried by the antics of a possessive, abusive king. That still rankled her. For that alone, she would have happily descended on the Atlesian city-state in all her draconic splendor. A dragon's hoard was sacrosanct, something you touched only at very great peril. Some dragons might have burned the whole city to the ground for that kind of offense. Others would have ravaged the palace until every member of the royal family was dead, until the citizens and every noble for league understood the message – that dragons are not to be trifled with.
Yang wasn't that vengeful. She would have knocked down a good chunk of the palace in revenge ... after making enough noise for everyone to evacuate to safety. Maybe grabbed as much as she could carry from the treasury, just to replace what they ruined. But she'd never seen the value in terrorizing commoners just because their nobles misbehaved.
Her injuries and Weiss' safety were the only reasons she left the palace relatively intact, minus one well-charred grand hall. If she hadn't been hurt, if Weiss didn't need her protection ... there might not be much of the palace let standing. Not that it mattered. Either way, Lord Schnee was gone now. A scorched pile of ash and flinders that was probably more inspiring and useful than he had ever been in life. Still, she couldn't help but feel a surge of rage every time she saw another ruined cavern, another mangled part of her collection.
"It was important," she mumbled and hissed as Weiss applied the cloth again.
Those statues were irreplaceable. She didn't know if she could ever find those artists again, and even if she could, the pieces wouldn't be the same. She traded sections of her hoard to commission them during her travels, even posed in one sculptor's garden for days while he chiseled his depiction of the golden dragon. That had been her favorite piece, the marble dragon coiled with jaws outstretched, life-like and looking as it could breathe fire at any second.
For days, Yang dreaded looking into that chamber. She knew the marble wouldn't have survived the cave-in, but until she checked there was still some spark of hope. Some small chance that maybe they survived. Or at least her favorite had.
By the time she finally forced herself to check, she was so worked up that she didn't notice the weakened ceiling. To add insult to injury, it even waited to collapse until after she learned that every item in that room was ruined. She wasn't that badly hurt, not by a few rocks, but the impact re-opened her wounds from the first cave-in.
When Weiss found her by the pools, trying to wash off the worst of the blood and dust, she was livid.
"If it was that important," the princess growled and pressed hard against one of the worst cuts. "You should have brought me."
Yang shook her head, her teeth grinding. It had hurt less when rocks fell on her. "You know those caves aren't safe."
"Which is why you shouldn't be up there either!"
The dragon almost roared when Weiss pressed even harder against the wound on her shoulder. That was a bad one. Most of her injuries had already started to heal – it was one of the upsides of being a dragon. But the deeper wounds, the fractures from the rockfall, were still tender. That one was where one of her wings had been torn. Even in her human form, it ached constantly. She still wasn't able to sleep on her back, not without stabbing pains shooting through her.
"Dammit Weiss, that hurts!" Yang snapped. She turned to face the princess, her eyes two angry slits of red, only to find Weiss already wringing the blood out into the basin.
The princess' eyes were hard beneath her pale brows. "If you don't like it, don't ask me to help patch you up."
I didn't, the dragon thought bitterly, reaching back to brush her wounded shoulder. She winced when another lance of pain shot through her. You insisted.
Weiss drew the cloth from the basin, and saw the look on Yang's face. Their eyes met for a moment, just a moment, and Weiss was the first one to look away. She took a breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them again, the ice-blue pools had melted a little, losing some of their hardness when she met Yang's stare again.
"I am sorry. I'll be more careful."
She moved closer, waiting to see if Yang would stop her, then squeezed the water onto the wound. Yang braced for another surge of agony, but none came. There was a twinge of discomfort when Weiss ran the cloth across the skin, but no pain. Grumbling under her breath, Yang settled back onto the rock, hunched over so the shorter woman could reach her back.
"So," Yang said, unable to keep the resentment from her voice. She still hadn't forgiven her for that last one. "What's your next move?"
"... excuse me?"
"Hey, you're the one who said she just wanted to stay for a little while. Least till you had a real plan." Yang shifted in her place on the floor. "So, what is it? You going off to Vale? Mistral? Any of a dozen cities? You have to be tired of slumming in a cave by now."
Weiss didn't answer. Yang looked back, to see a small frown crossing the princess' face.
In silence, Weiss finished cleaning her wounds and wrung the cloth one last time into the basin. Lifting the bowl with both hands, she moved over to the lowest pool in the cave and poured it out, watching as the pink-tinted water flowed down and out of the cave.
"I can't help set up your new lair if I leave, now can I?" she said, her voice low. Her hair fell down across her face, hiding it from view.
"You're staying?"
"It's not like I have a choice," Weiss snapped, her brows lowering into a scowl before she caught herself. Taking another breath, she sat down on the ground and pulled her knees up to her chest, an odd look on her face. "I owe you after my father ruined your home."
"No you don't," Yang said flatly. Seriously, what is up with her?
"I do not like being in anyone's debt, Yang." The words came slowly. They were firm, determined, but there was no trace of the anger from before. "I'm staying, at least until your new home is in order. Unless you want me gone. Although without me, you'd probably just throw your horde into one room and call it a night."
Yang blinked. None of this made sense. Weiss didn't owe her anything – not for saving her that first time and definitely not for Yang arriving at the palace. Schnee kidnapped a guest from her home, a dragon's home. Only a sorry excuse for a dragon would let that slide.
She opened her mouth to ask, then stopped. Whatever was going on, there was no way Weiss would tell her. And ten-to-one, asking her would just annoy the white-haired woman more. Why does she always have to be so ... infuriating?
"Any chance of that debt going towards you not half-killing me when you bandage me up?" she asked instead. She tried to keep the frustration out of her voice. Weiss was obviously making an attempt to stay calm. She might as well show her the same courtesy.
"Not when you nearly kill yourself."
Yang rolled her eyes. She stood and stretched, cringing when her sore shoulder ached.
"... I am sorry about your shoulder." Weiss was still looking into the pool, her head on her knees. "I didn't ... I don't want to hurt you."
The dragon stopped to look her, her brows furrowed. In the few weeks they had known each other, she could count the number of times Weiss actually apologized on one hand. She didn't know if it was a side effect of being raised a princess or just her own stubbornness, but Weiss rarely admitted fault. And she just did twice in about a minute. That's definitely not like her.
Growling under her breath, Yang flopped down by the water, outstretched feet just barely brushing the surface of their washing pool. She left several inches of space between them; she wasn't sure what Weiss wanted right now. She could give her space, wait to see if the princess closed the gap. Or maybe this was some silent, strange, human call for comfort – although what she should comfort her for, for, Yang didn't know.
Her father, maybe? Weiss hadn't mentioned anything about him. You'd think that she would say something, Yang thought. If she was really that torn up over his death. Or maybe it wasn't about that. Maybe–
"Are you going to put your clothes back on?" the princess asked, still facing the water.
Yang looked down and remembered she had left her tunic gathered around her waist. "Why does me being covered matter so much to you?" she grumbled, shoving one arm through the sleeve.
"... haven't you spent time around normal people?"
"Look, I know a lot of you have this weird complex about clothes." She pulled the rest of the tunic up to her neck and fumbled with the ties until they pulled tight. "I tolerate it around humans. I'm just not used to doing it my own home."
Weiss glanced over at her, saw she was decent, then looked back into the water. "You being naked ... it's distracting. And uncomfortable." Sighing, she lowered her knees, moving until she had her feet tucked beneath her. "You don't have to, I suppose. It is just a gut reaction, I'll learn to live with it."
Yang snorted. Weiss 'learning to live' with anything would be a sight to see. "You should try it," she joked. Her voice was harsh; her shoulder was still aching from Weiss' 'healing' hands. "Might actually enjoy something for once."
Weiss was quiet for so long, Yang actually considered apologizing for what she'd said. For the most part, the princess had tried to help her. Maybe she was just a bad nurse. If so, it wasn't really her fault; she might not have meant to hurt Yang the way she had.
Yang's teeth worried at her lip as she tried to decide what to say. She turned to look back at the other pools, watching as the water flowed from one to the other, cascading down until it flowed out through the waterway at the bottom.
Lost in thought, it took her a while to notice the sound of cloth rustling and water lapping at the sides of the pool. Turning around, she found Weiss with her back to her. She stood in the center of the bathing pool, completely naked, covered only by the water and the cascade of white hair that trickled down her back. Even that wasn't enough to hide the curves that peeked out from above the waterline, pale flesh plain to see beneath the crystal-clear water.
One arm held to cover her chest, Weiss turned back towards the dragon. She was scowling, but her cheeks were pink, her lips a tight thin line as she looked at the dragon. She's embarrassed, Yang thought, trying not to chuckle. After everything, she's embarrassed about me seeing her like this.
Weiss met her eyes and held them, her scowl only getting deeper the longer the dragon stared. "Are you going to just sit there and watch, or are you going to join me?"
"Yeah," Yang grinned and walked towards the water. "I think I can manage that."
Her tunic was easy to slip out of, and even easier to dump onto the ground in a puddle of cotton. Lowering her herself onto her knees, she leaned her head down next to the pool and breathed. Within seconds, steam began to rise from the water's edge. A few more breaths and the whole pool was heated, the gentle current spreading the heat out through the rest of the water.
The warmth slid into her as she lowered herself into the pool. The wound on her shoulder ached from the movement, then eased as the warm water touched her. She smiled. She'd always loved the heat – she was a dragon after all.
Yang was tall enough that the water didn't even reach to her hips. Easing herself down, she sat in the pool, water lapping against her breasts, and closed her eyes to bask in the warmth. It was heaven, seeping down into her very bones. She didn't open her eyes again until the water stirred. Looking up, she found the princess standing above her, one arm still clutched protectively over her chest, her face even redder than before.
Yang cocked an eyebrow. If her face was that red, maybe the water was too warm. She'd tried to keep it from getting too hot, by human standards. Maybe she misjudged the heat?
"If you say anything," Weiss growled. "I'll stop."
"Stop wha-"
Without a scrap of warning, Weiss leaned down and pressed her lips to Yang's. The blonde blinked, caught off-guard and trying to remember exactly what she was supposed to do. Before she knew it, Weiss was atop her, forcing Yang to lean back to give her room to move. One arm still over her chest, she pushed forward and slid one hand into the mass of blonde hair, gently carding through it.
Weiss' lips were cool, something Yang set about fixing immediately, reaching up to grip her shoulders. Weiss trembled, almost enough to make Yang let go, then pressed even closer, her tongue flicking out to run across Yang's lips.
"You taste strange," Weiss said when they separated, her voice soft and low.
"Sorry."
"I didn't say it was bad." She pulled Yang to her again, keeping one hand on the back of the dragon's neck, an odd look on her face. Her eyes kept darting between Yang's, then down to her mouth, shifting between half-lidded and wanting to a wide-eyed look Yang didn't recognize.
"Keep going and you're gonna give a girl ideas," Yang growled, running her own fingers through Weiss' hair.
"Oaf." Weiss kissed the corner of her mouth briefly, her forehead resting against Yang's. "That's the point of this."
"Weiss ... you know doing this a second time isn't gonna make you any more immune to virgin sacrifices, right?" Yang asked. "That boat's kinda sailed."
Weiss gave her a scowl that could peel paint from a jar.
"That was a joke," Yang said and pulled back slightly, until she could look at Weiss properly. She still – still! – had her arm across her chest, pressing between them as she half-lay atop her. "Look, if you're doing this because I rescued you again..."
"Yang, I'm doing this because right now, I just want to. That's it. No other reasons." She stopped and sighed, something flickering across her face that Yang couldn't read. "I just, I need to not feel alone right now. It's selfish and if you're not up for that, I won't blame you. But if you are ... don't give me a reason to stop."
The dragon blinked, taken aback by how open and honest Weiss was being. That ... that was new. It wasn't like Yang was a stranger to sex, and certainly not with humans; she was more than old enough in human terms to have spent the night with several someones who had no romantic attachments. But she'd never thought Weiss would want that. It hadn't been a possibility she ever considered – that Weiss would want her for this and this alone.
"So right now," she said, running one hand over a pale shoulder. "You just need someone to be with you."
"Not anyone. I do have standards."
"Which I apparently meet."
"Are you going to do this or not?" Weiss snapped. Her eyes were wide, flicking back and forth between violet irises with a searching look, waiting, wanting ... something.
Yang bit the inside of her cheek. So, Weiss just needed release, a moment of bliss after everything that had happened. She had watched her own father order her death – that couldn't be the kind of thing someone forgot. It made sense, needing some sort of intimacy after a tragedy.
I wasn't quite what Yang wanted, but ... well, it was a start anyway. And this wasn't about her. This was about Weiss, about the princess practically sitting on her lap with eyes pleading for an answer. It would be cruel to turn her away, to deny her this after everything that had happened.
"Alright," Yang said and kissed her. Just this, for tonight. Anything else could come later. When they had time, when they were safe and not living in a half-destroyed remnant of the home Yang had brought her to. When Atlas was forgotten and far behind them.
Tonight, she was gonna make Weiss as happy as she possibly could.
Weiss woke in the middle of the night to find Yang pressed into her back. She was warm, even with only one thin sheet over the both of them, with a satisfying ache that pulsed deep in her core.
Moving slow to keep from waking the dragon, Weiss pushed herself up to get a good look at the cuts on Yang's back. Most were already closed, just leaving a few lines of pink on her skin. Her shoulder was bruised and had turned a nasty purple, but at least the bleeding seemed to have stopped.
You scared me half to death, you idiot, Weiss thought as she laid back down. Going up to those caves alone ...
Sometimes she couldn't quite believe how moronic the dragon could be. Putting her own life in danger for a stupid statue, asking Weiss where she was headed next. Honestly, what is wrong with her?
Careful not to wake her, she tucked herself against the dragon's chest, fingers gently caressing the blonde's sides. She was warm, too warm, warmer than any normal human could be without burning up. It was like sleeping beside a hearth or lying in the sun in the midst of summer, warm and welcoming, although Weiss preferred Yang's soft skin to heated bricks.
About to settle down, she stopped, and glanced up at Yang one more time. The blonde dragon was dead to the world, her mouth slightly open in a way that made Weiss want to kiss it. She almost did, then realized it would wake the sleeping creature.
Weiss blinked and looked away. She's already done so much for me. I won't wake her now.
Checking one last time that she was really asleep, Weiss edged forward and laid her chin against the curve of Yang's breasts. They were everything hers weren't – full and heavy and so warm against her skin that electricity shot down her spine.
Wrapping one arm around Yang's back, she settled in and closed her eyes, surrounded by warmth, and feeling safe for the first time in days.
Of course I'm going to stay.
Author's Note: If you can, PLEASE take the time to leave a review – it lets me know what the reader response is and whether or not I should do more stuff along the lines of whatever I've posted.
So, HERE is the interlude I was promising. Sorry about the wait, but hopefully people will enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who has read this, and hopefully, time and schedule willing, I'll be able to do the second arc involving Ruby soon.