The tacky, direct-to-TV movie she'd been watching was just ending when she heard a key enter the lock on the front door marking Ruby and Weiss' return. Picking up the remote to turn down the volume a bit, she listened while the two girls strolled back into the apartment, not bothering to sit up from her comfortable position reclined fully on the sofa.
"Hey, how was the movie?" she asked after Zwei had jumped up to greet them, craning her neck to watch the girls take off their shoes in the front hall. Apparently, Weiss would be staying a little while today.
"Great!" Ruby answered cheerfully at the exact same moment Weiss said, "Awful."
The heiress' response only made Ruby giggle and gleefully kiss Weiss quickly on the cheek before running into the kitchen.
"We have leftovers if you want some, Yang!" the girl called out on the way.
Finally sitting up in order to make room for Weiss to join her, Yang watched in amusement as the girl plopped down at the other end of the sofa looking defeated in every sense of the word.
"Was it really that bad?"
"It had aliens, ghosts, and zombies, Yang."
"Oh…"
Yang tried to hold back a grin in face of the girl's misery, but one slipped out anyway. Ruby had the worst taste in movies. Seriously - the girl would watch anything that was lambasted by critics and the general public alike. If it was widely heralded as 'horrible' or 'cringe-worthy,' Ruby Rose had already seen it. In theaters. Probably more than once.
Honestly, Yang had no idea how her sister had developed such poor taste in films, but it was a quality Weiss paid for more often than not. Yang had to hand it to the girl for still going along with it after all this time - following Ruby to bad movie after bad movie with hardly any complaints.
It was actually these horrible movie dates that had made Yang realize that Weiss was actually serious about Ruby. No one voluntarily went to see so many F grade movies for anything other than true love. And Weiss didn't just go to these movies - she actually searched out new movies as they were released, selected the showtimes to surprise Ruby, and paid for the misery.
If that wasn't true love, Yang didn't know what was.
One of the unanticipated benefits of Weiss going to the movies with Ruby was that Yang no longer had to. It had been a duty she'd fulfilled responsibly for far too many years of her life...it had been time for someone else to take up the mantle.
"At the end of the two hour debacle, the main character revealed that he was a robot programmed to act like a human," Weiss explained, both of them smiling when 'spoiler alert!' was yelled from the kitchen.
Chuckling at the succinct synopsis of what sounded like one of the worst movies yet, Yang reached over and patted Weiss' shoulder consolingly.
"I don't think she'll ever change her taste in movies," she said with a wink. "Good luck."
"Thank you," Weiss replied with a playful roll of her eyes.
"Uh...Yang?"
They both turned towards the sound of Ruby's voice and found the brunette walking into the living room with a pineapple in one hand.
"Why do we have a pineapple?"
"Oh!" Yang quickly hopped to her feet and carefully relieved her sister of the spiky fruit. "I should take this back now."
Glancing at the clock hung on the wall, she determined that it was still early enough to make an appearance next door.
"You're still borrowing random things from her?" Ruby asked in astonishment.
"Uh...yeah," Yang responded as if that were the most obvious answer in the world. Ruby's silver eyes watched as she tossed the fruit skillfully up in the air several times, managing to avoid the spiky leaves when she caught it just right. 'The Pineapple Toss' she'd so cleverly named it. Not that she'd spent hours practicing it, like she wanted to impress Blake by being able to spin it in the air and catch it without poking herself.
Who was she kidding? That's exactly what she'd done.
"Wait, who is this? Is it the girl next door?" Weiss asked with an amused smile. "Why don't you just ask her out already?"
"Because! Ruby, you've met her. She's super...I dunno, she seems really shy. The last thing I want to do is scare her away." Turning to her sister for support in that claim, Ruby obediently nodded her head up and down several times.
"That's true. She does seem like she enjoys keeping to herself..."
"So...instead you go bother her all the time to borrow random fruits?" Weiss asked incredulously. "Which you then don't even use?"
"Yup!" Yang answered proudly, watching the heiress extend one hand towards Ruby - clearly requesting that the brunette join her on the sofa. "You'd be surprised what sort of crazy stuff she has in her kitchen. Plus...you can't disagree that she's one fine-apple," she quipped with a big grin, holding up the fruit at the same moment she winked at Ruby and Weiss.
Weiss immediately rolled her eyes. "Good. You got that out of your system before you go over there and make a fool of yourself. Although it sounds like you're going to be doing that anyway."
"That was a good one!" Yang complained, entirely convinced that Weiss just never understood the puns and that's why she never laughed. "Plus, she thinks I'm funny! I mean, I think she does..."
Ruby giggled at the comment while falling practically on top of Weiss on the sofa.
"I thought it was funny…" the brunette said, cooing softly when Weiss began running a hand through short strands of brown hair. Huffing, Weiss was forced to drop her assault on Yang's joke since Ruby had approved of it, but apparently that wasn't the only bone Weiss had to pick with Yang tonight.
"It just seems so...juvenile. Going over there all the time asking for things..." It was meant to be an insult, but was relatively lackluster since most of Weiss' attention was being steadily drawn to Ruby.
"Do you have any better ideas? Because I'm more than open to hearing them."
"Stalk her grocery list and take things she might need?" Weiss answered dryly. "Oh wait, you're already doing that…"
Weiss grinned when Ruby giggled at the (rather lame) attempt at a joke.
"Nice one," Yang replied sarcastically. "Or how about...I know. I could buy her favorite restaurant, then every time she comes in I can give her free cookies and milkshakes to make her like me. Oh wait, you already did that..."
Left without an immediate comeback, Weiss pursed her lips while a faint blush appeared on her white cheeks. Yang grinned in the face of Weiss' clear discomfort. That little ploy had been so obvious at the time - to everyone except Ruby, that is.
"We all play to our strengths," Weiss finally retorted. "You missed a button, by the way."
Looking down at her shirt, Yang fought the blush she could feel emerging at the intentionally ignored button. Maybe Weiss had a little bit of a point...but there was no way in hell Yang would ever admit that. Ruby just giggled and gave Weiss another peck on the cheek - rewarding snarky behavior, as usual.
"You were so cute though! I would have liked you even without the free cookies!"
While Weiss actively blushed from such a simple remark, Yang rolled her eyes and stood from the sofa.
"You're lucky Ruby has such low standards," she commented playfully before strolling into the kitchen to retrieve the whisk she'd borrowed along with the pineapple, earning herself a loud 'hey!' of protest from her sister. When she found the whisk and walked back into the living room, she found that the two girls hadn't moved an inch.
"Be back soon - so don't get too busy while I'm gone, you hear," she said, pointing the whisk at them while issuing her demand. Ruby just looked back at her curiously.
"What do you mean 'busy?'"
While Weiss' cheeks grew a dark shade of red, Yang burst out laughing and shook her head.
"If you're going to make out, go do it in your room," she answered bluntly, grinning when Ruby's cheeks joined Weiss' as a nice shade of scarlet red.
Honestly. The two were still as tentative as hedgehogs when she was around and blushed at any mention of anything even remotely intimate. But it was probably a good thing...because if she ever walked in on the two of them kissing she would probably permanently lose either her sanity or vision, possibly both. Doors were invented for a reason, after all...
Tossing the pineapple up in the air on the way towards the front door, she gave them a quick wave before leaving.
"Wish me luck!"
"Good luck!" Ruby yelled loud enough to make Yang cringe, clearly much more interested in a certain white haired heiress than her right now.
Rolling her eyes again at the love stricken girls, she closed the door securely behind her after stepping into the hallway. Looking left and right she found no one in sight, which was pretty standard for this time. By now everyone had already arrived home and was safely tucked in for the night.
Pausing in the hallway midway between the two apartments, she took a brief moment to collect her thoughts - probably looking just a little weird while holding a whole pineapple and a kitchen whisk in her hands.
Usually she'd just say whatever came to mind first, but she'd been told that she could be a little...overbearing? Over enthusiastic? Overzealous? Whatever it was, she wanted to be a little less of it, which was difficult to do when something about Blake was so very interesting. And intriguing. Yang wanted to know as much about Blake as possible...without scaring her away. And when Blake gave off the aura of a kitten, it seemed like that might be easy to do.
But it was always exciting - the few minutes they would spend together. It was always the highlight of Yang's day.
Glancing down, she briefly considered buttoning her shirt all the way up before shaking her head and silently cursing Weiss for the uncertainty. Taking a deep breath, she summoned the courage to move into what she considered to be Blake's side of the corridor. Her feet took her directly to Blake's door, where she raised one hand and knocked twice.
It hadn't been intentional for two quick knocks to become her calling card, but when Blake had mentioned it Yang realized that now she HAD to knock two times. It was actually kind of sweet - Blake would know who it was before even opening the door. That would probably help with the whole 'scaring her off' problem.
Not more than a few seconds later the door opened and Yang instantly smiled - partly out of habit but mostly out of pure happiness to see the beautiful girl on the other side.
"Hey, Blake!" she said, her heart doing a little stutter step when Blake returned the smile.
"Hi Yang."
The greeting was demure, as usual, and Blake glanced briefly downward as if trying to escape Yang's gaze. The brief moment gave her the opportunity to marvel at the girl's eyelashes, curling upward so delicately. And Blake's dark hair falling in soft waves past her shoulders, held back by an almost invisible black ribbon.
Yang could say that she knew a lot of girls, and had met many more, but none of them were anywhere near as gorgeous as Blake was. There were no fancy outfits or masks of makeup, yet still Yang's breath was taken away each and every time they met. It was like Blake had mastered some type of subtle beauty that the rest of the world had yet to find.
She was...effortlessly beautiful.
Starting when amber eyes focused back on her, Yang nervously moved her hands only to be pricked by something pointy. Briefly wondering why the heck she was holding a pineapple, she finally remembered her goal in coming over here tonight.
"I brought back your things," she said, taking the opportunity to nonchalantly toss the pineapple up in the air and...promptly drop it on the ground. For just a second, the two of them stared at the fruit in surprise before Yang quickly bent down to pick it up - her cheeks flushing all the while.
"Aw man, sorry that was totally…" Embarrassing? Horrifying? Emotionally scarring? "My bad…" she finished while straightening back up and offering the fruit to Blake like a normal person.
Yang was blushing so hard right now, but the little smile of entertainment on Blake's lips might just be worth it.
"You didn't need these for very long," was all Blake said in response - thankfully bypassing the failed pineapple toss.
"Naw, just a day will do, you know?" Yang replied, really having no idea what having a pineapple for one day would accomplish, but hoping Blake wouldn't ask.
And she didn't. Nodding to herself, Blake made no motion to turn away from the door.
It always went like this when Yang came to return whatever she'd borrowed. There were a few seconds where it seemed like Blake might want to continue a conversation, but Yang was so unsure that she was reading the moment correctly that she didn't dare try to press the subject.
The end result - they both stood there for a few seconds in silence before Blake finally broke the spell by taking one step away from the front door.
"Do you need anything else for whatever project you're working on?"
"Ah you're too kind!" Yang said, meaning it fully. "I think I'm good for now, but I'll definitely let you know if I think of anything else!"
When Blake nodded, Yang surreptitiously looked over the girl's shoulder to see the cover of whatever book was sitting on the little table by the window. She'd quickly learned that that table was where Blake did all of her reading - and where the current book would be sitting when it was waiting to be picked up again.
"On the next book already?" Yang asked when she saw a different cover than yesterday.
"Last book in the series," Blake answered only after glancing back in order to figure out how Yang had known. "I'm expecting more than a few of my favorite characters to die…"
"Aww, well if you're feeling bummed you can always come over to my place and watch a horrible movie!"
The offer slipped out before she'd completely thought it through and she could have smacked herself for it immediately afterward. Here she was, trying NOT to move too quickly or be overbearingly friendly, and she'd invited Blake over again.
While Yang's brain switched into damage control mode, Blake tilted her head to one side and gave Yang a curious expression.
"Horrible movie?"
Thank god that's what Blake chose to focus on more than the implications of coming over to Yang's apartment to watch a movie together. Not that she had any bad intentions - she only had good intentions. Great intentions! But not like...those types of...ok, nevermind that for now - she could easily pull herself out of this situation.
"Right! You probably didn't know this, but Ruby really loves awful movies - awful as in they have horrible actors and costumes and the plots never make any sense."
"Oh, I didn't know that -"
"Yeah, her and Weiss just got back from one actually," Yang continued, knowing that the more she kept talking, the further they would get from her ill-advised invitation. "Weiss said it had something to do with lizards and werewolves or...something."
A grin inched its way onto her lips when Blake began laughing, the sound more than enough of a reward for coming over here tonight.
"That does sound riveting," the girl replied jokingly, eyes still twinkling with the remainder of a laugh. "You'd think the werewolves would just eat the lizards though."
"Wouldn't you? But there was some twist at the end…" For the life of her, Yang couldn't remember what Weiss had just said a few minutes ago. That seemed to happen to Yang a lot when she came over here and she was prone to blaming Blake's apartment. Asbestos in the air, maybe...or lead paint? Something about this space seemed to make her brain blank whenever she needed it. Giving up, she shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno...maybe one of the lizards turned into a dragon or something."
Playing along, Blake nodded like she already knew what movie Yang was talking about.
"It would have been more of a twist for one of the werewolves to turn into a dragon though."
This time Yang laughed, which she noticed made the reserved girl seem very pleased. She loved it when Blake would make jokes, no matter how small they might seem. It had been happening more and more often recently - the tiny insights giving away the fact that Blake had a great sense of humor, it just took a little while for it to shine.
Yang loved it though. She loved that she got to witness of piece of Blake's personality that a casual observer would completely miss. And, more than anything else, it made her really, really want to ask Blake out. She wanted to spend an entire evening - an entire day - getting to know the real Blake.
But when Yang's laughter had subsided and they lapsed back into silence, she heard the invisible alarm in her mind going off. It was the one that told her she might have overstayed her welcome - that she should probably take her leave before she became an intruder in Blake's personal space.
"Anyway," she reluctantly said while taking a step away from Blake's door. "Thank you again for the whisk...and pineapple! Really helpful."
"You're welcome," Blake replied with a nod and adorable little smile.
"So I'll...see you around, I guess!"
"Yes, I'll see you around."
A smile and a wink later, Yang was walking slowly back to the apartment she shared with her younger sister. It had become a habit of hers to dawdle through this hallway in hopes that if she took enough time, she would run into Blake. Ruby never stopped complaining about the snail's pace, but that didn't concern Yang in the slightest. They didn't all need to move at the speed of light.
And each time she walked away from Blake's door, Yang told herself that she wouldn't be caught looking back.
Each time she failed.
Finding Blake watching, Yang grinned and gave the girl a wave before walking back into her apartment, heart racing. Blake's eyes always followed Yang all the way through the door...she watched for some reason other than curiosity, right? If the situations were reversed, Yang definitely knew that she would watch Blake for as long as she possibly could - she could probably never get enough.
Resuming her spot on the sofa in the now-empty living room, she picked up the remote and absentmindedly flipped through the channels even though her mind was so far from the television right now. When Zwei trotted over to greet her, she patted the seat beside her, inviting him to jump up and curl into a ball by her side. Absentmindedly petting him while he fell asleep, she replayed the whole interaction again - going through it piece by piece, taking it apart and analyzing it to see where she could have done better.
In the end, she was always left with the same thoughts - she wished that she could stay longer, she wished that she could ask all of the questions that popped into mind, and...she wished that she had a reason to go over there that wasn't asking for random kitchen items. But she didn't want to risk lingering and overstaying her welcome. It wasn't like one of her friend's places where she could make herself at home and stay until she was literally thrown out the door.
The only reason she was going about this so carefully was because something about Blake was different. It was there, in her smile, in her eyes, in the way she moved and talked and smiled and laughed. It was in the feeling that Yang had never felt before...a fire that had sprung up in her chest the instant she'd laid eyes on Blake in the hallway when they'd been moving in. There didn't seem to be any explanation for it other than it was Blake and only Blake who made her feel this way.
So, while she normally wouldn't consider herself to be very patient person, she would tread lightly and carefully - taking all the time Blake could need.
Just...hopefully it wouldn't take too much longer.