Chapter 9

Shower Thoughts


(A/N: Warning, this chapter begins with a flashback of Yang's attempted suicide which had previously only been alluded to. It's not particularly graphic, but reader discretion is still advised)


The water running for too long had gotten Zwei's attention, which in turn had gotten Ruby's. It wasn't unusual for Yang to leave the water running when taking a bath to drown out the sound of her crying, but the tub should've been on the verge of overflowing by now.

Ruby pressed an ear against the door and listened, but couldn't hear anything beyond the tub filling up. She reached for the nob but hesitated, not wanting to take away what little dignity her sister had remaining.

"Yang," she called. "It's gonna be alright. I know it doesn't seem like it right now, but we've been through worse together. The doctors will fix your arm, and you'll be back to kicking butt before you know it!"

She bit her lip when there wasn't an immediate response. "If this is about Blake, you know she isn't gone forever. It's only been a couple of weeks. Give her time. She's your partner, and what you're feeling now, she's feeling it too. She'll be back." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "She has to come back..."

Below her, Zwei scratched at the door, raising Ruby's brow. "Y-Yang?" her voice shook. She banged on the door in case her already hard of hearing sister had fallen asleep in the tub again, or had partially submerged herself.

Again no response. "Yang, I'm coming in. I-I forgot my toothbrush." She tried the door but the nob wouldn't turn. "Yang?"

The sisters had roomed together practically their entire lives without ever having locked a single door. Not that they made it a habit of barging in on each other, but being sisters as well as teammates they didn't see much of a point, and a simple door lock wasn't going to stop Yang during a hair or makeup emergency, or Ruby when Crescent Rose needed cleaning.

Not wanting to waste time picking the lock, Ruby flared her aura and gave the door a not-so-gentle nudge with her shoulder. Yang might've preferred sending doors flying off their hinges, but Ruby wasn't nearly so dramatic, and also didn't want to go the rest of the night without a bathroom door.

The door creaked open a few inches and Ruby poked her head in. Her sister as she suspected was lying in the tub the only way Yang Xiao Long could, shamelessly, but somehow with all her dignity still intact despite it being on full display. Thankfully orange soap bubbles protected what little modesty she didn't possess, and Ruby saw that she still had another minute or two before the tub overflowed.

She was just about to turn the water off and sneak out of the bathroom without Yang knowing when a blinking light from the countertop caught her eye. Her sister's scroll was apparently low on battery, likely due to the unsent text message frozen on screen. Apparently Yang had accidently turned off the screen saver while fumbling with the holographic device. Unlike Ruby, she wasn't ambidextrous, and was struggling without the use of her right hand.

Ruby didn't mean to snoop, but seeing how it was one of her sister's favorite pastimes, she didn't mind occasionally indulging her curiosity. It wasn't her fault Yang had left her scroll lying on the countertop, practically begging her to read the message. She raised a brow however when she saw who it was addressed to, and although the message was short, it took her several attempts to grasp what she was reading, and even longer to realize the empty bottle of painkillers nearby was supposed to be full.

'Ruby, I'm sorry. I love you. I'll see you again. Someday...'

"YANG!"

Rose petals scattered across the room as Ruby reappeared beside her sister's lifeless body, yanking her out of the tub and laying her on the tile floor. She was still breathing, just barely, but hardly noticeable for the infamous mouth breather.

Taiyang barged into the bathroom a moment later, spurred either by Ruby's scream or Zwei's barking, and she quickly wrapped a towel around her sister. "What happened!? What's wrong!?"

Two and a half years of huntsman training kicked in within an instant, and the former leader of Beacon Academy's most premier freshman team fell into a familiar rhythm of giving orders and expecting them to be carried out without question.

"Dad, I need you to give Yang an aura transfer," she said, making sure her sister was sufficiently decent. "I'm taking her to the hospital."

"Y-Yang?" he asked, stumbling forward. "Sweetie?"

Ruby jumped to her feet and practically threw Tai atop of Yang. "Dad, she needs an aura transfer and she needs it now!" In the back of his mind, Tai couldn't help noting how much she sounded like her mother, but all Ruby heard was her sister.

Tai gave a confused nod, and began transferring his aura. Doctors had expressly warned him that attempting an aura transfer in Yang's current condition could cause irreparable damage to her already injured arm and internal organs, possibly even kill her, but while Ruby didn't know how much good aura would do for an overdose, she had almost as much faith in Yang as she did in God.

Even if Yang overdosed on purpose, Ruby knew she was a fighter at heart. If they could just keep her soul fighting, her body as broken as it was would bend to its will. So long as she didn't give up...

"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! " Ruby hurried to the counter and pocketed Yang's scroll and the empty pill bottle. Their father didn't need to know about the note, nor could he ever know his daughter had just tried to take her own life. They were too similar and thought too much alike, and Ruby was barely keeping it together as it was most days.

She continued cursing herself as she got dressed and gathered her sister's medical information and anything else she thought the hospital might need. By the time she finished and the whirlwind subsided, Yang was glowing like sunlight for the first time in weeks, but the radiance belonged to their father, not her own.

Ruby dressed Yang in her favorite kimono before lifting her into her arms. It was awkward on account of Yang being a head taller and about thirty pounds heavier, and her sister being dead weight wasn't helped by Ruby still not being a hundred percent from her fight atop The Emerald Tower.

Tai brushed his eldest daughter's hair, whispering her name before kissing her on the forehead much like he did before bedtime or school. Afterward, Ruby knelt down so Zwei could give Yang a slobbery kiss as well. She didn't like wasting precious time on goodbyes, not when every second was life or death, but she also wouldn't have been able to live with herself if their father and Zwei never got the chance to say goodbye.

'It's not goodbye,' Ruby told herself. 'It's I'll see you soon.'

"She'll be okay," she promised, speaking as much to her father and Zwei as herself. "She's Yang. Nobody fights harder than her."

Without another word Ruby disappeared in a cloud of rose petals. She ran faster than she ever had her entire life, nearly tearing every muscle in her body, but she reached the hospital on the other side of the island by the time her father made it down stairs to put shoes on.


Blake listened to the sound of running water from the other side of the door. The sink had been running for some time now, meant to drown out the sound of Yang's crying, but with an extra pair of ears atop her head, she knew her partner had since stopped. She stole a glance at Zwei standing behind her, ears perked up like hers, and an uncharacteristic concerned look on his face.

"Yang?" she called. "Can I come in?"

When there wasn't an immediate response, Blake sighed and debated whether she should just leave Yang alone when that's clearly what she wanted, or if she should follow Tai's advice and say what needed to be said. Blake reminded herself that she'd already promised Yang to help shave her legs, and as much as she didn't want to cuddle with a cactus tonight, she also didn't want to leave Yang waiting and wondering if was coming. She'd done enough of that already.

"I-I'm coming in."

Under ordinary circumstances, Blake would've expected Yang to put on a sultry show accompanied by her trademark grin, but instead was met by a despondent figure sitting on the floor with her bag against the tub. She was staring off into space with a razor, washcloth, and can of shaving cream lying beside her, and appeared to have already started on her left leg before giving up halfway through.

Blake let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd be holding, and took a casual glance around the bathroom which more resembled a warzone. Back at Beacon when there'd been four girls sharing a bathroom, the countertops had been overflowing with lotions, potions, makeup boxes, and every hair product under the sun, but was now covered pill bottles and various other medical paraphernalia. There were also piles of dirty clothes lying on the floor, which seemed to breed when nobody wasn't looking.

Seeing that Yang was alright and would soon have company, Zwei gave his favorite cuddle buddy a supportive yip before running out the room and down the stairs, presumably to devour any leftover bacon or wayward faunus he came across.

Closing the door and locking it behind her, Blake turned the water off before stooping down and pretending to examine her partner's legs. "You did a good job," she lied.

Yang didn't respond, and not knowing what else to say, Blake went to work lathering the right leg with shaving cream. She'd have to go back and redo the left, but didn't see any reason to hurt her partner's feelings any further by starting with it.

"Ruby did the same thing for Weiss when she broke her arm," Blake reassured. "Remember, during the breach, when the King Taijitu bit through her arm? I don't know what annoyed her more, having to learn to do everything right-handed, or sometimes having to rely on Ruby. I also remember the time you punched Pyrrha's shield during a match. You broke your hand and she broke her wrist, and both of you tried to hide it from each other and your teammates. Pretty sure that was the last time Goodwitch ever let the two of you spar in class."

Again Yang remained silent, staring off into the ether while Blake finished her leg. Afterward, she ran her fingertips across the smooth skin, hoping that maybe tickling her would elicit a reaction. "Smooth as baby Blake's Bellabooty," she said in a last ditch effort to make her crack a smile.

"I don't know what to do," Yang whispered. "I don't know what to do..."

Blake doubted Yang even knew she had spoken aloud. She had heard this particular one-sided conversation countless times in recent weeks, usually when Yang thought she was out of earshot, but other times she seemed to forget about the world around her and spoke the only words that came to mind.

'I don't know what to do.'

"Let me worry about that," she said, barely able to keep her voice from cracking. Blake had never been very good at cheering people up, herself included, and hadn't improved much since it became her full-time job. Most of the time she just repeated the same platitudes she heard elsewhere, not that they had ever helped her much, but she was desperate and running out of cheerful advice to say.

"Even if they don't take my arm, what if this is the way I feel for the rest of my life?" Yang muttered. "Exhausted. Out of breath. Brain fog. Someone I don't even recognize. I don't want to live like that..."

Blake winced, vaguely aware of an incident that had happened in that very same bathroom months prior to her arrival, but fortunately fuzzy on the details. The young woman sitting before her might've resembled Yang Xiao Long, but she acted and sounded nothing like her. It was almost as if the real Yang was still back at Beacon, stubbornly refusing to give up the fight.

"You're beginning to sound like me. Maybe I gave you too much of my aura that night." She was humored at the thought that perhaps the real Yang was indeed still back at Beacon. Same went for Ruby and Weiss, and herself. All sitting around their dorm room with Yang and Weiss at each other's throats, Ruby rambling despite nobody listening, and herself sitting in the corner with a good book. Perhaps she had simply dozed off and this was all a bad dream.

The fantasy faded however the moment she looked into Yang's eyes. This was the real Yang, or at least the one she never allowed anyone else to see.

Hurt. Scared. Vulnerable...

Three words that had never even come close to describing Yang Xiao Long, at least not to Blake, but now seemed to define her very existence.

"What was the point of it all?" Yang asked nobody in particular. "The countless hours training with Dad and Uncle Qrow. Working my butt off to be the top of my class four years in a row. Walking around with bruises, broken bones, and gunshot wounds all the time. Sweating in a machine shop all weekend instead of lounging on the beach." Yang shook her head. "I killed three Alphas my freshman year at Beacon, and made it to the top sixteen in the Vytal Festival. I was supposed to be a generational huntress just like Mom, Dad, and Uncle Qrow, but now my career's over before it began. I can't even shave my own legs."

She laughed bitterly, tears in her eyes, and Blake could hardly blame her. As much as she and Weiss had wanted to be huntresses, it wasn't what they had dreamed of all their lives. Weiss at heart was a businesswoman, and Blake a misguided revolutionary wanting to make the world a better place for faunus. For Yang and Ruby however, being a huntress was all they ever considered, and Yang very well could've been the greatest of their generation. Now it looked as though that honor would be going to Ruby, but only after the loss of half their generation of huntsmen.

"You don't know that it's over," Blake said, the bitter taste of lies in her mouth, "but even if it is, you're still a hell of a mechanic and weaponsmith, Yang. You're also good enough to teach hand-to-hand combat at Signal if you wanted."

"Pretty sure you need two hands to do all that, and a heart that doesn't stop working whenever it feels like it."

"They'll fix your arm, Yang, but even if there's a slim chance of needing a cybernetic, you'll get used to it." Blake had expected another outburst like the one Yang had the other day, hoping for it actually, but her partner instead brought her knees to her chest and curled into a ball, looking like a small, frightened child.

"That's what I'm afraid of," she whispered. "I don't want to get used to it. I want to go back to the way life used to be. I want to be me again, not someone who can't even shave her own legs, or someone who doesn't care anymore." She glanced at the bathtub and sighed. "I'm trying, Blake. I really am, and I want to get better, but I just don't know how..."

Blake was silent as she finished her task, and afterward ran a hand across the freshly shaven skin, sending goosebumps up and down Yang's leg that she either ignored or didn't notice.

"We'll get through this like how we got through the fall of Beacon," she said, the conviction in her voice surprising even herself. "But this time we'll do it together. I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

She gave Yang a kiss on the cheek, and she finally smiled, albeit weakly. "Just so you know, you're gonna have to be the optimistic one for a change."

"Well now we're really in trouble, aren't we?" Blake chuckled, and perhaps it was infectious because Yang's smile became genuine.

"My bad. Asking you to be optimistic is like asking Weiss to have a heart, or Ruby to pay attention."

"Or you to be leveled headed." She laughed again and leaned back. "Your uncle was right. Team RWBY's a mess, but we complete one another in our own way."

Yang nodded. "Partners are meant to compliment each other's strengths and weaknesses. Not just their combat styles, but their personalities too. The huntsmen of old believed that partners were a single soul dwelling in two bodies." She glanced up and looked at Blake expectantly. "Almost like soulmates..."

"The light to my shadow," Blake murmured, remembering something Tai had said. Her shadow had a tendency to react in peculiar ways around Yang's aura. Sometimes it'd be drawn to her, moving in the opposite direction it should. Other times it'd hide in the darkest corners of the room, sometimes even becoming pitch black as if in protest, but more often than not, it'd dance around Yang like shadows around a candle.

Yang being the light to Blake's shadow was an easy analogy to make, almost as easy as Yang being the fire to Weiss' ice, or the slow and steady to Ruby's superspeed. The entire team complimented one another, but Yang was the heart and glue that kept them together even when they were apart.

"They don't call partners 'soulmates' for nothing," Yang repeated, touching Blake's hand. "My parents were partners before anything else, and being a huntress is all I've ever known or wanted. I used to imagine partnering with the man of my dreams, getting married and having lots of kids, and not making the same mistakes my parents made. We'd settle down before either of us could get killed or forced to retire, and we'd live on the beach happily-ever-after."

She glanced at her withered arm, looking thoughtful. "Maybe I ended up following in their footsteps anyway." She looked up and caught her partner's eye. "I love you, Blake. I know we've talked about this before, how different we are, and how we're not really what the other is looking for, but I honestly do love you." She smiled, blushing slightly.

Blake's breath caught. She tried to repeat the words back to her, but she fumbled over them. "I-I feel the same way."

It wasn't quite what Yang wanted to hear, but while she was disappointed not to hear the most important words in the world repeated back to her, she wasn't entirely surprised. "Maybe we just have Stockholm Syndrome for each other," she said, breaking the tension for her partner's sake. "Spending all our time together, and you taking care of me, maybe it was inevitable we'd feel this way. For now anyway."

She fell back into silence, thinking of everything they had gone through. The countless hours spent together. The good and the bad. Never once in her life did Yang regret telling someone she loved them, or a hug, kiss, or any other sign of affection or intimacy. Yang didn't live with many regrets, and lived her life so that there'd be as few as possible. If she was regrettable about anything however, it was how few times she had heard, 'I love you' back. Even rarer still was the other person saying it unprompted and before her.

Shaking slightly, Blake handed over the razor and shaving gel. "Um, I guess I'll leave the rest to you."

Yang glanced at her smooth legs, it taking her a moment to catch on. "I guess it is bikini season, not that I'm gonna be wearing one anytime soon."

She graciously accepted the razor and the help to her feet. Afterward, Blake helped Yang out of her protective sleeve and into something waterproof. "Do you need a hand?"

Yang shook her head, her lopsided smirk returning. "Unless that's an offer, I can still take my clothes off and shower by myself, thank you very much. You're welcome to join me anytime though."

Blake thought she caught the slightest bit of earnestness in Yang's voice, but whether it was just her usual teasing or not she couldn't be sure. "Maybe next time." She helped Yang out of her ponytail which she sometimes struggled with, and ran a hand through her long hair which had since lost its golden sheen. "I'd be happy to give you a much needed haircut though."

Her words had the desired effect as Yang gasped and grabbed her hair protectively. "Touch my hair with a pair of scissors and I'm not gonna be the only one missing an arm."

Blake laughed and excused herself from the bathroom while Yang finished getting undressed. Back at Beacon, time and hot water had been precious commodities, especially after a long day of combat training, and it hadn't been uncommon for one girl to jump into the shower while the other crawled into the tub. Occasionally after a particularly grueling day where they struggled just to walk, they'd take turns so everyone got the chance to shower and recover in the therapeutic tub.

Sharing the tub or shower to save both time and water had been a longstanding suggestion by Yang, one that nobody took her up on, and one she said only half-jokingly.

While she showered, Blake waited in the bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, ready to pounce should Yang cry out or sneeze. They had a shower chair for Yang to sit in, but unless it was absolutely necessary, she refused any help she could afford to. Blake was mildly concerned Yang may feign lightheadedness to trick her into the shower together, but her fears were unfounded and Yang exited the bathroom an hour later.

She practically collapsed atop the bed, but once it was clear she wasn't going to pass out, Blake dried her hair and brushed it just the way she liked. It ended up not mattering however as Yang put it back in an easy to manage ponytail anyway, but for a few minutes at least, she resembled Yang again.

The shower was the only place Blake could get away from the world and let her unbridled emotions out. Everything washed away down the drain, stripping her of all her problems and responsibilities. When she inevitably walked out of the bathroom again, her skin would be bright pink and scrubbed raw, much like her emotions, and she'd be ready for another day.

Blake cried until she had no more tears left to shed, and afterward spent a long time underneath the gentle waterfall. It was almost like a ritual, crying with her head bowed, praying to anyone that would listen, and washing away her many regrets and misdeeds that kept her awake at night. If it hadn't been for her, the fall of Beacon might not have happened, which was already enough guilt to make Blake want to vomit without thinking about Yang.

Yang had gotten off easy compared to the thousands that had lost their lives and livelihoods, but old habits die hard, and Blake's sense of self-guilt gnawed her to the bone. It was the reason she ran away from Yang in the first place. One of the reasons anyway. Blake was used to looking out for herself and only herself, and sometimes that meant thinking only of oneself, and allowing one's self-guilt to outweigh their actual guilt for other people.

That too was something Blake did her best to scrub off and wash out of her head. She'd made a promise, and she intended to keep it until the end.

With her cat ears folded back and a waterfall crashing atop of her, it was little surprise she didn't hear the door open or curtain pull back, nor was it much of a surprise when strong arms wrapped around her waist and a warm body pressed up against her.

The visitor rested her chin atop Blake's shoulder and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Didn't think I was coming, did ya?"

Blake's grin widened and her blush deepened. She rested one hand atop Yang's while the other caressed her face. The waterfall poured over them, the temperature remaining steady even when Yang's hands began to roam. Blake's breath hitched as they traveled up her stomach, but shivered and practically squirmed when they traveled back down. Her body couldn't decide whether to be tense or relaxed, seemingly changing its mind every few seconds. Occasionally the two found themselves giggling like school girls doing something naughty, but Blake couldn't remember a time she felt more at ease.

She was acutely aware of Yang's face buried in her neck, nibbling her, as well as the many curves of Yang's body and how they seemed to line up perfectly with her own. Perhaps it was because she'd gotten lost in Yang's aura, or because of how badly she wanted this without ever knowing or admitting it, but she ignored every sign that something was amiss. Fingertips tickled her abdomen where she'd previously been stabbed, slowly working their way down, when it finally dawned on her what was wrong. Yang was using her right hand...

"Y-Yang!?"

A kiss on the neck and another on the cheek. "Close, but not quite..."

Blake's eyes shot open, and looking down, she saw a pair of shadowy hands tracing patterns on her skin, creating goosebumps atop of goosebumps. She grabbed hold of the hands before they could reach their destination, and backed them out from under the waterfall. She wasn't quite strong enough to break not-Yang's grip, but as furious as she was, she also didn't want to risk a slippery shower fight with something that had already beaten her senseless several times and even tried to kill her.

"What?" said Yang's shadow. "Deep down you've imagined this, and I don't recall you complaining when you had your eyes closed."

"You're not Yang," she hissed.

"No, but I am the next best thing. I'm a manifestation of her aura, as well as your subconscious. Your deepest, darkest desires are mine for the taking. And so are Yang's..."

The shadow of Yang flickered as Blake tried dismissing her to no avail. "I've imagined a lot of things, including killing Yang a time or two. Everyone has fleeting thoughts like that. They come and go whenever they please. Doesn't mean I actually want to shower with her."

"Then get rid of me like you normally do. Oh wait, you can't anymore because you've got a bad case of split personality." The shadow of Yang grinned. "Come on, Blake, you know better than to try and keep secrets from me. I'm with you every waking moment. I'm there in your happiest dreams, and I'm there in your worst nightmares..."

The shadow hands briefly became claws, sharp enough to disembowel her, but just as quickly returned to normal. "She'd probably already be in here-" the shadow continued- "except she's embarrassed about her arm and the way she looks, and doesn't think you're interested anyway. Why would anyone be interested in her? You left her, and then Weiss, Ruby, and her uncle left her, and God knows who else has left her over the years. It's only a matter of time before you leave again. You know it. I know it. And worst of all, she knows it."

Blake didn't respond, and briefly considered bashing the shadow's head in with a shampoo bottle when Yang's aura washed over her again, this time stronger than ever. They rocked back and forth together as if dancing, and Blake was only dully aware that the now soapy shadow hands were moving again. She was too focused on her partner's aura which hadn't felt this strong since before the fall of Beacon. That and she was practically hypnotized by her body being washed by the person she loved and trusted most in the world. Instead of the waterfall washing away all her regrets and misdeeds, it was Yang taking a literal hands on approach.

Her shadow danced with her just like how it often did when in proximity to Yang's aura, and Blake thought it strange that her partner's shadow felt more real than the girl lying in the other room. The texture of her 'skin' wasn't quite right now that she thought about it, but if she put some thought into it, Blake could've conjured up a close approximation. The fact her shadow was still a silhouette of Yang and not fully corporeal however meant Blake's imaginations weren't quite as vivid as her alter ego led her to believe, but it got her thinking.

"Wait a minute," she said, turning around. "You're Yang's aura! Her aura from before!"

The shadow nodded, grinning wide as its lilac eyes roamed Blake's body, savoring the view.

"That gives me an idea!"

"Gives me ideas too..."

Blake yelped as she was lifted off her feet into the waiting arms of Yang's shadow. Her legs instinctively wrapped around the shadow, who propped her up with a hand underneath her and another on the small of her back, but the barely corporeal silhouette of Yang couldn't support her weight for more than a few seconds. Either that or carrying another person in the shower wasn't a good idea, particularly if they were covered in soap.

She screamed again but thankfully had Yang's shadow to cushion her fall, who merely smiled at the young woman currently straddling her.

"In my defense, Yang would've done the same thing, but then again, she's also stronger even with one arm. By the way, that was WAY sexier in your head. Your favorite writers definitely haven't ever tried that for themselves."

Blake glowered at her, shampoo bottle already in hand. "Remember what I said about wanting to kill Yang?"

"Would it be weird if I said I'm really turned on right now? Who am I kidding, you'd expect it by now."

"Blake?" a voice called from the other side of the door. "You alright? Who are you talking to?"

The shadow began to speak but Blake covered its mouth. "N-nobody! Myself! I'm fine!" The shadow dispelled, and Blake yelped again as she lurched forward.

"Did you at least land on your feet?" Yang asked, laughing. "No, don't tell me. It's funnier in my head."

"I doubt that..."

"You need me to come in there? Here I thought I was gonna have to be holding onto you, not the other way around."

Blake sighed and got back to her feet, but shivered once more when her shadow manifested in front of her, this time taking on her voice and appearance.

"She's either going to die or continue living her life wishing she were dead," it hissed. "If you don't do something soon, I will.""

"I-I know, but what am I supposed to do?"

"You already know what to do, and you've had several opportunities already tonight. All you have to do is give Yang something to live for. A reason to look forward to tomorrow."

Blake blinked, and the shadow leaned forward, practically growling in her face. "You..."


(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. When I first began conceptualizing "The Twilight Dragon", one of the first scenes I envisioned was Ruby going into the bathroom and discovering Yang had attempted suicide shortly after the fall of Beacon, and the scene both mirroring and juxtaposing the present with Blake. It was important to me to show just how low Yang's life had gotten at that point, and how far she's come since. She's still fighting even if she appears to have given up hope, which is core to Yang's character in my opinion. She's stubborn, and that's both a blessing and a curse for someone in her current situation. Yang Xiao Long is a fighter through and through, and it wouldn't be Yang's story if she didn't have a fight on her hands.

As for the final scene, I'll leave a lot of it up to personal interpretation, but I will say that huntsmen partners in my universe are closer than spouses, siblings, or any other pairing you can think of. Yang and Blake love each other, having even fought and killed for each other, and have spent a lot of intimate time together. Whether they're "in love" has yet to be seen, and may not even be fully answered in this story. I don't really view Blake and Yang's relationship as being "lustful", "sexual", or necessarily even "romantic" in all honesty. To me, it's more intimate than that. Their relationship is two people that have been through hell, are currently going through hell, and are uncertain about the hell of the future. They love each other, and as is the nature of huntsmen partners, are quite literally soulmates. Even though it was a shadow of Yang, it was still "Yang" to a certain degree, and her joining Blake in the shower is just something I can imagine happening.

Not to spoil anything, but here's more content that is sexual in nature coming in Chapter 10, which just so happens to be the climax to the story, but it'll be similar in tone to this chapter. I hope you enjoyed this development in Blake and Yang's relationship, as well as where it goes from here. Thank you again for all the love and support, friends. I hope you enjoy the coming chapters.

All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and all of you. God bless)