"Would you run away with me?"
Blake had woken up to the pleasant sight of two beautiful crystal blue eyes weighing heavily on her own. Blake rustled from where she lay beside Weiss. "I'd go anywhere with you," Blake answered without pause, stretching, her mind still drowsy. The two of them had fallen asleep while waiting for Weiss to calm herself after the particularly stressful emotional toil reliving memories had taken on the princess. "Where would we go though?" Blake continued, humouring this train of thought.
"I don't know," Weiss hiccupped slightly. "I hear Vacuo is pretty Faunus-friendly. They're a democracy too. None of this partial-constitutional-monarchy bullshit of a political system we have here." The answer was more serious than Blake had expected. Blake had expected a trivial response — the weather is nicer, they have larger shopping malls… something of that sort.
"Hey," Blake nudged Weiss, prompting the princess to look up. "Are you being serious right now? Are you actually planning to run away?"
Weiss moved into Blake. "Yes, I'm being serious. Why?" Weiss paused. "Were you not?" Weiss' voice wavered. It was so quiet. So fragile.
"I'd go anywhere with you," Blake repeated, squeezing Weiss' hands. Blake waited until Weiss relaxed. "But," Blake started cautiously, "I don't think running away is the best course of action right now." Blake eye's flickered around Weiss' face. "There's the whole Faunus uprising going on. Yang needs your help. The Faunus needs your help. Everyone in the city needs you really."
Weiss gave out a heavy sigh. "That's just it!" Weiss exclaimed, frustrated, pushing herself away from Blake. "Every single thing I have done in my entire eighteen years of existence has been for someone else! And I'm tired of it. Who cares if they need me now? I deserve some time for myself! I deserve to just do something for me!"
"Shhh," Blake wrapped her arms around Weiss and stroked her hands up and down Weiss' back. "You do deserve a vacation," Blake flashed what she hoped was a really charming smile. "But I know you. If you leave this unfinished, you'd regret it."
"Gah!" Weiss shouted into her pillow. "Goddamn it! Goddamn everything!" Weiss huffed. Finally, Weiss' gaze found her way back to Blake. "You're right. I would," the princess admitted finally — ever so noble.
At Weiss' defeated look, Blake kissed her heiress' cheek. "Hey, look. Let's make a plan okay?"
The princess looked hopeful. "Okay?"
"Let's say you just finish helping Yang through this Faunus ordeal. Help her through a couple of meetings. Make sure the first couple of Faunus Act laws are implemented. Lower the tensions a bit." Blake wiggled her ears in attempt to lighten the mood. She leaned into Weiss' shoulder. "Then we go on a vacation. You and me, right?"
Weiss waited a beat. Then, she wrapped her arms around Blake tightly.
"That sounds like a plan."
"Did you stay up all night?"
Yang didn't even look up from the documents at hand. She continued reading even as half her brain registered that Neptune was talking to her and that she needed to formulate a reply.
"I think so," Yang said, finishing the last bit of the report before she threw it on the desk. "Okay, is Pyrrha here yet?" Yang continued more brightly — the functioning bit of her mind tuning into the conversation.
"Wow," Neptune whistled, leaning on the door frame. "You look really good for someone who just pulled an all-nighter. Heck, you look good even for someone who didn't." Neptune grinned. He had missed this easy camaraderie. With the ice princess, teasing wasn't recommended.
Yang just rolled her eyes and shot off a cheeky smirk. She brushed her hair off her shoulder in an outlandish motion. "Of course I do, just who do you think I am?" Then, Yang's expression sharpened. "But anyways, Pyrrha? I'll need to speak with her within the next hour if I want any chance of calling the other councilmen to a meeting today."
"Yes. She just arrived. I sent her to the gardens. Pyrrha likes talking business outside."
"Yes, I know. I didn't forget," Yang gathered up some choice documents. "Could you let her know I'll be down in a minute? Maybe get some food and drinks too because I am monstrously hungry."
"You got it," Neptune nodded, starting out. "Glad to have you back, Yang!" he called without turning back around.
Yang beamed.
Glad to be back.
Yang scribbled the last few notes into the margin of the document then glanced at the clock on the wall. Good. It was right about time. She was gathering up the last of her things when the door to her chambers burst open.
In stormed the ice princess. And the air around Weiss was looking a lot colder than it was normally.
"Yang!" Weiss snapped, crossing her arms.
"Yes, dearest sister?" Yang replied with humour.
"Why aren't you at the meeting that started—" a pause for Weiss to glance at the clock, "Thirty minutes ago?" Yang could tell that Weiss wanted to lecture more by the way the princess kept opening and closing her mouth. "Well?" Weiss settled on finally. "Do you have an explanation for me?"
"I'm going now," Yang smirked. "Being fashionably late is a thing, you know?"
"They aren't going to take you seriously if you yourself don't take this seriously Yang!"
At that, Yang just smiled. "Thanks sis, for worrying," the warrior winked. "But no worries, you've got your style, and I've got mine."
Yang strutted into the meeting room with her head held high and an elaborate hair flip for good measure. The councilmen were all good and worked up — it was all very amusing. Yang personally thought that Lord Winchester had the most ridiculous grumpy face she had ever seen. His eyebrows were furrowed so far that they scrunched together to look like fluffy caterpillars. She caught Pyrrha's amused look across the table and smiled inwardly.
This was going to be fun.
"What is the meaning of this?" Lord Winchester slammed his fist down on the table rather gruffly. Yang had to resist rolling her eyes at such a blatant display of pseudo-dominance.
Yang deftly ignored him. Instead, she slid a packet of documents to the centre of the table. One thing that Yang didn't mind about Lord Winchester predictable outburst was that the rest of the councilmen had quieted immediately. All eyes were on Yang. This was perfect for Yang's announcement.
"I passed the Faunus Rights Act. It's effective in a weeks time. I suggest you look over the amended laws and make the necessary arrangements in preparation."
Yang paused and counted in her head.
One.
Two.
Three.
"Are you kidding me?" Torchwick.
Damn it. Yang now owed Pyrrha 100 lien. Yang had thought for sure that the councilmen would stay in a daze for at least five seconds.
"Who the hell gave you the right?!" Lord Winchester was so furious, Yang could see steam flowing out of his ears. "Get the princess in here right this moment. You—"
Yang really couldn't catch anything past that. The rest of the councilmen had begun tossing in a few choice words of their own. The warrior let out a heavy sigh and armed her gauntlets.
Such a pity. She rather liked the mural painted on this ceiling.
Gunshot.
The councilmen's eyes widened at the sound. Then ducked away as brittle pieces of concrete fell from the ceiling to just narrowly miss their heads.
For good measure, Yang fired another two rounds.
"Right then," Yang said, sitting down — not having realized when she had even stood up. "If everyone could take their seats?" It wasn't a suggestion.
Slowly but surely, the councilmen took their seats. Lord Winchester being the last — hovering with an indecisive look until Yang pinned him down with a cocky stare.
"Let's just get a few things straight. Firstly, somebody mentioned my sister?" Yang looked around the room. She took out a document and slapped it down on the table. "I'm sure right about now my sister is looking like a good alternative to me but unfortunately you lot have no choice in the matter. If anyone has any concerns, speak to the scroll. I am the rightful heir to the throne."
"Now hold on—"
"Secondly," Yang powered through, shooting a look at Torchwick. "When I say that I am the heir to the throne, I don't mean that figuratively. When my father took over some fifty years ago, he was pretty relaxed about things. He wanted to make you all feel welcome, needed. Because that's just who my father was. But because of that, we seem to have forgotten some key facts," Yang smirked, pulling out another document. "We are a Monarchy."
A collective boggling of eyes ensued.
"Not even a Constitutional Monarchy," Yang laughed, "We are a real Absolute Monarchy," Yang grinned and flipped her hair over her shoulder. "Know what that means?"
Silence.
"It means that I," Yang gestured grandly to herself, "am King of Vale. And that the term 'councilmen' is a more fanciful way of saying 'the king's very replaceable advisors'. The advice of whom I do not have to listen to if I so choose not to."
Silence.
Yang grinned and stretched her arms before leaning back in her seat.
"Any questions?"
So, sorry for the ridiculously long break I took. I blame school. Engineering is actually so time-consuming. (On the bright side 94% average in engineering so that's an accomplishment!)
As an apology, I'll be back (hopefully) to updates every day now that it's summer again! yay~ Thanks for those who have been waiting patiently! I really appreciate it!