Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, but I had to drop everything recently to go to a funeral :( But, I'm back in town and back to writing!
Bonus points for the people who can tell me what show inspired a part of this story!
Blake woke up late the next morning and very nearly missed the one and only meeting she had scheduled for the day with her publisher.
They had ended up staying at the club until the early hours of the morning. A good amount of that time was spent dancing, which she certainly felt in her muscles today. But after they had gotten tired of dancing, they had found a quieter corner of the club where they could sit and talk in (mostly) undisturbed peace. They managed to pass hours together like that - being interrupted only every so often by a fan who wanted to take a picture with Yang.
Never in her life had Blake known someone she enjoyed talking to so much. Yang always seemed to know the perfect time to listen quietly, offer her input, or make an appropriately timed fool of herself. Each conversation they had seemed to have a life of its own - a living, breathing moment that always evolved into something magical.
When she heard the sound of her phone buzzing from her long-ago discarded bag on the kitchen table, she pushed herself up from the sofa to see who had messaged her. From the way her heart was already speeding, she knew who she wanted it to be. Anyone else would surely be a disappointment.
Which is why she couldn't help smiling when she read the incoming message.
What are you up to tonight? Wanna watch a movie?
Replying 'yes' instantly, she only had to wait another three seconds for Yang to tell her she could come over right away.
Grabbing her keys, she was out the door without a second thought - already looking forward to spending a nice, quiet evening with Yang. Maybe they could curl up on the sofa together while watching the movie...
Only a few minutes later, she was walking through the entrance to Yang's building.
She paused by the front door, waiting for the security guard to ask for her name, but he just waved her through with a short glance and not a word. Surprised by the lax security, she made her way tentatively to the elevator and pressed the outer button to call one down.
When the elevator arrived and the guard still said nothing, she stepped in and pressed the button for the top floor. A minute later, she was knocking on the one and only door on this level.
It didn't take more than a couple seconds for Yang to practically rip the door open - appearing as if she had just sprinted to open it as quickly as possible.
"Heyyy," the blonde tried to say nonchalantly, bringing a smile to Blake's face.
At least she hadn't been the only one pining for some company tonight.
"Hey," she responded happily. Yang stared at her for several seconds with a grin plastered to her face - just long enough for Blake to shift uncomfortably under the unwavering gaze.
"So...are you going to invite me in or are we going to watch in the hallway?"
The question made the girl jump to action, pushing the door open all the way and motioning Blake through with a blush on her face.
"In here, of course," the blonde mumbled softly.
"Funny thing…" she said while stepping into the large front entryway of Yang's apartment and removing her jacket and shoes. "Your security guard just waved me past without even asking who I was here to see."
"Oh! That's because I called down earlier and told him to let through the most beautiful girl he saw tonight - that I was expecting her," Yang answered with a pleased grin - leaning forward to relieve Blake of her jacket, only to steal a kiss at the same time.
The kiss flustered her, but she still managed to maintain her train of thought...somewhat.
"W-what if he had let up some other girl?"
She couldn't help feeling incredibly flattered when Yang blinked blankly at the question. Clearly, the girl had never even considered that there were undoubtedly other beautiful girls living in this building.
"Uh...well then I'd be doubly lucky?" the actress finally joked with a lopsided grin. "Maybe?"
Blake shook her head at the joke and laughed.
"Let's just hope he doesn't keep sending girls your way tonight…"
With that, she was finally able to spare a moment to take in Yang's apartment. It didn't look nearly as childish as she had imagined from Pyrrha's description, but she was quickly learning that those two gave each other a hard time about almost everything.
The front entryway opened into a large open space - the living room and television were placed off to the left along with a comfortable looking sofa and some plush chairs, while a dining table occupied the right of the room. Directly across from them was the kitchen - large, open, with an island and all stainless steel appliances.
Two hallways led off to the left and right, leading either to more common rooms or bedrooms.
"So this is how a ten year old lives, huh?" she asked playfully.
Yang laughed and grabbed her hand, leading her over to the sofa.
In front of the sofa sat a large coffee table that was currently overflowing with all sorts of snacks and drinks - as well as an array of movies. Glancing at the titles, it looked like Yang had picked out one from nearly every genre - including a horror film someone would have to pay Blake to watch.
"It looks like you robbed a video store."
"Yeah...I kind of realized that I didn't know what movie you'd want to watch, so I got an assortment," Yang explained. "Do you know what you want to watch?"
"Why don't you be my film expert? You're an actress, after all," Blake said. "I don't really know much about movies."
Yang laughed at Blake's honest reply.
"I actually don't watch that many movies, either, but how about this one?"
The girl reached out and picked up the least threatening title in the bunch. The cover screamed romantic comedy, which was perfect in Blake's opinion.
Giving her nod of approval, Yang grinned and practically flew over to the TV to set everything up. While she was doing that, Blake sat down in the middle of the giant sofa.
Once the movie began playing, Yang bounded back over to her and sat down right beside her. Sitting straight up, Blake was suddenly unsure about what Yang expected her to do. Was she supposed to lean into the girl's side? Or stay sitting like they were?
She was quickly leaning towards option one, since she could already feel the warmth from the blonde's body heat working its way into her veins.
Before she could stop herself, a sigh of contentment slipped past her lips - which Yang must have heard from the giggle she let out. The next second a strong, warm arm was wrapped around Blake's shoulders, gently tugging her into Yang's side.
Even though her heart was pounding, she allowed Yang to draw her closer. Pulling her legs up onto the sofa beside her, she snuggled into the girl's side.
Another sigh escaped her as Yang's fingers wove their way delicately through her hair - the blonde absentmindedly playing with Blake's raven tresses while they turned their attention towards the television screen.
But she probably wasn't going to remember much of this movie tonight...
Yang let out a long yawn as soon as the end credits began scrolling up the screen, stretching both arms high above her head. Blake couldn't help but smile, finding it to be pretty adorable that Yang would be tired as soon as the movie ended. That, and the blonde's stretching was accompanied by the cutest little noises.
Although, she could do without all the extra movement, which was disrupting her place snuggled into Yang's side.
"Woah, it's already pretty late!" Yang exclaimed after glancing towards the clock hanging on the apartment wall.
Blake frowned at the realization, though thankfully Yang couldn't see the expression. This was the part of their evenings she enjoyed the least.
"Yeah...guess I should get going..." she remarked solemnly, swinging her legs down from the sofa to the soft rug below. Pushing herself to her feet, she raised her hands high above her head, feeling her back crack several times in protest for having remained motionless for so long - like it was her fault Yang was so warm and comfortable.
She sighed in disappointment when her right side instantly chilled - already missing the warm body next to it. Turning back towards the sofa, Blake watched Yang get to her feet, a small smile appearing on the blonde's face.
"Why don't you stay here tonight?" Yang asked easily, swinging her arms side to side with audible pops of protest issuing from her back.
She felt a blush light up her cheeks, eyes widening temporarily in surprise - especially with how casually Yang had posed such a question.
They hadn't done that before...stayed over at each other's place. Not that Blake hadn't thought about it - the thought had crossed her mind more than a few times over the time they had been seeing each other.
She jolted from her thoughts when Yang cleared her throat, realizing that she was taking a little too long to respond to the question.
"U-uh...yeah, sure. I can stay," she replied hastily, not thinking about what the answer really entailed, just knowing that she wanted to say yes. "Oh...but I don't have any of my things..."
Having already received her positive answer, Yang was now sporting a giant smile - of the radiant variety that would give the sun a run for its money.
"That's not a problem!" the blonde responded with a wave of her hand. "I have plenty of clothes - you can borrow some."
With that, Yang waved for Blake to follow her out of the living room area and down the hallway on the right side of the apartment. There was only one door at the end of this hallway, which opened into a giant master suite. The center of the room was taken up by a comfortably plush looking bed, while two sides were lined with drawers, various random articles laying on top. The bathroom opened to the left, while the right wall was taken up by a closed door which must have been the massive closet.
Once inside the room, the blonde began shuffling through several drawers before withdrawing with a soft 'aha!' of success. Rushing back to Blake, she held up the items she had just found. She took the two articles of clothing from Yang when they were extended to her, contemplating them skeptically.
"Uh...do you have any shorts that aren't so...short?"
Yang burst out laughing at the question, returning to the drawers to pull out an equally short and skintight pair for herself - holding them up for Blake to see.
"Have you seen me wear any other kind?" the blonde asked playfully.
"No, I guess not," she answered after spending several seconds raking her memory only to come up empty. But when someone had a figure like Yang's, why would they cover it up?
"You could always just wear, you know, your underwear. I totally wouldn't mind," Yang added with a teasing wink, causing her cheeks to light up faster than ever before.
Resigned to her lack of better options, she hurried into the attached bathroom and quickly changed into her new pajamas. If she were forced to, she would admit that the short black shorts were actually quite comfortable, albeit moderately too revealing. She had thought that their tightness would be bothersome, but the material actually felt nice pressed against her skin.
Still, just because she liked staring at Yang in these tiny shorts didn't mean she wanted to parade around in them herself.
The yellow t-shirt Yang had given her was a little large, but hung comfortably off her frame. She could imagine that this shirt would fit Yang much more snuggly - what with the blonde's larger...assets…filling it out.
Stepping back into the bedroom, she found that Yang had already changed and was sitting cross-legged on the bed waiting for her to emerge. She had to give the blonde some credit for not staring too badly, but the way Yang's jaw fell open brought another blush to her face.
And Yang really shouldn't have been the one gawking either, when the blonde looked positively sultry in her form-fitting white tank top and dark purple shorts that only caused Blake's flush to deepen - they were even shorter than the ones she was currently wearing, leaving very little to the imagination. They were enough to set Blake's mind sprinting in a million different (and highly inappropriate) directions.
After a few frozen seconds of attempting to stare at each other without actually staring, Blake finally cleared her throat, determined to play it cool. She'd seen Yang in similar outfits before, after all.
But never in Yang's own bedroom...while wearing almost equally revealing clothing…before they spent the night together.
"So...what do you want to do now?" she asked as she climbed up onto the bed and sat down in front of the blonde, trying her best to ignore the brief look of lust that flashed through those lilac eyes.
One thing was for sure - any exhaustion Yang had felt earlier was now completely gone.
"Uh..." the blonde stalled, eyes scanning the room in search of an idea. Finally lighting upon something, she grinned. "Oh! How about we play some cards?"
She smiled and shrugged her shoulders, relieved to have anything to stare at besides her girlfriend.
"Sure, that sounds like fun."
Yang immediately bounced off the bed and over to the dresser to grab the pack of cards that had been laying there. The action provided the perfect opportunity for Blake to intently check out the back of the blonde's outfit, averting her eyes with a soft blush when Yang turned back towards her.
Walking back to the bed, Yang peeled off the plastic wrapper that hadn't even been removed yet, discarding it on the floor with a grin. Retaking her seat across from Blake, she pulled out the deck and began shuffling the fresh cards.
"What do you want to play?" Blake asked, eyes mesmerized by the motion of the cards shuffling together over and over again in Yang's skillful hands.
"How about...strip poker."
Her eyes instantly shot up at the suggestion, finding Yang already giggling while a blush heated her face.
"I hope you're not being serious - we're wearing like four pieces of clothing..."
"You're wearing like four pieces of clothing…" the blonde hinted suggestively, winking at Blake while her blush reached undiscovered shades of deep red.
"How about just regular poker?" she suggested hopefully, but Yang shook her head.
"Naw...too boring without the striping."
Blake turned away for a few seconds, trying to think of another idea while calming her thoughts. How was it possible for Yang to be so unaffected by these jokes?
A thought popped into her head just then - something that might allow her to regain a little bit of control over the evening.
"I have an idea...how about we play a new game?" she proposed, looking back to Yang with a warm smile.
"I'm down. But what does the winner get?"
Blake raised a hand to her chin in deep thought for a couple seconds before she gave Yang the most serious expression she could muster.
"Whatever they want."
She couldn't help but laugh when Yang's mouth dropped open and cards flew across the bed mid-shuffle.
"Are you serious?" the blonde asked in dismay while Blake collected the now-forgotten cards.
"Yes."
"Anything they want?" Yang pressed.
"Anything," Blake responded plainly. She shivered involuntarily from the look Yang was now giving her - somewhere between hunger and greed...she could probably guess what reward Yang would be collecting if she won. So now she just needed to make sure Yang didn't win...
"So, do you want to play?"
"Hell yeah!"
Blake smiled at the enthusiastic response as she began shuffling the cards in her own hands - slowly, methodically - getting used to the feeling of the slippery plastic against her fingertips.
"What's the game called?" Yang finally asked when Blake was prepared to deal their first hand.
"Cups."
She placed two cards facedown in front of Yang, then two in front of herself. Setting the dealer stack on the bed beside her, she looked across to Yang and found the blonde staring at her in excited expectation.
"The objective of Cups is to be the first person to get a 'full cup.' You score points for different card combinations, but can lose them, as well," she explained as briefly as possible.
"Alright - let's go!" Yang remarked, rubbing her hands together in anticipation.
Blake rolled her eyes; she had figured Yang wouldn't have the patience to listen to more than two sentences of rules. The blonde seemed to have already forgotten that she should actually try to win the game.
"Ok, look at your cards," she instructed, picking up her own pair at the same time.
Practically diving at her hand, Yang held the two cards up triumphantly before slamming them down on the covers in front of Blake's legs.
"A king and a queen!" the blonde shouted gleefully.
"That's good...but doesn't amount to any points in Cups," she said, giving Yang a sympathetic smile.
"Oh..." Yang responded, slightly deflated for all of a single second before cheering up. "Well, what did you get?"
Smirking, Blake flipped over her two cards - a three and a seven.
"I got 'one steaming cup' - three points."
She had to bite back the giggles that rose in her throat at the blank stare Yang gave the two cards laying on top of the covers.
"Aw man...already three points behind?" Yang finally said with a smile. "Next hand! I have some catching up to do."
This time, Blake did laugh, picking up the stack of unused cards and dealing four more.
"Two tens!" Yang exclaimed seconds later, flashing the two cards in front of Blake's eyes for her to see. "That has to be something, right? It's a high pair."
"Maybe in poker, Yang...but this is Cups. You don't get anything for a high pair," she explained with a chuckle. "On the other hand..." she began, flipping over her own cards. "Aha!"
Yang narrowed her eyes at the eight and jack laying in front of her.
"What's that?"
"That, my dear, is 'D cup,'" she responded, mustering as much excitement as possible into her voice.
"Oh, you mean like 'D'ese?" Yang replied with a wink, pointing both thumbs back towards her chest.
Flushing, she turned her eyes back down at the cards, ignoring the question entirely.
"Two points," she awarded herself while picking up the discarded hands.
"Man...you'd think they'd worth more than just two points..." Yang responded forlornly, shaking her head. "Ok, next!"
Blake dealt the next hand, which she won with a two and ten over Yang's nine-ten combo. Then, her pair of twos beat Yang's aces.
"God, Blake. I'm really bad at Cups..." the blonde lamented moments later, tossing their used cards on top of the discard pile.
Blake felt a small pang of guilt in her chest, feeling bad for taking advantage of her girlfriend in such a manner. But...even though Yang was losing horribly, the blonde's mood didn't seem to be affected one bit. In fact, she almost seemed glad to be losing.
She studied Yang's smiling face closely, searching for any clues of how the girl was feeling. Honestly, she couldn't tell if Yang actually thought she was horribly unlucky at this game, or if she knew that Blake was messing with her and was just playing along for her sake. It was incredibly difficult to tell sometimes...and Blake wouldn't put either one past the girl - she was a professional actress, after all.
"I'm going to go get a drink," Yang suddenly remarked, shooting off the bed like it had just turned to lava.
"Oops...you just lost the sitting down bonus," she said gingerly, testing Yang for a response.
A groan was the only answer she received while the blonde headed towards the door, pausing before she had fully exited the room.
"Do you want anything?"
"Some water would be great," she answered with a grateful smile. "Thank you."
The blonde wasn't gone longer than thirty seconds before she reappeared carrying two glasses filled to the brim with water. Blake watched with a small smile playing on her lips while Yang intently watched the glasses in both of her hands, brow adorably furrowed in concentration while she attempted not to spill a single drop. The bottom on Yang's tank top had ridden up slightly without her notice, revealing just a sliver of the girl's smooth midriff.
"For you," Yang commented lightly, carefully passing Blake her glass before re-taking her seat on the bed, completely oblivious to the stare she had been receiving. "So now that I'm sitting down again, do I get my bonus back?"
Blake looked at her blankly for a few seconds before her eyes widened, having completely forgotten about their game while she'd been busy checking out the blonde.
"Oh, uh sure, you can have your bonus back," she replied, enjoying the look of joy on Yang's face.
"Awesome! I need all the points I can get if I want any chance of beating you."
While she sat there, smiling at Yang's enviable ability to stay positive under all circumstances, she wondered why she had been so nervous about staying the night.
After all, even though she hadn't mustered the courage to say it yet, she loved this girl.
"Hey, maybe we can call it a night and pick this back up tomorrow?"
"But...then who won?" Yang asked incredulously at the suggestion, causing Blake to frown as she searched for a solution.
"How about one last, sudden death, winner-take-all card?" she asked, picking the cards back up and shuffling them in her hands.
"Oooo sounds like I could still win that prize, after all!" Yang replied gleefully, rubbing her hands together excitedly.
"Now, don't get too excited," Blake warned the blonde while pulling one card from the deck, "because that's only going to happen if - noooo way!"
Yang let out a loud "whoop" of joy, leaping off the bed in happiness at Blake's reaction - having no clue what the four of diamonds actually symbolized other than her imminent victory. Blake grinned at the girl while she danced around the room for a few seconds to let out all of her excitement.
"My luck has returned!" the blonde exclaimed, jumping back onto the bed - landing on both knees and giving Blake a hasty kiss she hadn't been at all prepared for.
"I'm sorry that you lost though," Yang said sincerely, lilac eyes now just inches from Blake's face as they gazed at each other.
Turning away when she felt a blush begin creeping back up her cheeks, she softly mumbled, "It's ok, you deserved it..."
Yang laughed, standing back on the floor and stretching her arms behind her back.
"You want to go to sleep now?" she asked nonchalantly.
Nodding her head, Blake finally unfolded her own legs and slid her feet down to the floor. Turning around the straighten all of the cards and put them away, her eyes fell upon something laying on top of a pile of clothing on the opposite side of the room.
"Yang..." she began slowly while walking over to inspect the item, "I thought you said you didn't own any regular shorts."
She held up the incriminating article of clothing that had been resting on top of a stack of clean, folded clothes.
"Oh...uh...well... I forgot about those?" the blonde tried to answer innocently, but Blake just threw the balled up shorts across the room at her, drawing a giggle out of the girl.
"You can wear them, if you want!"
She just scoffed while she pulled back the covers and slid underneath them.
"Too little, too late," she responded curtly, turning away in order to hide her smile. Seeing the lights flick off and feeling the other side of the mattress dip slightly when Yang joined her, she rolled over to find herself instantly drawn into expansive lilac eyes, enough love shining through them to take her breath away.
"So..." she began nervously, feeling her heart pounding in her chest. "What do you want...for your reward?"
Yang grinned, scooting closer - close enough for Blake to feel the girl's warmth spanning the distance between them. Her breathing slowed in anticipation, muscles trembling while she waited to hear Yang's words.
"I want you…to tell me about that time you made up a fake card game just to get out of playing strip poker."