Chapter Text
Yang and Blake sit down at the dinner table in the back apartment of the Wilting Nightshade, small white boxes full of food open before them. In front of Blake also sits a tray of sashimi, which she easily picks up with a pair of chopsticks as Yang starts on her noodles. The two eat in relative silence for a minute before Yang speaks. “So how did you become a witch? Like was this what your family did or what?”
“That’s a long story in all, but the short answer is that after I moved to Mountain Glenn, I met the former witch who taught me what I know. Then she disappeared and I’ve been figuring it out on my own since.” Blake answers, before eating another piece of sashimi, “I mean its mostly using either belief imbued stuff or the power of the soul, once I master those two aspects I was able to do most things. The books I order for myself help me figure out the first part, as the more I can find out the more I and work with.”’
“Can I borrow one of those books? I’d like to learn more if we are gonna keep working together on this.” Blake nods while eating some of her fried rice, Yang continues, “Maybe I can build something more effective than a iron rod I stole from work.”
“You stole that!?” Blake’s ears flatten at the revelation.
“Ehhh stole is a bit of an exaggeration, Pyrrha and I both have full access to the inventory for personal projects, as long as we just keep it not too big cost wise. That was worth like, 500 Lien, so not that big of a deal. As long as Jaune doesn’t get on me for using to much material I’m fine. Otherwise, I pay him for some materials and move on.”
“Oh okay, so not workplace theft. Good.”
“Yeah, I care about those nerds, Pyrrha has been my best friend since college, and Jaune has been cool since I met him, well that and he proved he wasn’t some asshat like those he hung around with at the time. Private school kids, some of them are the sweetest people you will know, most are the worst you will. At least if its the Vale rich folks we are talking of.”
“Mmm, yeah. I know the types, but they are a bit different in Menagerie.”
“Oh yeah, what ended up bringing you to Vale? Seems like a big jump from Menagerie.”
“My Ex. We were dating, he got some job working for a big Faunus company out in Vale City, I followed. He got me a job there bit lower down in a different department. Made some friends, realized he was treating me like shit with their help, and broke up with him. He vanished off the face of Remnant a month later and I moved out here.” She snaps at a piece of sashimi she was holding, before continuing, “I’ve gotten over him, recovered from his treatment, actually how I met the old witch, she was my therapist. Saw something in me I guess. Opened up the store here, started doing magic in the back when I had time.”
“Sorry, didn’t know you went through that.” Yang says, closing her takeout box. “Here, ill get your trash,” Yang grabs the empty tray that once held sashimi and the empty box from in front of Blake, walking it over to the bin in the corner. “You wanna watch a movie or something? I heard the next installment of that murder mystery series came out, the one with the really southern Valian detective. I’ve been wanting to watch it.”
“Sure, I like a good mystery. And I remember the prior ones really messed with the format in clever ways. So I hope this one is as good.” Blake says, plopping down on the couch, grabbing a TV remote and pulling up a streaming service.
Yang sat down next to her as the opening credits start, one arm outstretched behind Blake on the top of the couch. As it starts up Blake leans on Yang’s shoulder, resting her head on top of it, pulling herself a bit closer. Instinctively Yang’s arm lowers to hold Blake’s side, they sit there through the movie, mostly quiet as they watch.
“Hold on, the dead guy just got back up?” Yang says out loud. Blake just responds with an “uh-huh” enraptured by the film.
“Wait that's what its all about? Money?” Yang says, arms outstretched at the television.
“Almost always is,” Says Blake, “Seems like a pattern with this franchise, greed leads to the crimes.”
“And the kindhearted people are thrown in between the rich and the police.” Yang raises her arms above her head, stretching, lifting the bottom of her shirt a bit. “Well that was good, enjoyed watching it with you Blakey,” She yawns, “Oh gods its 11:48, I got work in the morning.”
“Well you could always get more rest if you stay here.” Blake says coyly. Yang immeditly perks up at that and smiles.
Yang walks into work with a slight hop to her steps and a book under her arm. She passes through the office space and heads straight for the workshop, and her table. Putting the book down on a rather clean and clear part of the bench and opening to just about halfway through, she doesn’t notice Pyrrha approaching. “Someones in a good mood, good day yesterday or got an idea that you can’t wait to build?”
Yang jumps in surprise answering, “Both, had a really fun date yesterday and got an idea for something to build.”
“Oooooo a date with the cute bookshop owner. What did you do?”
“We went on a hike and then had dinner yesterday…”
“Annnddd thennnnn?” Pyrrha leans inwards as she asks the question.
Yang looks downwards hiding her face a bit, “then we cuddled and watched a movie and then went to bed.”
“YOU STAYED AT HER HOUSE AAAAAAAAAAAA!” Pyrrha’s voice hits a high pitch that Yang has only ever heard from Ruby or Nora, “Yang the last time you stayed at another girls place was when you were dating that girl in sophomore year of college, and that took 6 months of dating, you are really into Blake aren’t you?”
“Yeah… shes really cool and feels special, I don’t know. She makes me feel like I belong here. Which was something I was missing on Patch. I love my family, don’t get me wrong, but I was aimless there, and…” She trails off, a somewhat melancholy look appearing on her face for a moment, before she perks back up, “I just need a change of scenery. Anyway,” She says, turning to the table, “This new project should be interesting, basically, its meant to detect harmonic vibrations in an aluminum rod stuck inside, and then send an alert with a location. I’m gonna ask Ruby to write the code to stick on a Arduino and an app to manage the things. Its not gonna be too complicated but I think I’m gonna try to solo the rest of it. Might ask you for some tips with the electrics since that’s not my realm of expertise.”
“Sounds good, I’ve got some work to do anyway on a part request we got for some ham radio peeps. But Yang, you don’t have any plans out, and whats that book?” Pyrrha asks, pointing.
“Well I still gotta figure out how I’m going to do it all so no plans yet, just bodging, and this is something I borrowed from Blakey, don’t worry too much its just some material properties stuff. A bit nonstandard but necessary for the project.”
“Blakey? Already gave her a nickname huh, you are really falling for her. Just stay focused in here, don’t need you hurting yourself like you did back in college, that arm injury should have left you out of commission for months.”
“Yeah Yeah and its all cause I was working while distracted and stuff. I know Mooooom.” She says with a playful tone. “Probably gonna give Ruby a call and ask her if she can throw this together for me.”
Stepping off to the side, Yang pulls out her scroll and funds Ruby’s contact right near the top. The scroll starts playing some new breakcore song before Ruby’s face appears. “Hey Yang, whats up?”
“Hey Rubes, working on a personal project based on some stuff I learned from Blake, and need your coding expertise. Need something that you can throw on an Arduino that will detect certain frequencies and send a notification to an app on my scroll.”
“Sounds easy, but what am I getting in returnnnn?”
“How about 10% off your next overcomplicated cosplay order.”
“I can work with that! Give me a bit, don’t have anything that can detect sound here so I’m gonna have to hit the electronics shop in vale annndddd… wait whose Blake?”
“Just a friend ive been hanging out with. She’s pretty cool, runs that bookstore I mentioned.”
“A friend or a friend?”
“I have no clue what you are implying.”
“Okay im just gonna ask Pyrrha about it.”
“Wait wait hold on!”
“GIRLFRIEND!!! OhMyGodsYangGotANewGirlfriendImSoExcitedToMeetHerAAAAHHHHHHH.” Ruby’s sentence morphs into a squeel.
“You will meet her eventually Rubes.” Yang says, shifting her weight to the other food and putting her hand on her hip. “When we have time to visit. I think you will like her, she reads a lot and I think you two have some book series in common. And feel free to tell Cindy if she didn’t just hear you squeel at a frequency only Ein could hear.”
“Will do Sis. Gotta go, just got a notif for a raid happening in 10 and I gotta grab snacks before hopping on WoR.”
“Cya Sis, have fun.” The call ends, and Yang heads back to her worktable, grabbing a pencil and starts to sketch.