Chapter Text
Vacuo was… horrible .
It was hot, sticky, and downright miserable. It’s a miracle that Yang hadn’t collapsed this far into Vacuo because she was sweating . Because of her fiery semblance, she ran much hotter than everyone, so Atlas was a breeze. But Vacuo was going to kill her, which sucked, because she wanted to go out heroically, not because of stupid heat stroke. Somehow, the new outfits that were good for circulation and good with heat weren’t working at all .
There was a lot of walking, too, so that didn’t help. Yang was sweating and panting and it was horrible .
Oscar seemed to be having no problem, though. He ran colder than the rest of them, so he was fine with the climate. In fact, he even had a freaking poncho on. It covered his shoulders and Yang had no idea how Oscar was surviving right now.
But the walking was getting to him, for sure. The kid had built up hella endurance as he spent more time with them, but the walking was a lot, even for Yang; especially since the terrain wasn't flat and had small hills of sand.
Especially now - Oscar and Yang were instructed to go to an abandoned part of the desert with a structure in the middle of it (Yang had no idea what she was supposed to call it - it didn’t even look like it had a roof. The roof was collapsed and broken, and the walls seemed as if they were going to give in. They were instructed to look for dust, and they figured that if dust was anywhere, it’d be in the rocks that were found in the area.
The shade was absolutely welcome. Yang sat down on a rock to take a break as Oscar pulled down the hood of his poncho, letting out a soft sigh.
“I’ll start looking!” He chirped, walking around the insides. Yang put a thumbs up and caught her breath as the freckled boy walked around, overturning rocks and looking for dust.
Now that Yang was getting a good look at it, this structure was… rather beautiful from inside. There were carvings on the walls and photos, and the sunlight was streaming in from the small cracks and breakages in the ceiling.
“Oi, tiny - do you think you could read what’s on the walls?” Yang asked, pointing at the wall in front of her. Oscar jumped from the other side and jogged back to her, his eyes flickering over to the wall.
“Maybe… let’s see.” Oscar walked up to the wall and put a hand on it, pointing to where the text started. “...some of it is faded but… Oz?” He spoke aloud, and Yang repressed the urge to roll her eyes. “‘...it used to be peaceful. The grimm have not left us alone since the Darkness, and we were forced to come here. Maybe the grimm won’t find us here’...then it’s faded, and scratched. And then it picks up with… ‘I wonder if the gods have heard our pleas for help and salvation. Is there no mercy for innocents such as us? I wonder if the gods even exist.’” Oscar stopped, turning to face Yang. “That’s the end of this part. It seemed like whoever was writing this was using the walls as like… a diary of some sorts.” Yang came up behind Oscar and put her hand on his shoulder as she looked at the drawing. It looked like a drawing of two girls, a guy, and some grimm chasing them. “I can keep going? If you’d like?”
“...nah. Thanks for reading it though, squirt. This gives me all the more reason to hurry up and get out of here. Let’s find this dust and bounce, okay?” Yang patted Oscar on the shoulder and he smiled at her.
“Okay!”
So, they walked around the inside, putting whatever dust they could find inside the container they were given. They didn’t really find a lot of dust - just a couple of pieces here and there of fire dust. Then, Yang got a bit too close to a big-looking rock and it turned out to be… breathing .
“Oh.” Yang simply said, and she started backing away.
“O-oh? What do you mean, ‘oh’?!” Oscar shrieked, coming to Yang’s side immediately. She shushed him as the ‘rock’ started to move slowly, and all of the metal in the structure creaked painfully.
“Okay. On the count of three, we run.” Yang whispered, getting her gauntlets ready and activated. Oscar took out Long Memory and they continued to back away slowly. “One… two… three!”
And they took off in the other direction, and whatever that ‘rock’ was roared . The structure around them started to shake and rock, and the ceiling started to collapse.
“Oh gods-“ Oscar yelped, and Yang ran forward, grabbed onto his hand and practically shoved the poor boy out of the door before sliding out on her own. The structure collapsed behind them, kicking up sand in the process. Yang covered her face with her arms and coughed as sand swirled around her. Oscar pulled up his hood and curled into himself in the sand bringing his hands up to cover his nose and mouth. When the sand settled, the black giant was gone, and the structure was completely destroyed.
“...that means we got all the dust.” Oscar jokes, falling onto his back on the sand. Yang began to laugh, taking her hands away from her face.
“I would not like to imagine what that would have been like.” Yang huffed out, a grin on her face.
“Neither do I.” Oscar put a hand to his forehead to block the sun from getting in his eyes.
“C’mon, tiny, get up - we gotta get back.” Yang offered him her hand, and Oscar took it. He yelped a little when Yang just yanked him up, and it was her turn to yell in surprise when his knees just buckled and he went dipping back to the earth. She caught him before he went face-first into the sand. “Woah! What’s up, kid? Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” Oscar gritted out, trying to stabilize himself against Yang. “It’s just… my legs hurt. I haven’t walked this much in a while.” He laughed weakly. “It’s fine, though - a little more walking won’t kill me.”
“It probably won’t kill you, but it would kill your legs. So, with that being said, we have to do something about this.” The blonde replied with a huff, ruffling his hair. “Hm… what should we do… oh! I know.” Yang set Iscar back on the sand gently and knelt in front of him. “Get on my back!”
“Are you… giving me a ride on your back?” Oscar asked with a snort.
“Did I stutter? Get on. kid.” Yang grinned, and Oscar pulled himself onto her back, wrapping his arms around her neck and his legs around her waist. As she stood up slowly, he adjusted his hood on his head and rested his chin on her shoulder. “Comfortable?” She asked.
“Yup! Onward!” He said teasingly.
As Yang walked she… realized something. In contrast to her being a human heater, Oscar was a human cooler - despite the hot climate, Oscar was still somewhat cold, which really relieved some of Yang’s heat stress. She thought that she’d be on the verge of a heat stroke while carrying both Oscar and the dust container, but it turns out that Oscar was cold and light (alarmingly so), so she wasn’t really affected by it.
“I have to carry you on my back more, tiny. You’re literally a walking talking cooler.” She said with a laugh.
“And you’re a walking heater. So I guess we cancel each other out.” Oscar giggled.
“I guess we do. I’m at a disadvantage in Vacuo because of the super hot climate. It’s kind of like how you were always extra cold in Atlas.”
Oscar made a face even though Yang couldn’t see it. “Ew. I’m so sorry.”
Yang snorted. “It’s fine. Once I get into some AC and get some water, I think I’ll be fine.”
“If you faint I don’t know what I’ll do.” Oscar said nervously. “Please don’t faint from heat stroke.”
“I won’t now that I have a cooler on my back, so don’t worry about it.” Yang reassured, grinning teasingly. Oscar gave a small giggled and went back to resting his head on Yang’s shoulder, letting his cape fall over his eyes. Yang looked back and snorted, trying to contain her laughter so that she wouldn’t shake the kid too much.
“You look like a turtle. The green poncho is really doing it for me.”
“Oh hush.” Oscar mumbled, not even looking up. Yang rolled her eyes playfully and fell silent, just focusing on walking for now. When she saw Shade Academy in the distance, she let out a small whoop and picked up the pace, ignoring the soreness of her legs.
“Hey! You guys are back!” Blake jogged up to the pair, taking the case out of Yang’s hand. “How did it go?” She asked. They began to walk back to the Academy together, and Yang told her about the structure and what the walls said, and how that giant rock wasn’t actually a rock.
“At least you guys didn’t get hurt. I would hate to think what would have happened if there was still dust in that place.” Blake said sheepishly.
“That’s exactly what I said. Great minds think alike.” Yang grinned and winked at Blake, who blushed in reply.
“A-anyway, is Oscar okay?” Blake asked quickly, casting a look at the farm boy.
“‘M good!” Oscar looked up, pushing his hood out of his eyes. His eyes sparkled as he grinned at Blake. “Sorry! I think I might have just… zoned out there.”
Blake giggled, moving to ruffle Oscar’s hair. “It’s fine. Good job getting the dust, you two - we’re going to need all the materials we can get.”
“Oh! Blake! I have something to tell you - it’s crazy. ” Yang’s eyes widened as she grinned. Blake tilted her head to the side, her ears twitching. “Oscar is literally a human cooler . He’s so cold? And that’s great for me.”
“You sound excited about that.” Blake said with a laugh.
“I am! I no longer have to worry about heat stroke.”
“I can walk on my own.” Oscar huffed.
“I know, but I can’t take much more heat. Therefore, you will now be my personal cooler.” Yang turned her head to look Oscar in the eyes, who was silently laughing. “Congratulations - you have a new job.”
Oscar laughed a genuinely happy laugh, and Yang found herself… genuinely happy.
She was surrounded by people who made her happy, after all - what else could she ask for?
She had found her family.