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“Wh-Why is there a box in the middle of our room?” A shy smirk sprouted from Yang’s face as she stood on the threshold of their room. A cardboard box big enough for Blake to fit inside was lying horizontally on the floor between their makeshift bunk beds, covered by a checkered comforter. The whole room was a mess, but Yang just smiled.
“Do not ask. I’ll be at the library if you need me.” A fumbling Weiss walked past her and brushed her shoulder before leaving, almost knocking Yang down, who had to grab the wood of the door to avoid falling. The heiress of the Schnee Dust Company was briefly followed by intrigued lilacs before going back to what was happening inside. Ruby jumped from her bed to greet the blonde with her classic enthusiasm.
“Hey, sis! You’re finally back! Look what I got us!” She leaped on Yang to then point at the box with glimmering silver eyes.
“A...box?”
“Yes! Now we can do forts and sleepovers like when we were kids! Isn’t that cool!” She closed her hands on into fists out of pure excitement, and for a second, the blonde didn’t think that was such a bad idea at all.” "The best part is having more friends to do it with now! Well, let’s...ignore Weiss, who clearly doesn’t know what she’s missing out on.”
With everything happening, their investigations, the upcoming tournament and school, stopping for a second and just having some fun was definitely something Yang could do. She draped one arm over Ruby’s shoulders, tugging her closer with a wide smile.” "Well, little sis, that may not be such a bad idea! Maybe we need some time to have fun between all the hard work!” Ruby scrambled to set herself free from her sister’s embrace with a wide smile. Even though tease was painted all over her voice, she was authentically proud of her sister, always appreciating her attempts to make her team spend time together. Ruby pushed the blonde playfully and it quickly escalated into playful smacks that ended with Yang rubbing her sister’s head with her fist before both stopped suddenly when a head stuck out of the box.
And it was impossible for Yang not to snort.
“Oh, hey, Yang, you’re back!” Blake’s face was crossed by a shy smile as she waved. Yang shot Ruby a quick look with a lifted brow, to which she only replied with a shrug. Before she could open her mouth and say anything, the known chime of her scroll interrupted her, so she mumbled something about meeting up with Penny, a subtle trace of red painted in her face as she walked away.
And that’s how she was left completely alone with Blake.
Yang bit her lip, leaning on the threshold once again, debating on entering the box and taking the shot while butterflies danced in her stomach. Even though they’ve gone through so much together and went on multiple not-dates, those butterflies that have been there since the first time their gazes clashed never abandoned her tummy. She clenched her fists for a moment, a long sigh lifting her chest before slowly breathing out. Come on. You’re Yang Xiao Long, you can do this, she told herself before she walked towards the opening of the box and lifted the comforter that was being used to create a curtain with her heart racing, like a loud drum in her ears.
She was expecting nothing but a nasty, dark box, but instead, her eyes met the sight of fairy lights tracing the left corner and part of the upper corner of the box. On the floor, a few red comforters, probably taken from their beds, worked as nice bedding, spread out carefully for maximum comfort and lounging around. In the middle, all the way at the back, Blake was leaning on her side as she read a book.
“Hey, Yang.” She whispered, almost afraid of someone finding out they were there. There was indeed a trace of nervousness in her tone, but it was almost as she was expecting the blonde to go inside. Yang smiled when lilac met gold, casually stripped from the book to shoot a quick glance and a side smile to the blonde. Yang felt like an animal falling right into the trap, tempted by the beauty of tanned skin and black hair flowing over the girl’s shoulders. Her heart was pounding on(in) her chest, threatening to jump out of her ribcage. Pulling her towards the figure of the faunus girl, who scooted over to leave a small space for Yang’s bigger complexion. As she crawled closer, she could feel the engulfing fire of her cheeks growing more and more ferocious. But when, oh, when she laid next to Blake and she was surrounded by the smell of her sweet perfume she could already feel how she was losing her mind. She looked even prettier under the light of the warm fairy lights, reflecting on golden eyes like small sparkles.
And then the whole world stopped. And it was only her and Blake, staring into each other’s eyes like nothing else in the world mattered, as she could just swim in the lake of velvety yellow and lose herself, always knowing she would be fine if she was next to her partner.
“What are we reading today?” The blonde asked casually in a pathetic attempt to hide the tremor in her voice and put her hands on top of her stomach.
“All of the fairy lights and blankets gave me a lot of nostalgia, so I’m just reading through of my favorite fairy tales my dad used to read to me when I was little.” She said casually, turning the page around without looking at the girl next to her. She barely misses what she says, too entertained by the way Blake’s voice sounded when she talked about something she was fond of, something she could hear for ages and never get bored.
“W-Would you like me to read aloud for you?” She asked, dragging her fingers along the edge of the page as she did while she was reading and or nervous, a thing Yang could easily pick up on at this point and, just the thought of Blake being nervous around her fill her heart with a fire that quickly spread through her body, and burned her cheeks. Blake didn’t even have to ask, because she knew perfectly that she loved it when the brunette read for her, especially when she was not feeling like going out or doing anything at all. A shy smile pulled up the side of her lips as she gave her the fondest look in the whole universe, scooting just a little closer to her partner. Blake lowered her body so her head was perfectly slotted in Yang’s shoulder as she held the book over her. The space between them, nothing but just a thin line, was filled with the deep red of blankets and comforters, a half-full cup of tea, and two other books, casually piled up further down next to Blake’s legs.
It was always the negative space between them and that always made Yang’s breath run short. Up to that date, they have been on many not-dates, many rides on bumblebee, some afternoons on the beach. It was the soft, coy smiles at first and then the casual brush of shoulders that conducted their pinkies to be intertwined together casually as they talked excitedly about something and the fond look in Blake’s golden irises when Yang cracked a joke. As they got closer, the negative space between them started to grow thinner and thinner and the landscape could almost become a beautiful stained glass of purple and yellow.
Yang has already lost count of the number of almost-kisses under the hazy night of Vale with Blake’s body pressed against her own just the way she liked it, subtly shaking, but too stubborn to let Yang lend her her jacket. She lost count of the times in the yard they would just lay under the sun, the girl’s cinnamon skin glowing like the most precious piece of jewelry. She had completely lost count of the many times they just stared into each other’s eyes, words unneeded while the perfect sync of their souls did all the work.
Sometimes she wondered if she would ever have the courage to go beyond this, beyond the safety of unspoken words and lilac and gold swirling.
She closed her eyes for a brief time, but it felt like an eternity as she navigated the waves of Blake’s mellow voice as she read the tale of the faunus princess, completely allured by the passion and the emotion expressed in each one of her words. As Yang dipped into the depths of the fairy tale, more and more patterns surfaced, and with the fluttering of emotions in her heart came the realization. The princess, left by her human lover with nothing but a ring to be reminded of him, threw herself to the sea in sheer desperation when she learned her lover would never come back. Could it be? That maybe the choice wasn’t just mere coincidence? Could it be that Blake was giving her a signal about their threads of destiny being intertwined to end up as one? She gasped quietly, but Blake’s ears twitched under the bow and, as she put her book down, she fixated glimmering golden on Yang’s eyes.
“Is everything okay?” Her voice never wandered off of that mellow, soft tone, now soaked in a blend of worry and curiosity.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry…” Yang brushed it off, playing with the border of a blanket to then look up when she noticed Blake putting her book down, leveling down and giving her that knowing look, that ember she loved so much, glistening. One of her fingers traced the side of her arm to then play with the lower point of her bandana in front and, she didn’t know if it was a dream or something that actually happened, but she could have sworn gold was flicking between her lips and lilac. She could have even sworn she felt Blake’s heart racing on the surface of her skin as she ran her fingers up Yang’s arm.
And in that moment, with her eyes shining before her, her beautiful lips oh, so close to her and the butterflies fluttering in her stomach, she only knew one thing: She was completely, stupidly in love with Blake Belladonna. And so what if everything went to shit? Everything was perfect at that moment.
She leaned in close and stared into her eyes, their lips so close Yang could perfectly feel the shallow breath of Blake against them, so close she could see each one of the sunshine rays of her eyes. She tasted the proximity, the brushing of their noses before closing the gap between them and could hear Blake letting out a strangled whine that made the blonde want to retreat, but then she felt her partner’s hand running down her arm as she tasted her lips and urging her to carefully roam over the surface of each line and gap on her mouth. Yang trapped one of Blake’s lips between her own to tug gently on it just for her companion to follow along, her hands tracing all the way to the blonde’s shoulders and finding a home there as she played with the fabric of her tank top. Their lips parted to gasp for air for a moment, opening her eyes to find loving gold, glowing like the lights of your home on a winter night. Not even a second went by before their lips looked for their way back to each other and after that Blake was softly nibbling on Yang’s curve, tracing invisible lines down her back while drinking the taste of pure love, the taste of Yang, intoxicating, addictive, while Yang fell for the alluring taste of green tea with sweet notes along the border of her lips. She wished Blake was all she needed to breathe to live because she just tasted heaven and now there wasn’t anything that would take this away from her, which only became more (true as Blake’s kisses and nibbles grew a bit hungrier and diverted from actual lips to Yang’s jaw, painting faint kiss marks on her neck and shoulder before the need of her taste made her come back, followed by plenty of short pecks before their lips finally parted and their chests brushed from shallow breaths.
Yang let out a little laugh, finding the lace around Blake’s wrist too entertaining for her to look Blake in the eyes. She was lucky slender fingers drove her jaw up for their eyes to meet once again, and, even though her mind was completely unable to form one phrase, her head was full of a thousand things she was wishing she could tell the faunus girl.
“Yang…after all this time, I-” She didn’t even need to see Blake’s mouth to know she was smiling and that a crimson shadow was pooling on her cheeks, but despite that she looked, because now there wasn’t going to be a single minute she didn’t want to spend without looking at her beautiful, curved lips.” I’m in love with you.”
An explosion of colors, sensations, a river of sunshine and the buzzing of bees flooded from her chest, a wide smile forming in her face as she caressed Blake’s shoulder.” I’m in love with you too, Blake.” I have been for a long time, maybe even lifetimes , she thought, words unsaid as Blake pulled her into another kiss.