Work Text:
Yang kept noticing that Blake was looking at her. Every time Yang moved away from her partner, she felt Blake’s eyes on her. It was a bit unsettling, but Yang couldn’t exactly blame Blake. Yang did sacrifice herself again for one of her team. Yang did fall into the void with Blake thinking Yang had died. So Yang understood when Blake teared up when she saw Yang on the Island and held her so tightly Yang felt her ribs creak. Yang tried to smile and show Blake that she was truly there, but still Yang felt Blake’s eyes on her.
The team decided to explore the Island together. There was no sign of Neo, though Yang was itching for another fight with her. Ruby told them about the talking mouse she found and honestly it was all just a bit odd, but then everything they had seen on the island was more than a bit odd, so sure, talking mice exist. Talking mouses? Talking meese? Yang shook her head.
Blake sidled up to her as they walked. “What are you thinking about?” she asked.
Yang shot her a smile. “The plural of mouse.”
“It’s mice, Yang.”
“Well sure, but what about meese?”
Blake shook her head affectionately. Blake placed a gentle hand on Yang’s arm and walked back to Ruby. That was another thing. Blake was being more touchy feely with her, just small touches, but they were now a constant fixture in Yang’s life. Not that Yang minded, of course. Yang wished Blake would do more than just touch her arm, but long ago Yang had pledged that if anything were to happen between the two, that she would let Blake make that decision.
Yang knew she loved Blake, but she was also too aware of Blake’s past, of Adam. Yang never wanted to pressure Blake like he did, so long ago Yang decided to be happy with whatever Blake decided to give her. And lately it was near constant attention. Yang had to admit the recent increase in attention from her partner was putting her a bit off kilter.
After traveling for a bit, the group decided to make a small fire and settle down for a rest in a clearing. Yang laughed to herself when she noticed as Blake left the clearing to look for more firewood, she found her own eyes trailing her partner.
Across the fire, Weiss sighed. “You two could actually talk, you know, instead of staring at each other all the time.”
Yang looked back at Weiss. “We talk.”
“You know what I mean.”
Yang waved off the suggestion. “When Blake is ready to talk, I’ll be ready.”
“How do you know if you don’t ask her?”
Yang shook her head, effectively shutting down the discussion.
The next morning the group set out and were surprised as soon a huge herd of deer separated the group and the forest took a life of its own as trees and plants moved around them. A giant rose bush erupted towering over Yang and Blake and effectively cutting off their access to their teammates.
Yang yelled out and tried to use her gauntlets to shoot through the thick rose bush, but it just grew heavier over the blast impacts. In her frustration she kicked the rose bush and a thorn dug into her shin.
“Ow!” exclaimed Yang, pulling her leg back.
“Yang?” Blake asked worriedly, putting her hand on Yang’s back.
“I’m fine. Just scratched myself on a thorn.”
“Let me see?”
“I’m fine, Blake. It’s fine.”
Blake did not seem pleased, and let her hand drop from Yang’s back. “Well if you’re fine .” She turned away and looked closer at the rose bush. “We’re not getting through this.” She faced back the other way where there was a clear and evolving path as the plants moved apart. “I think the Island wants us to go this way.”
“So we’re gonna do what the Island wants us to do?”
“I don’t see another option at the moment.”
Yang sighed. “Alright, let’s see what the Island up its sleeve…or up its beach? Yeah, the analogy doesn’t really work.”
Blake looked at Yang with a twinkle of mirth in her eye. “Do you want to take point?”
“All you,” said Yang. Yang had to admit she enjoyed backing up Blake…and the view it gave her.
Blake headed ahead on the path, weapon in hand, as she cautiously traveled. Yang kept an eye on the path behind them and her partner.
The two followed the path as it kept opening in front of them. After several minutes of walking the path opened up into a small clearing with a small cabin.
Blake and Yang stood outside the cabin.
“Do we -” started Yang.
“I guess. Is there -”
“I don’t think so.” Yang walked up to the front door and knocked. After a minute with no response, she knocked more forcefully. So forcefully that the entire door fell down in the cabin. “Oops.”
“That poor door didn’t see it coming,” Blake teased.
Yang turned back, rubbing the back of her head sheepishly. “I don’t know my own strength?”
Blake smiled and pushed by the blonde, letting her hand lightly touch Yang’s shoulder as she walked inside. “You really don’t.”
Yang’s body stilled and warmed at Blake’s closeness.
“You coming?” Blake’s voice called from inside.
Yang realized she hadn’t moved from the doorway and quickly hurried inside. Not that there was much to be seen. The thin layer of dust on everything inside and the eerie stillness permeating the room made it clear that no one had lived here for a long while.
Yang rounded the corner to see Blake in the next room, a small room of weaving and sewing materials. Blake was looking all around.
“This is…interesting,” said Yang, as something sparkling caught her eye in the corner.
Blake was admiring a large woven blanket on the loom, full of intricate details. It looked like it was telling a story of a figure with long blonde hair and one with short black hair. Blake was trying to track the figures in the story when she heard Yang’s voice from the corner.
“Ah!”
Blake turned and Yang was already trying to reassure Blake.
“I’m good, Blake. Just got startled,” insisted Yang, but Blake was already moving close to Yang to inspect her closer.
“Really, Blake…” Yang slid her hands into her pockets.
“Let me guess, you’re fine .”
“Yeah,” Yang said quietly.
Blake bit her tongue and looked to see what Yang was looking at in the corner, a large spinning wheel. “Haven’t seen one of those in a long time.”
“What is it?” Yang asked, hands still in her pockets.
“A spinning wheel. It’s used to make yarn out of fiber.”
Yang looked over Blake’s shoulder. “Hey, was that door there earlier?” she asked, gesturing with her right hand over to a door in the back of the workroom.
Blake frowned. “No, it wasn’t.” She moved towards the door and carefully opened it, looking outside. “It’s another path. I guess we should keep going. Let me just take one more look at this blanket…”
But Yang was already moving out the door. “Come on, Blake, we need to find Ruby and Weiss.”
Blake took one last quick look at the blanket and the blonde and dark haired figures on it and rushed out after her partner.
The new path was long and winding and seemingly endless. Blake focused on the uncharacteristically quiet Yang in front of her. Blake chalked it up to Yang trying to focus on the path ahead and any unseen threats along the path, so Blake didn’t pester her partner, but kept a close eye on her as they walked in silence.
After an hour of walking Yang turned to Blake. “Maybe you go in front, you have the better eyes and ears.”
Blake nodded and moved to the front, but as she passed Yang she placed a hand over Yang’s right upper arm. “Don’t bite my head off, but are you okay? You’ve been…quiet since we left that cabin.”
Yang smiled widely. “I’m good, Blake. You good?”
Blake looked at Yang closer, trying to spot a lie, but eventually Blake just sighed. “It’s clear this Island has a plan for us. I’m just not sure what it is yet. I don’t like not knowing what’s going to happen.”
Yang nodded and reached back with her mechanical hand to take Blake’s hand off her upper arm and threaded their fingers together. “Well whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”
Blake blushed and nodded, squeezing Yang’s hand one time before releasing it and heading down the path.
Another hour of walking and Blake wasn’t sure they were making any progress. She was debating whether or not they should take a rest to strategize their next move when she heard Yang stumble behind her.
Blake turned to find Yang on her hands and knees trying to push herself up. Blake rushed towards her and Yang put a hand up to stop her. Yang was holding up her left hand, palm out and Blake stopped in her tracks when she saw it.
There was a small puncture on Yang’s ring finger, but it was the dark lines spreading from the puncture which were more concerning. They spread down her finger, any further spread hidden by the orange fingerless glove she wore.
Blake immediately took Yang’s hand and gently removed the glove. Yang weakly protested, but was unable to pull her hand away from Blake’s secure grip. Once the glove was off Blake was able to see the black lines go down her palm and past the sleeves of Yang’s jacket.
Blake looked at Yang hard. “Sit down. This jacket is coming off.”
“Blake,” said Yang, “I’m fine.”
Blake couldn’t help but explode. “Are you kidding me right now!? Why do you refuse to let people help you!? Why do you refuse to let me help you!?”
Yang started to talk, but Blake silenced her.
“If the next words out of your mouth are some lies to reassure me, then don’t. Now sit down.”
Yang was silent and moved to sit wearily, letting Blake help her take off her jacket. Blake quietly exclaimed when she saw how the black lines spread from Yang’s hand up her arm and shoulder to nearly her heart.
“What - what is this?” Blake asked in fear and wonder.
“So…don’t get mad…” Yang seemed exhausted, her eyelids heavy.
“Yang, I’m already mad. Just tell me.”
“In the cabin I was checking out that spinning wheel and I pricked my finger. I didn’t think too much about it, but then I saw the lines.”
“And you didn’t say anything, just thought…what? That it would magically fix itself?”
“This is a magical sorta place.”
Blake traced a finger up the line and followed it to Yang’s upper chest. Yang shivered. “You okay?” asked Blake immediately.
“Hmm hmm,” Yang said tightly.
Blake’s focus was on the lines. They were spreading slowly before her very eyes. She looked up at Yang’s face and noticed the flush of her face. She held a hand against Yang’s forehead. “At least you don’t feel feverish.”
“Hmm..” Yang leaned into Blake’s hand and Blake’s stomach flipped when she realized just where her other hand was on Yang’s chest.
Blake pulled away and her stomach lurched again when she caught the small whine from her partner when she removed her hands. Yang’s eyes were closing.
“Hey! Stay awake!”
Yang’s eyelids popped open. “Sorry.”
Blake sighed. “I don’t want you to apologize, Yang. I want you to trust me to take care of you.”
“I can…take care of myself.”
“I know. But what is so bad about letting me help?”
Yang’s eyelids blinked wearily as she tried to stay awake. “I…have…I have to be able to look out for myself for when everyone leaves.” Her eyelids closed and her body slumped to the ground as the lines spread to her heart.
“Yang!” Blake was quick to grab her. She immediately placed her hand over Yang’s chest and was relieved by the gentle rise and fall of Yang’s chest. She was just unconscious.
Blake was so focused on her partner that she didn’t realize the path of plants built a circle of roses around the couple and suddenly bumblebees started to buzz in and move from flower to flower.
Blake held Yang’s face. “I’m not leaving you.” Tears started to fall down her face. “I’m not. I’m not leaving.” The tears continued to fall and Blake was at a loss. She didn’t know what to do. She felt so helpless, like she did when she saw Yang fall. “Yang, I love you. I should have said it before you fell. I should have said it when I found you again. I should have said it a million times before now. I’m sorry. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
Blake leaned down and gently kissed Yang’s forehead. “I love you. Please be okay. Please. Don’t leave me.” Blake buried her head in Yang’s chest, clutching Yang tightly as she started sobbing. She was sobbing for a good minute when she felt a gentle hand on the back of her head. Blake immediately pulled back and saw the small tired smile on Yang’s face.
Yang took her free hand and wiped the tears from Blake’s cheeks. “Why do you think I tell you I’m okay all the time? So I don’t ever have to see you crying over me.”
“Yang!” Blake immediately brought her lips against Yang’s lips in a moment of heavy relief, then just as quickly pulled back when she realized what she just did.
Yang’s smile widened. “I love you too, Blake.”
Blake’s smile about broke her face, but then she paused. “Wait.” Blake looked at Yang’s chest, arm and raised Yang’s left hand to her face to examine it closely. The dark lines were gone and even the small puncture wound on Yang’s ring finger was gone. “What? It’s vanished.”
“What did you do?” asked Yang as she sat up and Blake shifted to face her, still keeping a hand on Yang’s bent knee.
“I don’t think I did anything.”
“Well it wasn’t me.”
Blake thought. “I…” Blake blushed.
Yang leaned forward. “What?”
“I told you I love you and I kissed your forehead.”
Yang laughed.
“What is so funny about that?” asked Blake, defensively.
“No, sorry, not that. But I told you Blake, this is a magical place. I mean we’re surrounded by fairy tales and we fell into the most basic one.”
“What?”
“Someone struck with a sleeping spell only to be awakened by…”
Blake’s hands flew to her lips. “True love’s kiss.”
Yang grinned. “Now you get it, and we get our happily ever after.”
Blake stood up in a moment of sudden anger. “We can’t have our happily ever after if you keep running headfirst into danger and being so stubborn! You could have died! When you tried to save me from Adam, twice! And when you saved Ruby, but even today you could have and purely because you can’t trust that I won’t leave you.”
Yang’s eyes widened and she stood up slowly.
Blake took her hands in hers. “Yang, what do I need to do to prove to you that I’m not going anywhere? To show you that you can lean on me, just as I have on you?”
Yang spent a long moment looking at Blake, searching for something Blake wasn’t sure, but after that moment Yang smiled. “Today was a good start. I…I’m no good at letting other people be there for me, but maybe I can make an exception for you.”
Blake smiled and leaned in close to Yang. “You’d better.”
Yang smiled lopsided. “Can I kiss you?”
Blake nodded. “Please.”
Their lips joined and the walls of roses bloomed and exploded in a rain of rose petals as the walls fell away, creating a new path back to their teammates.