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“And for our tea drinkers…”
For the first time it what was most probably hours, Yang tore her gaze away from her girlfriend. Gods’, Yang thought, it felt so nice to finally be able to call her that; to finally have Blake Belladonna as her own, and for her to be Blake Belladonna’s.
Her eyes fell upon a steal tray that Jaune had lowered in their direction, upon it was two cups of steaming tea. Yang took both of them, handing one to Blake before smiling up at the now older man. “Thank you,” she said, sincerely.
The two women chuckled as they clinked their cups together before taking a delicate sip. Like second nature, Yangs eyes were yet again on Blake as she let out a content sigh- the sound made Yang feel warm, and she knew it had nothing to do with the heat of the furnace they were perched in front of.
“It feels like forever since I last had tea,” the Faunus smiled, her ears perked up as she drank from the cup, but Yang noticed the slight droop to them suggesting she was tired. Yang made a mental note to encourage her to sleep soon.
“Tell me about it.” Despite the high temperature of the beverage, Yang took a large swig before placing her cup on the ground. With a lot more confidence than she used to have when it came to affection directed towards Blake, she took her partner’s hand in her own, shuffled closer, and brought their intertwined fingers to her lap.
In turn, Blake rested her head on Yang’s shoulder, not complaining whatsoever with the somewhat awkward angle at which she now had to sip her tea.
They stayed there like that for- well, Yang chose not to count the seconds, for that was something she did while she was away from Blake. Instead, she chose to live in the moment, cherishing every minute with this woman curled up next to her. Before long, their cups were empty, and thousands of stars hung high up in the sky. However, these stars where not accompanied by a shattered moon. In fact, there was no moon at all, just the whimsical glow of the Ever After.
Yang noticed Blake’s ear flick behind her, and but a second later the sound of a yawn escaping Ruby’s mouth filled the room. Before Yang could turn to her and ask if she wanted to sleep however, Jaune chimed in.
“I think everyone’s just about had it for today,” he concluded, running his fingers through his hair. “How ‘bout I show you to your homes away from home?”
The group looked at one another, confused. “What do you mean?” Asked Ruby.
Jaune smiled. “Follow me,” he said, leading the group out of his humble little hut.
With them all desperate to get out and have a safe space to relax earlier, the four of them hadn’t taken notice of the surrounding houses. It was a homely little settlement, with between fifteen to twenty buildings varying in size, each of them housing of sorts. Half of them had lights that could be seen through windows, and every now and then a being would pass by minding its business.
The wooden logs, the surrounding trees and the coziness of it all reminded Yang a lot of her home in Patch, and suddenly a knee-buckling rush of homesickness washed over her. Blake noticed this apparently, for she reached out a hand and cupped Yang’s cheek.
“Is everything okay?” She asked, her ears now drooping a lot more.
Yang smiled, the anxiety in her stomach now replaced by warmth. “I’m fine, don’t worry,” she punctuated her sentence by placing a soft kiss to Blake’s palm. “I think some rest will do me some good, though.”
They had fallen behind Jaune and the others, so Yang didn’t quite catch what the knight had been saying until he brought them to four little huts, all similar in size.
“It was more of a cathartic pastime if anything, but I had plenty of time on my hands,” he explained.
Awestruck, Weiss asked, “You… built these for us?”
“With the help of some residents here, yes. I figured you guys would appreciate somewhere to feel safe and comfortable when you got here. Gods’, when was the last time you actually had a propped nights sleep?”
The group fell silent as they collectively began to calculate it. If being knocked out from the fall didn’t count, then it had been well over three days since they had actually slept comfortably in a bed.
“Well whatever the answer may be,” Jaune continued. “Take this time to rest up, you’ll need it in a place like this.” For the first time in a while, he smirked, and his voice took a teasing tone, “Thought you wouldn’t mind the privacy as well, hence why you have individual huts, but after certain events I believe I made one too many.”
Yang could all but feel the warmth flood to her cheeks as all attention was directed towards herself and her partner, “Sorry for the inconvenience,” she awkwardly chuckled, scratching the back of her neck.
“Don’t be, was about time you two sorted that out,” his expression became one of knowingness. “Besides, saves one of you doing the walk of shame in the morning.”
The flush on Yang’s, and Blake’s, face doubled at this, “Hey! We’re not-“
“Goodnight, guys,” he had said it so casually, as if he didn’t just do the equivalent of pouring gasoline into a bonfire. “I’m glad to have you all back.”
Yang was still spluttering by the time he had left, and eventually gave up with a defeated sigh before sheepishly turning to the rest of her team. “We best get some rest, huh?”
Ruby, who was equally embarrassed upon hearing the words that had left Jaune’s mouth, nodded alongside Weiss, bringing her sister into a tender hug to which the blonde placed a gentle kiss atop her head- an unspoken assurance that she hoped Ruby understood.
From there, she pulled Weiss into a soft and short embrace, the sweetness of it being completely eradicated by Weiss’ comment of, “I was all for your guys’ pining to end, but if I hear even the smallest sound coming from you guys, then I will be leaving your asses on this island.”
Already reaching her max capacity for embarrassment, Yang halfheartedly saluted with a curt, “Yes ma’am.”
When the short woman turned on her heal and entered her self assigned hut, Yang reunited with Blake as she finished up saying her goodnight’s to Ruby.
“Ready to call it a night?”
“Yeah,” Blake nodded, linking arms with Yang before the two approach one of the two vacant huts.
The door pushed smoothly open to reveal a circular interior with a cone-shaped roof. At one end was a bed pressed against the wall, not intended for two people, but not small enough such that it would be an uncomfortable fit. The makeshift mattress was relatively thin compared to that of a normal one, but Yang wasn’t complaining for it was much better than sleeping on the floor. Atop the mattress was a patterned blanket, the design reminiscent of the fabrics she had spotted back at the market. The frame was crafted from logs of wood and adorned in bamboo-like fibres which held it all together.
On the other side of the single roomed abode was no more than a crate for storage, a table and chair, and a fireplace much like the one in Jaune’s home away from home. It was awfully dim in the room, but all Yang needed was to be able to see her lovers face to be content.
Yang closed the door behind them, happy to be in the company of Blake and Blake only, and by the way that the Faunus turned and wrapped her arms around her partner’s torso, Yang knew she felt the same. She swayed them back and forth, tenderly combing through her black hair before pulling back just enough so that their foreheads could meet as they had done so many times before.
For the second time that day, their lips met, and the surrounding fantastical world seemed to melt away. With Blake she felt whole. Complete. The shorter woman’s lips were soft, softer than what her fantasies had conjured up and more loving than any of Yang’s daydreams ever portrayed.
Yang couldn’t help but tilt her head as to deepen the kiss, and she was more than happy when Blake responded with equal vigour, a soft sigh escaping her lips.
It took a lot of willpower to break away, but once she did Yang realised that the fatigue was making it hard for both of them to stand. “C’mon,” she said softly. “Let’s get into bed.”
“Alright.”
When Blake began to remove her jacket, Yang’s gaze quickly fell to the floor as a red hue crept up to her cheeks. To make sure she didn’t continue to stand there awkwardly, Yang busied herself with removing her own jacket, boots, and the detachable portion of her overalls.
When she looked up again, Yang found Blake in nothing but her bodysuit that tightly hugged her body, and her throat went dry. With shaky hands and a lopsided smile, she guided Blake towards the bed, lifting the blanket up so they could huddle under it.
Yang laid down on her back, but before she could turn over to give Blake more space, her partner yet again wrapped her arms around her body and buried her face in the crook of her neck.
Blake seemed to notice the way that she tensed up and thus asked, “Is this okay?” She had lifted her head up so that their eyes could meet, and that familiar golden colour sent butterflies racing through her stomach.
“It’s perfect,” Yang smiled, relaxing and returning the embrace. Blake responded in turn by planting a small kiss on her cheek, down to her jaw and then her neck before going still.
Assuming that she had gone to sleep, Yang let her eyes flutter closed in hopes of joining her partner in slumber. However, try as she might, sleep never came. There was too much going on inside Yang’s brain, but for the first time in a long time it was nothing negative. Sure, being stranded in a literal fairy tale land that actually wasn’t a fairytale because it did in fact happen wasn’t great and all, yet here she was- giddy like a little child the night before her birthday.
It was childish, she thought. Not being able to sleep because she was too giddy over the fact that she had told the woman of her dreams that she loved her, and better yet, said woman loved her back. She couldn’t stop thinking about their first kiss, and how there was many more yet to come, so much more to explore together now that they were an item.
Lost in thought, Yang made the mistake of neglecting Blake’s perceptive skills, for but a moment later came her soft voice as she asked, “What’s on your mind?”
Yang wouldn’t be surprised if her thoughts had woken the Faunus up. “I thought you were asleep,” she deflected.
“I’m exhausted but… it’s not coming so easily to me.”
Concerned, Yang turned to lay on her side, keeping Blake in an embrace as she did so such that they could face one another. “What’s wrong?”
To her surprise, Yang was not greeted by an expression of doubt or sadness, but rather one of sheepishness. “It’s a bit silly,” she smiled.
“I’m sure it isn’t. Tell me.”
“Well,” Blake began. “I’m just… excited, I suppose. About us, I mean. I just feel like there so much lost time to make up for, yet so little time to do so. I want to talk to you constantly, listen to you speak forever, feel you close every passing second. It’s overwhelming in the best way possible,” she chuckled.
Relived that she wasn’t the only one feeling that way, Yang’s smile radiated more warmth than any star on remnant. “Then let’s talk until neither of us can keep our eyes open, how about that?”
Blake nodded, cupping Yangs face and gently rubbing her cheek with the pad of her thumb. “What do you wanna talk about?”
Yang bit her lip as she thought about it. In all honesty, she’d be happy to talk to Blake about anything, but there was something that stuck out to her. “When did you first start liking me?”
Blake let out an abrupt laugh. “Seriously? What, are we sixteen again?”
Yang playfully rolled her eyes at her teasing tone. “We’ll it’s not like we got to live out our high school romance!”
“I know, I know. I’m kidding, darling.” Yang’s heart rate double at the term of endearment. “I can’t really determine an exact moment, but it was most definitely during the time we spent away from each other.”
Blake’s answer surprised her to say the least, especially considering how during that time Sun was there as her anchor.
“Everyday I yearned for you,” she began, her tone slightly somber now. “Of course I thought about the others too, but you most of all. I’d stay in my room for hours on end going through all the photos on my scroll, telling my parents all about my team and the incredible partner I had.”
Yang placed an assuring hand atop the one that was placed on her cheek.
“I thought that, because I cared for you so much- because I loved you- it would be best to stay away to keep you safe.” She looked hopeful as she went on, “But now I know that, because I love you, the best place for me to be is by your side.”
“You’re incredible, Blake,” she replied. “And I love you too.”
“What about you?”
Yang didn’t need to think about her answer, not when she had been so sure of it for so long. “Back at Beacon I-“
“Beacon?!” Blake’s abruptness startled her to say the least, and upon realising as much the Faunus frantically apologised. “Sorry, go on.”
Yang didn’t mind in the slightest. “Back at Beacon I may have had a small crush on you. I mean yeah, I thought you we’re cute the moment I laid eyes on you, but I’m pretty sure it became a genuine attraction not too long after you revealed you were a Faunus.”
At the time, Yang hadn’t paid much attention to the revelation, she was more worried about her missing partner who had run away.
“I didn’t really do much about it though. You know, because I thought you and Sun were…” Blake clearly wanted to interject at this, but she chose otherwise. “Then, when you left, I tried to push those feelings down as much as possible, convince myself that I didn’t need you… that I hated you,” Yang was much to scared to look up at Blake’s expression upon saying this, it was water under the bridge by now but it still had somewhat of a sting. “But the moment our eyes met at Haven academy, I knew then that my feelings had transformed into something much much stronger than some little high school crush.”
When she finally gathered the courage to meet Blake’s gaze again, Yang instantly panicked when she caught sight of tears glossing her golden eyes. “Shit- sorry, I-“
“Don’t be,” Blake interrupted. “Like I said, its overwhelming in the best way possible.”
Yang calmed down a little at this, but her heart still ached at the sight that her bittersweet words had created.
They stayed in silence for a moment, just holding each other, their hands caressing one another’s bodies in a soothing manner. Before long, Yang got an idea and suddenly sat up.
“What is it?” Blake asked.
“There’s something I want to give you.”
She pulled back the blanket so that her leg was uncovered before beginning to untie the faded, purple cloth that was wrapped around her right leg.
“My family is all about heirlooms and old rituals. This one is more of a tradition if anything.” Once she removed it from her leg, she began to tie it around Blake’s left arm. “As my dad told me, ‘a cloth on it’s own is worthless, but when carry it with you for years- it becomes a part of you. Everything you’ve experienced will be with this cloth on your person.’ And so, by me giving it to you, it’s symbolic of me offering all of myself to you, all of my experiences that have made me who I am today. My dad still wears the one Summer gave him.”
Blake examined it when it was placed around her arm with an unreadable expression.
Starting to feel embarrassed, Yang rambled on, “It’s silly, I know. I mean, it essentially is just a piece of cloth and-“
“Yang…” she was speechless at the incredibly soft way Blake’s lips curved up into a smile. “It’s more than a cloth to me. It’s a part of you, and every part of you means more than you could ever know to me.”
With newfound courage, Yang went on, “They also carry promises too, specific to what the individual intends when they give it away.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s your promise?”
Yang laid back down and yet again captured Blake’s lips with her own, cupping her soft cheeks as though they were the most delicate things in the world.
“That I’ll love you forever.”
“Only if you let me return the favour.”
“Of course.”
And maybe someday, she thought, she could promise that same thing again. But instead of with a cloth, she’d promise it with a ring.